When schools were segregated years ago, schools for the deaf followed suit. For over 100 years, Black deaf children attended separate educational programs, housed either on separate campuses or in separate buildings on the same campus as the school for the deaf. This separation led to the development of a Black dialect of American Sign Language.

When schools for the deaf became integrated, these separate buildings and campuses were either closed or incorporated into the rest of the school. Over time, the Black dialect of ASL died out as the Black deaf children were no longer separated from the white deaf children. Fortunately, the memories of this experience have been preserved in books such as Sounds Like Home. This segregation was encouraged by the National Association of the Deaf, which in 1904 recommended the establishment of separate schools for Black deaf children.

This segregation meant that Black deaf teachers were able to get jobs teaching in the separate programs. The programs produced the first Black deaf teachers, Julius Carrett and Amanda Johnson, both of whom graduated from the North Carolina program for Black deaf, and H.L. Johns, who was a graduate of the Maryland program for Black deaf. All three were hired by the Texas Institute for Deaf, Dumb and Blind Colored Youth.

List of Segregated Schools