African American Educators in the Blindness Hall of Fame

The American Printing House for the Blind inducted two pioneering African-American educators in 2013: Dr. Lawrence C. Jones and Martha Louise Morrow Foxx. Dr. Jones founded the Piney Woods School in Mississippi in 1909 to offer vocational and academic training to children and grandchildren of former slaves. Recognizing the lack of a school to educate black children who were blind, Dr. Jones added the education of children with visual impairment to the school’s program. Mrs. Foxx, who was partially sighted, came to Piney Woods in 1929, and was responsible for the needs of all of their blind students. The school later became the Mississippi School for Blind Negroes, eventually merging with the Mississippi School for the Blind. More on the fascinating work of Dr. Jones and Ms. Foxx can be found on the VisionAware blog: Blindness Hall of Fame