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States; Cable television; Comedians; Consumerism;
Herman, Pee-Wee; Reagan, Ronald; Television.
Gallaudet University protests
The Event Weeklong uprising by students
demanding the appointment of a deaf
university president
Date March 6-13, 1988
Place Gallaudet University, Washington, D.C.
Students from Gallaudet University, a school for the deaf,
staged protests to demand that the next president of their in-
stitution be deaf as well. The protests brought new visibility
to deaf activists and brought deaf leadership to an institu-
tion founded for deaf individuals.
Undertanding the 1988 Gallaudet University pro-
tests, also known as the Deaf President Now upris-
ing, requires knowledge of the institution’s role in
deaf culture and history. In 1864, Edward Gallaudet
founded what was then called the Columbia Institu-
tion for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb and
Blind, in Washington, D.C. Gallaudet’s four-year
liberal-arts curriculum was designed for deaf and
hard-of-hearing students and used sign language for
communication and instruction. Persons who iden-
tified as culturally Deaf (the upper-case spelling is in-
tentional within this group) came to know Gallaudet
for affirming the values of pride, solidarity, and sur-
vival in the “hearing world.”
For most of the university’s history, however, deaf
people were excluded from consideration for the
position of president of Gallaudet. This situation
changed dramatically in March, 1988, when stu-
dents, alumni, and faculty drew international atten-
tion with eight days of nonviolent direct action. A
search for a new university president had been in
its late stages at that point, and expectations that
Gallaudet’s board of trustees would choose a deaf
candidate were high. The selection of hearing candi-
date Elisabeth Zinser therefore ignited uncompro-
mising resistance among the student body. In addi-
tion to demanding Zinser’s resignation, the Deaf
President Now agenda called for the board of trust-
ees to seat a majority of deaf persons among its mem-
bers and demanded that no reprisals be made against
the protesters.
Gallaudet’s activists used a variety of methods and
found a variety of allies. Protesters blocked univer-
sity entrances with vehicles and used their bodies to
disrupt and ultimately take over the campus. The
key tactic was reliance on sign language to organize
demonstrators, make and implement plans, and frus-
trate hearing authorities (including police officers).
In this environment, deafness and sign language
were advantages while speaking and hearing be-
came disabilities.
Support from political leaders as different as
George H. W. Bush and Jesse Jackson was another
unique aspect of the Gallaudet protests. Labor-
union members and business owners provided mon-
etary and material resources, but the discipline and
determination of Gallaudet’s students were the deci-
sive factors. On March 10, Zinser resigned, but dem-
onstrators continued pressing for the rest of their
demands to be met with a rally at the U.S. Capitol.
Gallaudet alumnus I. King Jordan became the uni-
versity’s first deaf president on March 13, and the en-
tire Deaf President Now agenda was implemented.Impact The Deaf President Now uprising chal-
lenged public perceptions of deaf people and sign
language. Gallaudet’s protesters demonstrated that
an inability or refusal to communicate on the hear-
ing world’s terms need not be disabling or futile.
Most observers consider the Gallaudet protests part
of the disability rights movement, but there is resis-
tance among some deaf activists and advocates to
equating deafness and disability.Further Reading
Christiansen, John B., and Sharon N. Barnartt.Deaf
President Now! The 1988 Revolution at Gallaudet Uni-
versity. Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet University
Press, 1995.
Sacks, Oliver.Seeing Voices: A Journey into the World of
the Deaf. Berkeley: University of California Press,
1989.
Ray PenceSee also Bush, George H. W.; Disability rights
movement; Jackson, Jesse.398 Gallaudet University protests The Eighties in America