Jane Elliott joins Women's History Month events sponsored by HACC-Lancaster Campus
Elliott will talk about her internationally known ‘Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes’ classroom exercise developed to combat prejudice
March 8, 2011
LANCASTER – Jane Elliott, internationally known for a classroom model to fight prejudice, will discuss her efforts during two free appearances this month sponsored by the Multicultural Affairs Office and Student Government Association at HACC-Lancaster Campus.
Both events, which are in celebration of Women’s History Month in March, will be held in the Show Room at the Lancaster Host Resort and Conference Center, 2300 Rt. 30 East.
Elliott will give a presentation from noon-1:15 p.m. Tuesday, March 22, about the challenges and achievements from “Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes,” the exercise she developed to combat bigotry in response to the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. nearly 43 years ago
She also will join a panel of local civil rights activists from 6-9 p.m. for a discussion of “Civil Rights 2011: How Far Have We Come? What Challenges Remain?”
Local panelists will include:
Richard T. Hughes is a nationally recognized scholar on the history of American religion and distinguished professor and senior Boyer fellow at Messiah College.
Ann Durr Lyon of Harrisburg is a lifelong civil rights activist whose father represented Rosa Parks in her challenge to the segregation of buses that launched the 385-day Montgomery Bus Boycott on Dec. 1, 1955, led by King.
Tyrone Powell is a shareholder of Powell Law, P.C. with more than 20 years experience in the counsel and representation of retailers, developers and professionals in real estate lease and contract negotiations, and 2006 recipient of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Legacy Award for public service and the Dauphin County Bar Association’s award for promoting diversity within the profession.
Robert A. Scott, Ph.D., is professor emeritus at the Pennsylvania State University in the Department of Behavioral Science and Education, who knew King during their college days. Scott participated in the historic Lunch Counter Sit-Ins launched Feb. 1, 1960, in Greensboro, N.C.
Ann Van Dyke is a long-time civil rights investigator for the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission and is certified by the U.S. Department of Justice to conduct hate crimes training for police.
“We are grateful for the participation of our local panelists who have worked to eliminate prejudice in Central Pennsylvania and are extremely fortunate to be able to bring Elliott to Central Pennsylvania to share her experiences in combating prejudice,” said Monica Dixon, director of the campus Multicultural Affairs Office. “We also thank the Lancaster Branch of the NAACP and Tyson Foods for additional support.”
“We’re excited to bring Jane Elliott’s powerful message to our HACC students,” said Alicia Hershey, president of the HACC-Lancaster Campus SGA.
Elliott was a teacher in a small, all-white town in Iowa when she began a classroom exercise, “Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes,” that labels participants as inferior or superior based solely upon the color of their eyes and exposes them to the experience of being a minority. She conducted the exercise for 17 years in grades three, seven and eight before moving to larger groups outside the school system including educators at a White House Conference on Children and Youth. She has appeared on several television shows, including Oprah, and her work was documented by PBS/Frontline in “A Class Divided.”
For more information and to register for either event, go to www.hacc.edu and click on “events” then go to March 22 on the calendar.
