Authorities of the school for deaf and hard of hearing students, Gallaudet University, have awarded diplomas to 24 Black deaf students and four Black teachers of Kendall School Division II for Negroes, which operated on the campus of Gallaudet University in the 1950s. The 24 Black deaf students and their teachers were denied diplomas 70 years ago due to segregation.
CBSNews reports Carolyn McCaskill, a Gallaudet University professor and founding director of the school’s Center for Black Deaf Studies, said that the event “is a significant part of Gallaudet University’s ongoing commitment to acknowledge and own its past racial and educational injustices,” the university said in a statement.
The Board of Trustees of the school christened the graduation day “Kendall 24 Day” to salute the gallant students and teachers and apologize for the injustice done to them. The 24 students’ descendants received their high school diplomas, and five of them were present to honour the occasion. The five—Janice Boyd (Ruffin), Kenneth Miller, Clifford Ogburn, Charles Robinson, and Norman Robinson—attended the graduation ceremony with their families.
The university apologized to Robert Lee Jones, Richard King Jr., Rial Loftis, Deborah Maton, William Matthews, Donald Mayfield, Robert Milburn, Kenneth Miller, Willie Moore Jr., Clifford Ogburn, Diana Pearson (Hill), Doris Richardson, Julian Richardson, Charles Robinson, Christine Robinson, Norman Robinson, Barbara Shorter, Dorothy Watkins (Jennings), Mary Arnold, Janice Boyd (Ruffin), Irene Brown, Darrell Chatman, Robbie Cheatham, and Dorothy Howard (Miller) for the wrongs of the past perpetuated against them, the university said in a statement.
Black pupils were enrolled in Gallaudet University’s K–12 Kendall School from 1898 to 1905. As soon as the decision was made, white parents who opposed integrating Black students condemned it. The Maryland School for the Coloured Blind and Deaf-Mutes in Baltimore or the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf in Philadelphia received the black deaf students later.
The situation changed when Louise B. Miller, a resident of the District of Columbia, attempted to enroll her oldest son Kenneth at Kendall. Miller had four children, three of whom were deaf. Due to his race, the school administration denied his admission. In a class action lawsuit against the school filed in 1952, Miller and the parents of four other black deaf students obtained the right for Kenneth and the other black deaf pupils to attend Kendall School.
According to the court’s decision, black deaf students cannot be transported outside of their state or school district to receive the same education as white students. Following that, the segregated Kendall School Division II for Black students was constructed on the Gallaudet University campus. Limited educational resources were given to the campus, which was constructed using subpar construction materials. Following the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka ruling, which allowed black pupils to enrol in the same classes as their white deaf classmates, the school was shut down in 1954.
The graduates’ spirits and those of their families can now find closure due to the honour bestowed upon them, according to Dr. Carolyn D. McCaskill, founding director of the Centre for Black Deaf Studies. She expressed the hope that this will catalyze the victims’ healing as they strive to build a just society.
The act, according to Gallaudet University President Roberta J. Cordano, validates the institution’s commitment to creating an inclusive environment where students feel a part of a community. No action will be able to erase the wrong done to the graduates, he said, but they have started the process of facing the institutional part of the university.
