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 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.

The project 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.