Gallaudet University Launches $23 Million "Necessity of Now" Campaign to Honor the Legacy of Louise Miller, an Unsung Hero of Educational and Racial Justice in America, and Advance Student Scholarships, Programs and Research at the World's First Center for Black Deaf Studies

Sorenson Communications Among Committed Donors Helping to Ensure a Future Path of Greater Equity and Inclusion for the Black Deaf Community

WASHINGTON, Nov. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Gallaudet University is pleased to announce the official launch of the public phase of a $23 million fundraising campaign, the "Necessity of Now" (NOW), to honor the legacy of Louise Miller, an unsung hero of educational and racial justice in America. The campaign also will support the university's Center for Black Deaf Studies, the first of its kind in the world to preserve and advance Black Deaf history and culture, including Black American Sign Language.

Gallaudet University is the leading university in the world for deaf, hard of hearing and deafblind students.

NOW's primary objectives are to share and honor the many untold stories and contributions within the Black Deaf community and ensure a future path of greater equity and inclusion for Black Deaf children and students. With several silent phase commitments, including from Sorenson Communications—the world's leading communications servicer for deaf and hard of hearing people—and several major donors, Gallaudet University has raised nearly $8 million to date.

The funds raised will support the establishment of an inclusive and equitable outdoor learning space on the university's campus, The Louise B. Miller Pathways and Gardens: A Legacy to Black Deaf Children, and advance student scholarships, research and programming at the University's Center for Black Deaf Studies at Gallaudet University. The goal of the campaign is to raise $23 million with $13 million to be allocated for the Pathways and Gardens and $10 million to be allocated to the Center for Black Deaf Studies.

"Today is an important step forward not only in Gallaudet University history, but American history," said Dr. Jeremy Brunson and Evon Black, co-chairs of the NOW steering committee. "Today we honor the universal power of a mother's love and advocacy for her children. We honor Mrs. Miller and her rightful place in American civil rights history. With NOW we share how each of us, through Louise's same fearlessness and courage, can bring justice to injustice and change the course of history for good."

Necessity of Now is part of Gallaudet University's ongoing commitment to inclusive excellence, equity, and belonging, including the acknowledgment of its role in past injustices. It began in 2016 as a Gallaudet student-inspired movement, with student leaders calling on the university to begin examining its fraught racial legacy with the Black Deaf community.

"Today, nearly 160 years after Gallaudet's founding, our university has taken another important step in its ongoing commitment to belonging and inclusive excellence," said Gallaudet University President Roberta J. Cordano. "We express our great appreciation to the Gallaudet students and community members who inspired Necessity of Now and our deep gratitude to our alumni and many donors, including Sorenson who have committed to bring the students' vision to life and help our university ensure a future path of greater equity and inclusion for the Black Deaf community."

The Louise B. Miller Pathways and Gardens: A Legacy to Black Deaf Children 

The Louise B. Miller Pathways and Gardens: A Legacy to Black Deaf Children, a tribute to Mrs. Miller's trailblazing fight during the 1950s for educational and racial justice, will serve as a gathering place to explore the historically overlooked story of Mrs. Miller and others who followed her path. It will serve as a space for deep reflection, discussion and reckoning around the path forward to address truth, reconciliation, and racial equity. It will form a serene, reflective, and sensory-rich environment to honor the enduring impact of Mrs. Miller, Kendall School Division II and the challenges and triumphs experienced by Black Deaf people. Kendall School Division II was a segregated private elementary school for Black Deaf students that operated on Gallaudet's campus from 1952 to 1954.

A visually compelling and equitable Deaf-centric space, the Pathways and Gardens will connect with Washington D.C.'s African American Heritage Trail and serve as a companion experience to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

The Pathways and Gardens will have three reflective rooms, a large outdoor classroom inclusive of deaf and signing people, a small gathering space, and the integration of four themes:

• Awareness of Black Deaf people and their lived experiences;
• Freedom that Mrs. Miller's advocacy brought to Black Deaf students, including those from Kendall School Division II;
• Remembrance of the courtroom struggle for justice in learning and giving Black Deaf people a "voice";
• Healing for the collective mending of past injustices

"Our mother fought boldly and tirelessly not only for us but ultimately for a better future for all Black Deaf children," said Gerald and Carol Miller, two of Mrs. Miller's four children. "Her love, courage, and unwavering dedication changed the course of history. We are immensely proud to see this memorial in her honor become a reality and even prouder to see her important and significant role in American civil rights finally get its due."

The Center for Black Deaf Studies

Necessity of Now funds also will support the Center for Black Deaf Studies at Gallaudet University. Founded in 2020 under the leadership of renowned scholar Dr. Carolyn McCaskill, the Center is the first of its kind in the world dedicated to the preservation and advancement of Black Deaf culture and history. Funds raised from NOW will support scholarships, research and programming for the Center, an outreach center for teaching and learning about the Black Deaf experience.

"The Necessity of Now campaign is an important step forward not only for our Black Deaf community but for the world to see the power of restorative justice," said Evon Black and Linsday Dunn, Co-Directors of the Gallaudet University Center for Black Deaf Studies.  "Funds raised from this campaign will benefit the ongoing work of the Center to ensure Black Deaf history and culture are not only preserved but honored, celebrated, and shared. NOW will appropriately honor the legacies of Mrs. Miller, her family, the families who joined in the Miller v. District of Columbia lawsuit, and the Black Deaf Children who were harmed by the decision to deny them access to an education."

Louise Miller's Story

In the 1950s, Mrs. Miller, a Washington, D.C. resident and the mother of four children, including three deaf sons, applied for her eldest son Kenneth's admission to the nearby Kendall School for the Deaf, a private elementary school on Gallaudet's campus. Her application was denied because Kenneth was Black. Her children, and other Black Deaf children living in the District of Columbia, were forced to go to educational facilities outside of the District of Columbia

In 1952, Mrs. Miller led a group of Black parents in filing a lawsuit against the District of Columbia Board of Education, on behalf of Kenneth and other Black Deaf children denied admission to Kendall School. Mrs. Miller won the case in what would become a watershed moment not only in Black Deaf history but also the American civil rights movement. Her case, which established that Black students could not be sent outside a state or district to obtain the same education that white students were provided, is thought by some legal scholars to be an important precursor to Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka just two years later. In that landmark decision in 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation of children in public schools was unconstitutional.

Following Mrs. Miller's successful lawsuit, 24 Black Deaf students – the first group of Kendall students in 1952 – were segregated in their own inferior school, the Kendall School Division II for Negroes, an "annex" to the main Kendall School. In 2023, more than 70 years later, Gallaudet University publicly apologized to the "Kendall 24" and honored them along with their four Black teachers and family members with a graduation ceremony where each student was awarded their high school diploma.

For more information please visit Necessity of Now, the Center for Black Deaf Studies, and Gallaudet University.

Media Contacts:

Robert Weinstock 
Gallaudet University 
202-250-2411
301-642-0338 text
[email protected] 

Ashleigh Guerra 
The Durkin Agency
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SOURCE Gallaudet University