Contact: Dr. Karen Dilka Eastern Kentucky University

1. Contact: Dr. Karen DilkaEastern Kentucky University • Date submitted to deafed.net – May 29, 2007 • To contact the author for permission to use this PowerPoint, please e-mail: Karen.Dilka@EKU.EDU • To use this PowerPoint presentation in its entirety, please give credit to the author.

2. Mary Herring Wright Growing up Deaf and Black in the South

3. -Mary Herring was born in a farmhouse on the back roads of a community called Iron Mine (North Carolina). - She is the second youngest of 5 children. She has one sister, one younger brother and 3 older brothers.

4. Life at Home • Herring lived a considerably normal, Southern farm lifestyle. She lived in a mixed community where most of the Blacks worked as farmers or workers for the White people. • She enjoyed and still enjoys music, dancing and being with loved ones.

5. Transitions • Mary Herring was born with full ability in her ears. She lived most of her childhood this way. At the age of 8 she began experiencing light hearing losses. By the age of 10, she was completely deaf.

6. Mary Herring Wright’s Adolescence • Wright attends a deaf school in 1930’s • Segregation between boys and girls • Assisted in bridging the gap between deaf-non-speaking students and hearing teachers

7. Wright’s Adolescence ctd. • One of the youngest students in her grade • Was very homesick at first, but later became as if she were in a second home • English skills helped her become an excellent student

8. After School • After teaching, Mary landed a job in the Department of the Navy as a junior clerk.

9. Mary met and married James Wright after returning to North Carolina. James died in 1982. They were married for 32 years. Mary and James have four daughters named Linda, Mary, Carolyn and Judy.

10. Mary Herring Wright : The Author • Sounds Like Home was published in 1999. • This book describes her life from the time she became deaf to when she started going to a deaf school away from her home.

11. Bibliography • http://gupress.gallaudet.edu/SLH.html • http://johnrosenthal.com • http://www.ghbraille.com/deafsolution.html • Wright, Mary. Sounds Like Home: Growing Up Black and Deaf in the South. Washinton D.C., Maryland: Gallaudet University Press, 1999. • http://deafness.about.com/library/zbookreviewz/bkr_1563680807_3173.htm?once=true&

12. Presentation by: Emily Truxel, Emily Sausen, and Magen Forester