<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><head><meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"><meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 15 (filtered medium)"><style><!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;}
span.EmailStyle17
{mso-style-type:personal-compose;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;
color:windowtext;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
--></style><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72" style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Hey NFB Family and Friends,<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>We continue our journey through Black History Month with two new stories. My apologies to the Black Empowerment Committee as I didn’t see the entry for day 10 and so it wasn’t sent.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Day 10<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Today, we will explore 2 pioneering African-American educators in the Blindness Hall of Fame.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Dr. Laurence C. Jones (1884 - 1975) and Martha Louise Morrow Foxx (1902 – 1975)<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Dr. Jones founded the Piney Woods School 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 in 1909. The school started with one 16-year old student and the next day there were 2 more students. As wore spread, the school grew. Some students arrived by mule drawn wagons and tuition was sometimes paid with crops and homemade goods.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>In 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 in Vicksburg and had a young blind boy left at the school after his sharecropper parents killed in a fire. Never one to turn away a child in need he added education of blind children to the school’s purpose.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> Dr. Jones authored several books and toured the country inviting national and international dignitaries to visit the campus. He attracted black and white teachers to visit the Piney Woods school to learn the methods use at the school for the blind. He advocated for education that touched the mind, the heart and the hands. In 1945 after visiting the campus 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. This became the Mississippi School for Blind Negroes in 1951.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Tomorrow on Day 11 we will continue learning of the Legacy of Dr. Jones and Mrs. Foxx.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>To be continued! <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Submitted by Earl<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Day 11<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>We are continuing our history lesson from yesterday about Dr. Laurence C. Jones (1884 - 1975) and Martha Louise Morrow Foxx (1902 – 1975)<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Dr. Jones should be noted and recognized for his work in the field of blindness. He dared to educate the excluded. He dared to included a department to educate the blind which was far above the expectations of that time.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Martha Louise Morrow Foxx was the primary teacher of the blind at the Piney Woods School from 1929 until 1942. She then became Principal until 1951. When the school moved to the new campus in Jackson and became the Mississippi School for Blind Negroes she served as Director until her retirement in 1969. Mrs. Foxx began her journey at the Piney Woods School as an 18 year old graduate of the Overbrook School for the Blind. During summer breaks she attended several colleges and obtained her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Mrs. Foxx became widely known for her innovative teaching philosophy. She insisted that students be allowed to have outings in the woods around the school to hone their sense of touch, sound and smell. She taught the students to read Braille and Large Print and insisted the learn to be self-reliant and to develop careers to ensure that they could make their own way after graduation. Challenging minds, expanding possibilities, securing opportunities and changing what it means to be blind for African Americans who happened to be blind. That is what Mrs. Foxx did with her life..<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Dr. Jones and Mrs. Foxx have both been inducted into the American Printing House for the Blind Hall of Fame.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Submitted by Earl<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#222222'><br>Peace,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='color:#222222'>Jacki Bruce<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='color:#222222'>Corresponding Secretary, National Federation of the Blind of Virginia<br><a href="mailto:jackibruce6@gmail.com" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>mailto:jackibruce6@gmail.com</span></a></span><span style='color:black'><br></span><span style='color:#222222'><a href="tel:(757)291-1789" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>tel:(757)291-1789</span></a></span><span style='color:black'><br></span><span style='color:#222222'><a href="http://www.nfb.org/" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>www.nfb.org</span></a></span><span style='color:black'><br></span><span style='color:#222222'><a href="http://www.nfbv.org/" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>www.nfbv.org</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='color:#222222'>Follow us on Twitter @NFBVirginia<br>Find us on Facebook @NationalFederationoftheBlindofVirginia<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='color:#222222'>Live the life you want.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#222222'>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<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>