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Deaf Recreation
[PRUNE PROSE TO AVOID REPEATING THE SAME PHRASES CLOSE TOGETHER] Deaf Clubs were created by Deaf people, in the early 19th century, to provide a comfortable environment for Deaf people to participate in different activities and entertainment that adjusted to their needs. The venues offered a place exclusively for Deaf people to have social interactions with other people of the Deaf community. A space just for Deaf people because they didn't have comparable positive experiences in the hearing world. [CITE] The hearing world didn't offer the same bond as Deaf clubs. CLUBS? helped Deaf people learn about DEAF? culture, but membership was exclusively for white Deaf people. [CITE] Deaf African Americans were secluded from the clubs because segregation was present in schools, which made it much easier to shift to Deaf schools and clubs. [RACE STUFF A LITTLE CONFUSING - YOU NEED MORE DETAIL]

Deaf Clubs
Deaf clubs were the place for Deaf people to come together and socialize. WHEN? WHERE? It was an environment by Deaf people for Deaf people. The clubs were created for Deaf people working in factories until the 1960's, throughout the nation. It was created because Deaf factory workers only saw their friends as they passed through work, on their way home. The new up and coming clubs posted recruitment signs that listed job openings for Deaf people in industrial occupations. A popular Deaf hiring company was the Goodyear Aircraft Company that specialized in war planes and blimps. I DON'T UNDERSTAND THE NEXT SENTENCE. The Government Printing Office supplied government documents, such as public information and federal documents. With a gradual increase in Deaf population, more Deaf clubs opened up and memberships were at its highest peak in the 1940's throughout the 1950's.

REPEATS: Deaf clubs were the place for Deaf people to socialize and relax after a long day at work. Many of the clubs were owned by Deaf people, while others were held in rented facilities because there were not enough funds for an official building. The smaller clubs were usually in cheaper neighborhoods because rent was affordable. The bigger clubs had large halls for different activities, like plays, pageants, sports, and films. Deaf clubs played a big role in creating and keeping the Deaf community together. People would go to a Deaf club after work just to play card games, anything to help them forget about their long hours at work. Deaf clubs were the place to meet other Deaf people and find significant others. The clubs were so popular during the war years that they were open every day and were found all over the United States. Many Deaf clubs opened near factory jobs because it was the average job for Deaf people during WWII. One club in particular, Akron club for the Deaf, was open 24 hours a day all 7 days of the week.[CITE] Ohio had Deaf clubs in every city, and New York City had 12 clubs.

BREAK UP SENTENCE AND ADD DATES: The Deaf community was rising and the memberships??? were increasing, but segregation within the community existed, just like the hearing world, because they worried they'd be too different from mainstream society. There were different clubs for every ethnicity. There was a Jewish and Hebrew club that helped immigrants adjust and conform to the American lifestyle. The National Association of the Deaf was a deaf organization that only gave membership to “any white Deaf citizen", so African Americans had to create their own Deaf clubs. There were African American Deaf clubs in Washington D.C, known as the Capital City Association of the Deaf, and the Blue Jay club in Los Angeles. There were more African American Deaf clubs in Atlanta, Cleveland, and New York City. Deaf clubs began to decline in the 1960’s.

Decline of Deaf Clubs
A [???debate for the fall of Deaf Clubs???] after WWII was blamed on new technology and new job opportunities. Technological advances made the CAPITAL D? deaf community forget about the clubs. What the clubs once offered exclusively for their members, Like the teletypewriter, captioned television, and flashing lights that let people know someone was at the door, was now available to Deaf families in their homes. They didn’t have to keep in contact with friends by going to the clubs anymore because they were now able to communicate with them from their home. This theory isn’t the reason for the decline of Deaf clubs because the teletypewriter was created when the decline had already begun. The teletypewriter was overpriced for the average middle class Deaf family and the decoder that added captions to the television wasn’t invented until 1978. The teletypewriter for telephones became easily accessible in the 1980's, but the decline had been hurting clubs before the inventions emerged. Another theory for the decline of Deaf club memberships was the social and economic status of Deaf people. Their economic success had them moving to the suburbs from the 1940’s to the 1980’s, which lead to a change in the people they acquainted with and the places they chose to visit. A deaf person's job shift from an industrial factory to an educated, professional job led to tensions in the clubs. Professional job holders saw Deaf clubs as a time when Deaf people were forced to do certain jobs and were separated from the hearing world. Deaf people were not allowed to enter the war, so they received employment in industrial factories that helped supply the war. With new job opportunities, a middle class of Deaf people emerged. The new middle class moved away from urban cities to the suburbs, so the clubs tried to revive their memberships by opening new clubs in the suburban towns, but that did not help. Clubs that were once open every day were only opening once a month. The fall of Deaf clubs were also caused by new interpreting and access laws that gave more places for Deaf people to socialize. The networking and social aspect of Deaf clubs, that attracted Deaf people in the first place, was offered by the government through social service agencies. There agencies offered more social events that Deaf Clubs didn’t offer. HARD TO FOLLOW INFO IN THIS PARAGRAPH BECAUSE OF UNCLEAR WRITING.

Deaf Sports
A big contribution to Deaf clubs were sports, but sports also had their own clubs. SPECIFIC SPORTS? There were sport clubs that focused on participation and unity for the community. It was another place for Deaf people to come together and socialize from all over the world. It gave the community a positive image.[CITE] It helped Deaf people see their full potential, instead of the misconceptions mainstream society created; it was a support system. Deaf sports offered a social environment for Deaf people to interact with one another within the team and for those in the bleachers, watching the game. Deaf sports offered leadership roles, political activity, opportunities to travel for tournaments, and friendships.They offered trophies, medals, scholarships for their players and a mark in Deaf history. All these things encouraged people to join and motivated athletes to do better. Being Deaf in sports didn’t change how the game was played. Altercations were made, like adding lights in place of a sound. Flashing lights would be added to a pool for a Deaf swimmer and flags were used to start a game like basketball, volleyball, and soccer, along with other sports. Besides making small adjustments to Deaf sports, a hearing of 55 decibels, on the better hear, was required to join. Some members of the Deaf community wanted to raise the hearing loss to 70 decibels in the better ear so it would be fair to all players, but it did not pass because it would've dropped the number of players and lead to less sport games. ASL was not a requirement to join a sport club because players who didn’t already know would learn throughout the game, but the majority of people at games knew sign language, so Paul D. Hubbard, a football player at Gallaudet College decided to huddle with his team to hide his ASL from opponents. For that, he is credited for creating the huddle in football games. Dummy Hoy, a deaf baseball player, is accountable for inventing the hand signal in baseball games. A number of participants also played a big role in the sports that were offered because they were planned, organized, and played on the communities’ desires. Smaller communities preferred sports that attracted players to join, so the lack of participants reflected the sports offered. Bigger Deaf communities offered a greater variety because it had more participants. Local Deaf sport clubs had three levels of sports that participants could join. The recreational level focused on the social aspect of sports. Because it was about having fun, they allowed mixed teams of men and women. The competitive level, and the most popular, helped players develop their competitive skills to reach higher tournaments. Competition lead to Deaf athletes improving their skills because they want to keep their community alive, but that also lead to pressure to stay in the team because there was already a low quantity of players for each sport. The final level focused on expanding an athlete’s skill and improving their competitive streak. The majority of the players’ goal was to reach regional, national, and international games. This is the only level that had tryouts for a team.

Athletic Association of the Deaf
Every country has a national organization that governs all local sports clubs In the United States, the Athletic Association of the Deaf was created on April 13, 1945 and was the first organization to ban racial discrimination. It is in charge of overlooking all club activities and were the first Deaf organization to ban racial discrimination in sports. The AAAD is a non-profit organization that receives federal funding for their administration, athletic transportation, sports directors, and programs that help improve athlete’s skills, as well as credentials for a coach. The AAAD received help from the Deaf community volunteers and the public to help athletes reach international competitions. The AAAD had 8 regional associations in different states. They held meetings that consisted of sport, business, and social topics. They created rules for local Deaf sport clubs. They also held local clubs accountable for picking winners from basketball and softball games, so they could compete in national tournaments. The local clubs were also responsible for selecting skilled athletes and expanding their skills, so they could compete in national tournaments. Athletes that reached national tournaments were then prepped to compete in the World Games for the Deaf and tried out one year prior to the summer and winter games.

Even with all the success and unity that came from Deaf sports, segregation among white and African American athletes still existed. African Americans were not allowed to join sport teams, but were often offered to play on a team, for money, because coaches knew it would give them a higher chance of reaching nationals. Even though they were offered to play on the team, they still could not become active members. In 1970 Glenn Anderson, an African American basketball player, was offered a position in the Motor City Association of the Deaf, but wouldn’t take the coaches offer unless African Americans were allowed to play in the local bowling team. The coach refused Anderson’s request and revoked his offer to play in the game. Deaf sports helped the Deaf community unite and create a safe space to express their feelings; feelings that couldn’t be express in clubs or classrooms. It was a more relaxed environment for people. Deaf athletes and coaches were praised and given recognition for their accomplishment by receiving a spot in the AAAD hall of fame and the Helms Foundation hall of fame. They also inspired young children and were examples of how successful Deaf people could be.

Deaf Theatre
Deaf theatre was also available in Deaf clubs, and many Deaf schools, across the nation. The most well known and successful theatre club was the National Theatre of the Deaf.