The Power of Love
How Kenneth Jernigan Changed the World for the Blind
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Marc Maurer writes: I became a student in the rehabilitation training program directed by Dr. Jernigan in 1969. … The first dramatic example of the instruction I received from him involved barbecuing hamburger. … He handed me a pair of gloves, telling me that these were welding gloves. When I had them on, he said, “Now, put your hand in the fire.” What! I thought? You want me to put my hand in that great big towering blaze? Dr. Jernigan said quietly, “When you are wearing welding gloves, you can stir the fire with your fingers. Here, let me show you.” Dr. Jernigan had his hand in the fire; I put mine into the blaze and stirred the charcoal briefly. We put the raw hamburgers into a barbecuing rack, and we cooked them over the fire. When we had finished eating the results, Dr. Jernigan pointed out that an imaginative approach can make it practical to perform many, many activities previously thought impossible for the blind. Besides, the hamburgers were excellent. … When the shop instructor (who was a friend of mine) asked me what I wanted to build, I told him I didn’t want to build anything. “So,” he said, what do you want to do?” “I want to overhaul an automobile engine,” I said. “Do you have an automobile?” he asked me. “No,” I responded. “Can you get an automobile?” he wanted to know. “Certainly,” I said. I was without a job and without money. I had no idea where to get an automobile. … Raymond Kurzweil’s experience: It started in 1975 when I met Jim Gashel, and he introduced me to Dr. Jernigan. We had this little project of a reading machine for the blind, which we were trying to interest people in, and a lot of people were interested in it and wished us well. But Dr. Jernigan, being the visionary and entrepreneurial person that he was, wanted to get involved and help … In my first session with Dr. Jernigan I didn't know a lot about blindness—I'm still learning, though I know more than I did forty years ago. He said that blindness could be just a characteristic, just a minor inconvenience, and that blind people could accomplish anything they wanted to, just like sighted people. At the time I wondered to myself to what extent that was really true—was this a goal or a political statement, or was it a reality. … I very quickly came to recognize that Dr. Jernigan's statement was a plain, realistic assessment, provided that you had an organization like the National Federation of the Blind to make some prerequisites of the vision a reality. Those prerequisites include training in the skills and knowledge to accomplish the things desired. … Let me go back to 1975. We had developed a prototype of the Kurzweil Reading Machine but needed support to perfect it and launch this technology as a product. … Literally within hours came the reply that Dr. Jernigan was most excited about what we had demonstrated and wanted to work with us immediately to raise funds, to perfect the machine technically, and to get the word out. Now that's what I call responsiveness. That was just one small example of Dr. Jernigan's leadership: bold, decisive, knowledgeable, confident, insightful, and effective. … And that was the beginning of a friendship that lasted the next quarter of a century. As fortunate as I felt as a child growing up in Queens, New York, to participate from afar in a movement led by a great American such as Dr. King, imagine how blessed I have felt to have had the opportunity over the past quarter century to work closely with Dr. Jernigan and to get to know him as a friend and colleague. Dr. Jernigan was as exceptional a person as he was a leader. …
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About the Book
The Power of Love: How Kenneth Jernigan Changed the World for the Blind shares the voices of a collection of individuals whose writings reveal the deep truth that serves as the foundation for the life and work of Kenneth Jernigan. His life and their writings together speak of how Thomas Jefferson’s self-evident truths imply that equality extends to embrace blind people just as surely as this country has come to understand equality’s inclusion of all people regardless of the color of their skin. Ramona Walhof, editor of The Power of Love and longtime friend of Kenneth Jernigan, draws together the distinctive voices of individuals who knew Kenneth Jernigan and whose lives he touched through his work with the National Federation of the Blind. Each of the reflections begins with a brief biographical sketch that introduces the chapter’s author and ties his or her life to Kenneth Jernigan and his work. The book concludes with a chapter, “Blindness: The Federation at Fifty,” a retrospective written by Kenneth Jernigan himself in the last decade of his life. The Power of Love: How Kenneth Jernigan Changed the World for the Blind gathers a polyphonic chorus of voices that tell how the power of love, coursing through the life of Kenneth Jernigan, changed the world for the blind and, in so doing, changed the world for everyone.
About the Author
Ramona Walhof, blind since birth, graduated from a state high school for the blind. After graduation, she met Kenneth Jernigan. They became friends, and he mentored her. Working together with the National Federation of the Blind, they observed blind people gaining access to vastly expanded opportunities across the United States.