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Author Brown, Maxine Childress

Title On the beat of truth : a hearing daughter's stories of her black deaf parents / Maxine Childress Brown
Published Washington, DC : Gallaudet University Press, 2013

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Description 1 online resource (xxvi, 286 pages) : illustrations
Series UPCC book collections on Project MUSE. Global Cultural Studies
Contents Brown and Childress Family Trees -- A Policeman Comes A-Knockin' -- Herbert Andrew Childress -- Annie Dublin Nero and Martha Nero Brown -- Thomasina Brown -- Maxine -- Becoming Aware of Things, Part I -- Silent Herbert -- Becoming Aware of Things, Part II -- Social Club and Church -- Summer with Grandma -- From Chocolates to Fresh Goat and Pig Meat -- Crossword Pruzzles and Pearl Bailey -- The Bench -- Becoming Aware of Things, Part III -- The Notebook -- From Happiness to Misery -- Asbury Park -- When Tempers Flare -- Theodore Beamon -- Let It Go -- Epilogue
Summary As an African American woman born in 1943, the author 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 father worked 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 difficult events turned him to bitterness and to drink. Throughout all, Thomasina encouraged 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."
Notes Print version record
Subject Brown, Maxine Childress -- Family
Brown, Maxine Childress
SUBJECT Brown, Maxine Childress fast
Subject African Americans with disabilities -- Biography
Children of deaf parents -- United States -- Biography
Deaf parents -- United States -- Biography
POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Public Policy -- Social Security.
POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Public Policy -- Social Services & Welfare.
BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / General
African Americans with disabilities
Children of deaf parents
Deaf parents
Families
United States
Genre/Form Biographies
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2012046554
ISBN 9781563685538
1563685531