[Mt-blind] History Lesson

[Jim Marks]

The NFB and ACB histories are fairly well documented in the two books
Jim Aldrich mentioned.  From reading these, I know that the NFB was
formed in 1940.  The MAB was formed at a Lions camp in Avon, Montana
in 1946.  In 1957, the MAB became an affiliate of the NFB.  In the
early 1980s, that affiliation was cemented with a charter from
national to the state.

The NFB met with severe in fighting in the late 50s, and the ACB broke
off from the NFB and formed its own separate organization around 1960.
 Interestingly enough, Lelia Proctor was quoted quite a bit in the ACB
history book because she admonished the warring factions for fighting
and not getting along.  Lelia did not advocate for picking sides; she
merely wanted the squabbling to stop.  It did not though.

The ACB went on to be a smaller organization with a philosophy that is
different from that of the NFB's.  Essentially, the NFB philosophy is
that the problem is not blindness.  Rather, it is the way we think
about blindness that holds blind people down.  The NFB focuses on
personal responsibility, a can-do spirit, and the application of the
alternative techniques of the blind.  The ACB holds some of these
philosophies as well, but with a major difference.  The ACB tends to
behave as though blindness is the problem, and it asks that society
take action on behalf of the blind rather than the blind taking action
for themselves.  In addition, the ACB pretty much was co-opted by the
service providers for the blind.  Agency people tend to dislike the
NFB, calling it militant and disrespectful.  For its part, the NFB
pretty much would say that agency attitudes are the same as the
plantation overseer to the slaves.  The ACB is much smaller than the
NFB, and, in recent years, it has been damaged by in fighting within
its own ranks.  The NFB speaks with one voice, and operates more like
a republic than an out-and-out democracy.  Some would say that the NFB
is a top-down sort of organization while the ACB is more bottom-up.
However, the recent infighting within the ACB certainly looks to be
more top-down than bottom-up by a long stretch.  And I believe that
the NFB listens to the voices of individuals as well as any
organization can.

My personal observation is that NFB members are, as a rule, more
out-going and confident than are ACB people.  I am not one to brag
about being neat and trim because I am neither, but one observation I
have that doubles, as a joke is that you can get more NFB people on an
elevator than you can ACB members.  ACB members tend to be a bit more
overweight than NFB members, which may indicate that the ACB is more
sedentary than the NFB.

One last major difference I want to note is that the main role of the
ACB is, insofar as I can tell, is to oppose NFB agendas.  The NFB has
far more irons in the fire, and it's routine for the ACB to oppose our
agenda and propose none of their own.  The reverse sometimes happens,
though, such as the most recent ACB lawsuit over accessible money.
The NFB opposes changing the money because, in part, it believes there
are more important issues to work on and it believes the accessible
money issue serves to distract people from those more important issues
such as web accessibility or quality rehab programs.

Anyhow, I will let others fill in some gaps on this history stuff.  I
also have an article pending on one of the MAB charter members, Ruby
Huckaba.  Ruby was a classmate of Lelia's, and she has some very
interesting memories that shed light on what we are doing currently.
For example, Ruby told me about the split between the blind kids and
the high partials in the Montana School for the Blind and Feeble
Minded back in the 1940s and 50s.  Ruby, a high partial, got more
privileges than totally blind Lelia Proctor.  Yet Lelia had better
skills and could actually handle more than Ruby, according to Ruby.
We see this sort of issue all the time, and the blind-high partial
split is something that speaks to the philosophy bit quite a bit.  And
it is why we try to make it respectable to be blind.  Anyhow, I will
share more later.

Jim Marks
blind.grizzly at gmail.com



On 11/13/07, BRUCE&JOY BRESLAUER <bjb5757 at bresnan.net> wrote:
> Hi, list.
>
> When I have more time, perhaps this week end, I would like to research the
> MAB's formal written documentation regarding the affiliation with the NFB.
> Although I do think it is important for us to learn about the consumer
> organizations and how they came to be what they are today, for purposes of
> this current discussion, I would like to know how the MAB became an
> affiliate of the NFB, and not necessarily just from someone's recollection,
> although I would welcome that as well.  I think it is important to become
> familiar with the facts and to pass that knowledge on to the next
> generation.
>
> My computer which has been broken for years has the MAB Constitution and
> Bylaws on it.  I think every member should read them for their own
> information.  I am going to try to obtain another electronic copy of them
> some way.
>
> Bruce and I once read a book that is totally unrelated to this current
> discussion, but in a sense it was very much related since it was talking
> about a group of people who are a minority and want to hold onto their
> traditions and their identity and not get swallowed up by the majority.  One
> of the concepts I gleaned from that book which has stuck with me ever since
> is to not let your enemies, real or imagined, define or redefine you.  Nuff
> said.
>
> Joy
>
> _______________________________________________
> Mt-blind mailing list
> Mt-blind at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/mt-blind
>


-- 
Jim Marks
blind.grizzly at gmail.com