[Nfbwv-talk] Happy Anniversary

[Smyth, Charlene R]

Please find below a message I got from another NFB list.  I thought some of you might enjoy learning a little more of our history.

Charlene

Hello Everyone- 75 years ago during the 4:00PM hour EST The National
Federation of the Blind organized. I have pasted Dr. Tenbroek's 1940 call to
organize address.

Tina


[handwritten] Minutes of first meeting

Nov - 1940 - [end handwriting]

BLIND  OF  THE  NATION;

The time has come to organize upon a national basis! In dealing with the public, especially in its many governmental forms, we, as handicapped persons, have long known the advantage and even the necessity of collective action. Individually, we are scattered, ineffective and inarticulate, subject alike to the opression [oppression] of the social worker and the arrogance of the goverenmental [governmental] administrator.  Collectively, we are the masters of our own future, and the successful guardian of our own common interests. Let one speak in the name of many who are prepared to act in his support, let the democratically elected blind representatives of the blind act as spokesman for all, let the machinery be created to unify the action and concentrate the energies of the blind as a nation, and the inherent justice of our cause and the good will of the public will do the rest.

When the problems of the blind first began to be regarded as a proper subject of public concern, they fell within the jurisdiction of the county or township authorities. At that time, local organizations of the blind were adequate. But wehn [when], in the course of time, our problems were taken over by the State legislative and executive  authroities [authorities], the local organizations of the blind had to be associated in a larger group capable of state-wide action. Now that the national government has entered the field of assistance to the blind we must again adjust our organizational structure to the area of the governmenatl [governmental] unit with which we must deal. The time has come to join our state and local blind organizations in a national federation. Only by this method can the blind hope to cope with the nation-wide difficulties at present besetting us.

There are many goals upon which we can unite:-The ultimate establishment of a national pension which will eliminate  the diversities of treatment of the blind among the states and insure an adequate support to all; the correction of the vices that have crept into the administration of the social security act by seeking  its [handwritten] amendment [end handwriting] in Congress; the  proper and reasonable definition of the blind persons who should receive public assistance; governmental recognition of the fact that the blind are not to be classified as paupers and that they have needs peculiar to and arising out of their blindness; The propery [property] type of statutory standards by which eligibility for public assistance should be determined; adequate methods for restraining the influence and defining the place of the social worker in the administration of aid laws; proper safeguards to prevent administrative abuse and misinterpretation of statutes designed for our benefit; legislative and administrative encouragement of the blind who are striving to render themselves self-supporting; legal recognition of the right of a blind aid recipient to own a little; earn a little, accept a little; governmental recognition of our inalienable right to receive public assistance and still retain our economic, social and political independence, our intellectual integrity, and our spiritual self-respect;-These are but a few of the problems that are common to the blind throughout the nation. But the mere lising [listing] of them shows the imperative need for organization upon a national basis, for creating the machinery which will unify the action and concnetrate [concentrate] the energies of the blind, for an instrument through which the blind of the nation can speak to Congress and the Public in a voice that will be heard and command attention. Until the blind become group conscious and support such an organization, they will continue to live out their lives in material poverty, in social isolation, and in the atrophy of their productive powers.




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