Reflections on the Black ASL Project

Abstract

IN THIS PIECE are the reflections of Dr. Carolyn McCaskill and Dr. Joseph Hill as black Deaf university professors on their journey with the Black ASL project. They collaborated with two other researchers, Dr. Ceil Lucas of Gallaudet University and Dr. Robert Bayley of the University of California at Davis, from 2007 to 2011 in the publication of Hidden Treasure of Black ASL: Its History and Structure (with accompanying DVD). In fact, Hidden Treasure is the first sociohistorical and linguistic study of the African American variety of ASL, a variety that was developed as a result of the widespread racial segregation in the South. Dr. McCaskill offers her perspective as a former black Deaf student who attended both segregated and integrated residential schools in the South during and after the segregation era, and Dr. Hill offers his as a black Deaf person who began his education in the mainstream educational setting in the Midwest three decades after the landmark civil rights case of Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. McCaskill and Hill close the article with their thoughts on the future of research on the black Deaf community.Origin of the Black ASL ProjectMcCaskill: In 2005 I became involved with the Black ASL project when Dr. Ceil Lucas and I met one day after I had successfully defended my dissertation, The Education of Black Deaf Americans in the 20th Century: Policies and Implications for Administrators in Deaf Schools. dissertation covered the experiences of former students, faculty, and staff at a few of the eighteen segregated schools for deaf students in the South. Dr. Lucas was present at my dissertation defense and proposed that we do a joint research project on a sign language variety used at the segregated schools. It took three tries before we succeeded in obtaining the necessary funding from the National Science Foundation to do the research. As the old adage says, If at first you do not succeed, try, try again.Hill: In 2007 I was a doctoral student with limited means when Dr. Ceil Lucas offered me an opportunity to be involved as a research assistant in the Black ASL project. I knew I had to take it because this was a major opportunity, which was hard to come by, and it was rare to see a large sociohistorical and linguistic study like this that focused on a specific U.S. population: African American Deaf signers. When I joined the research team for the Black ASL project, I had been involved in several research projects. I enjoyed doing them and learned a lot, but they did not quite capture my passion. I was hoping to be involved in something that would take me out of the lab, allow me to be in contact with people, and tell their stories. And then the Black ASL project fell from the sky and into my hands. My life had just changed in a way that I had not expected. I was able to travel to different states where the former schools for deaf students were founded. I visited the sites where black Deaf children had received their education during the segregation era and met the actual participants, who were full of stories. This experience gave me a greater appreciation for those people who lived through the segregation era in the South and especially for black Deaf people, whose experiences were rarely documented and researched. This gave Carolyn and me an idea for the book title: Hidden Treasure of Black ASL. stories and the language of black Deaf people were truly treasures that had been hidden for many years and were rarely discussed in the fields of ASL and Deaf studies, linguistics, and education.Defining Moments of the Black ASL ProjectMcCaskill: We traveled to six states to interview participants for our project. It was a surreal experience because I had attended both the Alabama School for the Negro Deaf and the Alabama School for the Deaf in Talladega, so I could identify with the participants' stories. I thought about the time when I was a student, when I struggled to obtain a better education and to understand why I was not grasping the ASL that was used by my white peers at the white Deaf school. …