King Jordan selected as President of Gallaudet University. ) A Commitment to Change: Successful Protest Endingįinally, on March 13th, all four demands were met with the selection of Phil Bravin, a deaf board member, as the new board chairperson, and I. March 1988, Gallaudet University, retrieved from The Purloined Letter. Participants displaying a "We Still Have a Dream" banner at Deaf President Now protest. On March 10, Elisabeth Zinser resigned! On March 11, more than 2,500 protestors marched on Capitol Hill with banners announcing, “We still have a dream!” They were determined to see all 4 demands honored. Together we've overcome our own reluctance to stand up for our own rights. “ The world has watched the deaf community come of age. King Jordan gave a speech, announcing the need for the whole world to pay attention, and supporting the student demands. The seven-day protest generated international media coverage, and brought attention to the oppression and discrimination deaf people experienced on a daily basis. No reprisals against any student or employee involved in the protest.A 51% majority of deaf people on the board.The Board Chairperson, Jane Bassett Spillman’s resignation.Elisabeth Zinser’s resignation and a deaf person’s selection as president.Protestors barricaded the campus gates, hot-wired school buses to use them as barriers to gates, led two notable marches to the U.S. Students, alumni, staff and faculty members congregated to undertake what is one of the most famous civil rights movements today: the Deaf President Now protest.įour student leaders, Bridgetta Bourne, Jerry Covell, Greg Hlibok and Tim Rarus, became the faces of the protest. Barnartt - Deaf president now! : the 1988 revolution at Gallaudet University, p. Photo of a participant at the Deaf President Now Protest in March 1988 wearing a poster of demands. In 1988, the predominantly hearing board of trustees announced its selection of Elisabeth Zinser (the only hearing candidate), and the campus community was outraged. King Jordan, who had become deaf at age 21 due to a motorcycle accident, also graduated from Gallaudet University, and was Gallaudet's Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Harvey Corson, a man born deaf who had graduated from Gallaudet University and was Superintendent of the Louisiana School of the Deaf.Elisabeth Zinser, a hearing woman with no previous experience with the deaf community, who was Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
Lee announced his resignation as President of Gallaudet University, so the search for a new president began. However, since its inception in 1864, for over 123 years, every university president had been a hearing person. It continues to be the only liberal arts university in the world for deaf students, with all of its programs uniquely designed specifically for deaf and hard of hearing learners. Gallaudet University in Washington D.C., founded in 1864, was the first school for the advanced education of people who are deaf or hard of hearing.