Louise B. Miller Memorial

[Video Start]
[Video presented in ASL and transcribed to English]

Evon Black, '87, G-'96
President, National Black Deaf Advocates

Equality has been missing from my life but it's never too late
what we know of segregation
jim crow and so forth the black deaf community was not insulated from any of that it's painful really painful but we have to address this pain and we can't just push it away if we look the other way then we'll never have the opportunity to heal
what does this memorial mean for the black deaf community
it's really important for the black deaf community >especially when black deaf students arrive at gallaudet for many of them it is a part of their dream and upon seeing this memorial
it can be an inspirational force that lets them know that gallaudet recognizes and values the black deaf community a feeling of welcome if you are interested in donating here's the link to do so
thank you
hello it is my pleasure to introduce to you the story of the miller family the miller family includes mother louise b miller and her four children kenneth carol gerald and justin all three of her sons are deaf and her daughter carol is hearing
louise b miller's story is one of courage and tireless advocacy it changed the history of deaf education in this country it was mrs miller who decided to enroll her son kenneth in our very own kindle school in 1946 her son was denied enrollment because he was black
however mrs miller didn't stop her fight and she persisted until finally in 1952 she decided to lead a class action lawsuit against the washington dc board of education to fight for the right of her son to be educated here at kendall school
miller mrs miller won that lawsuit that then forced the establishment of the kindle school division 2 for negroes which was the name at that time that was the first lawsuit that started the process of dismantling the doctrine upheld by the supreme court decision plessy versus ferguson the doctor known as separate but equal by winning the lawsuit it set the precedent for dismantling that legal argument and lent support to the final decision by the supreme court in the brown versus board of education in 1954.
very few people understand the connection between louise b miller's fight for her deaf son kenneth and the success of the supreme court case brown versus board of education this family has shown great patience and support of this community as we assess and reflect on our past mistakes and looking at ourselves today to further examine our current actions and supporting our movement to create a better and more just future for all of our deaf children
especially black latina latino latinx native american asian pacific and those of diverse identities we are proud that the family is here with us to continue to share their stories for us to come to understand our history and what we need to continue to wrestle with and reflect upon and further understand i remain grateful to the miller family for building their relationship with us during the last few years
i am proud that they are here with us as a community and so very grateful to them i now look to dr carolyn mccaskill to lead this celebration of the miller family story the center for black deaf studies will be a place to centralize document and gather the stories of the history of the kindle division ii school thank you equality has been missing from my life
okay
hi we are ready
yes we certainly are i was waiting for sister carolyn and here we are well good morning sister liz how are you i'm doing fantastic this morning so what are we doing today my dear well you know what i am really so excited about the program for today this webinar is the second one to be hosted by the center for black deaf studies and i'm absolutely over the moon thrilled that we're here to talk about the kindle division 2 school memorial project
so we're going to talk about what the plan is and that's going to be part of our agenda today we're also going to introduce the miller family and we'll get a chance to see an interview as well as some photos and we'll have a chance to interview each one of them actually and then after that we plan to enter a discussion about the kindle division ii memorial project itself uh we have a steering committee and we'll learn from that steering committee about the mass design team and their efforts in terms of the design for the memorial project and another piece of this a very important piece of it is talking about the naming process for the memorial so we'll spend some time talking about that and then towards the end we'll have times for questions and so as i said i'm really excited to get going and oh i didn't even introduce myself to the audience hello everyone i am dr carolyn mccaskill the founding director of the center for black deaf studies and professor in the deaf studies department at gallaudet university
uh uh oh it seems that dr moore has her video has frozen give us a moment
all right uh dr carolyn mccaskill thank you
really this is a watershed moment for our community i know that individuals are very thrilled and so looking forward to this event and the interpreter no longer has visual access on doctor moore she is experiencing intermittent freezing yes i'm noticing that as well
hmm um dr moore is asked that i take over perhaps we can go ahead with the portion of the program the next portion let's proceed with the interview video clip
and we can proceed that with an interview of carol miller please if we can have carol miller and now i'm absolutely thrilled to be able to interview each individual member of the member of the miller family first of all i have here with me kenneth miller so kenneth
tell me a little bit about your name about yourself this is your name sign correct yes
and are you deaf or hard of hearing i've been deaf since three years old three years old i see
and you learned sign from your family or exactly how did you start learning sign language
well i learned that the philadelphia school it was an oral school for the deaf
and then later at kendall school that's where i went and that's when i changed from oral to sign
language and i use sound language ever since ah so are you retired now you're still working what are
you up to i retired from my job at the washington post after 47 years wow how many years since 1957
i was 16 years old 16. i went on to graduate i worked part-time and then eventually full-time
in 1965 at the washington post so in total i've worked there for 47 years of my career and then
i went to retire 47 years wow so what do you do now with your free time i spend time at
home resting and spending time with my family and my brother so did you grow up um did you graduate
through the kindle school i started in 1952 at philadelphia school and then moved to maryland
1960. did you remember like some of the things that you learned while you were in school no
nothing huh you really weren't able to learn anything in that environment that's how school
was at that time there wasn't much being learned in the fall of 1954 i learned a little bit
at the philadelphia school the instruction was good but at the kennel school it was lousy
what was the difference between the two schools kendall and philadelphia even though it was the
philadelphia school was oral was good education but at kendall i didn't learn anything there
so you wanted to go to a school you wanted to get a good education your mother absolutely wanted that for you so she
filed a lawsuit do you remember anything about that i don't i was young
at that time right you were pretty young so you commuted to philadelphia to attend that school
and then later on you moved back to washington d.c and then went to the kindle school so how
did that feel so i went to kendall school after philadelphia and i was just so so shocked i just
sat there and didn't learn much that was 1952 to 1954 sometime there but again didn't learn much
most of the time we were just playing around so did you miss the school there in philadelphia
yeah my mother paid tuition i think three thousand dollars for school wow that was quite expensive
at that time so kendall was a segregated school in the past do you remember that
i do 1952 i remember at the time being a commuting student going back and forth to school
how did it feel to have to commute to school i would commute on a cab and i
did that for about a year so you wrote a cab how was that it felt weird it felt very odd
the cab would drop off my different friends at their houses how old were at that time i was 11.
ah 11 years old wow and then uh from 11 to 12. then you moved
hmm so did you know anything about the fact that it was segregated there were
black areas and white areas i don't know anything about that
i think it was when i was around 18 i started to notice but before that i never really realized it
so when you begin to notice what is it that caught your attention well i wasn't learning much just playing around
that was it right but then you said when you
became 18 or 19 that's when you started to realize that there was segregation between
black people and white people and apparently today do you still see that segregation happening
not as much before there was segregation but now there's been integration uh so
you see that integration now yeah it started mixing students in 1954.
so in 1954 there was more segregation than there is now
in 1954 uh there was decent well that's when it was integration i remember outside it would be
cold we would try to learn a lot when the children and the different school white school they learned
a lot but at kendall we didn't learn much but after 1954 things got better for education
so do you think it got better that people have a better life that black people have a better
life because of the black lives movement or you think it's the same that it really hasn't improved
black lives matter movement
all right well is there anything else you'd want to share about that
well i want to share that i played you know sports back in the day i played basketball
and i was on wrestling really really were you you a champion in that how'd you do in sports
yeah i actually won a wrestling championship when i defeated someone who was much larger than me
had the right technique and i was able to grapple him down and i won nice
oh so you had a very high rank nice yeah i think the gentleman's name was
frank whitebeat might have been from canada oh so you wrestled somebody by the name of frank in one all right yeah
so did you have some thoughts you'd like to share with us gerald yes before black the black lives
matter movement i even think about martin luther king and during that time you know i had a pretty
good life after martin luther king passed you know i began to wonder and question about you know why
we had certain issues within our community you know i began to notice how white people
marginalize black people in different ways and also just you know being upset about segregation
and not having people recognize my common humanity when i was growing up my one of my best friends
was white but i still saw segregation at play and then we saw the rise of the kkk and white
supremacists and so i've come to the realization that sometimes people choose to segregate
themselves because they dislike each other i think black lives matter has helped to improve things
so you do think that the black lives matter movement has improved things
i do you know for 500 years black people have been oppressed and marginalized and it's time for
a change we have to learn to accept white people have to learn how to accept black people and what
we want and desire you know sometimes those riots need to happen because that's when people wake up
so do you think with what's happening with the black lives movement now where more white people
are becoming more aware of what's going on and they're focusing more attention on this matter do
you think that's happening i do i actually don't believe in marches like i think sometimes marches
are appropriate but to be heard you sometimes need to do something different because people will
have a march and then everyone goes back home and forgets everything the next day sometimes
people listen to riots better because properties are being damaged
i want to go back to talking about kindle school do you remember stories from your mom
and how your mom actually had to fight for your brother to have a better education
and also fought on behalf of other black deaf children there were 24 in that school do you
remember your mom talking about that at all my mom actually passed away when i was 15 so
i wasn't privy to very much when i was younger but later over time when i became an adult i realized
her tireless efforts impacted the black deaf community otherwise you know kenneth would have
gone to school in baltimore and you know we had a right to be educated and i think that's something
that my mom became a champion for um so when you think about uh what happened with your mom
and what happened in terms of her support of those other 23 students
can you comment on that i remember robert millborn came to see my mom at home to thank her and i
didn't quite know why he did that later i came to the realization that she had been such an
advocate for black deaf students to be educated in the district she bought that lawsuit won it
um you know against the dc board of education and so without her where would we be i am happy
that my mom did what she did so that we would have the opportunity to learn yes we're proud
of your mom as well you know if you had been able to meet her she was such a sweet lady
so when you think about gallaudet hosting this interview for your family as well as
setting up the kindle division 2 memorial project what comes to mind i'm very appreciative
you know we have to be cognizant of the events that have occurred in the past
when i think of president elstad i don't really care for him he denied my brother
kenneth the opportunity to attend the school the kendall school here on campus
and so that's why kenneth had to go to philadelphia that makes no sense whatsoever
you know i remember we used to practice um at gallaudet on campus in front of the old
gym and president elstad would be outside when we left our practice just looking at us
he'd be there week after week and so i didn't that didn't really sit well with me at the time
i'm very happy that we see shifts happening in our community to make things better
are there any concluding thoughts you'd like to share with us
you know i would love to see a black deaf person as president of gallaudet someday
bobby is great but i would love to have a black deaf president as we think about mbda
and also i really would appreciate having elstad auditorium renamed i don't think it should honor
president elstad because he was not a supporter of black deaf students being educated
here on campus so we know that there have been inequalities that have been perpetuated and we need to work for
equality in your opinion do you think things have
improved for the better gallaudet or not i think they have improved for the better
well thank you i want to thank you so much for being with us i really appreciated talking
with you so you experienced segregated schools didn't you yes do you remember when your brother
uh went to the segregated school what do you remember from that time and what he went through
well i was little so i really didn't understand what was going on for him in school you know so
i really had no idea about segregation i found out as time went on can you give me an example
i found out the discrimination that my brother went through because it was segregated he had
to go all the way to philadelphia instead of coming here to kindle the philadelphia school
was mixed there were black kids jewish kids white kids but here it can do it was segregated
and so it was a process to get it integrated so you remember him commuting to philadelphia and
then moving back how did that make you feel justin well it was different it was different i remember
coming home for christmas and thanksgiving and win school clothes like for the summer
you grew up in washington dc i'm sure you saw a lot in terms of the civil rights movement race
riots tell me a little bit about that place yes i grew up in a black neighborhood and i didn't
see white people very often i remember sometimes going into a store and seeing a white person and
they would be watching me as i was shopping i was thinking why are they looking at me
but my father was an officer so it really didn't bother me i didn't let it bother me
so when martin luther king was killed i was actually out in
the streets that day and there were riots and upheaval all over um and
my wife had just uh gave birth to one of our children and i remember my sister saying you need
to get home you need to get home and i said i walk home and she said it needs you need to be safe and
so i started walking home and as i got close to my home a police car pulled up and asked me what i
was doing i said i'm going home and they motioned for me to get in the car so i did i got in the car
and i was about 18 years old at that time and they said now go in the house you know and they
wouldn't leave until i went into the house they wanted to make sure i was going to go into the
house so what that experience taught me was that segregation in the past it was very hard for us
to deal with as a people and when martin luther king was killed and there was rioting and all that
upheaval you know if anything like that were ever to happen again i'm going to make sure i stay in
the house so you were living in a predominantly black neighborhood now has that neighborhood
changed um well now there are a lot of restaurants and bars and uh condos and other buildings in the
neighborhood but in the past it was really bad there was a lot of shooting in that area
and because i couldn't hear my sister could hear shooting in the neighborhood and could hear
gunshots um not exactly
you know to be truthful what i did see though was not good and so you have seen more
white individuals move into the area how do you think that has helped to reduce crime or make
the neighborhood more safe it hasn't i mean white people are moving in but there's still
a lot of break-ins there's a lot of property damage there's a lot of theft there's a lot of
armed robbery in the area and so there are a few officers there who see who the problem people are
you know and you can see people have bars on their window and
for the ones who don't they're easy targets you know so it hasn't really improved mm-hmm
so i'm been asking you about the kindle school
and your upbringing as you look back and reflect on those memories about your experiences at the kindle school would you mind sharing a little
bit more with me um i went to kindle school um you know i wanted to have an education
and i went back i was seen as a troublemaker when i went back
and my mother really fought for me to stay there for my last year of school
um so i did have some problems while i was there um what do you see as the differences between then
and now well the difference is that there was no education in my time you know our opportunities
were very limited whereas now people actually get an education when they go to school and
it can help them to prepare for the future in my time what it gave me was a very limited education
so justin thank you so much for sharing your stories with me i am wondering if you can
tell me a little bit more about gallaudet recognizing your family your mom's actions
the kindle school memorial and what that means to you what are your thoughts about this entire
project well i'm very happy that my mom stood up for us and that she faced the board of education
and told them that their actions were against children and preventing them
from getting a good education and my mother fought you know she was a fighter
and i'm very proud of my mother for doing that because she stood up for what was right you know
and every time someone stands up for what is right in terms of education that's a good thing powerful
such interesting history and experiences thank you so much for sharing that truly do appreciate
what a moving and significant family yes indeed they're truly beautiful and i enjoy
the opportunity immensely i understand that carol miller is here to also have a conversation
with you uh carolyn and so at this time we would like to invite miss carol miller to join us
yes indeed and i'm happy that you saw the interview that we did with the three brothers
but now i'm so excited to interview miss carol
hello miss carol how are you hello
i would like to start with this interview by thanking you for graciously taking the
time out of your schedule and coming here to interview with us once again
the first question that i would like to ask you
is about your family can you tell me about your mother and what you remember about your mother
in terms of the lawsuit and story surrounding that was there anything that your mom shared with you
well come is three years older than i am so uh
we were not told specifically what was going on but you could pick up the
anguish and the angst around the house about kenneth's education uh how my parents were
trying to get him into school here and that was not being allowed i remember
the talk about the school in maryland and my mother taking him there and not wanting to
leave him they said if they if she left him and he started to cry that they would just
put him in a room and just let him cry and he was about five or six years old at that
time so that was not an option for my mother that's when she brought him home and she decided
that they would make other arrangements i think they started this process in 1946
that's the first letter that i have that shares an insight into what was going on so it was almost
it took about six years before kenneth was actually formally educated and that's a
loss for any student and especially one who's going to need some extra support
it was finally decided after all of the ins and outs and the letters back and forth
uh and the denial of his acceptance into kendall that they decided to send him away
to philadelphia and he was eight years old i think he told me he was eight years old at the
time so i would have been about five maybe five going on six so i remember my brother leaving
i remember the trips going back and forth to pennsylvania to see to see him in school
we were able to spend holidays together and we went to virginia during the summer and we had
all of the summer together but prior to kenneth getting into school i could see the the impact
that not being able to communicate effectively he could communicate about certain concrete things
but as for you know i don't like this i don't want to do that that makes me sad this makes me
happy those kinds of things were you you're not able to explain fully what's going on
so my grandmother who was a very strong presence in our lives believed that if he just put his mind
to it he could be able to hear and talk so she was not a fan of sign language so when he left
washington and he went to pennsylvania kenneth came back kenneth was signing
he was able to communicate with his teachers with his friends and sort of left us behind
after he went into kendall for the two years that he was there between 52 and 54 when the brown decision was decided
there was a difference in what was being taught and how the students were being taught
so and i think again that's two more years of losing
i guess a really solid foundation of education and those things do make a difference
i have letters when my mother started writing again
after the children had been admitted to kendall on a segregated basis that she was noticing that
what was presented to the white children or what was presented to the black children was different
and she said wait a minute we need to get things equalized even more so i don't know i'd have to
go back and look at information to see how that turned out but uh my mother was a homemaker for
a while until my grandmother retired and then she went to work she had gone to howard university she
finished three and a half years there and then she decided she was in love and she had to get married
and grandmother said i will send you as long as you don't get married and when she did
uh she left howard so she had three and a half years at howard university she started out as
a music major because she played the piano she signed in the choir she was an excellent swimmer
but she left howard and she eventually went to work in the federal government and daddy went
to work for the police department we lived in the same house on t street with my grandmother
that she had purchased way back in 1920 and kenneth and justin are still living there
so i've rambled on is there anything you you would like for me to share
i i'm just excited to hear more of the story i enjoy every minute that you share with us about
your mom she seems to have been a wonderful woman i wish absolutely i could have met
her in person but she is gone and no longer with us but as we think about her memories
they live on through her children and she has that legacy that continues so i really do appreciate
you sharing that miss carol i could stay here all day i could listen to you all day i love the
stories i would never tire of it i do want to ask you another question though about the house you
mentioned that you have the house and the house is on the historic ledger from my understanding
it is a landmark in washington d.c is that correct because it is historic in nature
could you talk about that um and do people so people can learn about this historic house
and you mentioned your brothers still live in the house as
yes well house is the house is still there 1204 t street uh some years ago my mother was very
interested in family and she loved taking pictures so we have a lot of pictures of
old family members but she had given me the name of some of the older family members and
i've always been interested in the history so i started to gather more information about what
what went on with kenneth and i actually called the dc historical society to find out what they
had because as far as i was concerned it was a fantastic story it was wonderful the
court case was settled in their favor it was two years before brown and when i called the
historical society they sort of gave me what who i don't know anything about louise miller or kenneth
miller we have no information so one of the things i did was to call and find out how they could be
placed on the african-american heritage trail and so after some writing and some explaining
someone says why that's fantastic and we think that the case does deserve to be recognized
so uh i guess maybe it's been 12 14 years ago that a plaque was placed in front of the house
and this is actually the house that grandma bought and kenneth and justin are still there
wow what a wonderful memory can you talk to us about um as you know the kellogg hotel on
the gallaudet campus was built there is a plaque that's located there and it stands behind the name
sign of the kellogg conference center how do you feel about the placement of the plaque currently
i was not aware that the plaque was being placed when it was done and i'm so appreciative of the
efforts that went into having it placed because without it i think that this may have just sort of
floated off into history and not have been recognized so i'm glad it's there
i often wondered about the placement of it
and whether it was thought that perhaps if the visitors came through the hotel they would see
it but it wasn't visible from the street for the people who were walking through and i have my
cousin has a friend who said she was there and she had no idea that the plaque was there so i think
a change and more recognition is probably the time has come but i'm glad that it was there
and for those who work to have it placed i want to tell them how much i appreciate it
thank you so that leads me to my next question
and this question is about the kindle school memorial project
that is currently a work in progress how do you feel about this new memorial project and do you
believe that it's an opportunity for us to share awareness with people about the memorial school
i think it's an excellent opportunity i have enjoyed working with everyone
who has put forth such a great effort and to thank all of them to thank you and yvonne um
i think it's a great opportunity for something to be done that allows people to come to grips with
what has gone on i know there are a lot of people who say oh it's in the past you should just get
over it but sometimes there are pains and there are experiences that stay with you
and they stay with you forever and even sometimes when you can sort of tuck them away there are
times when they come forth and they do bring uh you know you put your head down and you shake
your head and sometimes the tears will come because you understand what went on and not
only with my brother with with all of the children who had to be taken away from their homes and sent
away and were not receiving that one-on-one love and support that they needed they had an extra
challenge to deal with and then the challenge of being alone to me is just unimaginable
when i went to kindle when we were walking with dr cordano and we were with kenneth
and he looked at the kindle school and the old building that i had not seen before because it was
in a part of campus that i did not have access to and he said i was sitting on the front
waiting for my mother to come out because she was in a meeting to find out whether or not they would
allow me to come to the school and it's just that's something that touches you to the point
you can't get over that and so many children have gone through that and here what he had not
been introduced to the information though there's you're different there's something wrong with you
you can't go to school with other people and he's standing there trying to figure out well why
so i think i think the memorial will give us an opportunity
and i understand the design will allow us to enter it and sort of walk through and come
to grips with what has gone on by the time we get to the end and maybe there's a space there that
will give us a place where we can think and heal and say the time has come for us to move forward
i agree with you wholeheartedly it's definitely time this memorial project
it really is a way for us to start healing and gallaudet owes that to your family
and i definitely can't wait for it to be built
i'm excited about it i'm looking forward to it and again i want to thank you so much for
sharing your stories and your experiences with us thank you miss carol thank you truly amazing
you know when you're when we were watching the interviews with the individual family members
and also um the live interviews with carol miller that you just did it was so very powerful
carolyn so i'm wondering if you could perhaps share with us uh some of your experiences what
was it like for you uh to conduct those interviews with the miller family members
sure liz i i would be happy to share indescribable awesome i kept sort of pinching myself and saying
is this really happening am i really interviewing the miller family
during the time it was even happening it was like a dream come true for me absolutely surreal and
definitely a historic moment in our time and i am so happy that gallaudet is supporting this effort
and on that particular day november 19 2020 we were welcomed we welcomed the miller family to
the gallaudet campus we put out the red carpet and we served this family to the best of our ability
so it was quite a formal event we had a car formal car service uh bring them to the campus
we also provided breakfast and lunch for them on that day
and we just wanted to make them feel at home as we conducted the interviews and did the filming
and it was just an amazing experience i remember walking over to the hotel and
taking a picture of each family member standing next to the memorial plaque that now stands
and as i think back to that the one word that comes to mind is
awesome i mean i was so pleased and we enjoyed watching the filming we enjoyed interviewing
them and learning much more about the family and this is history that needs to be documented
indeed it does can you tell us um what you want us to be aware of
as one of the four themes um which we know we're now currently focused on awareness
tell us a little bit more what should we be aware of sure when we think about awareness
we need to think about the fact that the miller family had this experience
and part of the kindle division memorial is divided into four phases awareness is the first
of those phases freedom remembrance and healing are the rest of those
and we'll be advertising those later on but we're beginning this webinar by focusing on awareness
and basically we want people to know about the lawsuit we want them to know about what happened
during this period in history and the fact that you can't erase this history we know when we
think about you know general american history you know we learn specific things in school
we learn you know things about black history maybe general things but we don't learn about black deaf
history that's what's missing and we really need those stories of the black deaf history to be told
that black deaf experience such as what happened with the miller family
and this lawsuit is important and it's important that many people know about this
this was a landmark lawsuit that happened before the brown versus the board of education
lawsuit and it's something that needs to be shared with the world
it's that critically important i agree with you that awareness is the first phase of this process
and it will also give black deaf people an opportunity to share their narratives definitely
you know we may find that many of their stories are painful because of the history that's there
throughout the years and so we have to think how those stories or narratives have been neglected
they have been buried in history and it is past time to create a space where we can increase
our awareness of their narratives we need to get those narratives out to the wider public
i completely agree with you carolyn go ahead and yes i just would like to mention
as miss carol explained when she was talking about the plaque on the back of the name for the kellogg
center many people overlook it they don't see it at all it's easy to miss and that's not acceptable
it's not right we have to do better we have to memorialize the history we have to show
that we value our history it needs to become more visible i concur now my next question for you is
what is so unique about this event can you talk to us a little bit about
black owned businesses that you actually use for your event when you hosted the millers on campus
yes what was unique about the event
well when we got together with the miller family um that in itself was a unique experience being with the family uh as
i mentioned we served both breakfast and lunch that day awesome and it was catered by a black
deaf chef even better it was amazingly delicious i can't even explain it to you and we were so proud
to have a black deaf chef there to prepare the food for us to prepare this meal his name is jamar
higgins and i just have to brag a little bit on him we also had a black deaf photographer who was
present billy butler he was a photographer um so we could see things from his point of view he's
obviously skilled with capturing the emotion of the subjects it's just an amazing amazing day
so hopefully in the future we will have more black deaf owned businesses uh involved in
terms of the communication and marketing in connection with that project so looking forward
to it this is all so amazing i hope that we continue to use our black owned businesses
for future projects oh most definitely for the second third and fourth phase of this project
most definitely we will anything else you'd like to share with us about the november 19th event
i think what i would like to share
is some of the
points in time during that video for example when we were talking with kenneth
and kenneth talked about the kindle building
he talked about walking on campus and as we walked on campus i could see kenneth looking
at the kindle building and i could see he was going back into his memory bank just by his look
and at that moment i just took the deepest breath it was like i wanted to freeze that moment in time
can you imagine being a seven-year-old boy and told no you can't come to the school so that
moment when he glanced at the building is just stuck in my memory it was a heart rendering moment
and then we had president bobby cordano with us and he looked at her
and he said i remember and he began to explain his heartache and she apologized
to him for the pain that he'd experienced for what his family went through for the injustice
uh for that entire experience and to be there at that moment for me i i will remember that
forever it's etched into my memory forever so this family is so gracious in helping us heal it
was a healing moment for them it was a healing moment for us so it really went full circle
and we owe them this we owe them this time to heal so i was absolutely floored by those moments how
remarkable and what a powerful moment i'm so pleased that the family had an opportunity to
gather and to get to this place of healing through this process it's very significant thank you
carolyn for sharing this very powerful experience that you had in working with the family i now will
turn it back over to yvonne black yvonne will now explain some of the history and the work
that has gone into the kindle school division ii memorial yvonne is our project lead and has
been doing a tremendous job investing her time to make sure that this project succeeds yvonne
greetings everyone all the people who are able to make themselves available to watch
today especially our younger people over at kindle
and to everyone else at schools for the deaf across the country who are our future
first and foremost i wanted to make sure that we show you the november 19th family
photos from when the family arrived i know that you're all eager to see them so take a moment
the deaf photographer billy butler was able to take some of these photographs it's actually
not this uh not what's being shown right now but what took place on november 19th with the family
no shara it it was a time with the family that's what we're looking to display here
so we're trying to find the november 19th photographs when the miller family arrived on campus
okay it should show after this
we noticed that there was an annex building and that was to be replaced with the conference center
the annex building was not impressive by any means
the other side of gallaudet campus had you know appropriate standard buildings you would expect
to see in an educational community but the nx at that time was not up to that quality
at the time when they were preparing to demolish the building
there were people who started to talk about it and there were members of the gallaudet community that were shocked to find out
that that building had actually been built to instruct black death students during segregation
that's something that was constantly swept under the rug and not talked about
excellent so in the photographs we were able to see
different members of the family i wanted to take a moment to explain
the work that we've been doing up to this point as well as the status and where we currently are
nearly three years ago president bobby cordano attended the
national black deaf advocates conference and that took place in baltimore
at that point it was the black deaf archives that caught our interest and in doing so the
question was asked what's going on with the plaque that's been there for such a long time on campus
but the noise for that plaque to be changed actually started before then
it was the black lives matter movement that had six students which risa shaw was a professor for
who started complaining and really making noise about the plaque
and it was important to make sure that the history behind that area was more widely known
so the mass design group called for different community stakeholders to share their voice and
input on the kendall memorial there was input from the black deaf community the gallaudet community
we were able to get a pulse on what the community felt was significant
in this area and being the memorial and that eventually led to having a stakeholder group
and the stakeholder group worked very diligently
and you can actually see what the memorial site looks like right outside of the conference center
it looks like a very barren area almost like a cow path
what we want to do is to really beautify that area and show the symbolism that it has
so you'll see different photographs that have been taken of stakeholders and these are the people
who have been doing this work all along to honor the miller family now this group of stakeholders
exists but that's not all in fact all of you as members of the community are also our stakeholders
you have a voice and now i'll allow carolyn to well i'll allow carolyn afterwards to
share more about that but the point is that it doesn't need to be limited to feedback from
gallaudet it could be young people it could be members of the black community brown community
we want everyone to have a part in this process it's truly my pleasure to see this project grow
and to become such a primary and most important project
we really want to capture the essence and there's things that need to be acknowledged
thank you for your patience as we share bits and pieces of information
thank you to university communications the admissions office for releasing me to do this work
thank you to the executive directors who have provided their support
and to everyone on campus who invested even those of you who are watching right now
you are a part of this legacy and you helped it become what it is i certainly
don't want to overlook the donors who have given significant contributions
from various sources in order to make the memorial what it is that we know now
i would like to thank all of you in advance for your future donations and contributions
that may begin today and going forward would like to share a little bit of information
we will have a community engagement process that involves three different sessions
we want to make sure that you're able to attend
carolyn and liz will be able to share some of the details that come along with
the naming process we want to be sure that your your voice and your input is considered
lastly we'd like to share some exciting news the project manager the person who is responsible
to manage the entire project and see it to its success as far as the kendall memorial project
we've already have a position that we've advertised
so please take a look at the information in the chat we've shared a link where you can apply today
if you are interested you can certainly explore more and if you know someone else who might be
interested feel free to share thank you and again especially to the miller family to liz
miller for fighting the good fight and for all of you for believing in this project once again
thank you it's been a long time coming and change gone come i look forward to all of you
reaching out and sharing the black deaf experience thank you bye-bye well thank you yvonne black
really we owe you a standing ovation so here i am giving you your standing ovation my dear
um as we think about the work that has taken place over the last three years and making
this happen our hats are off to you the work's not gonna yeah still more to come
absolutely i love you we'll also have to put in some work and i'm happy that
you are still a part of the steering committee because you are a um such has such great value
to contribute to the committee i definitely agree your work has been absolutely amazing
thank you very much this show is yours bye-bye at this time we would like to
introduce our steering committee to you and so if we can get the powerpoint slide to come up there
i think you all can see the powerpoint slide we have dr carolyn mccaskill and myself
we are the co-chairs of the kendall school division ii steering committee
yet please do stay on that slide for now i want to go through and introduce our members to you
you probably see some faces that you recognize we have yvonne black she is our project lead
we also have christopher hoffman
he is our campus design and planning um and if you could please do go back to
that slide thank you so much we have delricia mourns she is our graduate student assistant
we have nick gould the executive director of institutional advancement
and lastly we have brandy raris who is the chief marketing and undergraduate admissions officer
next we have our stakeholders so if we can please get that powerpoint slide
if we can please show the powerpoint of the stakeholders
we have boomi ina who is the edi representative we have allison
polk who is our representative from the development office
we have jc smith our black student union representative
kailyn arlen lozano our graduate student assistant we have howard rosenblum
the ceo of the national association of the deaf carol miller who is a member of the miller family
franklin jones he's the black gentleman that you see pictured
in the upper left hand corner with a long blue shirt we have tai
gordano representing the claire center
we have la mark williamson he is a staff the staff of color representative and if we look to our last
line of photos we have mr bernie palmer he is the former project lead and a gallaudet alum
derek beam joseph who is also representing the development office on this project
if you look to the middle row we have a right hand upper corner we have jessica fine
and then from the campus the off from the camp office of campus design and planning
uh the final row um lower left hand corner we have mr dorian fletcher
representing dc abd our dc black death advocates chapter
next to dorian we have taise wright representing the claire center
allison polk from the development office
we also have andrew waneski
and he is representing our student body government he is this spg president bottom row middle photo african american woman in braids zelie meadows
representing our black deaf alumni and mbda i already introduced to you mr lim mark williamson
who is from the undergraduate admissions office and the development office
the final picture that you see bottom right hand corner
african-american gentleman in glasses is mr gerald miller who you have already met via his interview
at this time we want to review with you our process for renaming the miller memorial
this is actually a new the new memorial it's very exciting it's an opportunity for us to actually recognize the black deaf experience
we have actually gotten feedback from the black deaf community and various
stakeholders that the kindle school division ii memorial that name itself is inappropriate
the name kendall actually comes from amos kendall who was an individual who gave us
the land for gallaudet university to build the school and the university of course amos kendall
was a white slave owner the division ii school was also a school that was named following the conventions of segregation
and so with that understanding we want to make sure that black deaf people
are recognized for their tireless efforts in fighting for integration and equality we need to
celebrate the black deaf experience and the current name fails to do that so we the members
of the steering committee have decided to invite our stakeholders that i just mentioned to you all
and the black deaf community to come together so that we can jointly identify potential names
for the new memorial
this memorial is for the black deaf community
and we have to begin with the name of the memorial
we want to be sensitive we want to have shared leadership and shared acceptance
because this is going to be a very unique marker for our community given that we will
convene the stakeholders the black deaf community and the steering committee to work
together to come up with a list of potential names we will then hand over the slate of names to the
board of trustees for their review and approval we will then take that slate of names and allow
the public to help us finalize the name that will be chosen in order to rename the current memorial
carolyn what do you think of this process
i think it's uh wonderful for us to involve all pieces of the community so that everyone has a sense of ownership the stakeholder group is diverse and i think it's about time that we have these people together
because as was explained we still have pain points as we look back on our various memories that
and things that have occurred in time so we don't want to continue to look back in a negative way
and to have negative memories of the past in terms of kindle and slavery and him being a slave owner
with this kindle division to school being a segregated school and those negative memories
we decided would be better to come up with a different name we want to involve the community
in that effort and decide what is going to be the most appropriate name the name that
really fits historically with what has happened so i'm definitely excited and looking forward to
having the community involved in that process so that we can feel that it's a part of our history
absolutely i am very much looking forward to the naming process that we will
begin upon thank you so much carolyn for sharing your thoughts
at this time would you like to introduce the two students who have been involved in this project
yes yes would be my pleasure i would like to introduce the two students who took a course with
me this past fall semester at gallaudet university i teach a course called the dynamics of oppression
and i have a group of students who are involved in that class i'm going to call summer seeger
and natalie marcelo and these two students will share the work that
they did the research they did for the class hi natalie
how are you two doing doing good good well thank you so much for agreeing to be a part of the kindle school memorial project webinar
and i would like for the two of you to perhaps share your team research and to explain what
the topics were the topics that you chose in brief please and uh doesn't matter to me who goes first
sure hi my name is natalie marcello and my partner wendy and i um
researched the mother of kenneth miller louise miller as well as other parents
who filed the lawsuit for deaf children's rights to get education at kindle school
while we were doing our research for a paper we learned so much about the miller family
and we learned about the lawsuit and all that was going on during the civil rights era
kindle school was once integrated
but it was definitely a challenge
and miss miller wanted to send her child to kindle school but she was denied access because
he was a black student so he started going to the pennsylvania school for the deaf and then later on
i went to the maryland school for the deaf because it was closer nearby but there were
parents like miss miller who got together and filed a complaint with the dc board of education
and they won that lawsuit and so that started was a a point in history that we can't deny it
allowed them access to kindle school however it was a school that was segregated at that time
so during the time of segregation there were students who came there
to and it was built near the old gym building on campus but it was very small brick building
with not enough space for all of the desk in fact all the materials that they had were old
and about a year later they did some upgrades on the building
and that building was dimash for the construction of the kellogg hotel
so it wasn't until 1954 with the brown versus board of education when that lawsuit was won
that integration of schools became a reality so their persistence in continuing to work
on this effort and to continue to focus on the provision of education for black deaf children
was so important it was a moment in history for black deaf students and a moment of civil rights
importance in the history of black deaf people so as we focus on black deaf children and the parents
who were involved in that situation they were the ones who empowered the deaf community so we
want to recognize the hard work of the parents as well as that of the miller family so that was the
information that i chose to focus on in terms of black deaf history i know that we need to make a
record of all of it you know whether we're talking about events that happen on campus or off campus
it's an important part of black deaf history and their legacy will continue through this project
thank you so much natalie
now uh summer the floor is yours hello everyone i'm summer and my research project um there were
another group of students for dr mccaskill's class and we focused our research project on
the miller memorial we particularly made our focus the other 23 students that attended the school
those students also need to be memorialized because their experience is so very important
to capture as well we want to make sure that that experience doesn't disappear and it's
just important to recognize every individual's contribution and to celebrate those contributions
through this project we were curious to know about their lives what happened to them so that we can
actually benefit future generations of the deaf community i hope that those stories will inspire
greater change and so in researching their experiences we were curious about
their experiences even from 1905 all the way up till 1952 so we wanted to learn more about why did
the situation transpire as it did what influenced change to happen and so for research purposes we
wanted to look at those 23 students we divided them into three categories actually um we had
a group of students so we were able to divide the 23 students up and we each focused on a different
group of students we wanted to research their individual histories with the goal of capturing
their stories through internet research we also want you know we could use google
we use the gallaudet library and also the gallaudet archives
during our research we found minimal information on some of these individuals we actually couldn't
find a lot of information about them and so we decided that we wanted to be able to interview
some of the members of the miller family so that we could actually get more information and then
that would lead us to verify the information that we had captured on the other 23 students so the
miller family they said of those 23 students five of the students are still living and so through
our research we're hoping that we will be able to continue to perhaps set up some interviews with
those five remaining members of their class while they're still alive and so hopefully if we can
conduct those interviews we'll be able to find out more even about the lives of the students who
have passed away um because it's important for us to capture their story as well so this is an
ongoing project for us that we're very excited about well thank you thank you so much summer
i really appreciate the two of you taking my class and the research that you did
and the research that you will continue to do thank you yes thank you for giving us the
opportunity dr moore speaking uh natalie and summer thank you so very much for sharing your
research with us i look forward to learning more about your resource results thank you everyone
all right we're back you know i did want to say um i'm really sorry with the technical issues that
we've faced today hopefully we'll get everything all worked out and be ready for our next uh series
in the webinar series um as i mentioned earlier it's a series of four we are now
focused on awareness our next webinar will be focused on freedom and then we have two other
webinars coming to the future remembrance and healing so we'll do better we'll get better as
time goes by in terms of the technological issues so thank you so much for your patience all right
now we will be opening it up for q a indeed
let me ask yvonne black to join us at this time as well hello for a period of questions and answers
yes so we're open to the audience to ask questions carolyn i saw that there were a couple of questions that people
really were just dying to know um and one of them was where can they get the shirt for the
center of black deaf studies and people are also asking if you can share a link
where contributions can be made to so if we can have those two in the chat
there was another question
what happened to the people other people's lives and you know how can we make sure that we don't miss anything
or is there a website that we can find more information at i believe the center for black deaf
studies is available online but i just wanted to share some of the questions people had in the chat
as far as the t-shirts i'm happy that you love them i absolutely love that the member of the
families the miller family put them on i wear them as well however today we are wearing purple uh in
honor of miss louise miller because that was one of her favorite colors and i love purple as well
now getting back to the topic of the t-shirts we will post that information soon there are
several other people who've asked me about them and are interested in purchasing the t-shirts
so we'll post that information shortly
as to how you can purchase them uh we haven't set up a process yet uh but we
are currently working with um the business office to make sure that we work that out so
soon soon we'll advertise it soon okay and what was the other question
so there was information that's been shared in the chat
as far as where people can find details on the memorial and another question was how many students showed up when the division 2 school was opened do we
know there were 23 students at the kindle division ii school and some of them are still alive today
uh i believe that kenneth mentioned there are four or five students who are still alive and i would
really love to interview them and love to get a chance to meet them and to hear their stories
i think that they are definitely an important part of the history of this occasion as well
right now we don't have all of those names um but kenneth uh did mention hmm i think robert
robert moore oh somebody who recently passed away um so there are there are
four or five students who are still um alive at this time uh robert milburn was
that student so anyway the goal is that we have the students who are doing the research
do more research about those who are still surviving
and also find other information there are gaps in what we know but we're definitely curious to
find out more about their background where they worked what their family life was like
so that's a part of our plan that we will continue to do research on all 23 of the
students so the two students who are in my course who just presented as i mentioned they've already
started working on that project of doing research to find out more information about the 23 students
and tagging along with carolyn's remarks we do have the names of people who are still living
one of them lives in florida and another person lives in virginia
we're doing our best to collect that information we know that one of the students is currently in
a nursing home so as a part of the project lead responsibilities i'll make sure to collect their
information because we do want to make sure that we're able to collect as much information
as we can and we'll be sure to share with the community members as part of our next steps
okay so i think there's no more questions in the chat but if anything comes up feel free to
look at the information that's posted and again for some of you who missed some of what we shared
we'll have this available on facebook as well as youtube for your reference
now i'll take a look at the q a
okay someone asked why purple the reason we wore purple is because louise miller loved the color
purple in the second of our series we'll have more information to share with the community great idea
who knows maybe we'll sing purple rain we'll see
i also want to especially recognize those that have contributed for quite some time
especially the class of 1992 and their donations being the first class to donate to this project
thank you so much to the class of 1992. and to all the other classes make sure you follow suit
this year is this month is kindness month okay
also for the photographs that were taken on november 19th we'll also post those so people
can see what the facial expressions were when the family arrived on campus and as they went
through about as they went about their day on november 19th we'll share those photographs
there are people that are hoping that we can broadcast
this nationwide through pbs and i'm glad to say indeed that is the plan
the center for black deaf research is really
focusing on this and trying to put on the forefront this is so significant because it
took place before brown versus board of education and should be an exhibit in the african-american
history of african-american museum of african-american history and culture
more information forthcoming and i think that completes my responses to these questions
have we answered all of the questions in the q a are we ready for the wrap up
i do want to thank everyone who was involved today with this project
and thank the audience for being here at the webinar you were fabulous thank you
and i would say keep an eye out for future webinars
and please do visit galleyshare.com center for black deaf studies
for further information indeed thank you once again
and before we close the teacher in me
has to acknowledge these four different levels and for today the first level was awareness awareness
the second will be freedom
the third will be remembrance remembrance and the fourth healing healing keep that in mind
thank you thank you all so much thank you for watching

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