Thirty years after its founding, the Wassmuth Center for Human Rights is celebrating this milestone.
In 1995, three Idaho women admired a traveling Anne Frank exhibit alongside 50,000 other people. Around them, visitors moved through photographs and stories, but there were increasing tensions outside the exhibit hall.
At that time, Idaho was dealing with political division and extremist groups from the northern part of the state, which trickled down south.
But inside the exhibit, a noticeable camaraderie ensued.
Neighbors lingered over photographs. Families read aloud to one another. Strangers stood in silence.
Those observations inspired these women to create something far larger than themselves and the Boise community.
A year later, Rev. Nancy S. Taylor, Leslie Drake and Lisa Uhlmann launched a human rights education nonprofit. In 2002, the Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial opened in Downtown Boise, which became an internationally recognized education park and still remains the only Anne Frank memorial in the United States.
The memorial pairs Anne Frank’s story with quotations engraved in stone from other historical figures such as Frederick Douglass, Eleanor Roosevelt and Mahatma Gandhi.
The mission has expanded beyond the memorial. Human rights education reaches students, teachers and residents across the nation.
Jess Westhoff, education director of the Wassmuth Center for Human Rights, and Christina Bruce-Bennion, executive director, said in a press release that the exhibit helped spark an effort to promote human rights education and build spaces for reflection.
The center will host a block party celebration Saturday to mark its 30th anniversary. It will be held from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at 777 S. 8th St.
The event will feature speeches from Taylor and Bruce-Bennion, which will begin at 1:45, along with a performance from the Common Ground Chorus and art projects for all ages.
“The questions before us now — how to protect what makes us different, keep our histories from disappearing, and create a welcoming community for everyone — are every bit as urgent as the ones our founders faced,” Westhoff and Bruce-Bennion said.
