by Charles S.P. Hodge
As reported in the November 2001 edition of "The Braille Forum" through a reprint of an obituary from the Durham, N.C. Herald-Sun newspaper, Marie Boring, 85 years old, died quietly in her sleep on Thursday morning, October 11, 2001. Why, you may ask, should the passing of this particular blind woman be especially noted or deserving of our respect and honor? The answer is that this genteel, soft-spoken southern lady just happened to be one of the truly heroic figures in the civil war within the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) that eventually led to the formation of the American Council of the Blind (ACB).
Many blind people are aware of the unique and singular contributions of Durward McDaniel to ACB's formation. Yet in NFB circles, whenever the dissenting minority faction within the Federation is mentioned, the participants in the "unrest" are referred to as "the Boring-McDaniel rebels." Thus, at least among the NFB national officers of that time, it was Marie Boring -- not Durward McDaniel -- who was most feared and receives top billing among the leaders of the purged faction.
As was true of most of the figures directly involved in the unrest of the late 1950s which eventually led to purges within the Federation and the creation of the ACB, Boring fell unwittingly into her historic role. Marie Boring had already accomplished much in her early life. She graduated from the Governor Morehead School for the Blind, and then successfully completed a B.A. degree, majoring in English, from Guilford College in the 1930s. She had married, and along with her husband, Eddie, raised a family of three sons: Bob, Jimmy and Phil. She worked for many years as a medical transcriptionist at the Duke University Medical School in her home town of Durham, N.C. Marie had a wide range of friends and interests outside of the blindness community which held her attention and kept her busy over the years as well.
Yet as a totally blind woman, Marie felt a special calling to speak out on behalf of the right of the blind people of North Carolina and of the nation. Thus, when the North Carolina Federation of the Blind was formed in the mid-1950s, Marie Boring, because of her leadership talents, was the natural candidate to become the charter president of the newly organized statewide group. As the president of the North Carolina Federation of the Blind, Marie represented the new organization and attended national conventions of the NFB. Her quiet, behind-the-scenes leadership talent was quickly recognized at the national level as well, and Marie Boring was elected by the national convention to the NFB's Executive Committee at the San Francisco convention of 1956. She served there until the purge of 1959 in which she, along with others, were removed from the executive committee.
Among her contemporaries and colleagues, Marie Boring is remembered for speaking only sparingly, in a soft yet resolute voice. Yet when Marie Boring spoke, others listened because she spoke with great conviction, courage, passion and commitment. While she was willing to listen to the views of others and to consider compromise positions, once having made up her mind on an issue, she stuck to her guns with determination, stamina and endurance.
One of the actions which several of her contemporaries told me Marie should especially be remembered for involved the matter of wages for blind workshop employees. As expressly authorized by the membership of the North Carolina Federation of the Blind, Marie Boring, as its president, wrote letters to the entire North Carolina Congressional delegation during the 86th Congress. Her letters argued that blind workshop workers who met production levels should be paid at a rate no lower than 100 percent of the federal minimum wage. In her letters, she argued that to do any less was to treat blind workers as second-class citizens.
Unfortunately, while Marie was working to achieve 100 percent of the minimum wage for blind workers in North Carolina, the national officers of the NFB were supporting a policy which would authorize blind workers to be paid at a floor level no lower than 75 percent of the federal minimum wage. The NFB national officers seized upon the Boring letters to the North Carolina Congressional delegation as an undermining act of disloyality to the national Congressional legislative program of the Federation. It was precisely this charge of disloyalty which was leveled against her and the North Carolina Federation of the Blind at the 1960 national convention in Miami and used as grounds for suspending the North Carolina Federation of the Blind and its members from the national organization.
Marie Boring above all else had principles and integrity. She and the North Carolina Federation of the Blind believed that the NFB at the national level had become less than democratic or representative, and that the national officers could no longer be held sufficiently accountable to the grassroots rank and file membership. She believed that internal organizational self-governance practices such as permitting each affiliate, no matter its actual membership size, to cast only one vote at the national convention unfairly and disproportionately kept control of the NFB in the hands of only a few small affiliates who owed much politically to the incumbent NFB national officers.
Subsequently, the North Carolina Federation of the Blind published in "The Braille Free Press" some 20 specific proposed amendments to the NFB constitution and bylaws which, if they had been adopted, would have resulted in a much more representative and democratic organization which would have been accountable to the grassroots rank and file membership.
Above all else, Marie Boring believed in fair, representative, democratic rule within the organized blind movement. Her reputation as the voice of conscience grew during this period as she became a regular contributor to the pages of "The Braille Free Press." In late 1960, she became the magazine's editor. When the band of conscientious dissenters finally decided reluctantly that they had no other recourse but to form their own new organization of the blind in 1961, Marie Boring became a charter member of the American Council of the Blind and was one of three women elected to the original provisional board of directors.
Her commitment to freedom of expression and freedom of conscience is further reflected by Marie's service as the first editor of "The Braille Forum." It was precisely for all of these contributions that the ACB board of publications awarded to Marie Boring a special lifetime achievement award at the 40th annual national convention in Des Moines, Iowa. Those who attended the Des Moines convention were given the treat and privilege of hearing a previously tape recorded message from Marie Boring in her own voice and words, accepting the special award.
While she certainly will be remembered for her many monumental contributions to the founding of ACB, Marie Boring will also be remembered for the warm, personal and hospitable side of her character. Contemporaries of the time fondly remember Marie and her family warmly inviting those who were traveling through the South to stop for a night or two of North Carolina hospitality at her big house, affectionately referred to as the "barn." Many blind travelers took Marie and her family up on their generous offer of southern-style hospitality and remember their visits with fondness.
Marie Boring will be remembered as a principled voice for, and advocate of, the rights of all blind people. Her published writings and public speeches reflect those principles even today. She was a woman of great leadership talents and skills who naturally drew the support of others to her. She was steadfast and true to the causes which she adopted, and she stuck by her principles through thick and thin. She was a fighter when need be, but she was a warm and caring woman as well. Her family -- particularly her three sons and four surviving grandchildren -- were her pride and joy.
While we who remain know intuitively that there will never be another one quite like her, we will remember Marie Boring as the genuine heroine for the blind that she surely was during her lifetime.