Black History Month: Black Deaf Americans

Black History Month is celebrated in February because of the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln, the Great Emancipator, and Frederick Douglass, a slave who escaped North and became an abolitionist, orator, statesman, and writer.  Every year we hear about such great Black Americans like Martin Luther King, George Washington Carver, and Whitney Houston, but few of us know anything about the contributions of Black Deaf Americans like C.J. Jones, Dr. Carolyn Mc Caskill, Kevin Hall, and Claudia Gordon. 

C.J. Jones, a producer, director, actor, and motivational speaker, lost his hearing to meningitis when he was seven. After graduating from the National Technical Institute for the Deaf in Rochester, NY, C.J. toured with the National Theater for the Deaf. He’s had acting roles on “A Different World,” “Frasier,” and performed in the 2017 movie “Baby Driver” with Jamie Foxx. I first met C.J. while taking ASL classes with Troy Kostur. Troy invited the comedian to talk to our class about his life as a comic. I found him to be extremely funny with a kind soul.

Dr. Carolyn McCaskill, a professor at Gallaudet University, was born deaf. She is a recipient of the Deaf Humanitarian Award from the National Action Network. She has researched the roots of Deaf Black history and explained the differences between American Sign Language (ASL) and Black American Sign Language (BASL). BASL is a distinct dialect of ASL and diverged from ASL due to school segregation in the American South.

Kevin Hall lost his hearing at two due to meningitis. He graduated from Ohio State University with a degree in journalism and became a professional golfer. He was the first black golfer to play at OSU, he’s a Big Ten champion and won the Advocates Professional Association Tour four times. 

Claudia Gordon was an eight-year-old Jamaican girl when she lost her hearing. Her family moved to New York City three years later. At the Lexington School for the Deaf in Queens, she learned ASL. In 2000 she graduated from Washington College of Law in Washington, D.C. making her the first Black Deaf woman to earn a law degree. As senior policy Advisor for the Department of Homeland Securities for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and through her work with the U.S. Department of Labor during the Obama years, Gordon has pushed for accessibility for all. 

People like C.J. Jones, Claudia Gordon, and the others have another thing in common besides their blackness and deafness. They all care about the needs of others and put themselves out there to make a difference—a characteristic worthy of us all emulating.   

Michael Thal is the author of The Lip Reader.