Illusions of Equality: Deaf Americans in School and Factory 1850-1950. - Review - book review

Journal of Social History, Winter, 2000 by Douglas C. Bayatos

During the New Deal era, in a reprise of the Civil Service battle, deaf people found themselves excluded from the Civilian Conservation Corps and once again rallied to overturn the decision. This time, however, they failed. At a congressional hearing a CCC official objected that he was not running an "asylum," while the head of the CCC worried that if deaf people were admitted, other disabled people who would be a "real menace" to safety would demand admission, so a line had to be drawn. Like women and children, disabled people were perceived as dependents and therefore given low priority in employment programs. While the Works Progress Administration did not have an explicit exclusionary policy, deaf people had to fight individual administrators around the country to get unemployed deaf workers hired.

Other chapters describe the entry of large numbers of deaf workers into industrial occupations during the tight labor markets of the world wars. Akron became a mecca for deaf people during World War I when Goodyear and Firestone hired a thousand young deaf men and women. Most lived in one square mile of the city, inspiring one deaf person to write, "You deaf who have no deaf friend within walking radius--much less one with your own likes and dislikes--think what that means." Deaf people in Akron attended deaf churches, silent films, signed lectures, deaf theater, deaf dances, deaf literary clubs, and they rooted for their own football team, the Goodyear Silents. With the end of the war came the inevitable layoffs, and by 1921 most of Akron's deaf community had left town. But for those few years, to paraphrase Wordsworth, to be young and deaf in Akron was very heaven.

Although it is a slim book, Buchanan has done much original research in a wide range of often obscure sources. The book could have been more interpretive. There are interesting and illuminating thoughts on the historical propensity of deaf people to resist being associated with people with other disabilities, including the hard of hearing, but in general the book is better at describing than explaining or contextualizing. Too often the significance of information is not made clear for those unfamiliar with the history of disability. Nevertheless, Illusions of Equality is important for opening up a new line of historical inquiry on a neglected topic.