12/02/2025
"The most accomplished deaf lady of her race in America."
In 1926, the newspaper The Silent Worker wrote this about Blanche Wilkins Williams. She was the first Black, Deaf woman to graduate from the Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf here in Faribault. She graduated at the top of her class in 1893.
However, Gallaudet University, the only national university for Deaf students at the time, refused to accept her because of the color of her skin. Williams headed to North Carolina to teach at their “School for the Colored Deaf and Blind” and later became the first Black Deaf person to serve on the Executive Committed of the National Association of the Deaf. She ended her career in Chicago where she continued to work in factories, teach young Deaf and Black children, and advocated for the Deaf community.
