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Preserving faith stories of first black deaf mission
by Mary CahillUMConnection correspondent
In 1895 in Baltimore, the Rev. Daniel Moylan founded the oldest operational church for the deaf in the Methodist connection. Today, that story continues on videotape.
A leadership team led by the Rev. Peggy A. Johnson of Christ Church of the Deaf in Baltimore, is videotaping the faith stories of the older members of her congregation as a project on deaf black history.
There are many people in the church who cannot read or write, said Johnson. Many read at a third-grade level. Very few of the members speak with their voices, one or two.
Most solely use sign language, Johnson explained. English just isnt their medium, but videotape is. They can see the signs and they love to tell their stories.
Driving to a taping session, Johnson said that she plans to use the videotape to help the youth gain an appreciation of the trials and struggles their elders have been through and how faith in God sustained them.
Where is their history? Johnson asked. No one has ever written it down, nowhere. There is only one book in print on black deaf history (Black and Deaf in America by Ernest Hairston and Linwood Smith).
We are way behind in capturing the history of this community, Johnson said. Having the church write the story would mean we would be taking the lead in the human rights issues that this presents ... rather than following behind, as we often do.
Johnsons car pulled up in the driveway of a ranch-style group eldercare home in Columbia. Inside, Bessie Hall, 96, waited, dressed in an elegant three-piece black suit and a smile that outshined the bugle beads on her blouse.
With camera rolling and lights beaming, Al Couthen, who was twice president of National Black/Deaf Advocates, allowed his hands to begin the swift and graceful dance that is American Sign Language.
How did you start coming to the church? he signed. Halls hands began the story as her niece interpreted aloud for the hearing members of the crew.
I was schooled by my [hearing] parents until I was 17, she signed. Then I went to school at Overlea, a black school for the deaf. I was shy and awkward, but my husband, Thomas, got me to go to church and I learned to sign better.
I joined the church in 1930, when Rev. Moylan was pastor. I enjoyed singing and signing in church. At first I was very nervous, but I began to sign more and more, and then I traveled with the choir. My husband, Thomas, was custodian at the church. He fixed things and painted.
Halls story continued to unfold.
Long time ago, black deaf people sat on one side of the church and the whites sat on the opposite. When Louis Foxwell (the pastor succeeding Rev. Moylan at Christ Church of the Deaf) came, we sat everybody all together.
Halls story is one of about 20 planned interviews. The completed video will premiere locally in January 2005, at the 100th anniversary celebration of the founding of the Whatcoat Mission for Colored Deaf, and denominationwide at the 2005 celebration of Deaf African-American Heritage.
There was a sense of urgency in Johnsons words as she described this project.
Our objective is to capture, while we still have them with us, the valuable faith histories of our African-American deaf seniors. Their words are encouragement and true discipleship for this younger generation of deaf people who seek to find faith and meaning in their life.
Deaf people are a culture, she said. Sometimes they have been an oppressed culture. The Body of Christ, to be whole, needs to include this community.
Fore more on Whatcoat Mission for the Black Deaf see www.bwcumc.org.
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