American diversity educator. As a schoolteacher, Jane Elliott became known for her "Blue eyes/Brown eyes" exercise, which she first conducted with her third-grade class on April 5, 1968, the day after ...

Jane Elliott will never forget her sister’s April 4, 1968, phone call telling her the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had been assassinated. Elliott, like many people across the US, was shocked.

At first glance Jane Elliott is all grandma: There’s the crown of fuzzy white hair, the wire-framed spectacles, the deliberate but steady gait, and the wisdom lines that punctuate her alabaster face.

The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 prompted educator Jane Elliott to create the now-famous "blue eyes/brown eyes exercise." As a school teacher in the small town of Riceville, Iowa, ...