The National Black Deaf Advocates was formed in Washington, DC, in 1981. Prior to the organization’s establishment, a group of local Black Deaf people in the District of Columbia met with the Board of Deaf Pride-an advocacy organization for the deaf-and expressed their concerns about problems that the Black Deaf faced in their daily lives. The Black Deaf wanted to have an organization where they could promote leadership as well as share experiences, ideas, talents, and hopes. Another important issue recognized was a lack of leadership in the Black Deaf community nationwide. In the summer of 1980 the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) held a convention in Cincinnati, Ohio, where a caucus of Black Deaf in attendance brought up the issues of the NAD’s refusal to address the concerns of the Black Deaf community, as well as the lack of representation of the Black Deaf as delegates of the NAD.

In the late summer of 1980, soon after the NAD convention had adjourned, Charles Williams, a Deaf African American, came to Washington, DC, to file a class action suit against the National Democratic and Republican Conventions for their refusal to provide a sign language interpreter during televised meetings. At that time, Williams was invited to work with a local Black Deaf committee to plan a mini-conference about the Black Deaf experience. A planning committee came to fruition and a small conference was held at Howard University in Washington, DC, from June 25th to the 26th in 1981. The theme of the gathering was the “Black Deaf Experience” and nearly 100 Black Deaf came to the first preliminary conference. The meeting was very successful and the new organization, the National Black Deaf Advocates (NBDA), was formed. The members decided that conferences would be held annually in different cities. The first national conference of the NBDA was held in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1982.

The first NBDA beauty pageant took place at the 1983 National Black Deaf Advocates Conference in Philadelphia. Ronnie Mae Tyson was crowned the first Miss NBDA.

During the early years of the National Black Deaf Advocates, several chapters were formed-the first one was in the District of Columbia, followed by Cleveland, Philadelphia, New York City, Atlanta, and other cities. In 1997 a newly-formed program called the Youth Empowerment Summit, known as Y.E.S.!, was created to encourage Black Deaf youths to participate in the NBDA and to assist in leadership training.