Turning Blindness to Good Advantage

Robert W. Coleman,
circa 1912

  Robert W. Coleman - A Baltimore City elementary school memorialized his name, and rightly so. The youngest of four children, he was born November 1876 in Washington, D.C. and raised by his mother when his father died.  At age 19, Robert made Baltimore his home.  He was blind not by birth but due to a gradual reduction to near full lack of vision by age 36 as a result of a baseball accident.  He saw his first three daughters, but not the last three.

  His personality would not allow him to feel sorry for himself, nor be stifled by a physical impediment.  A booklet by his oldest daughter stated, "Robert Coleman and the Association for the Handicapped," he imbibed a philosophy and determination to overcome any obstacle, believed in action, had faith in God, himself, and his fellow man.

  Shortly after losing his sight, around 1912, this spirit would carry him to learn the new trade and graduated in piano tuning from the Maryland Workshop for the Blind after 3 years of study.  Within a year, he begin taking on causes as an activist to a new community to which he had become a part of - the handicapped individuals of Baltimore.  According to the Afro-American newspaper obituary, "his sympathy was aroused for all of those persons who were physically or mentally handicapped."

The MD Association for
the Colored Blind

  In October 1913, he organized and then founded the Maryland Association for Colored Blind which, according to the organization's literature was "for the purpose of advancing the moral, religious, social and industrial development of Colored Adult Blind and to extend to them sympathy and brotherhood".  Further literature stated it was reorganized on May 3, 1925 as the Association of the Handicapped, Inc. which then also included "the blind, mute, feeble-minded, and crippled," although he preferred the termed "handicapped."

  For the Association's 25th anniversary, he elegantly communicated with the staff of then Maryland Governor Harry W. Nice toward a successful Proclamation of Negro Handicapped Week for the second week of May in 1936.

First Colored Directory of
Baltimore City
4th Edition, 1916

   During that same year, according to the book Baltimore, by Philip J. Merrill, he, his wife (originally Mary Ann Mason) and their six daughters worked by writing and proofreading in order to publish the First Colored Directory of Baltimore City for a period of 33 years.  The Referred to as "the blue book," according to the Archives of  Maryland, the directory was the first of its kind in the United States to highlight the biographies, trades, and companies of African-Americans - its main audience was the African-American community.

  Initially, the directories sold for 15 cents and Coleman published about 500 to 1,000 copies yearly.  There were listings of drug stores, doctors, dentists, and many other professions.  Of course, his Association of the Handicapped, Inc. was one of the many listings.  Merrill wrote that the directories became an annual Who's Who of black Baltimore professionals, complete with photographs and biographical write-ups as well as statistics and historical facts.

Robert W. Coleman
Photo Courtesy: Afro-American
Newspaper

  His wife (originally Mary Ann Mason) became the director of the Association for the Handicapped, Inc. when her husband died in 1946.  After his death, it became known as "The Robert W. Coleman Association for the Handicapped," which became primarily a scientific organization for the treatment of human beings and the conditions under which they live.  He is credited with beginning "sight-saving" classes in the schools, providing car transportation so handicapped children could attend school, and purchasing eyeglasses for the less fortunate.

  An Afro-American article which interviewed fellow citizens about notable citizens summed it up quite nicely, "Baltimore needs more men like Mr. Coleman, men who believe in unselfishly working together for the common good of our community."

(Sources: Afro-American newspaper; "Baltimore," by Philip J. Merrill)