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Andrew FosterAndrew Foster was born in Ensley, Alabama and became the first Black Deaf person to earn a bachelor's degree from Gallaudet University and the first to earn a master's degree from Eastern Michigan University. After earning another master's from Seattle Pacific Christian College, he went to Africa in 1957. There he encountered cultures so oppressive of deaf people that parents often hid their deaf children at home or abandoned them altogether. Hearing missionaries told Foster that deaf children didn't even exist in Africa. But he found deaf children and established schools for them—31 in all. Before he was done, he had established schools in countries including Benin, Congo, Chad, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Cameroon. For much of his life he spent six months of the year in Africa establishing schools and the other six months in the United State raising money to support these schools. In 1970 Gallaudet granted him an honorary doctor of humane letter in recognition of his accomplishment. Andrew Foster met his untimely death in a plane crash in 1987 and the Black Deaf community lost an extraordinary leader. For more information about Andrew Foster and the schools he established visit the Christian Mission for the Deaf Web site at www.cmdeaf.org. To learn how to contribute to NBDA's Andrew Foster Scholarship Fund at Gallaudet University, click here.
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