[NFBOH-Cleveland] Celebrating National Women History Month --A PASSION FOR HUMANITY

[Suzanne Turner]

Good Afternoon,

 

I thought I would share with you some history about a phenomenal woman;
since this is  National Women History Month.  Some my know her and others
will get to love her work in the Federation.  I was introduced to her during
the 81st Leadership Seminar reading materials.  I would encourage you to
share the reading about her to anyone who has a aching for pulling up their
sleeves to make a difference; not only in their chapter, but far and beyond.
I love history and this indeed is at its best.  Be you blind or not; there
is work in the movement that need you.  

 

I hope you are inspired.

 

Suzanne 

 

///////

 

A PASSION FOR HUMANITY


A PORTRAIT OF DR. ISABELLE GRANT


1896–1977


by Deborah Kent Stein

 

When Isabelle Grant set off on her second trip to Pakistan in 1962, her
longtime friend and mentor, Jacobus tenBroek, accompanied her to the
airport. “You remind me of a lone eagle flying off around the world,” he
told her.

 

“Not a lone eagle,” Grant replied, “for I have always the Federation behind
me.”1

 

Isabelle Grant was a world traveler, a self-appointed ambassador of
goodwill, and a champion of the rights of the blind. Most of all, she was a
dedicated teacher, inside the classroom and on her travels throughout the
world.

 

Isabelle Lyon Dean was born in Lossiemouth, Morayshire, a fishing village on
the northern coast of Scotland about seventy miles from Aberdeen. Three of
her father's brothers were the captains of schooners, and she grew up on
tales of adventures at sea. From her father she gained a reverence for books
and learning. After earning a degree in English and French at Aberdeen
University, Isabelle taught in Scotland and England for the next five years.

 

In 1924 Isabelle Dean Grant and her husband, Dr. Alexander Grant, emigrated
to the United States. They settled in California, and in 1927 Isabelle
embarked on a long teaching career in the Los Angeles public schools.
Meanwhile, she continued to pursue her own studies. She took courses at the
Sorbonne in Paris in 1929, studied Spanish at the University of Madrid in
1938, and in 1940 completed a PhD in comparative literature at the
University of Southern California. Dr. Grant had one daughter, Jane Susannah
Hermione Grant, known as Hermione. Alexander Grant died in 1936, leaving
Isabelle to raise their daughter alone. Hermione, who followed her mother
into the teaching profession, had three children. She died in 1971 at the
age of forty-seven.2

 

In the 1940s Dr. Grant developed glaucoma. Desperate to save her vision, she
underwent eight painful surgeries, all to no avail. By the fall of 1948 she
was almost totally blind.

 

In her first months without sight, Dr. Grant felt utterly helpless. She
believed that she couldn't cook, sew, or get about on her own. Worst of all,
she was convinced that she could never teach again. Most of the people
around her reinforced her sense of helplessness. As she often said later,
“They acted as though I had lost my wits as well as my eyesight.”

 

At last a friend took Dr. Grant to meet an active, accomplished blind man
named James Garfield.3 Although they arrived at his door unannounced,
Garfield welcomed them in and listened to Dr. Grant's story. Then he gave
her a pep talk that changed her life. “You have hit bottom,” he told her,
“and there is nowhere to go but up. Don't feel sorry for yourself, because
that won't do you any good or get you any place.”4 He encouraged her to
learn Braille and the use of the long white cane. He also urged her to get
to know other successful blind people.

 

Within a few months Dr. Grant had mastered Braille and become an adept cane
traveler. She began attending meetings of the California Council for the
Blind (CCB), an affiliate of the National Federation of the Blind, where she
met Dr. Jacobus tenBroek and his wife Hazel. She and the tenBroeks formed a
deep and lasting friendship.

 

Her confidence fully restored, Dr. Grant felt ready to resume teaching.
However, the Los Angeles County schools informed her that, due to her
blindness, she was no longer competent to serve in the classroom. Her duties
as girls' vice principal at Belvidere Junior High School would be
terminated, and she was advised to apply for permanent disability
compensation.

 

State and national leaders of the NFB sprang to Dr. Grant's defense. Her
fellow teachers also gave her their unflagging support. On January 26, 1949,
two days before her termination was to take effect, sixty-three Belvidere
teachers submitted a signed petition on Isabelle Grant's behalf. After
citing Dr. Grant's many outstanding qualifications and attributes as a
teacher, the petition concluded, 

 

Belvidere Junior High School and the entire Los Angeles City School System
would suffer a severe loss should her services be denied. However, our
faculty would be very much pleased if Dr. Grant were to receive a promotion,
which her ability warrants. . . . Our schools have placed special emphasis
on rehabilitation at home and abroad. Could there be a more practical
application than to rehabilitate one whose twenty years of undeniably
superior work have proved her unrivaled in success?5

 

On February 1, 1949, Dr. Grant was reinstated as a teacher. However, due to
her blindness, she was no longer considered capable of teaching sighted
students. Instead she was assigned to teach blind children, although she had
no training as a teacher of blind students. Furthermore, not trusting her to
be alone with her pupils, the school required that a sighted teacher's aide
be with her in the classroom at all times.

 

In the years that followed, Grant endured even further humiliation at the
hands of the school authorities. She was shifted from one school to another.
The brightest students were transferred out of her classes, and her attempts
to attend education conferences were sabotaged. Despite these indignities
and frustrations, Dr. Grant threw herself into her work. She learned all
that she could about the education of blind children and worked tirelessly
to help her students achieve their fullest potential.

 

Her battles with the school system led Dr. Grant to become an advocate for
other blind teachers. With the help of the CCB, she worked to pass a state
law that forbade discrimination against teachers and student teachers on the
basis of visual acuity. She also encouraged blind young people who hoped to
enter the field of education. By 1970 more than a hundred blind teachers
were employed in the state of California.

 

In the summer of 1957 Dr. Grant took her first trip overseas since losing
her sight. She flew to Oslo, Norway, to attend an international conference
on the education of blind children. As she listened to teachers from around
the world, she realized the deplorable conditions of blind people in the
developing nations. Most blind children received no schooling. The few
schools that existed were poorly staffed, underequipped, and did little to
prepare their students for work after graduation. Dr. Grant returned from
the conference aflame with a new passion. She would work to improve
opportunities for blind people around the world by helping them organize to
fight discrimination. She would do everything in her power to spread the
philosophy and strategies of the National Federation of the Blind.

 

In 1959 Dr. Grant was eligible to take a year's sabbatical. To the amazement
of her friends and colleagues, she set out on a year-long solo journey
around the world. She had no definite itinerary, no distinct plan of action.
She only knew that she wanted to observe, to absorb ideas and impressions,
focusing upon education. She was especially interested in learning about
blind people and their opportunities for education and employment.

 

During her sabbatical journey (or safari, as she liked to call it), Isabelle
Grant visited twenty-three countries, from France to Fiji. For six months
she lived in Pakistan, where she studied the Urdu language and conducted
training classes for teachers of blind children. Everywhere she went she
made friends. She talked to people, listened to their stories, and exchanged
ideas.

 

Shortly after her return to California, Dr. Grant presented Dr. tenBroek
with a bold new idea. What the blind of the world needed, she declared, was
an international organization of the blind, a worldwide federation modeled
upon the National Federation of the Blind. Dr. tenBroek encouraged her to
act upon her idea and promised to back her in every way he could.

 

In 1962, at the age of sixty-five, Dr. Grant retired from her teaching
position in Los Angeles. Ten weeks later she launched a new career which
would wholly absorb her for the rest of her life. She returned to Pakistan
on a year-long Hayes-Fulbright Fellowship to train teachers of the blind,
continuing the work she began during her first visit. In addition, she
searched for blind people with leadership potential. She was especially
eager to develop leaders among blind women, whose opportunities were even
more severely limited than those for blind men.

 

One of Dr. Grant's early protégés was Fatima Shah, who had worked as a
physician before she lost her sight. No longer able to practice medicine,
she had sunk into depression. Shah was astonished when Dr. Grant, a blind
woman, arrived in a rickshaw to visit her. Grant's enthusiasm gave her a new
sense of hope and purpose. Within a few months, Shah founded the Pakistan
Association of the Blind. Under Dr. Shah's leadership, the organization
worked to create opportunities for blind children and adults.

 

In 1964 Isabelle Grant realized her dream of a worldwide organization of the
blind. She helped to establish the International Federation of the Blind
(IFB), and Jacobus tenBroek served as its first president. He was succeeded
by Fatima Shah. Isabelle Grant served as treasurer of the IFB, and later as
its secretary. She also edited the IFB's quarterly publication, Braille
International Magazine. The magazine, which appeared in English, French, and
Spanish Braille, made it possible for blind people around the world to
communicate with one another about issues of concern to them.

 

Modeled on the NFB, the IFB was an organization of blind people speaking on
their own behalf. In marked contrast, the World Council for the Welfare of
the Blind (WCWB), founded in 1949, brought together delegates from agencies
that served the blind. Most of these agencies were run by sighted
administrators and staff. In general, they treated blind people as persons
in need of help and protection, and did not regard them as capable of
managing their own lives. Not surprisingly, the IFB and the WCWB had an
uneasy relationship, and sometimes they clashed harshly.

 

Dr. Grant was a master of diplomacy, but she could be jarringly blunt when
she encountered patronizing attitudes toward blind people. In 1970 she wrote
to the chairman of an agency for the blind in Uganda who asked her opinion
on how he could improve an existing program. “I have now visited about sixty
countries in my many and long global journeys, studying the situation of
blind persons in all of these,” she stated. “I find your plans admirably
ambitious and comprehensive, but they are still of the old custodial care
type—planning things for the blind, and as I see it, doing or trying to do
something better, which should not be done at all.”6 Such declarations did
not endear her to the agency directors who comprised the WCWB.

 

When she wasn't traveling the world, Isabelle Grant seldom gave herself time
to relax. From her home in California she kept up a staggering
correspondence with students, teachers, and IFB members overseas. In 1970 a
Sacramento newspaper reported that she wrote letters in seven languages to
some eight hundred people. From India and Thailand, Ecuador and Malawi,
letters poured in from blind people and their families, asking for advice
and thanking her for Braille books, Braille writing equipment, typewriters,
and scholarships. Many reported on the work they were doing in the
organizations of the blind that she had helped them establish. They told her
of blind people enrolled in universities, setting up businesses, and
teaching others.

 

Caption: In her home in California, Isabelle Grant packs Braille books to be
sent overseas, ca. 1965. Photo Credit: Jack Davis.

 

In order to advance, blind people in the developing nations needed access to
a plentiful supply of Braille books. Dr. Grant solicited donations of used
Braille books and magazines and sent them to schools for the blind overseas.
Through an international agreement, books for the blind could be mailed free
of charge if they were packed in cartons weighing no more than
fifteen-and-a-half pounds. Soon boxes of books were stacked floor to ceiling
on her enclosed porch. Dr. Grant enlisted a team of volunteers to tear open
boxes, sort books, and re-pack them according to postal regulations. The NFB
raised money for cartons, twine, and the rental of a truck to haul cartons
to the post office every week. Isabelle Grant's used-book project built
collections in forty-eight Braille libraries around the world.

 

In 1967, with funding from the American Brotherhood for the Blind (today the
American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults) Isabelle Grant embarked
on a year-long visit to Africa. At the age of seventy-one she set off to
visit ten African nations. Throughout her journey she sent periodic
dispatches to Dr. tenBroek, some of which were published in the Braille
Monitor. She described visits to remote villages, travels by canoe down
rivers alive with crocodiles, and an encounter with a cobra. In a letter
from Kenya on March 19, 1968, she wrote that the conditions were “sometimes
very, very difficult, from inaccessible roads, torrential rains (for this is
the tropical belt), the constant threat of malaria, and anything from dry
toilets to non-potable water. . . . This is not America. It is not even
America two hundred years ago.”7

 

Caption: Dr. Grant meets a pet monkey during her travels in Africa in 1968.

 

Although the conditions in rural Africa were physically demanding and even
frightening at times, nothing disturbed Dr. Grant as much as apartheid, the
rigid separation of the races that she encountered in South Africa. “In
South Africa and in Rhodesia I was unhappy, uncomfortable, afraid,” she
wrote. “I have nothing in common with segregation of people, and apartheid
to me is inhumane, does not face facts, and is absolutely discriminatory.”8

 

Before she returned to the United States, Dr. Grant received the tragic news
that Jacobus tenBroek had died of cancer at the age of fifty-six. The loss
of his friendship and support must have been devastating. Nevertheless, she
carried on with her work overseas and at home. In the United States she
spoke to Lions Clubs, Rotarians, Scout troops, and church societies. With
her Scottish burr, her irrepressible sense of humor, and her zest for life,
she charmed audiences wherever she went. Her stories and her very presence
carried the message that blindness need not stop a person from living a full
life, even a life of adventure. When she described the needs of blind people
overseas, their hunger for education, their efforts to sustain themselves
and live with dignity, generous donations flowed in. Friends often remarked
that it was impossible to say no to Isabelle. She had a way of getting
people to do whatever she wanted.

 

Throughout her life Dr. Grant remained deeply committed to the National
Federation of the Blind. When she was in the United States, she never missed
a national convention. She was an active member of the CCB and attended
state and local meetings. She addressed meetings of blind educators and lent
her support to the Federation's programs for blind youth. At every
opportunity she urged blind young people to follow their dreams.

 

Caption: At the 1969 convention of the National Federation of the Blind,
Isabelle Grant sits in the audience with Rienzi Alagiyawanna, a leader of
the blind of Sri Lanka.

 

On December 8, 1971, a California assemblyman named Eugene Chappie wrote to
the Nobel Peace Prize Committee in Oslo, Norway. “Gentlemen: I am writing to
request your consideration of Dr. Isabelle L. D. Grant of 801 Redcliff Dr.,
Davis, California, as a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize,” his letter read.
“Dr. Grant, a retired blind schoolteacher, is known not only here in
California but throughout the United States and in many parts of the world
for her work for many years with the people of Pakistan. I urge you to give
her every consideration in your deliberations, for she is a most worthy
person for this high award.”9 Rep. Harold T. “Biz” Johnson of California's
2nd Congressional District made the formal nomination. It was supported by
Sen. John Tunney, also of California; and by an enthusiastic group of
government officials, educators, and members of organizations of the blind.

 

“As long as there are people, and as long as she can help them and uplift
them, she will do so,” wrote a friend, Leticia Sheffey, who had spent years
in Pakistan and seen Dr. Grant's work firsthand. “To her this is a
privilege, not without its hardships, tears, sacrifices, work, and
challenges, but nevertheless a privilege, a joy, a love. . . . Of the blind
she says, 'Blind people are on the march throughout the world, and, like the
dawn, you cannot hold them back.' Neither can one hold back Dr. Grant.”10 As
it turned out, the Nobel Committee did not award a prize for peace to any
candidate in 1972. Nevertheless, the nomination alone was an extraordinary
honor, a demonstration that Isabelle's work was recognized and appreciated
by her friends and colleagues.

 

Apart from the Nobel nomination, Dr. Grant received many awards and honors.
At its 1964 national convention, the National Federation of the Blind
presented her with the Newel Perry Award, the Federation's highest honor. In
1971 she received a letter of commendation from President Richard M. Nixon,
“in recognition of service to others, in the finest American tradition.” At
the IFB convention in 1972 she received a silver medal from the parliament
of the city of Paris.

 

The appreciations Dr. Grant cherished most were the letters she received
from countless blind women and men in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the
Pacific islands. In print and in Braille, they thanked her for her
friendship, for believing in them so fervently that they came to believe in
themselves.

 

Caption: Isabelle Grant speaks to a Rotary Club in 1968.

 

Seemingly untouched by advancing age, Dr. Grant continued her intense travel
schedule. In 1976, at the age of eighty, she visited Yugoslavia, Greece,
Finland, Sweden, and the UK; attended the National Federation of the Blind
convention; and spent two months in South America. though her spirit was
strong, however, her heart began to fail her. She was planning to speak
before the United Nations when she died in her sleep on June 25, 1977.

 

By the time of Isabelle Grant's death, the work that began with her first
round-the-world journey had gathered a momentum of its own. Encouraged and
supported by organizations of the blind in their own countries, thousands of
blind women and men had become educated and found gainful work. Many learned
Braille and the use of the long white cane from teachers Dr. Grant trained
herself. In 1984 the IFB and the WCWB merged to form the World Blind Union
(WBU). With one hundred and ninety member nations by 2012, the WBU works
with the United Nations and other international organizations to ensure the
rights of an estimated 285 million blind and visually impaired people
throughout the world. (See Chapter Seven.)

 

Dr. Isabelle Grant fought for the rights of the blind, but her work has far
wider implications. She was a humanitarian in the truest sense. “In my work
I have learned to know and understand people of all nations and all
religions,” she once explained. “The common denominator to all this is human
relations. I guess you could say this is my religion. I can't think of
anything more important to the future of peace.”11

 


NOTES


 

1 Grant, Isabelle L. (1974) “IFB: Story and History,” draft article for
Braille International Magazine, Isabelle Grant Papers, Carton 5, Bancroft
Library, University of California/Berkeley.

 

2 Through the National Federation of the Blind, Isabelle Grant established
the Hermione Grant Calhoun Scholarship, to be awarded annually to a blind
woman pursuing higher education. Dr. Grant left a bequest to the IFB to fund
a scholarship for blind women, also in her daughter's memory.

 

3 James B. Garfield, blind since 1942, was an active member of the
California Council for the Blind for many years. His children's book about a
blind boy, Follow My Leader, remains in print to this day. For two decades
Garfield hosted a weekly radio program called “Voice of the Blind” in which
he discussed the achievements of blind people.

 

4 tenBroek, Hazel. (1977) “Isabelle L. D. Grant, The Early Years,” Braille
Monitor, December. (Internet Archive (2010).
https://archive.org/stream/braillemonitorde1977nati/braillemonitorde1977nati
_djvu.txt

 

5 Letter from Belvidere Junior High Faculty Club to Mrs. Elizabeth Sands and
Alexander J. Stoddard, January 26, 1949. Jacobus tenBroek Library, National
Federation of the Blind, Baltimore, MD, Carton 1, File 6.

 

6 Letter to Chairman of UFB in Uganda, January 20, 1970. Isabelle Grant
Collection, Bancroft Library, University of California/Berkeley, Carton 1.

 

7 Blake, Lou Ann. (2007) “Dr. Isabelle Grant—Teacher and World Traveler.”
Braille Monitor, March.

https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm07/bm0703/bm070309.htm

 

8 Ibid.

 

9 Letter from Eugene Chappie to the Nobel Peace Prize Nominating Committee,
December 8, 1971. Isabelle Grant Collection, Jacobus tenBroek Library,
National Federation of the Blind, Baltimore, MD.

 

10 Letter from Leticia Steffey, undated. Jacobus tenBroek Library.

 

11 Blake. “Dr. Isabelle Grant.” 

 

For Further Information

 

Grant, Isabelle. (1961) “Around the World with Oscar.” (1961) Blind
American, May-August. 

https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm61/blind-american-maythruaugust
1961.html#a2

 

Grant, Isabelle. (1963) “From a Globetrotter's Journal.” Blind American 3,
No. 9, September.

https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm63/ba63-september.html#a9

 

Grant, Isabelle L. D. (1970) “Quotes from My African Letters—Ghana.” Braille
Monitor, June.

https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm70/bm70-june.html#a7

 

tenBroek, Jacobus, ed. (1965) “Grant Takes Denver as Grant Took
Richmond—Isabelle Like Ulysses.” Braille Monitor, December. 

https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm1965/braillemonitordec1965.html
#a11

 

* * * * * * *

 

Suzanne Hartfield-Turner, President

NFBOH-Cleveland

P: (440) 462-9755

A: PO Box 141077

Cleveland, Ohio 44114

E: President.NFB.ClevelandOhio at Gmail.com
<mailto:President.NFB.ClevelandOhio at Gmail.com> 

 

The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the
characteristic that defines you or your future. Every day we raise the
expectations of blind people, because low expectations create obstacles
between blind people and our dreams. You can live the life you want;
blindness is not what holds you back.

 

 

 

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