Students Kalen Tendo and Jordyn Dutko will share their recent research with Archivist Rachel Grove Rohrbaugh on the history of students of color at Elizabethtown College, research showcased in the spring High Library IDEA Lab exhibit, “Preserving the Stories of Etown Students and Alumni of Color.” This exhibition includes oral history interviews as well as information about early BIPOC alumni, influential faculty and staff, student clubs, activism, and much more. The exhibition also features the work of the Elizabethtown Church of the Brethren Racial Justice Working Group including research on Elizabethtown’s history as a “sundown town” that used various methods, including racial covenants, to keep Blacks from living here in the first half of the 20^th century.

Kalen Tendo is a sophomore Legal Studies major. Tendo completed a SCARP project in the Hess Archives in summer 2024 and continues to work in the Hess Archives. Jordyn Dutko is a History and Political Science major and is minoring in Public Heritage Studies. Dutko joined the project in fall 2024 as the Young Center’s Zeigler Fellow.

The lecture is free and open to the public. Contact Archivist Rachel Grove Rohrbaugh with any questions.