by Christopher Gray
In last month's column, I wrote you about the forthcoming publication of "People of Vision: A History of the American Council of the Blind," and about a gala celebrating the completion of the manuscript. Pre-release books are planned for distribution to conventioneers. In the fall, we hope to be ready for the actual release of this title.
Many have inquired about ACB's plans to make this book accessible to the membership. As this article goes to press, final galleys are in transit to the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. Director Cylke graciously agreed several years ago to make the ACB history a part of the NLS collection and available on tape and in braille through the nationwide NLS regional library system. It is my hope that we can release the print book and at least one accessible version of the book simultaneously. There are doubtless other possibilities and avenues that the ACB history committee can now consider regarding making this book available to ACB members. Watch the pages of "The Braille Forum" for details in future issues.
For now, here is a brief look and the essence of what this book is, and how it is presented. From the excerpts below, you will see that our history is a book of fact, told with dignity and filled with thought and ideas which formed our movement and make our organization what it is today. Also, the book pays tribute and is dedicated to Durward McDaniel, almost certainly ACB's single most powerful founding member. Here, then, are the book dedication page and page of introduction by the authors, James and Marjorie Megivern. I hope this will provide you with a sense of this book and whet your appetite for the whole story in the fall.
Dedication To Durward K. McDaniel
For his indefatigable belief in people; For his boundless organizational energy and faith; For his championing of the disenfranchised; and For his unshakable belief in the redemption and reinclusion of any blind person into the ACB community, no matter what their offense or motive, no matter what the momentary effect of their action.
If it were not for him and these special qualities he brought to the organizational work of the blind, it is highly unlikely that there would be an ACB today. May we honor him by striving to live up to his high ideals, his integrity, his commitment, and values.
Chris Gray, President,
American Council of the Blind
Introduction
The chief purpose of the present work is to tell the story of the origins and activities of the American Council of the Blind, surveying its first 40 years of existence (1961-2001). That story, however, is a segment of the broader history of the experience of blind people in modern Western society. Thus we begin with a brief sketch of some of the more important prior developments in Europe that opened a new era for blind people and before long greatly influenced developments in the United States. We cannot do full justice to all the remarkable individuals and groups that paved the way in working tirelessly for the improvement of the overall condition of blind people, but we can at least identify some of the more noteworthy leaders, some of their more important ideas, and some of the crucial events that were real highlights and milestones in Western social history. Our basic plan is to proceed chronologically, singling out developments of the last three centuries that led to the opening of an entirely new era, the era Berthold Lowenfeld aptly dubbed the "third age" in the history of blindness. 1 (Berthold Lowenfeld, The Changing Status of the Blind {Charles C. Thomas, 1977}. See also Lowenfeld, On Blindness and Blind People: Selected Papers {AFB, 1981}.)
Within that context we shall see the emergence of a pioneer organization, the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) in 1940, which for more than a dozen years struggled to blaze an unprecedented trail of "the blind leading the blind" to new independence, taking direct action to get the nation to adopt more responsible legislation that would bring a more mature public attitude toward the rights of blind people. An undeniably impressive series of advances were made in this regard by a remarkable handful of talented leaders who joined hands in moving this enterprise forward. In the mid-1950s, however, internal problems began to arise, and despite some noteworthy efforts to deal with them rationally, the situation continued to deteriorate until it ended in a division, resulting in the formation of a second national organization, the American Council of the Blind (ACB). The intensity of the emotions that marked this conflict, often referred to as a "civil war" in the blind community, underlined how important it had become to have an effective national organization in the years after World War II when American society was rapidly changing in fundamental ways. So much was at stake that arguments over policies, values, and leadership styles were inevitable. Whether the split into two rival organizations -- the NFB and the ACB -- could have been avoided, and whether it would have been better for blind people if the conflict and division had not occurred, is as debatable today as it was 40 years ago.
The story holds special fascination for anyone interested in the dynamics of human organizational theory, corporate growth, and harmonious development. The underlying principles and basic philosophical issues at stake guarantee that the conversation will continue and that there will inevitably be very different interpretations of what happened, depending on how much information is actually made available, and how interested the younger generation is in wanting to know what happened.
One fact that is beyond dispute is that much of what transpired has hitherto not been made part of the public record for reasons that will emerge as the story unfolds.
The NFB bears the indelible impress of Kenneth Jernigan, who died in 1998. The ACB carries the democratic legacy of Durward McDaniel, who died in 1994. The future of both organizations is to some degree open, as current leadership has to decide how to respond to the challenges of the new millennium. Both optimists and pessimists can find grounds for very different assessments of what the future of the organizations is likely to be, but all should certainly be able to agree that it is time for honest reassessment. The documents and details offered herein should help in opening the way to a more accurate understanding of how the organizations came to be, and what the original spirit, ideals, and principles were. Until fuller archives are open to future historians, this will have to serve as an initial account of the beginnings of the American Council of the Blind, brought into being by a handful of remarkable "People of Vision."