Andrew Foster

Andrew Jackson Foster (1925–1987) was an American pioneer of deaf education in several countries in Africa. In 1954, he became the first Deaf African American to earn a bachelor's degree from Gallaudet University, the American university for the Deaf, and the first to earn a master's degree from Eastern Michigan University. He earned a second master's degree from Seattle Pacific Christian College (now Seattle Pacific University), also in education. He founded Christian Mission for the Deaf African in 1956 and set out for Accra, Ghana, where he established the first school for the deaf in West Africa. Early life and education Andrew Foster was born on June 27, 1925, in the small mining town of Ensley, Alabama. In 1936, when Andrew was about 11 years old, both he and his brother contracted spinal meningitis and subsequently became deaf. Following this, Foster was sent to the Alabama School for Colored Deaf in Talladega, where he received up to a sixth grade education. This was largely due to racial segregation still being in effect in Alabama, with Jim Crow laws established that did not allow African Americans to receive more than a sixth grade education. In order to continue his education, Foster moved to Flint, Michigan in 1942, where he lived with his aunt and attended the Michigan School for the Deaf where was able to receive an eighth grade education. He took his high school courses through American Correspondence School while also working in auto factories and restaurants, and attending Detroit Institute of Commerce, where he learned bookkeeping and business administration After the war ended, Foster was encouraged by Eric Malzkuhn, a professor at Gallaudet University, to continue his education by applying there. However, he was rejected several times on account of his race. In 1950, he received a diploma in accountancy and business administration from the Detroit Institute of Commerce, followed by a high school diploma from the American School in Chicago in 1951. It was only after this that Foster was accepted to Gallaudet University with a full scholarship. He was the first African American to attend America's Deaf university, graduating in 1954 at the age of 29 with a degree in education. He later went on to receive two master's degrees: one in education from Eastern Michigan University in 1955, and one in Christian Mission from Seattle Pacific Christian College in 1956.