About the Addie Wyatt Center

Mission:

The mission of the Addie Wyatt Center for Nonviolence Training (AWC) is to engage and empower communities with the philosophy and methodology of Kingian Nonviolence, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s approach to nonviolent conflict reconciliation.

History:

The Addie Wyatt Center (AWC) was established in 2016 and offers workshops, retreats and other programs on Kingian Nonviolence theory and practice to Chicago-area schools, school communities and youth-serving agencies. Since 2020, our work has expanded with trainings conducted in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Portland, OR, Washington, and Virginia. In 2024, the AWC began operating in Portland, Oregon, where trainings are often conducted with our longtime partner, On Earth Peace.

The Addie Wyatt Center is an outgrowth of the 40th commemoration of the Chicago Freedom Movement held in 2006 and our book, The Chicago Freedom Movement: Martin Luther King Jr. and Civil Rights Activism in the North (University Press of Kentucky, 2016; edited by Mary Lou Finley, Bernard LaFayette, James Ralph and Pam Smith). Each of the four co-founders of the AWC -- Pam Smith, Mary Lou Finley, Sherri Bevel and Gail Schechter – contributed to the book’s development and has a background in some aspect of work in the Movement.