Black american sign language leza turner sign 10 (1)

1. BLACK AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE HISTORY OF BASL ‹#› By Leza Turner

2. Introduction to Black American Sign Language The history of black history of Black American Sign Language, its origin, the Struggles of the students, education in the areas in which the education began and the questions that need to be answered, will be answered in the following slides. ‹#›

3. Black American began around 1867, in the South. this was about 50 years after the white children began being be educated in the year 1817, in the Hartford, Connecticut, in this country the United States, where everything was segregated to Black Americans, from community, where to live, education, political boundaries, where to allowed to eat, just to name and the black deaf children met all of these criteria and even more. When and where BASL did it Began? ‹#›

4. ‹#›

5. ‹#›

6. ‹#›

7. As with all Blacks back in the 1800’s the Black deaf community faced the same problems with racism in all aspects of life in the local cities, states and everywhere, but in 1880, the National Association for the Deaf Community was created, and at the time this association accepted the Black Deaf Americans, but later at the Cleveland Conference they changed their minds and took back the memberships for the blacks in 1925, by changing their bylaws. What types of problems did Black Deaf Children face and were any foundations created to help them ? ‹#›

8. At the beginning due to segregation of African American Deaf children were only taught by black teachers and in March 1901, the state of Tennessee passed a law about who could only teach black deaf students. Later, African American Deaf Children were able to join white children in learning ASL. (More information later). Who taught these children at the beginning? ‹#›

9. In 1825, the American School for the Deaf began to allow Black deaf students to integrated in to their schools in Connecticut and then more schools were added in some northern states such as Ohio, New York and Pennsylvania for the small black populations that they had. But, some black deaf students were taught in schools in the north and the classes for the deaf. Due to slavery in the United States for 200 years and after the Civil War this resulted in a policy that did not allow blacks to be taught, rather free slave of not. When does the history of Black American Sign Language Began ? ‹#›

10. A man who was considered a Abolitionist , he taught slaves and was a pioneer of his time, in 1856, Dr. Platt H. Skinner, opened up a school in Niagara Falls New York, for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind, which allowed blacks to be educated, but, in 1866, this school was closed down, but black deaf students were (due to a separate but equal law) able to attend residential schools, and in the north the no separate schools ere blacks had been established for the blacks after the Civil War. But, in Northampton, Massachusetts, which liked oral instruction, did not include black students. History of BASL (Continues ) ‹#›

11. In 1951, Mrs. Louise Miller, a mother of a black deaf child, filed and sued the District of Columbia for them to overturn the legislation that forced black deaf children to attend schools outside the district, either it was to attend a school in Maryland for the Colored in Overlea or another school. The Millers were unhappy with the Maryland schools they decided to send their child to a Pennsylvania school for the deaf in Philadelphia in 1949, and in 1952 the federal district courts ruled that the black deaf students had the right to attend the Kendall School, even thought those classes remained segregated. But even though the U.S. Supreme Court in May 17, 1954, ruled that the Brown v. Education was “racially segregated schools and unequal, and that segregation should between black and white students must be segregated was abolished , whites in Alabama were angry and terrorized the blacks. What was and happened to Black Deaf Education Before and After Brown vs. Board of Education? ‹#›

12. ‹#›

13. Higher education for black deaf students was hard and a challenge, as one student Ms. Mary Herring Wright indicated that she heard about the Colored Deaf and Blind School in Washington, but found out that it was only for whites, even though Wright graduated in 1941 and was hired as a teacher, and did not have the necessary degree. Then there as a Mr. William King who graduated from Indiana State School for the Deaf, and was excited to think that he was going to attend Gallauder College with his classmates, but was denied because the collor of his skin was very disappointed. Two Examples of the History of BASL Higher Education Conditions of Education ‹#›

14. The teachers who taught the Black American Sign Language classes where African American Educators and were a large group, who viewed achievement as an individual enrichment and social progress. But in the earlier years there was a mixture of Black and White deaf and hearing teachers, like Thomas, David Tillinghast, Blanche Wilkins and Thomas Flowers, and Wilkins and Flowers were both black teachers. These black teachers were important to the deaf children, helping these children to improve on self esteem and racial esteem. What types of Teachers did BASL students have? ‹#›

15. The majority of the teachers were white, and the administration searched for qualified black teachers who were hard to find. And the statistics of how many black students was 837 students and only 81 teachers. According to Ms. Herring Write, she described one teacher did not bothering to really learn the signs and she mad up her own signs and motions that were quick and jerky, most of these black teachers had little education, or experience in the methods of teaching death children. But, the Superintendent Gruver who employed Black teachers, decided to make provisions for a systematic training of young Black men and women in the theory and practice of the oral method of instruction as the general theory of teaching the deaf so that they could later train there own people. After several years of training in special education, by the 20 th century, 90% teachers were still white. Training of the teachers how? ‹#›

16. The theory of oralism, by 1880 was becoming popular and was established in white schools, but was not extended to the black deaf students the same way that it was for the white deaf students, in 1920, the children in Texas White schools were taught orally, but less than one-third of the black American students in black schools ere being taught orally, nevertheless the black students received more comprehensible instruction than white children and were placed in vocational rather than academic tracks. In the Black American families even when the parents were hearing, they used sign language at home, helping their children to serve as models for other deaf children. Oralism, Language of Black Families? ‹#›

17. With the opinion of both the young and old , the signing of the Black and the white is different for the signers in Texas, the signing is more powerful in both the movements which are both in rhythm and the style and in the expressions on the face. Where the White signing is more monotonic and lacks in the emotion. The black signers are able to show their true selves in their signing, but the whites were more on the snobbish side. A North Carolina signer had an interesting point in his observation about ASL, while black deaf signer don not maintain eye contact with the signers during a conversation, but the eye contact is important function to maintain a conversation between the ASL signer and the eye breaking contact which is considered to be impolite. Another North Carolina signer said that black deaf try to act like hearing blacks. Is Black Signing Different than White signing ? ‹#›

18. ‹#›

19. Well, just as hearing the younger signers are aware of the diversity in the different styles , and they change how they sign on the situation and social situations that they are in, by changing their characteristics of their interlocutors, such as when they are signing and socializing with older Black deaf signers, who know the difference, so they sign differently. Like one Black Deaf Student, when she was in school, she would sign like a white person, to give a professional appearance, but when in the streets she signed in the black form. So, both the young and older black deaf persons agree that there is a difference between the signing of the Black and White. Black signing younger ones have a more positive attitude then the older ones, and have a more standard, prescriptive form of ASL then the White signer does. Does Younger Black Deaf Signers, Sign Differently depending on the situation? ‹#›

20. ‹#›

21. In conclusion, we find that the history of BASL was affected by the segregation of schools, the location, the social isolation, has made a difference in the separation of languages variations and the changes that were made to try to write the wrongs, but for many years did not succeed. We also learned that there are differences in the way the Black and Whites sign and how the younger blacks, are aware on the situation where the way they sign is determined if it will be way of Black signing or White signing. One way of signing is more expressive (BASL) and the other is more formal (ASL), I find that they is still more to learn on this subject. I look forward to learning more in the future. Conclusion: ‹#›