 Among other things, he was listed in "Who's Who" among colleges and universities, and received an award in 1949, the Captain Charles W. Brown Award, presented each year by the American Foundation for the Blind to America's most outstanding blind college student.As leader of the National Federation of the Blind, Jernigan would participate in major conflicts with the American Foundation for the Blind.Upon his graduation from Peabody, he taught high school English at the Tennessee School for the Blind in Nashville for four years, and he became acquainted with and joined the National Federation of the Blind during that time.