Global Heroes
St. Francis College hosted dozens of special guests last school year, many with an international impact. Here are just a few of these global heroes.
Jackie Robinson’s Legacy—70 Years after
Breaking the Color Barrier
St. Francis College Professors Sara Rzeszutek (History), Frank Green (Fine
Arts), John Dilyard (management), Emily Horowitz (Sociology), with Provost
Timothy Houlihan and Nobel Prize Winner Leymah Gbowee.
Leymah Gbowee
O C T O B E R 2 5 , 2 0 1 6 — Speaking
at the 5th Annual Dr. Francis J.
Greene Honors Lecture at
St. Francis College, Nobel Peace
Prize winner Leymah Gbowee
(left) urged people to lay down
their misconceptions about others and realize that at the core of most
struggles, people are fighting for the same thing; basic human rights.
Gbowee, who won the Nobel Prize for helping to end the civil war in
Liberia, talked about confronting her own prejudices and the importance
of trusting others when fighting for justice. She said without trust
between different groups, there won’t be the transformational change
that both groups want.
“How do you say ’I care for Black Lives Matter but I don’t care for
gay and LGBT people.’?”
The Honors Lecture was organized by Professor John Dilyard,
Director of the Honors Program. It is named for Dr. Francis Greene,
who taught at St. Francis College for more than 30 years before retiring
as a full-time faculty member. ●
A P R I L 5 — St. Francis College hosted Professor of History
Joseph Dorinson (LIU) for a talk on the legacy of Jackie
Robinson on April 5; part of a borough wide celebration
of Robinson hosted with the Brooklyn Historical Society
(BHS) and National Grid to commemorate the 70th
anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s Brooklyn Dodgers
debut on April 15, 1947.
On the same day, BHS opened a year-long exhibition titled Until
Everyone Has It Made: Jackie Robinson’s Legacy, which tells the story
of Robinson as athlete and fighter for equal rights. That exhibit runs
through June 2018. In addition, National Grid hosted a pop-up exhibition.
St. Francis College students played a big role in the celebration.
Students from History Professor Sara Rzeszutek Haviland’s course on
protest researched the event that changed baseball. After examining
artifacts and other resources at BHS they created the brochure given
out at the exhibition.
“By integrating America’s national pastime in 1947, Jackie Robinson
paved the way for the decades of major civil rights victories that
followed,” said Professor Haviland. ●
Video—https://youtu.be/bMqDHIyrFYs
Video—https://vimeo.com/189007198
Bernard Lafayette
F E B R U A R Y 2 3 — From original Freedom Rider
with now Congressman John Lewis, to a close
confidant and organizer with Martin Luther
King, Jr., civil rights pioneer Bernard Lafayette
has spent his lifetime fighting for justice and
equality through non-violence.
Lafayette said he’s focused his life on
non-violence because that was the subject of
the last conversation he had with Dr. King, Jr.
just a few hours before King was shot and killed.
That non-violence training led him around the world; to Nigeria, where
more than 60,000 former militants laid down their arms; to South Africa;
and to Colombia where Lafayette was kidnapped for a short time by
the FARC terrorist group. He has also started a number of non-violence
training programs in the United States; including in Florida, Texas, and
Green Haven Correctional facility in New York.
“The irony of the thing is I’ve met people who have followed in that
path from Green Have n prison, the results,” said Lafayette, pointing to
St. Francis College Criminal Justice Major Felix Colon ’18 who went
through Lafayette’s non-violence training program while behind bars.
“They say you cast your bread on the water and it will return. I’m looking
at returns and the returns look good to me.” ●
Video—https://youtu.be/hfJ5vF-FoTI
Charter Day—Fr. Patrick Desbois
A P R I L 2 8 — The keynote speaker for St. Francis College’s 133rd Charter
Day convocation was Fr. Patrick Desbois, a French, Catholic priest and
President of Yahad-In Unum, a global humanitarian organization
dedicated to identifying and commemorating the sites of Jewish and
Roma mass executions in Eastern Europe during World War II. His
organization also now works to honor the Catholic Yazidis in Iraq who
were executed by ISIS.
Fr. Desbois said that when people talk about the Holocaust they often
refer to concentration camps like Auschwitz. But he points out that while
1.1 million people were killed at Auschwitz, 2.4 million were killed by
gunfire in small towns and villages across the continent. Many of these
executions were public spectacles where school was cancelled so entire
families could come and watch the Jews being shot and killed.
He says he needs to tell these stories to urge people to stand up to
terror. “Don’t wait for people to act in your place when the planet is
burning. Don’t close your eyes, otherwise, perhaps you will wake up
one day in nightmare” ●
See the full list of Charter Day honorees at www.sfc.edu/news-feed/~post/
charter-day-celebrates-scholarship-20170517
Video—https://youtu.be/1gFav79L8zs
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