In the spirit of the 1960s Civil Rights movement, four graduate students from the University of Illinois will hold a teach-in tonight at 6 p.m. in Lumpkin Hall Room 017.

Like the teach-ins of 40 years ago, the four will talk to students about facts and issues that are not usually found in history books, said Chandra Gill, president of the Black Graduate Student Association at the University of Illinois and one of the presenters.

Specifically, Gill said the teach-in, sponsored by Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, will focus on issues such as the legacy of slavery, the history of the Black Panthers, and the role African-Americans have played in building the United States into the country it is today.

“Blacks have played a critical and vital role in getting stuff done in this country,” she said. “Unfortunately, racism has prevented students from learning about this.”

Gill said the teach-in is very necessary, especially for black students, at a school such as Eastern because of the social climate.

“There’s a lot of racism that takes place here,” Gill said. “I was just called a `black troublemaker’ by someone over at Wal-Mart three weeks ago.”

This mind set extends to Eastern’s classrooms as well, Gill said, as the massive contributions blacks have made to society are strangely absent from the curriculum.

As a result, Gill said, black students “are in a state of apathy because of the things that are being taught.”

Gill said if these students were exposed to influential and important black figures that they could identify with, it would help to break that apathy.

“We’re trying to get black students here mobilized,” she said.

However, Gill said the teach-in is not meant to be exclusively for black students.

“Everyone should feel free to attend, and be willing to learn and grow,” she said.

Educating all students about the issues the teach-in will cover is essential to creating an atmosphere of diversity on campus, Gill said.

“Diversity and mobilization workshops won’t cure the problem,” she said. “If you want to have diversity we have to deal with the factual aspect of this country first.”

Gill said the four do not claim to be experts on the topics they will discuss.

“We’ll just bring the information we’ve researched on, and we can talk with students about it,” she said.