Senator Moses Clapp was an Advocate for the Deaf

I recently stumbled across an interesting fact about Moses Clapp. In addition to being a tireless advocate for the rights of women, black people, and American Indians, he also supported deaf people. In A Place of Their Own: Creating the Deaf Community in America, author John Van Cleve explains that “Minnesota Senator Moses E. Clapp proposed as well that the federal government create a ‘bureau for the deaf and dumb’ in the United States Department of Labor.

Clapp was such a strong civil rights advocate that one newspaper headline referred to him as “Friend of the Negro”, clearly intended as a slur.

You can find more info about the A Place of Their Own at Amazon.com.