On the Beat of Truth : A Hearing Daughter's Stories of Her Black Deaf Parents / Maxine Childress Brown.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Brown, Maxine Childress.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Brown, Maxine Childress--Family.

Brown, Maxine Childress.

African Americans with disabilities--Biography.

African Americans with disabilities.

Children of deaf parents--United States--Biography.

Children of deaf parents.

Deaf parents--United States--Biography.

Deaf parents.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (313 pages) : illustrations

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Washington, District of Columbia : Gallaudet University Press, 2013.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

As an African American woman born in 1943, Maxine Childress Brown possessed a unique vantage point to witness the transformative events in her parents' lives. Both came from the South-- her father, Herbert Childress, from Nashville, TN, and her mother, Thomasina Brown, from Concord, NC.The oldest of three daughters, Maxine was fascinated by her parents' stories. She marveled at how they raised a well-respected, middle-class family in the midst of segregation with the added challenge of being deaf. Her parents met in Washington, DC, where they married and settled down. Her fatherworked as a shoe repairman for $65 per week for more than 15 years. A gifted seamstress, her mother gave up sewing to clean houses. Because of their modest means, Maxine and her sisters lived more than modest lives. When Maxine's tonsils became infected, her parents could not afford the operation to have them removed. For her high school prom, her mother bought her a dress on credit because she had no time to sew. Herbert Childress showed great love for his young daughters, but events turned him to bitterness and to drink. Throughout all, Thomasinaencouraged her girls, always urging them to excel. She demanded their honest best with her signature phrase, her flat hand raised from her mouth straight up in the air, "on the beat of truth."

Contents:

On the Beat of Truth

Contents

Foreword

Prologue

Acknowledgments

Brown and Childress Family Trees

1. A Policeman Comes A-Knockin'

2. Herbert Andrew Childress

3. Annie Dublin Nero and Martha Nero Brown

4. Thomasina Brown

5. Maxine

6. Becoming Aware of Things, Part I

7. Silent Herbert

8. Becoming Aware of Things, Part II

9. Social Club and Church

10. Summer with Grandma

11. From Chocolates to Fresh Goat and Pig Meat

12. Crossword Pruzzles and Pearl Bailey

13. The Bench

14. Becoming Aware of Things, Part III

15. The Notebook

16. From Happiness to Misery

17. Asbury Park

18. When Tempers Flare

19. Theodore Beamon

20. Let It Go

Epilogue.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781563685538

1563685531

OCLC:

862418984