Deaf President Now!: The 1988 Revolution at Gallaudet University

In March 1988, the students at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., surprised the world by rising up in protest over the appointment of another hearing president. Deaf President Now! reveals the groundswell leading up to that history-making week when the students and other advocates seized the campus and closed it down until their demands were met. The authors conducted more than fifty in-depth interviews with the principals and others, including student leaders Greg Hlibok, Bridgetta Bourne-Firl, Jerry Covell, and Tim Rarus, Gallaudet Board Chair Jane Bassett Spilman, Elisabeth Zinser, the president for two days, and I. King Jordan, Gallaudet's first deaf president.
More telling disclosures in this book reveal the critical role played by a little-known group called the "Ducks." A tight-knit band of six alumni determined to see a deaf president at Gallaudet, the Ducks began formulating their plans for a protest when former President Jerry Lee first announced that he would be leaving, some nine months before the actual revolution. Deaf President Now! details how they guided the student leaders to ultimate success, including an analysis of the reasons for their achievement in light of the failure of many other student movements.