Dr. Susan Burch, Associate Professor of History at Gallaudet University, will address broad historical issues, including Jim Crow racism, disability discrimination, eugenics, & activism as they effected the life of Junius Wilson, a deaf African American. In 1925, Mr. Wiilson was falsely accused of attempted rape, deemed incompetent to stand trial, & imprisoned in the State Hospital for the Colored Insane for more than 7 decades. After 76 years in the State Hospital, his release was won by court order. It was officially noted in 1970 that Wilson was not mentally disabled. Dr. Burch teaches Russian, American, Deaf, & Disability History.Read more about Junius Wilson (shown above, left). Also check out information about Project Orange Neptune, which coordinates efforts to identify and improve the lives of Deaf people languishing in mental institutions, from misdiagnosis, mistreatment, and little access to Deaf culture (or even comprehensible information about their rights).
FOR PROGRAM DETAILS CONTACT: Brenda Brueggemann at email@example.com. The event will be signed in ASL. For questions about access or other types of accommodations, please contact the ADA Coordinator's Office at firstname.lastname@example.org.
Susan Burch is cowriting a book about Wilson with Hannah Joyner; if you can't get to Columbus, watch for the book (last I heard, it's coming from UNC Press, and the title will be Unspeakable: The Life Story of Junius Wilson). I was on a disability history panel with Burch and Joyner at the 2005 American Historical Association meeting in Seattle--and I've worked with both of them in other contexts--their research is important and their presentations are worth attending.