Sounds Like Home
Growing Up Black and Deaf in the South
Mary Herring Wright’s memoir adds an important dimension to the current literature in that it is a story by and about an African American deaf child.
The author recounts her experiences growing up as a deaf person in Iron Mine, North Carolina, from the 1920s through the 1940s.
Her story is unique and historically significant because it provides valuable descriptive information about the faculty and staff of the North Carolina school for Black deaf and blind students from the perspective of a student as well as a student teacher.
In addition, this engrossing narrative contains details about the curriculum, which included a week-long Black History celebration where students learned about important Blacks such as Madame Walker, Paul Laurence Dunbar, and George Washington Carver.
It also describes the physical facilities as well as the changes in those facilities over the years. In addition, Sounds Like Home occurs over a period of time that covers two major events in American history, the Depression and World War II.
Wright’s account is one of enduring faith, perseverance, and optimism. Her keen observations will serve as a source of inspiration for others who are challenged in their own ways by life’s obstacles.
“I decided to write my story because I wanted my children to have a lasting document that chronicled my experiences growing up as a deaf person in Iron Mine, North Carolina. I also decided to write my story for my many deaf friends because my story, in many ways, is also their story.”
—From Mary Herring Wright’s Foreword to Sounds Like Home
“Precious few works have examined the intersection between race and disability…Sounds Like Home is a welcomed illustration of the quiet resolve and considerable accomplishments of working women of all colors and communities. Their efforts grace our lives forever; their stories only infrequently enrich our books.”
—Disability Studies Quarterly
“Wright’s first-hand account opens the door for discussions about the intersectionality of language, culture, and identity. It contributes to growing awareness regarding current gaps in identifying and implementing culturally responsive educational practices that deaf education and deaf studies are now seeking to fill. It also emphasizes the need for diversity among teachers who teach deaf children. Nugget: The intended audience is professionals, educators, and others who are interested in the intersectionality of being Black and deaf. Readers are likely to find commonalities in the roles that race, culture, and geography play in the lives of deaf children in the 1940s and currently in 2022.”
—Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education
Originally published in 1999, Sounds Like Home adds an important dimension to the canon of deaf literature by presenting the perspective of an African American deaf woman who attended a segregated deaf school.
Mary Herring Wright documents her life from the mid-1920s to the early 1940s, offering a rich account of her home life in rural North Carolina and her education at the North Carolina School for the Deaf and Blind, which had a separate campus for African American students.
This 20th anniversary edition of Wright’s story includes a new introduction by scholars Joseph Hill and Carolyn McCaskill, who note that the historical documents and photographs of segregated Black deaf schools have mostly been lost. Sounds Like Home serves “as a permanent witness to the lives of Black Deaf people.”
Mary Herring Wright (1923–2018) grew up in Iron Mine, North Carolina. She began losing her hearing at the age of eight, and was completely deaf by age ten.
In 1935, her family sent her to the North Carolina School for the Deaf and Blind, where she was both a student and a teacher. She then moved to Washington, DC and became a clerk for the US Department of the Navy.
She later returned to her roots in North Carolina and raised a family. Mary Herring Wright was awarded an honorary degree from Gallaudet University in 2004.
She is also the author of Far From Home: Memories of World War II and Afterward.
Mary Herring Wright participated as an informant in the Black ASL Project, which researched the linguistic features that make Black ASL recognizable as a distinct variety of American Sign Language.
