The Deaf Do Not Beg: Making the Case for Citizenship, 1880-1956
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The Deaf Do Not Beg: Making the Case for Citizenship, 1880-1956 DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Octavian Elijah Robinson Graduate Program in History The Ohio State University 2012 Dissertation Committee: Susan Hartmann, Advisor Paula Baker Susan Burch Judy Tzu-Chun Wu Copyright by Octavian Elijah Robinson 2012 Abstract This dissertation examines deaf people’s anxieties about their place in American society and the political economy from 1880 to 1956. My study highlights how deaf people sought to place themselves within mainstream society through their activism to protect and advance their status as citizen-workers. Their activism centered on campaigns against peddling. Those campaigns sought to protect the public image of deaf people as worker-citizens while protecting their language and cultural community. The rhetoric surrounding impostorism and peddling reveals ableist attitudes; anxieties about the oral method supplanting sign language based education for the deaf; fears and insecurities about deaf people’s place in the American economy; class consciousness; and efforts to achieve full social citizenship. Deaf people’s notion of equal citizenship was that of white male citizenship with full access to economic opportunities. Their idea of citizenship extended to the legal and social right to employment and economic self-sufficiency. This is a historical account of the deaf community’s campaign during the late nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century to promote deaf people within American society as equal citizens and to improve their access to economic opportunities. ii I dedicate this dissertation to my deaf brethren. iii Acknowledgments This study would not have been possible without the generous support of The Ohio State University and the History Department. I am indebted to my dissertation advisor, Dr. Susan M. Hartmann, whose thoughtful criticism and support guided the project to completion. I am also thankful to my undergraduate advisor, mentor, and dissertation committee member, Dr. Susan Burch, for her guidance and inspiration in pursuing this study of deaf history. I also thank Dr. Paula Baker, Dr. Judy Tzu-Chun Wu, and Dr. Birgitte Soland for their feedback on early portions of the draft as this project emerged. I also thank Jim Bach for his assistance. Gratitude goes to my fellow graduate students in the History Department at The Ohio State University for their careful and through reading of many drafts and for their valuable feedback. In particular, I thank my graduate school colleagues Jessica Pliley, Lindsey Patterson, and Meredith Clark-Wiltz whose support and feedback were vital to this project. A special note of appreciation goes to the archivists at the Gallaudet University Archives. I am appreciative of the immeasurable support I received from Ulf Hedberg, Michael Olson, Jeffrey Peterson, and Diana Gates at the Archives. In particular appreciation, I thank Ulf Hedberg for sharing the Krakover story with me and planting the first seed of this dissertation project. I also thank the archivists at the Library of Congress who generously provided assistance during my time there. I am grateful to my friends and colleagues for their support throughout this project such as Emmanuel von Schack, Carlene Thumann-Prezioso, Kevin Bernadt, Jane Jonas, Laurie Miskovsky, Sylvie Soulier, Andrea Rubin, Rayni Plaster, Tabitha Jacques, Erica Pedro, Elsie Ritchie, Brian Greenwald, Joey and Zahna Moss, and the deaf community at large. Thank you for providing shelter, food, dog care, financial and moral support, technical support, reading and commenting on countless drafts, and provoking thoughtful discussions that ultimately ended up in this project. Last but not least, I thank my family for their love, patience, and support that made this project possible. iv Vita 1997................................................................California School for the Deaf, Riverside 2002................................................................B.A. History, Gallaudet University 2004................................................................M.A. Deaf Studies, Gallaudet University 2006 to 2011 ..................................................Graduate Teaching Associate, Department of History, The Ohio State University Publications “Foreword,” in Jennifer Nelson and Kristin Harmon, eds., Deaf American Prose: Impressions, Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, forthcoming. “The Deaf Do Not Beg: Making a Case for Citizenship through Anti-Peddling Campaigns,” in Brian Greenwald and Joseph Murray, eds., Citizenship in Deaf History: Studies of Deaf Agency, 1820-1990, Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, forthcoming. “We Are of A Different Class: Ableist Rhetoric in Deaf America, 1880-1920,” in Alison Kafer and Susan Burch, eds., Deaf and Disability Studies: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, 2010, 5-21. “Agatha Tiegel Hanson,” in Encyclopedia of American Disability History, New York: Facts on File Press, 2009. “May Martin Stafford,” in Encyclopedia of American Disability History, New York: Facts on File Press, 2009. “Remembering the Forgotten: May Martin Stafford,” Gallaudet Today, 36, no. 2 (Spring 2006), 34-35. “Deaf Women in Organizations, 1880-1940,”in Brenda Brueggemann and Susan Burch, eds., Women and Deafness: Double Visions, Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, 2006, 40-56. v Fields of Study Major Field: History vi Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................... ii Dedication ..................................................................................................................... ….iii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ iv List of Figures .................................................................................................................. viii Introduction ………………………………………………………………………………1 Chapter 1: From Outcasts to American Citizens………………………………………...18 Chapter 2: Ramping Up the Campaign Against Peddlers……………………………….45 Chapter 3: Shifting the Focus To Bona Fide Deaf Peddlers ……………………….….. 76 Chapter 4: Averting Their Eyes………………………………………………………..106 Chapter 5: After World War II: Anti-Peddling Focus Centers on The Exploited……..129 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………..180 Epilogue………………………………………………………………………………..189 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………...194 vii List of Figures Figure 1. Peddler’s Card, Circa 1940s. .......................................................................... 125 Figure 2. Leon Krakover’s Membership Card. .............................................................. 143 viii Chapter 1: Introduction This dissertation examines deaf people’s anxieties about their place in American society and the political economy from 1880 to 1956. My study highlights how deaf people sought to place themselves within mainstream society through their activism to protect and advance their status as citizen-workers. Their activism centered on campaigns against public perception of deaf people as objects of charity while protecting their language and cultural community. The eradication of impostors and peddlers was a primary focus of these campaigns. The deaf community defined impostors as peddlers who posed as deaf-mutes in order to elicit sympathy and swindle an unsuspecting public. An example of an impostor in the view of the deaf community was William A. Rockefeller, father of famous oil titan and founder of Standard Oil, John D. Rockefeller, who was reputed to be an itinerant peddler who pretended to be deaf and dumb.1 Contrary to popular imagination of peddling, for the purpose of this dissertation, I use the deaf community’s definition of peddling. For deaf people, peddling referred to the practice of selling items of little value and inducing sales by capitalizing on the public’s view of deaf people as objects of charity. Building upon previous scholarship in deaf history by Robert Buchanan and Susan Burch, this dissertation focuses on these campaigns to eradicate impostors and deaf peddling. The rhetoric surrounding impostorism and peddling reveals ableist attitudes; anxieties about the oral method supplanting sign language based education for the deaf; 1 Ron Chernow, Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. (New York: Random House Press, 1998), 5-6. 1 fears and insecurities about deaf people’s place in the American economy; class consciousness; and efforts to achieve full social citizenship. Deaf people’s notion of equal citizenship was that of white male citizenship with full access to economic opportunities. They did not agitate for deaf women’s suffrage or equal access to citizenship for deaf African-Americans. Deaf men, and as of 1920, deaf women, had the right to vote and obliged with their duty to pay taxes. Their idea of citizenship extended to the legal and social right to employment and economic self-sufficiency. When deaf leaders spoke of economic self-sufficiency and equal citizenship for deaf people, they primarily meant that for deaf white men and on occasion for white deaf women as well. My study examines the attitudes and rhetoric of the leadership of the deaf community through their addresses delivered at meetings of deaf organizations and published articles in the