Jane Elliott will always remember the phone call she received on April 4, 1968, informing her of the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Like many across the US, she was stunned. Even today, discussing Dr. King's death makes her physically ill.
"My whole body reacts to the horror that I felt when I realized that we had killed a man whose only aim was to make things better, not just for people that we call Black … but for people of all kinds on this Earth," Elliott said.
At the time, Elliott, a 34-year-old third-grade teacher in Riceville, Iowa, knew her students would have questions about Dr. King's assassination. She chose to use the tragedy as a teaching moment, to show them the reality of discrimination by segregating them based on their eye color.
"I wanted them to realize that the reason that man (Dr. King) was killed was ignorance and he wasn’t doing something against this country.
He was doing something for this country," she explained.
Elliott continued the "Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes" exercise for years, even appearing on The Oprah Winfrey Show, becoming a highly respected anti-racism educator.
Now 90, Elliott criticizes recent efforts by conservative lawmakers to restrict teachings about race and racism in US classrooms.
"The writings of … Jane Elliott are banned on college or university campuses, and I think that’s the highest compliment I’ve ever been paid," she remarked.
"That’s the best way to convince me that what I’m doing is right."
Decades ago, in a rural Iowa classroom, Elliott knew she was taking a significant risk by teaching an all-White group about race and racism.
Her classroom exercise, where brown-eyed students were favored and blue-eyed students were discriminated against, led to unexpected outcomes.
"Within five minutes, I had changed that group of loving, kind, generous, thoughtful human beings into people who act the way people who are allowed to judge people unfairly on the basis of physical characteristics in this country do every day," she recalled.
Initially intending to conduct the exercise only once, Elliott extended it after overhearing racist comments about Dr. King. Some of her former students have praised the exercise for its positive impact on their lives, and psychologists have lauded its effectiveness in highlighting and reversing racism.
Despite backlash and decreased speaking engagements due to opposition to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, Elliott remains steadfast in her work.
"I’m going to keep on talking and I’m going to keep on refusing to go along with what I know is wrong," Elliott affirmed.
"It started in 1968 and it will not finish until after I’m long gone. Because what I’m teaching is going to live for a very long time … my being will cease to be but words live forever and ideas live forever."