Black Deaf History – Southern School for the Deaf

The Southern School for the Deaf, or SSD as it is known to its Black Deaf alumni, was the last segregated Deaf school in America to close in 1978. We visited the campus with four SSD graduates as they remember their time at school.

How To Sign In BASL (Black American Sign Language) | Strong Black Lead

After her video went viral on TikTok, we asked Charmay [aka Nakia Smith] to explain BASL (Black American Sign Language) to us, and tell us how it's different from ASL (American Sign Language).

NTID Professor Dr. Joseph Hill on intersectionality and Black ASL

Dr. Joseph Hill gave a presentation to the University of Michigan titled “Black, Deaf, and Disabled: Navigating the Institutional, Ideological, and Linguistic Barriers with Intersectional Identities in the United States.” Here is an onsite interview and some clips from his presentation.

Signing Black in America 

Just like spoken languages, sign languages have dialects. Black ASL is the unique dialect of American Sign Language (ASL) that developed within historically segregated African American Deaf communities. Largely unknown to outsiders, Black ASL has become a symbol of solidarity and a vital part of identity within the Black Deaf community.

This is the first documentary about Black ASL: the unique dialect of American Sign Language (ASL) that developed within historically segregated African American Deaf communities. Black ASL today conveys an identity and sense of belonging that mirrors spoken language varieties of the African American hearing community. The program highlights the different uses of space, hand use, directional movement, and facial expression, which are ways that Black ASL distinguishes itself as a vibrant dialect of American Sign Language. The African American Deaf community is now embracing their unique variety as a symbol of solidarity and a vital part of their identity