#97-04-06
For Release: April 14, 1997
Contact: Peter Bailley

Knox College will present "Different, Not Deficient: A Symposium on Ebonics" on Thursday, April 17 on the Knox campus in Galesburg. The symposium is free and open to the public.

Mary I. Berger, who teaches English as a Second Language (ESL) at Columbia College in Chicago, will lead the symposium. She will hold an informal discussion at 10:30 a.m., Thursday, April 17, in Ferris Lounge, Seymour Union. She will give a workshop at 7 p.m., Thursday, April 17, in Room A-110, Umbeck Science Mathematics Center.

"There are a lot of misconceptions about Ebonics," said Fred Hord, professor of English and director of the Black Studies Program at Knox. "The symposium will present Ebonics as a learning strategy and its connections with standard English, with the goal of moving students farther along in their literacy."

The symposium is coordinated by Knox students Dwight Hamilton, William Hartwell and Anthony Edwards, of Real African Men Standing UP (RAMSU), a campus organization at Knox.

Other co-sponsors of the symposium include The Fellowes Fund for English and the Knox College departments of art, English and Black Studies; student groups Allied Blacks for Liberty and Equality and Islamic Club; and the Galesburg Support Group for African-American Affairs.

Founded in 1837, Knox is an independent, four-year, liberal arts college, located in Galesburg, Illinois, with 1,100 students from 42 states and 33 nations. Knox's "Old Main," a National Historic Landmark, is the only building remaining from the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates.