The College of Charleston’s School of Education, Health, and Human Performance is hosting renowned Civil Rights advocate Dr. Cleveland L. Sanders, Jr. as the featured speaker for the “Changing the Face of Teaching Institute: To Improve Education in South Carolina.” Sellers was the only person arrested in relation to the Orangeburg Massacre. As a result of his experience, he dedicated his life to teaching and promoting civil rights in the classroom. He was pardoned 25 years later, and today is president of Voorhees College.
The Institute will be held Thursday, March 17, 2011, and is designed to build awareness of the need for increased diversity in the teaching profession. The day’s activities include a panel discussion, an open forum and a keynote lecture by Dr. Sellers. These events are free and open to the public.
The panel discussion is an informal discussion involving education professionals regarding their perspectives on the issue of diversity and teaching and the steps we need to take to improve the situation and will be held in the Alumni Center of the School of Education, Health, and Human Performance (86 Wentworth Street) at 9:30 a.m. The panelists include: Fred Washington, Beaufort County School Board chair; Calder Ehrmann, senior associate, Diversity Leaders Initiative at the Riley Institute at Furman and retired vice president for diversity for Michelin North America; Stevan Vincent Harris, teacher at Boulder Bluff Elementary school and the first College of Charleston Volpe Fellow; Dr. John Bello-Ogunu, associate vice president for diversity at the College; and Anthony Dixon, Memminger Elementary principal and graduate of the College of Charleston.
There will be a question-and-answer session with Dr. Sellers at 2:30 p.m. in the Alumni Center of the School of Education, Health, and Human Performance (86 Wentworth Street). It will be a chance for students, faculty and other guests to speak with him in an informal group discussion. Dr. Sellers, President of Voorhees College, is an advocate for human rights and was a renowned activist during the Civil Rights movement.
The final event will be a lecture and reception featuring Dr. Sellers at 4:00 p.m. in the McAlister Suite of the Carolina First Arena (301 Meeting Street). Dr. Sellers will discuss “Education in South Carolina: Past, Present and Future.”
Dr. Cleveland L. Sellers Jr. is currently the president of Voorhees College (Denmark, S.C.), fitting given his long history with the institution. He attended Voorhees from ninth through 12th grades, and the school came of age as he did. Sellers graduate in 1962, the same year Voorhees was accredited as a four-year college. Encouraged by his father, he entered Howard University in Washington, D.C., but left a year later to travel the south and urge African-Americans to stand up for their rights and register to vote. During a march across Mississippi, he formed a special bond with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The day that truly changed Sellers’ life, came in 1968, with the “Orangeburg Massacre,” for which he served 7 months in prison on rioting charges.. During those seven months, Sellers made a life-changing decision: to complete his education and move his civil rights battle to the classroom by educating young people. Sellers completed his bachelor’s degree at Shaw University. He then earned a master’s degree in education from Harvard University and a doctorate in education from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. As a life-long educator, Sellers has served as a speaker, presenter and panelist at numerous conferences around the country.
For more information, contact 843.953.7650.
