7.2 The Stokoe Linguistic Revolution (1960) & Deaf President Now (1988)

During the mid-to-late twentieth century, the American Deaf community experienced two tectonic shifts that revolutionized Deaf identity, civil rights, and the interpreting profession: the Stokoe Linguistic Revolution of the 1960s and the Deaf President Now (DPN) movement of 1988. Prior to these watershed events, the dominant hearing medical-pathological paradigm categorized deafness exclusively as a sensory deficit, while signing was disparaged as a rudimentary collection of ungrammatical gestures. William C. Stokoe Jr.'s empirical linguistic research provided the rigorous scientific foundation proving that American Sign Language is an autonomous, natural human language. Twenty-eight years later, Gallaudet University students transformed that linguistic pride into triumphant political power through DPN. Together, these milestones permanently reframed Deaf individuals from disabled recipients of charity into a proud linguistic-cultural minority, providing the political momentum that led directly to the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

---

1. Academic Hegemony & The Pre-1960 Perception of ASL

For eight decades following the 1880 Milan Congress, academic orthodoxy regarded sign language as an unsophisticated, visual code derived from spoken English or an ungrammatical pantomime lacking grammar, syntax, and abstract capacity. Speech therapists, psychologists, and educators operated under the premise that signing stunted cognitive development and impeded English acquisition.

Tragically, many Deaf people had internalized this audist hegemony. Signers routinely experienced linguistic shame (linguistic insecurity), often referring to their own language colloquially as "the signs" or "slang," while reserving fingerspelling and English-mouthing for formal encounters with hearing authorities. Deaf children in residential schools were taught that their natural visual language was something to be concealed in public.

---

2. William C. Stokoe Jr. & The Birth of ASL Linguistics

In 1955, William C. Stokoe Jr. (1919–2000), a hearing medievalist with a Ph.D. in Old English literature from Cornell University, arrived at Gallaudet College to chair the English department. Stokoe possessed no background in deafness or sign language. However, trained in structural linguistics and descriptive anthropology, Stokoe observed the communication of Gallaudet students and faculty outside the classroom with an objective, analytical eye.

Stokoe realized that the students were not producing broken English, nor were they gesturing haphazardly. Instead, they were communicating through an intricate, rule-governed, systematic visual language that operated with complete autonomy from English grammar.

The 1960 Monograph: Sign Language Structure

In 1960, despite immense skepticism and ridicule from hearing colleagues and many Deaf faculty who feared his work would provoke an oralist backlash, Stokoe published his revolutionary monograph: Sign Language Structure: An Outline of the Visual Communication Systems of the American Deaf (Studies in Linguistics: Occasional Papers 8, University of Buffalo).

Stokoe demonstrated that signs are not holistic pictures or indivisible pantomimes. Instead, signs are composed of discrete, meaningless, recombining sub-lexical units, exactly analogous to the phonemes of spoken languages. Because signs are processed visually and articulated manually rather than acoustically, Stokoe coined new linguistic terminology derived from the Greek word for hand (cheir):

• Cherology: The study of the sub-lexical building blocks of sign languages (the visual equivalent of phonology).
• Chereme: The smallest distinctive, meaningless unit of a sign language that contrasts meaning (the visual equivalent of a phoneme).

The Three Original Phonological Parameters

Stokoe proved that every ASL sign is structured through the simultaneous combination of three mandatory phonological parameters (cheremes):

Subsequent linguistic researchers (such as Edward Klima, Ursula Bellugi, and Robbin Battison) expanded Stokoe's model to include Palm Orientation (Ori) and non-manual signals/grammatical facial expressions (NMS).

The 1965 ASL Dictionary & Sociolinguistic Legitimacy

In 1965, Stokoe, along with two Deaf colleagues at Gallaudet, Dorothy S. Casterline and Carl G. Croneberg, published A Dictionary of American Sign Language on Linguistic Principles. This groundbreaking text was the first dictionary in history to organize signs not alphabetically by English translation, but linguistically by cheremic structure (Tab, Dez, Sig).

Critically, Carl Croneberg authored two extensive sociological appendices in the 1965 Dictionary. Croneberg provided the first academic analysis defining the American Deaf population as a cultural and linguistic community rather than a medical disability group. Croneberg analyzed Deaf social organizations, endogamous marriage patterns, and sociolinguistic variation, including regional dialects and the distinct linguistic features of Black ASL. The Stokoe revolution catalyzed sign language research globally, establishing the scientific foundation for modern interpreter training and certification.

3. The Deaf President Now (DPN) Movement of March 1988

While Stokoe's work secured academic legitimacy for ASL, political governance of Deaf institutions remained firmly under hearing control. This paternalistic status quo erupted into open rebellion in March 1988 at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C.

Background: 124 Years of Hearing Paternalism

Since its founding by Abraham Lincoln in 1864, Gallaudet had operated for 124 years under six successive hearing presidents. By the late 1980s, the university had educated tens of thousands of Deaf graduates, producing dozens of accomplished Deaf educators, superintendents, researchers, and administrators holding doctoral degrees. Yet, the governing Board of Trustees remained predominantly hearing.

When hearing president Jerry C. Lee announced his resignation in late 1987, the international Deaf community recognized a watershed opportunity. A nationwide grassroots movement proclaimed: "It is time for a Deaf president!"

The Three Final Candidates

After an extensive nationwide search, the Board of Trustees narrowed the selection to three finalists:

1. Dr. I. King Jordan: Deaf dean of Gallaudet's College of Arts and Sciences; well-published scholar and popular administrator who had lost his hearing at age 21 in a motorcycle accident.
2. Dr. Harvey J. Corson: Deaf superintendent of the Louisiana School for the Deaf; Gallaudet alumnus who held a doctorate from Penn State University.
3. Dr. Elisabeth Ann Zinser: Hearing vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Zinser possessed zero sign language capability, zero knowledge of ASL, and zero professional background in deaf education or culture.

The Spark: Sunday, March 6, 1988

On Sunday evening, March 6, 1988, hours ahead of schedule, the Board of Trustees released a terse press statement announcing the selection of Elisabeth Zinser as the seventh president of Gallaudet University. Outraged students, alumni, and staff marched several miles from the campus to the Mayflower Hotel, where the Board was convened.

Board Chair Jane Bassett Spilman, a hearing museum director, met with student representatives. When asked to justify bypassing two extraordinarily qualified Deaf finalists, Spilman allegedly delivered the patronizing remark that ignited the uprising: "Deaf people are not ready to function in a hearing world."

While Spilman later insisted her words had been misconstrued, the statement crystallized over a century of hearing paternalism and audist condescension. The protest exploded into a full-scale civil rights revolution.

4. The Four Non-Negotiable Demands & The Eight Days of Resistance

On the morning of Monday, March 7, 1988, students seized control of the Gallaudet campus. They drove campus maintenance vehicles and yellow school buses to all campus entrances, flattened the tires, chained the gates shut, and effectively shut down the university.

The Four Non-Negotiable Demands

A student-led steering committee drafted four unequivocal, non-negotiable demands that remained the unyielding compass of the movement throughout the eight-day standoff:

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                    THE FOUR NON-NEGOTIABLE DPN DEMANDS (1988)                     |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 1. Elisabeth Zinser must resign immediately, and a Deaf person must be appointed  |
|    President of Gallaudet University.                                             |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 2. Jane Bassett Spilman must resign immediately as Chair of the Board of Trustees.|
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 3. The Board of Trustees must be reconstituted to establish a 51% Deaf majority.  |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 4. There must be absolutely no reprisals or disciplinary actions against any      |
|    students, faculty, or staff who participated in the protest.                   |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

The "Fab Four" Student Leadership

The public face of DPN was spearheaded by four charismatic, articulate young student leaders known colloquially as the "Fab Four":

• Greg Hlibok: President of the Student Body Government (SBG); calm, poised legal debater who became the primary media spokesperson.
• Bridgetta Bourne: Highly energetic student leader who rallied the student body and coordinated campus logistics.
• Tim Rarus: Experienced student activist who managed communication with alumni and political networks.
• Jerry Covell: Fiery, passionate orator whose rousing signing galvanized the crowds to stand firm and refuse any compromise.

National Media Coverage & Political Momentum

DPN captured the imagination of the global media. Satellite television trucks lined Florida Avenue outside the campus gates.

A pivotal turning point occurred on the evening of Wednesday, March 9, during a live, nationally televised broadcast of ABC's Nightline hosted by Ted Koppel. The broadcast featured Greg Hlibok debating Elisabeth Zinser and deaf Academy Award-winning actress Marlee Matlin. Hlibok's articulate, reasoned composure exposed Zinser's paternalistic posture to millions of viewers. Support poured in from labor unions, including the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) and AFL-CIO, which sent food and $25,000 in operational funds. Prominent national figures—including civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson and Coretta Scott King—visited the campus to stand in solidarity, while key members of the U.S. Congress (Senators Tom Harkin, Bob Dole, and Edward Kennedy) signaled that federal appropriations to the university were at risk unless the Board yielded.

On Thursday, March 10, Dr. I. King Jordan made a dramatic public appearance before thousands of cheering protesters, retracting an earlier conciliation statement and declaring: "I support entirely the four demands of the students!"

Total Victory: Sunday, March 13, 1988

Under overwhelming political and media pressure, Elisabeth Zinser resigned on Thursday night, March 10.

On the afternoon of Sunday, March 13, 1988, the Board of Trustees convened an emergency session and capitulated on every point:

1. Elisabeth Zinser's resignation was formally accepted;
2. Jane Bassett Spilman resigned as Board Chair;
3. Philip Bravin, a Deaf board member and IBM executive, was elected the new Chair of the Board of Trustees, and the board committed to reconstituting a 51% Deaf majority;
4. Complete amnesty (no reprisals) was granted to all participants;
5. Dr. I. King Jordan was unanimously selected as the eighth president—and first Deaf president—of Gallaudet University.

Taking the podium before a jubilant crowd, Dr. Jordan delivered the phrase that became the global rallying cry of the modern disability rights movement: "Deaf people can do anything hearing people can do, except hear."

5. Societal Impact & Catalyst for the Americans with Disabilities Act

The impact of DPN reverberated far beyond the campus of Gallaudet University. DPN was the catalyst that shifted the entire American disability discourse from a welfare-charity framework to an aggressive civil rights framework.

The Direct Legislative Pipeline to the ADA (1990)

In 1988, federal legislation guaranteeing comprehensive civil rights for individuals with disabilities had languished in Congress for years. Disability advocates (including Patrisha Wright of the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, Justin Dart Jr., and Lex Frieden) recognized that DPN had delivered something unprecedented: universal, highly favorable national media coverage showing disabled people organizing, commanding moral authority, and winning.

Congressional leaders who championed DPN—specifically Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa (whose deaf brother Frank inspired his civil rights advocacy) and Representative Tony Coelho of California—capitalized on this momentum. Harkin delivered speeches on the Senate floor in ASL, arguing that if Gallaudet students could demand self-determination on campus, all Americans with disabilities deserved equal access to employment, transportation, and public accommodations. DPN provided the political oxygen and moral urgency that carried the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 through Congress to President George H.W. Bush's desk.

Transformation of the Interpreting Profession

For professional sign language interpreters, the Stokoe revolution and DPN fundamentally overturned the operating philosophy of the field:

1. Death of the "Helper Model": The historical view of the interpreter as a benevolent hearing helper, protector, or custodian of the deaf client was definitively dismantled. Deaf people demonstrated unequivocally that they possessed complete intellectual, linguistic, and political agency.
2. Rise of the Bi-Bi / Communication Facilitator Model: Interpreters embraced their role as neutral, highly skilled linguistic professionals facilitating dynamic equivalence between two autonomous, equal languages and cultures.
3. Elevation of Deaf Professionals: DPN paved the way for Deaf professionals in law, medicine, academia, and government, accelerating the demand for Certified Deaf Interpreters (CDIs) to handle complex linguistic, cognitive, and intralingual assignments.