This month, March GUAA’s commemoration of Women’s History Month, we honor Ida Wynette Gray Hampton, WPSD graduate of 1951 and Gallaudet graduate of 1957, the first Black Deaf woman to graduate from Gallaudet University.
Black women were not allowed to attend Gallaudet until the 1950s. That is when Hampton, a Pennsylvania native, enrolled in classes. She joined the Delta Epsilon Sorority and was its first Black member.
After graduation, she went on to teach at the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind, and earned a master’s degree from the University of North Florida. She retired in 1989 after 32 years of teaching and now lives in Florida. She took part in the National Black Deaf Advocates’ “A Conversation with Ida Hampton,” which was held during the NBDA Senior Citizens Reunion in 2011. She discussed the barriers she overcame as a Black deaf woman at Gallaudet and her accomplishments.
In 2018, Gallaudet University awarded Ida Wynette Gray Hampton the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa. Ida was unable to attend the ceremony, so members of the university’s Black Student Union accepted her degree on her behalf.
Dr. Elizabeth Moore, who was commencement speaker, said:
“When Ida pursued her studies from 1952 to 1957 at Gallaudet College, there was social unrest everywhere, particularly in the South.
- There is no question that Ida was vulnerable.
- There was no law protecting the legal rights of persons with disabilities.
- There was no law protecting the legal rights of Black persons.
- There was no law protecting the legal rights of women.
- There was no law protecting the voting rights of culturally diverse people.
Organizations serving deaf people, some of them headquartered not far from Gallaudet College where Ida attended classes, had not fully welcomed Black Deaf people and Deaf women during that time.
Ida attended classes here, on a campus where there was a segregated Kendall School Division II for Negroes. Amazingly, she carried the torch peacefully with a beautiful smile to the completion of her studies, and then went to Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind, where she taught for 32 years – starting when the school’s students were still segregated by the color of their skin.”
Ida Wynette Gray Hampton set an example for others to follow. Her determination to enroll at Gallaudet illustrates her courage and perseverance.
Source: Facebook GUAA – Gallaudet University Alumni Association.