World Around You January-February 1997 Table of Contents; Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center, Gallaudet University-

J a n u a r y / F e b r u a r y - 1 9 9 7

Past Peek

Missouri Students Help Host
World War II Leaders

Fifty one years ago this month, students at the Missouri School for the Deaf (MSD) helped their city host two great world leaders. Harry Truman, President of the United States, and Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of Great Britain, visited Fulton, Missouri, where MSD is located.

World War II had ended with the victory of the United States. But even in triumph, Churchill and Truman felt a new danger was arising--the Communist Soviet Union. In Fulton, Churchill used the famous words "iron curtain" to describe the separation between countries under the control of the Soviets and all the rest of the countries in the world. The cold war, which continued until the fall of Communism in the 1980's, was declared.

Taking part in this history, were the students of MSD. MSD boy scouts assisted at the information booths. The MSD campus turned over living space to the Missouri State Guard; MSD boys helped cleaned out the rooms to make them comfortable for the troopers. But perhaps most active--and most excited--were the MSD older girls. Ten of them were selected to serve lunch to Truman and Churchill at the home of the president of Westminster College. Dewey Coats, MSD's deaf woodworking teacher and later vocational principal, praised Churchill as a "master of signs."

Quoted in the Fulton Daily Sun-Gazette as well as the Missouri Record, Coats said: "No one ever applied the language of signs to a greater cause and to greater effect than when Churchill used the 'V' sign... (as) a symbol of undying opposition to Hitler's dream of world conquest."

General comments may be sent to: ISCS.ClercCenter@gallaudet.edu

Missouri Students Help Host World War II Leaders

Missouri Students Help Host
World War II Leaders