[NFBV-Announce] Black History Month

Fri Feb 26 20:56:31 UTC 2021

I remember meeting John McCraw in the late 1970s. He was indeed a big
person both in stature and in personality. He was the first person I
thought of as a true African-American leader in the NFB.

On Fri, Feb 26, 2021 at 3:05 PM jackibruce6--- via NFBV-Announce <
nfbv-announce at nfbnet.org> wrote:

>
>
> Hey NFB Family and Friends,
>
>
>
> Please read below for day 26 of Black History Month stories.
>
>
>
> John T. McCraw, was President of the Free State Federation of the Blind,
> the NFB affiliate in Maryland.]
>
> John T. McCraw was  unique to recreation and he was   blind. He was  also
> a professional musician and a dedicated and gifted professional recreation
> leader.
>
> He was  the only blind recreationist working in Baltimore City. Hundreds
> of children knew "Mr. John" as the "big man" who plays the piano, conducts
> physical exercise, teaches games and accompanies them on trips. Handicapped
> adults look forward to talk sessions, card games and song fests with John;
> retarded teens and adults looked to him for fun and counsel and sang and
> danced to his music. Handicapped senior citizens related to his dignity,
> gentleness and humor.
>
> McCraw brought to his work the innate qualities of the humanist and the
> polished skills and disciplined knowledge of the well-educated leader. He
> worked with pre-school-aged children, school children, teens, adults,
> humanity labelled "handicapped"—the crippled, the blind, those with
> impaired hearing, the mentally ill and the retarded. He had a keen
> awareness of the intrinsic value of all people and the insight and ability
> to recognize the special needs of each person. His genuine warmth and
> uncontrived humor were  magnetic.
>
> He met challenges head-on, broke down walls and stepped  over obstacles.
> He was  blind, but he employed no guide, refuses a seeing-eye dog and
> sought no preferential treatment. His work day began at 9:00 a.m. and ended
> at 2:00 a.m. During the course of his work he traveled to many areas of a
> sprawling city and he arrived each morning by public transportation. A
> typical day's work schedule began when he arrived at a center to meet
> groups of two to five-year-old children and implemented the program he had
> planned for them; salute to the flag, song, marching, running, skipping,
> "flying", a brief rest period and then games, singing and crafts. After
> lunch older children attending schools dedicated to teaching the
> handicapped looked forward to a two-hour program of games and physical
> exercise modified to meet their needs, singing, crafts and trips when the
> weather permitted. This was  followed by an evening program for blind
> adults: choral singing, discussion groups and braille games chess,
> checkers, scrabble, cards).
>
> At 9:30 each night, McCraw changed hats and entered the world of show
> business. He was musical director for a well known after dark club and led
> the John McCraw Combo. He has been widely acclaimed as a leading exponent
> of jazz and a top-flight pianist.  The  summer before, he worked at Camp
> Variety, the Baltimore City Bureau of Recreation's day camp for handicapped
> children. His title was "Music Specialist"; his job description was "to
> plan and implement musical programs designed to meet the needs of all
> campers." The camp was located on 42 acres of fields, streams, hills and
> woodland. McCraw met and established a solid relationship with most of the
> 104 staff and 1,200 children. He acted as trouble-shooter ex officio,
> advisor, counselor to counselors and indispensable aid to the camp
> director. He planned to work at camp again the next  year as the program
> director. In that  capacity he  planned and directed programs for 1,500
> children.
>
> He was  most interested in the progress of recreation, the teaching and
> training of recreationists and the public image of the profession. He acted
> as co-chairman of a series of seminars incorporated in the Governor's
> Conference on Recreation held that  May. These seminars dealt, in depth,
> with recreation for the handicapped, and McCraw served in a dual capacity
> as panelist as well as moderator.
>
> His outstanding leadership abilities were  attested to by the confidence
> placed in him by his peers. He was  the current president of the Free State
> Federation of the Blind and past president of the Greater Baltimore Chapter
> of the Blind. Those organizations were and still current  local affiliates
> of the National Federation of the Blind.
>
> He aolso traveled to    South Carolina to head the State of Maryland
> convention delegation.
>
> McCraw was  versatile and he recognized the fact that recreation had many
> facets.  They were play,   learning,   relaxing and it could be taxing at
> tim4ews. It offers achievement, friendship and new horizons. Professional
> recreationists should be versatile, sensitive, warm; they should be people
> who love people. John McCraw had all these qualities, plus empathy, the
> intelligence and skill to plan good programs, and the stamina to follow his
> plans through. He could not select the color of his shirt, nor did he know
> if a rose was  red or perhaps pink; but he could tell stories and sing
> songs and play music that delighted the hearts of children, their parents
> and older people. He could invent games, teach them, play them; he could
> counsel teens and lead a teen club he was  a good recreationist.
>
> He had unlocked a closed door; he was  the first blind person to be
> employed by the Baltimore City Bureau of Recreation. You might call him a
> pioneer in a field that has long needed an updated approach. Recreation is
> indeed a profession, and professional recreationists recognize that this is
> the age of specialization. Each year our colleges and universities graduate
> many hundreds of young people. Some will be good doctors or teachers or
> recreationists. Some can draw, some cannot; some can sing, some cannot;some
> are athletes, some are not; some can run, some cannot even walk; some can
> see, and some cannot. Each has something to offer, a talent sharpened, a
> skill well polished the knowledge needed to enhance the daily living of
> someone or a group of people. Recreation needs these talents, skills and
> knowledge; needs the trained leader, director, specialist, even if he is
> tagged with the misnomer "handicapped".
>
> John McCraw beared the label "handicapped". The people with whom he worked
> refuted this label; they knew that he cannot see but that he was  not
> handicapped. His supervisor knew it and looked to him for the fine program
> he never failed to produce. His co-workers knew it and shared with him
> close, good comradeship. Adult program participants knew it, saught his
> counsel and smiled with him over a bit of subtle humor. And the many
> children who waited for him each day knew it.
>
> He received his formal training in Baltimore, at the Peabody Conservatory
> of Music, as a Dale Carnegie Scholarship student. He attended Morgan State
> College as the recipient of four full scholarships. He received his
> Bachelor of Science Degree as an education major, with emphasis on English
> and music.
>
> Each of us are endowed with talent, with strength; all of us are in some
> way handicapped. John T. McCraw was  indeed unique—he had proven,
> successfully, that a handicap can be overcome.
>
>
>
> Uricka Harrison
>
>
>
>
> Peace,
>
> Jacki Bruce
>
> Corresponding Secretary, National Federation of the Blind of Virginia
> mailto:jackibruce6 at gmail.com <jackibruce6 at gmail.com>
> tel:(757)291-1789 <(757)291-1789>
> www.nfb.org
> www.nfbv.org
>
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>
> Live the life you want.
>
> The National Federation of the Blind is a community of members and friends
> who believe in the hopes and dreams of the nation’s blind. Every day we
> work together to help blind people live the lives they want
>
>
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