Captain Andrea M. Hall, a Coda
Here is more information about Captain Andrea M. Hall, who signed the Pledge of Allegiance during the inauguration of Joe Biden. Hall is the fire captain in Fulton County, Georgia, and is the first African American female in the role.
She did an interview with Sign1News reporter Jethro Wooddall in a video that was posted yesterday morning. The link is in the transcript and I’ve shared it on “The Daily Moth''s Facebook page.
Hall said in the interview that she knows sign language because she is a Coda. She learned it at home from her father. She said the reason why she signed during the inauguration is because the deaf community has always been supportive of her and she wanted deaf people to understand they are a part of this new, unified America.
Hall said her father went to the Georgia School for the Deaf when he was six and learned Black ASL and that’s what she learned as well. Hall said it’s beautiful how there is diversity within the deaf community.
The Georgia School for the Deaf Alumni Association posted on Facebook that Hall’s father’s name was Russell “Bubba” Williams and that attended GSD in the 1960’s on Gordon Campus, which was still segregated. The GSDAA informed “The Daily Moth” that he passed away years ago.
I was able to connect with a GSD alumni, June Alsobrook, who managed to find an image of Bubba and her daughter from many years ago.
Great picture, and now we know what her father looked like. June said she was not a student at the same time as Bubba, but she did attend GSD when it was segregated. I was able to do a brief interview with her.
[04 VIDEO CLIP 1]
June Alsobook:
When I saw Andrea signing, I became curious. I found out she was from Georgia and I wondered where she learned sign language. I was told her father went to GSD so I immediately called my friends to ask if they knew him. They said they did. He never graduated from the deaf school. Her father was a skilled artist, barber, and all kinds of talents. I asked if he went out with a deaf girl, but they said he never did. If he dated a deaf woman, I would know more and find more, but he was with a hearing partner. So that’s the little amount of information I got.
I used to go to GSD myself. It was segregated. The campus was about two minutes, or less than five minutes, away from the white school. There was a big difference. For example, my old sign for “grandmother” was this. Or grandfather. That was my sign. I remember when I grew up in the Black school and when I wanted to play sports such as track, basketball, baseball, or cheerleading -- the Black school didn’t have that. If you joined the white school, you could go out on field trips. So when I joined, the (white) students would laugh at me. They asked “Is that how you sign it?” I was taken aback. When we had to take showers, I asked where the towel was. They asked me what that particular sign was. That’s my sign for a towel. That had an impact on me.
Alex (The Daily Moth):
I asked her how she felt when she saw Hall signing the pledge.
[04 VIDEO CLIP 2]
June Alsobook:
I was so inspired. It had a huge impact. Everyone could see her signing. But unfortunately there was criticism. But that’s Black ASL! That’s what she grew up with. That’s her father’s signs. For example, with my sister, I taught her some older signs. But today with sign language evolving, I saw she still used the sign for “grandmother.” When I raised the issue, she remained the same. She couldn’t change it. When I talked with an old friend about it, they told me to leave my sister alone. Okay. My sister still uses the old signs. But understand this, those who are older than me have many more different signs than mine. I have evolved but theirs is different.
Thank you for your time, June.
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There was some criticism from deaf people directed towards Hall for signing while she is a hearing person or for signing in a different way. Nakia Smith, a Black Deaf woman who has a huge following on social media, questioned whether the criticism was because of the color of her skin. She said Hall was doing Black ASL and that she loves Codas and how she is representing us.
So, that’s who Captain Andrea Hall is. We can see that her singing the pledge of allegiance is historic in many ways, for herself as a trailblazer as a Black female fire captain, for her using Black ASL on a national stage, and for her representing the deaf community as a Coda. I hope we can appreciate and treasure that.
Sign1News Interview: https://www.facebook.com/sign1news/posts/1143118802825102
GSDAA: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=3813958491997973&id=200429923350866
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/firefighters-sign-language-pledge-of-allegiance-was-homage-to-her-late-father/
https://www.instagram.com/p/CKUnsnGHFRH/