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Tribute to Mr. M. Eugene Wiggins: He Helped Make
NBASLH What It Is 45 Years Later
by Linda Redmond Taylor, M.A., CCC-SLP-L, lindaredtaylor@aol.com
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The RESOUND))) staff will end this issue of the Summer Publication with the following information extracted from History of the National Black Association for Speech-Language and Hearing (NBASLH): The First Twenty Years 1978 - 1998 (by M. Eugene Wiggins, 2014) in honor of the author himself, Mr. M. Eugene Wiggins, a Founding member of NBASLH without whom this Association would not be the stellar organization that it is today. On pages 51-52, Mr. Wiggins ‘paid tribute to the distinguished pioneers in the professions, including, namely, Dr. Madge Hibler Allen, Dr. Robert Martin Screen, Dr. Oscar Mitchell, Jr., Mr. Samuel P. Geralds, and Dr. Harold Powell’. Mr. Wiggins, further, ‘introduced and saluted NBASLH’s visionaries: Drs. Ronald Williams, Vernon Stroud, Ernest Moore, Charles Hurst and Dr. Orlando Taylor’.
It is only befitting that RESOUND))) allows what Mr. Wiggins wrote as a closing paragraph on page 52 to others to be used as a mirror, reflecting back to who he, too, is to NBASLH. He wrote:
These visionaries, along with the pioneers, were the courageous professionals who opened the doors for the many African Americans that followed them. NBASLH would not be the viable organization that it is were it not for the leadership of these exceptional, daring professionals. It is on their shoulders that most NBASLH members stand, and for that reason, we are forever indebted to them for their untiring commitment to the cause of advancing the presence of African Americans in the speech and language pathology and [a]udiology professions.
Thank you for your service, Mr. Wiggins. We “humbly pay our respect and gratitude” to the above-mentioned men and woman, and to you for your wisdom, foresight, strength, patience, creativity and leadership that helped to make NBASLH, under God, the powerful Association that it is today - in 2023 - 45 years later. Amen? Amen!!
SHOUT OUT to our Public Relations Chair Lauren Prather and our Treasurer Darius Thomas!
