who we are

The conference invites young people into a safe forum where teens play a leading role as conference organizers, facilitators and energized participants.  TTAR honors Dr. Lacey’s inspirational leadership and is proud to continue his important community work with this ongoing commitment to teens.

our Goal

The conference is sponsored by the Central Unitarian Church in Paramus, Fairleigh Dickinson University’s Office of Global Learning, and the YWCA of Bergen County whose commitment to eliminating racism and hatred is a core organizational belief. 

encourage leadership and justice making among teens 

our History

our Sponsors

Teens Talk About Racism is in its 23rd year.  Dr. Archie Lacey and his wife, Theodora, have been recognized  for their consistent leadership in Bergen County and in the larger  world.  They led the planning for voluntary integration of the Teaneck Schools in the mid-sixties and provided a voice for tolerance and understanding in their workplaces, their own town, and in their faith community. Dr. Lacey, the first African American male professor to receive tenure at Hunter College, also served as chair of the Department of Education at Herbert H. Lehman College, NYC.  

Born in a small coal mining town outside of Birmingham, Alabama,  Dr. Lacey was  always  an  advocate  of nonviolence.  He and Theadora  worked for voter  registration  in  Alabama,  designed  human relations  workshops for  Bergen  County,  and  initiated  the  Teaneck  North East  Community Organization. After his untimely death in 1986, his family and friends at the Central Unitarian Church (CUC) in Paramus, where Dr. Lacey had been a member since 1965, established Teens Talk about Racism (TTAR). Theadora worked to design the first conference with Rori Kantor, a long time Teaneck community activist along with the Social Justice Committee of CUC to create a safe space for honest and compassionate dialog about race. TTAR is a youth conference which models Dr. Lacey’s consistent encouragement for people to “Stay at the Table” and go beyond talk to living what they believe. 

Fall, 2022, TBD

Live & on Zoom

​9:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.

"​Tell me who you are"



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