 The barriers have at last begun to crumble, and the blind to emerge from their long subjugation.In the democratic tradition, they have organized themselves for united action and now, instead of charity, they have begun to demand equality--the right to work and to live as free citizens in a free society; the right to succeed or fail according to their individual abilities.By 1956, Kenneth Jernigan had become president of a Bay Area local chapter, the Alameda Club, of the National Federation of the Blind of California.