Celebrating Black History Month | Blind and Visually Impaired Leaders in History and Today
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Sepia toned image of harriet tubman
Celebrating Black History Month | Blind and Visually Impaired Leaders in History and Today
February is Black History Month, and to celebrate we wanted to honor and highlight those in history and today who are also blind and visually impaired! While you might know about Stevie Wonder or Ray Charles, we wanted to highlight other figures in history, and today, who are doing groundbreaking work for the blind & visually impaired.
Harriet Tubman
We featured Harriet Tubman in our Women in History blog post, but we couldn’t help but feature her here! Tubman suffered a severe injury to the head by a slaveowner causing her to be visually impaired and have seizures. Despite this, Tubman went on to create the Underground Railroad and freed over 300 slaves.
Dr. William Townsend
While not visually impaired, Dr. Townsend changed the lives of the blind and visually impaired community, as well a leader in the Little Rock community. He was the first licensed black optometrist, as well as a Civil Rights leader in Arkansas. With his Optometrist training, he offered vision services to Black residents in Little Rock. Before his practice, Black residents did not receive adequate vision care.
Martha Louise Morrow Fox
Martha Louise Morrow Fox was visually impaired and attended the Overbrook School for the Blind, graduating in 1927. After graduation she attended college and began teaching at Piney Woods Country Life School, the first school in Mississippi that taught Black blind students. She had a very modern teaching dynamic and was often seen incorporating nature into her lessons. She wanted to make sure that children who were blind and visually impaired had the same opportunities and outings as those who were sighted.
Haben Girma
We wanted to highlight some modern heroes in history who are changing the landscape for those with disabilities! Haben Girma is certainly one of those people. Girma is the first deafblind student to attend and graduate from Harvard Law School. Since then, Girma has been instrumental in the field of disability rights and accessibility. She is a prominent public speaker on disability right and accessibility, as well as an instrumental lawyer in the field. You can read more of her story in her book Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law.