African American people who are deaf have always faced the identity issue of whether they are black first or deaf first. I can remember reading discussions on this issue. Resources are available for deaf African American people and their families and teachers. The first and best resource is the organization National Black Deaf Advocates. The NBDA holds annual conferences and has chapters nationwide.
Teachers and parents of deaf African American children may want to check out the Deaf and African American Children web site on DeafEd.net. It discusses ethnicity, educational, communication, and cultural needs.
Articlesabout Deaf African Americans
Journal articles addressing the deaf African American community are relatively few.
- A national black magazine once did an article on the deaf African American community, but I have forgotten the name of that publication.
- The March 1998 issue of American Annals of the Deaf had an article on black deaf teenagers (Mosley Hall, C.J. (1998) The association between raceless and achievement among African American deaf students. 143(1), 55-64.)
- Cambridge Press offers the book Cultural and Language Diversity and the Deaf Experience, which includes the article "In Search of Self: Experiences of a Post-Lingually Deaf African-American, by Dianne K. Brooks."
- The National Multicultural Interpreter Project website has downloadable pdfs of a cultural knowledge and sensitivity curriculum, including reference information.
Books on Deaf African Americans
A few books have been written about being deaf and African American:
- One such book is Sounds Like Home, a book by a black deaf woman about growing up black and deaf in the South.
- Together with Linwood Smith, Ernest Hairston wrote the book Black and Deaf in America (ISBN 0932666183). Hairson was also honored on the cover of Deaf Life magazine.
- Proceedings from a conference Empowerment of Black Deaf Persons can be exist(ISBN 1893891100 ), but may be out of print.
Other Notable Deaf African Americans
Contemporary
Curtis Pride is a deaf African American athlete known in both the deaf and hearing worlds. Connie Briscoe, former managing editor of American Annals of the Deaf, wrote two novels.C.J. Jones is a deaf male African American performer; Michelle Banks is a deaf female African American performer. Kenny Walker was a professional deaf football player.
Historic
One well-known deaf African American in history is Andrew Foster.
And one more...
The Deaf Way II conference included an artisticperformance, Black & Deaf in Americaby deaf African Americans Fred Beam, Evon Black, and Christopher Smith.
Related About.com site:African American History
