Articles by Kenneth Jernigan

Dr. Jernigan was an inspirational speaker at the convention podium, a tireless crusader for the rights of the blind, a powerful writer and editor of an endless stream of publications, a charismatic presence, and an unforgettable personality.

Dr. Jernigan’s oratory remained as stirring and forthright through the remainder of his life as it was in 1976. However, it would gain other added elements. There were at least three intended audiences for his articles and convention speeches, then and always. Primary among them were the blind. Next came the professionals in the field of work with the blind-some who had taken up arms against the Federation and many others who had come to work cooperatively with the organized blind movement to enhance opportunity and encourage independence for the blind. And finally, there was the vast undifferentiated public-the Great American Audience-that volatile and amorphous but absolutely critical element in the urgent struggle to achieve understanding. Dr. Jernigan spoke to us all, delineating the reality that nobody can live our lives for us, that we must do it for ourselves, that we cannot do it in isolation but must find a way to welcome our sighted brothers and sisters as friends, that we must also find a way to persuade our sighted colleagues to welcome us, that equality carries with it a certain standard we must be prepared to meet, and that in the process of all of this effort we must speak and act for ourselves in an organized body which has the power and strength to gain for us the goal of first class citizenship in society.

Visitors to these pages will observe that a large collection of thoughtful compositions and outstanding addresses of Dr. Jernigan, composed throughout his life can be found Here. These writings, (Many of which include streaming and downloadable MP3 audio and/or .WMV video presentations of his speeches and other articles) cover many aspects of blindness and the history and activities of the National Federation of the Blind. They cover a wide range of subjects including accreditation of agencies for the blind, airtravel for the Blind, Basic NFB Philosophy, Braille instruction and use, discrimination against blind persons, educating blind children, employment of the blind, independent travel for the blind, Rehabilitation of the blind, sheltered workshops for the blind, technology for the blind and its use, the Randolph-Shepherd Vending Program, and World affairs of the blind.

Many of Dr. Jernigan's articles and speeches are required reading for federation members and are the springboard for discussions about blindness and its challenges. They are also relied heavily on and are standard fair for blind persons attending rehabilitation programs that use the NFB'S Civil Rights Model pioneered by Dr. Jernigan during his years as Director of the Iowa Commission for the Blind. They have also been incorporated in to the educational curriculums of universities offering majors in blindness education and rehabilitation such as the program operated by The Professional Development and Research Institute on Blindness at Louisiana Tech University.

We are launching this area of our Web site with four of Dr. Jernigan's presentations considered to be, "Classic" pieces of NFB material and a must-read for federation members, blindness professionals and others interested in the affairs of the blind. Our goal is to create the most comprehensive collection of Dr. Jernigan's writings for preservation, historical, and research purposes. As they did during his life time Dr. Jernigan's articles and Banquet Speeches still have the power to change the lives of blind persons today.

A Definition of Blindness

This article Originally appeared in the Blind American, November 1962. In this article Dr. Jernigan promotes the need for a functional definition of blindness in addition to the traditional medical definition used to declair a person to be legally blind. A functional definition of blindness bases sight loss on the need for an individual to devise alternative techniques to perform tasks which would normally be done with vision.

These thoughts caused much speculation about the nature of blindness. In response to a request for a definition of the term, Dr. Jernigan identified the essential characteristics. Here is the definition of blindness.

A Definition of Blindness, (Text)

A Definition of Blindness, (Audio)

Blindness: A Left-Handed Disertation

Kenneth Jernigan's more or less extra-curricular talents as a scholar of history and a critic of culture notably displayed in the successive banquet speeches dealing with blindness in history and in literature became increasingly familiar to Federationists and other readers of the Braille Monitor during the seventies through the publication of a number of informal essays addressed not to the day-to-day problems of the movement but to more theoretical, and occasionally playful, matters of thought and learning. One such essay, which appeared in the Braille Monitor in 1973, was entitled "A Left-Handed Dissertation." Its satirical use of analogy served the purpose of underlining the status of the blind as a minority group, subject to much the same differential treatment and suspicious regard as other minorities. The analogy of blindness with left-handedness was on the order of a parable or cautionary fable, pointing a moral which did not lose its cogency with the passing of the years.

Blindness: A Left-Handed Disertation, [Original 1973 Version], (Text)

Blindness: A Left-Handed Disertation, (Audio) 9.92 MB

Blindness: Concepts and Misconceptions

The 1965 Conventionof the National Federation of the Blind was held in the Nation's Capital. The convention banquet had many memorable moments. One of these moments in the course of the historic 1965 convention occurred when Hubert Humphrey, then Vice President of the United States, was honored in a special ceremony as recipient of the Federation's Newel Perry Award. In receiving the award Humphrey reminded the delegates that this was his third meeting with the organized blind: Eighteen years ago, as mayor ofMinneapolis, I welcomed your members to that great city for your seventh annual convention. Five years ago, as a U.S. Senator from Minnesota, I attended another very enthusiastic convention your state convention in Minnesota. And today I am proud to meet with you again, proud to receive your plaque, to greet so many old, dear friends, and I hope to make new ones.

Vice President Humphrey then said: Today the nation is fulfilling many of the hopes, yes, the visions, of your own Federation and of other pioneering organizations. Your great founder Jacobus tenBroek had this vision. He had a gift of foresight which others who had the blessing of physical sight did not possess. Your Federation has compiled a remarkable and fruitful record nationally, in the states, cities, and rural areas. You have brought hope to countless thousands of the blind, where before there had been so much hopelessness. You have encouraged self-help by the blind in place of dependency. Your Federation has taken many steps forward. You have come a long way. And I regard it as a great honor to have walked with you and worked with you. Long may the Federation flourish in its service, in its leadership. Long may the courageous blind help to lead a courageous America to a better life for all.

With those words, and waving aloft his Newel Perry plaque, Hubert Humphrey took leave of the Washington convention giving way to a parade of other orators and luminaries. Among them was the Federation's own First Vice President, Kenneth Jernigan, who took full advantage of the massive turnout of congressmen and politicians in the audience to deliver a major address on a subject of perennial importance (and one to which he would return frequently at future conventions): that of the needless social handicap imposed upon the blind, not by their own physical condition but by the misconceptions of the public. In effect Jernigan turned his speech into a seminar on blindness, proclaiming the Federationist doctrine that blind persons are only normal people who can't see not abnormal people who can't function. But he demonstrated that the very words we use starting with the word blind and the very concepts we form out of these words, like the concept of the helpless blind, carry a freight of unacknowledged connotations which become stumbling blocks on the road to independence.

Blindness: Concepts and Misconceptions, (Text)

Blindness: Concepts and Misconceptions, (Audio) 11.0 MB

Blindness: Handicap or Characteristic

At the 1963 National Convention in Philadelphia attended by some 600 Federationists an unprecedented event took place which served to underline the rising stature of Kenneth Jernigan in the movement. Although it was the custom then and later for the Federation's President to deliver the banquet address given the symbolic and ceremonial significance of that annual oration in this year the honor was bestowed upon the First Vice President. Rising to the occasion, Jernigan presented a deeply considered philosophical statement which was to remain after a quarter of a century among the most decisive formulations on record of the profound difference between the affirmative creed of the organized blind and the custodial doctrines of the blindness system.

When the National Federation of the Blind was founded in 1940, the prevailing attitude about blindness was that the blind were helpless, that blindness signified inferiority, and that (with rare exceptions) those who are blind are incapable of productive activity. The philosophy of the Federation indicated that this tragic view of blindness was incorrect. By personal example, by public presentation, and by the written word, Dr. Jernigan sought to change this perception. In a continuing stream of speeches and articles he explained and demonstrated the principle that blind people (taken as a cross section of society) are the same as sighted people except that they cannot see. Blind people are not weird, but normal; not peculiar, but similar to you and your neighbor. Blindness need not be a handicap unless it is misunderstood. This concept was articulated in detail in an address first delivered during the 1963 conventionBanquet of the National Federation of the Blind held in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. This speech, reprinted a number of times, is, "Blindness: Handicap or Characteristic." This is what Dr. Jernigan said:

Blindness: Handicap or Characteristic, (Text)

Blindness: Handicap or Characteristic, (Audio) 12.8 MB

The Nature of Independence

How does a blind person achieve independence? Does it happen automatically, or is there a process that must be followed? Should a blind person assert this independence on every possible occasion?

After reviewing writings of Dr. Jernigan, a number of young blind people posed these questions to him, and he responded. In an address delivered to the 1993 Convention of the National Federation of the Blind, in Dallas, Texas, Dr. Jernigan explained in detail what blindness as a characteristic means and how it should be approached. This is what he said:

The Nature of Independence, (Text)

The Nature of Independence, (Audio) 20 MB

The Nature of Independence, (Video) 101 MB