Historical Deaf Education | blackaslproject2014

Black Deaf education

Synopsis is in the first paragraph. More thorough explanations are further below.

Black Deaf Education is a topic that doesn't have as transparent a role as say American History or Black History; it is a culture within itself. Dating back to the mid-1800's when Deaf Schools were formed in the US, Black Deaf Schools were seperated into different departments from White Deaf schools. Because of segregation and Jim Crow Laws, black and white students were'nt able to learn inclusively in an environment. This immediately caused a friction between the deaf students, especially by race and ethnicity.

So we have this picture of Black Deaf Students vs. White Deaf students immediately starting at the turn of the century. This lead to even more racial tensions among the students apart of either communities. Because of segregation, Jim Crow Laws, and an upward mobility for the white race, Black Deaf students weren't given proper and adequate resources to learn American Sign Language (this was happening extensively for Black students who were hearing as wel). The black deaf students therefore naturally formed a language of their own. This language (Black ASL emerged through cultural values, social education from the black community, and African American Venicular or English.

Educational history of the deaf was similar to any other form of education in American society. Along with American society came American morals and values. These morals and values were enfoced not only for ‘normal’ speaking students but deaf students as well. Deaf schools were built in America around the early 1800s and were not only segregated from speaking schools once instructors noticed the differences in an integrated pattern of communication between the students, but were also segregated by race.

This in result, transitioned into an African American Venicular of English for African Americans distinct from Whites or any other race thereof. This AAVE catapulted also in the deaf communities and deaf education for Black students. The socio-historical construct that made Black ASL possible were the conditions that lead to this creation of a unique African American variety of languge aside from ASL. The condition of this creation of Black ASL was uniformly constructed due to geographic and sociological changes.

The regional and social changes that occurred through the initiation of the first deaf schools around the nation (1857-1870) caused a separation between Black and White deaf students, which immediately transitioned into Black & White Deaf Departments in the schools, and quickly thereafter, Black & White Deaf Schools composed of the schools for the deaf in the South. With resepct to physcal isolation from other deaf schools, black deaf students had to learn how to communicate with one another in a way that came natural for their race.

“Because of the continued use of sign language in the classroom, however, the ironic result of this policy of discrimination may have been that southern deaf African-.‐Americans, in spite of the chronic underfunding of their schools, received a better education than most deaf white students” (180). • Even though some African American children received more comprehensible instruction, they were still placed in vocational rather than academic tracks" (Bayton 1996).

"However, oral education was not extended to Black students on the same basis as to White students. A 1940 survey by Settles in the American Annals of the Deaf shows that in 11 of 16 schools or departments for Black deaf students, the approach is still entirely manual, i.e. signing" (Baynton 1996).