Black Deaf History

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Black Deaf people have one of the most unique cultures in the world. The Black Deaf Community is largely shaped by two cultures and communities: Deaf and African-American. Some Black Deaf individuals view themselves as members of both communities. Since both communities are viewed by the larger, predominately hearing and White society as comprising a minority community, Black Deaf persons often experience double prejudice against them in terms of racial discrimination and communication barriers. Black Deaf women may experience three strikes of prejudice against them due to their race, Deafness, and sexist practices that prevail in our male-dominated culture.

 

 

 

These discriminatory practices can be traced back to the segregation era during the 17th to mid 20th centuries. Black Deaf individuals were not accepted in either the Deaf or the African-American community. Black organizations like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and the National Urban League were focused exclusively on fighting for equality and equal rights for the African-American community. The concerns of the Black Deaf community were not the focus of national civil rights organizations such as NAACP, SCLC, and the National Urban League. The Black Deaf community had no communication access with these national civil rights organizations and their leaders.

 

The ideal fight for equal access would point to joining with Deaf organizations. Unfortunately, Black Deaf people were prohibited from joining Deaf organizations and clubs. The premier national advocacy organization for the rights of deaf people, the National Association of the Deaf (NAD), prohibited Black membership for 40 years until 1965, a year after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. From its founding in 1864 until 1950, Gallaudet College (now Gallaudet University), did not admit and graduate Black Deaf students. The college had its first Black graduate, Andrew J. Foster, in 1954 - the same year of the landmark Supreme Court case Brown vs. Board of Education decision.

 

From the 1870s until the 1970s, at least 15 states, mostly in the south, maintained separate schools for Black and White deaf students. Integration of Black and White students did not occur until after the Brown vs. Board of Education decision. In 2011, former Black Deaf students of Kentucky School for the Deaf received long overdue diplomas once denied to them 60 years earlier because of the color of their skin. Because Black deaf students were prohibited from opportunities to interact with students and teachers on the White Deaf school campuses, this separation contribution to the development of Black ASL, a variety of American Sign Language that's distinctively different from those of white deaf students' signs.

 

Black American Sign Language (BASL) has gained more attention in the news media in the past few years. Major newspapers have featured Black ASL, including Washington Post, New York Times, and Los Angeles Times. 

Led by Dr. Carolyn McCaskill and Dr. Joseph Hill, authors of The Hidden Treasure of Black ASL: Its History and Structure (2011), Black ASL made its way into the television media and had its first documentary. The Signing Black in America documentary was screened in 2020 and aired on PBS stations in selected cities, highlighting the history and development of Black ASL.

Black ASL content crossed the border into Canadian TV and inspired Black Deaf Canadians to advocate for further research of BASL in the Canadian Black Deaf community.

[Id: Image is a book with a black and white photo of a Black teacher and Black students with the title: The Hidden Treasure of Black ASL: It's History and Structure, by Carolyn McCaskill, Ceil Lucas, Robert Bayley, Joseph Hill, in collaboration with Roxanne Dummett, Pamela Baldwin, and Randall Hogue.]