[NFBOH-Cleveland] Celebrating Black History Month with The Hall of Fame for Leaders and Legends of the Blindness Field

[Suzanne Turner]

The Hall of Fame for Leaders and Legends of the Blindness Field

honors, at present, 56 individuals who were pioneers in the blindness field
and shaped the field's history, philosophy, knowledge, and skills, while
providing

outstanding service to people who were blind and visually impaired.

 

The Hall of Fame, which belongs to the entire field of blindness, is located
within, and is curated by, the 

American Printing House for the Blind

(APH) in Louisville, Kentucky. You can learn more about APH's long and
storied history 

at the APH website.

 

In 2013, two accomplished educators were inducted into the Hall of Fame. Dr.
Laurence C. Jones and Martha Louise Morrow Foxx were honored for their
pioneering

work at Mississippi's Piney Woods Country Life School during the first half
of the 20th century. At 

Piney Woods School,

Dr. Jones and Mrs. Foxx opened, and held open, a door that had been seen as
forever closed to black Americans, including those who were blind.

 

Dr. Laurence C. Jones (1884 - 1975)

Dr. Laurence Jones

 

The Piney Woods School was founded in 1909 by Dr. Jones as a place to
provide vocational and academic schooling for poor black children and
grandchildren

of slaves in the rural Piney Woods area-just south of Jackson, Mississippi.
The school started with one 16-year-old student standing at a tree stump;
the

next day there were two more students.

 

As word spread, the school continued to grow. Many students came in
mule-drawn wagons, with tuition partially paid in crops and homemade goods.
Their families

left them at the school with the hope of a better life made possible through
education. All students at the school were required to work. They helped to

grow food for the school, built and repaired the grounds, or toured in music
ensembles. At that time, the motto of the school was "Work is the Mother of

Contentment."

 

1920: Piney Woods Adds Education of Blind Children

 

During the 1920s, Dr. Jones became aware that there was no school to educate
black children who were blind. He observed a young blind girl begging on the

streets of Vicksburg and a young blind boy, whose sharecropper parents were
killed in a fire, was left at the school for him to care for. Never one to

turn away a child in need or a challenge, and believing every child deserved
an opportunity, Dr. Jones added the education of blind children to the
school's

purpose.

 

Dr. Jones authored several books and toured the country tirelessly, inviting
national and international dignitaries to visit the campus. He attracted
both

white and black teachers from around the country to Piney Woods to learn the
methods used at the school for the blind. He advocated education that
touched

"the mind, the heart, and the hands." This credo was evidenced in education
for the mind; spiritual growth and service for the heart; and putting the
hands

to good old-fashioned work.

 

1950: A New Campus and Integration

 

In 1945, after visiting the school and learning of the work of Dr. Jones and
Mrs. Foxx, 

Helen Keller

helped convince the Mississippi legislature to fund the establishment of a
new campus in Jackson. After receiving state funding, the Piney Woods School

moved to Jackson in 1951 and became the Mississippi School for Blind
Negroes, a sister school of the Mississippi School for the Blind. The
combined work

of Dr. Jones and Mrs. Foxx was further recognized when the two schools
merged in 1974.

 

Helen Keller at Piney Woods

Helen Keller visits the Piney Woods School in 1945.

Dr. Jones and Mrs. Foxx are in the first row, far right.

 

The Legacy of Dr. Jones

 

"Dr. Jones should be noted and recognized for his work in the field of
blindness. Dr. Jones was the first spark that initiated a fireball of
interest and

support to educate all children, including those of former slaves and those
who were blind. This leader dared to educate the excluded. This leader dared

to include a department to educate the blind which was far different from
the expectations during that time. His leadership and professional practice
are

unsurpassed." ~Dr. Rosie L.T. Pridgen, Superintendent, Mississippi School
for the Blind

 

Martha Louise Morrow Foxx (1902 - 1975)

Martha Foxx

 

Mrs. Foxx was the primary teacher of the blind at the Piney Woods Country
Life School in Mississippi from 1929 until 1942. She then became principal
until

1951, when the school moved to a new campus in Jackson, becoming the
Mississippi School for Blind Negroes, where she served as director until her
retirement

in 1969.

 

Martha Louise Foxx began her journey in the Piney Woods as an 18-year-old
graduate of the 

Overbrook School for the Blind.

She went on to study at several colleges during summers, earning her
bachelor's and master's degrees.

 

An Innovative Educator

 

Mrs. Foxx became widely known for her innovative and dynamic teaching
philosophy, which entailed instruction outside the walls of the school. She
insisted

that students be allowed to enjoy outings into the woods around Piney Woods
School to hone their senses of touch, sound, and smell.

 

Using what were considered to be progressive techniques, she taught students
to read 

Braille  and large print and insisted that they learn to be self-reliant and
develop careers to ensure they could succeed in "making their own" way after
graduation.

 

Teachers, both black and white, from around the country, came to Piney Woods
to learn and embrace her methods-all before 

PL 94-142, IDEA,

and the Civil Rights movement. Her curriculum was adopted by the "white"
school for the blind in the late 1940s.

 

The Legacy of Martha Louise Foxx

 

"Challenging minds, expanding possibilities, securing opportunities, and
changing what it meant to be blind for African-Americans who happened to be
blind

- this is what Mrs. Foxx did with her life. She accepted the call,
challenged her limits, and impacted lives by making a difference in the
dignity and

quality of life of hundreds of blind individuals who are now living all
across America. Those same individuals are carrying on her legacy not only
today,

but for many years to come." ~Barbara White Hadnott, former student
Additional Information.

 

The enduring legacies of 

Dr. Jones

and 

Mrs. Foxx

are detailed in the APH Hall of Fame biographies and the 2013 APH Hall of
Fame Inductees Announcement, adapted here with permission.

 

For more information about the life and work of Dr. Jones and Mrs. Foxx, you
can read 

The Piney Woods School

by B.J. LeJeune on the CaptionMax blog. You can also read the expanded
biographies of 

Dr. Jones

and 

Mrs. Foxx

on Wikipedia.

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