Gallaudet University to Honor 23 Black Deaf Students, Four Black Teachers and Their Descendants From 1950s-era Segregated Kendall School Division II for Negroes

WASHINGTON, July 11, 2023 /PRNewswire/ —

Media Advisory

What: 
Gallaudet University, the world’s premier institution for deaf and hard of hearing students, will hold a graduation ceremony to honor the 23 Black Deaf students and four Black teachers of the Kendall School Division II for Negroes. Kendall School Division II was a segregated private elementary school for Black Deaf students that operated on Gallaudet’s campus from 1952 to 1954.

At this graduation ceremony, the students and their descendants will receive high school diplomas conferred by Gallaudet’s Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center. This event, hosted by Gallaudet’s Center for Black Deaf Studies, is a significant part of Gallaudet University’s ongoing commitment to acknowledge and own its past racial and educational injustices.

When: 
Saturday, July 22, 2023
1:00 to 3:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time

Where:
Kellogg Conference Hotel at Gallaudet University
Swindells Auditorium
800 Florida Avenue NE
Washington, DC 20002

Why/History:
From 1898 to 1905, Kendall School, a K-12 program on the campus of what is now Gallaudet University, enrolled and educated Black students. In 1905, white parents complained about the integration of races, and Black Deaf students were transferred to the Maryland School for the Colored Blind and Deaf-Mutes in Baltimore or to the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf in Philadelphia. This eliminated altogether the presence of Black students at Kendall School.

Several decades later, Louise B. Miller, a District of Columbia resident and the hearing mother of four children, three of whom were deaf, asked that her oldest son Kenneth be allowed to attend Kendall School. Her request was denied because Kenneth was Black. In 1952, Mrs. Miller, joined by the parents of five other Black Deaf children, filed and won a class action suit against the District of Columbia Board of Education for the right of Black Deaf children like her son Kenneth to attend Kendall School.

The court ruled that Black Deaf students could not be sent outside the state or district to obtain the same education that white students were provided. This led to – rather than the acceptance of Black Deaf students into Kendall School outright – the construction on the Gallaudet campus of the segregated Kendall School Division II for Negroes, an inferior building with fewer resources than those made available to white students. In 1954, the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka made school segregation illegal across the nation, and Kendall School Division II for Negroes closed.

Students/Teachers: Two of the three living Kendall School Division II students and family members of several deceased students and teachers are expected to attend the July 22 graduation ceremony.

Special Guests: Dr. Monique M. Chism, Under Secretary for Education, Smithsonian Institution; Christopher D. Johnson, President, District of Columbia Black Deaf Advocates; and Zachary Parker, Member, District of Columbia Council, are among the special guests expected to attend.

Media
Interviews and broadcast/filming opportunities will be available to credentialed media. All visitors, including credentialed media for this graduation ceremony, will be required to enter through the university’s Florida Avenue and Eighth Street NE entrance and present photo identification.

To secure media credentials, please contact Robert Weinstock.

Media Contact:
Robert Weinstock
Senior Public and Media Relations Manager
Office of University Communications
Gallaudet University 
202-250-2411 
301-642-0338 text 
[email protected]

SOURCE Gallaudet University