Hispanic Cultural Center of Idaho, Nampa
Basque Museum and Cultural Center, Basque Block, Boise
Idaho Black History Museum, Julia Davis Park, Boise
Idaho Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial, 8th Street Cultural District, Boise
Congregation Ahavath Beth Israel, Boise (oldest synagogue west of the Mississippi)
Since 1982 Idaho has noted the Days of Remembrance of the Holocaust in a Statehouse ceremony. Candles are lit not only for the six million Jews killed by the Nazis, but also for the five million Jehovah’s Witnesses, Catholics, homosexuals, disabled, and other people who were exterminated during the Holocaust. 76
Capitol rotunda tribute on Martin Luther King, Jr./Idaho Human Rights Day, Boise
Since 1990 the third Monday of January is the official Martin Luther King, Jr./Idaho Human Rights Day, celebrated throughout the state by diverse peoples.
Today women are active in the political process, including some who serve in the Idaho Legislature. With a quarter of lawmakers in 2001 being women, Idaho ranked 18th nationally in the overall percentage of women in the legislature. Until recently, two of the five justices of the Idaho Supreme Court were women.
Goodbye, Aryan Nations Compound
In the 1970s the white supremacist group known as the Aryan Nations became active in Idaho. Its leader, Richard Butler, moved to Hayden Lake and declared that the five northwestern states were the territorial imperative of white Christians. Although the group was never large in numbers, many of its adherents engaged in criminal activity. Human rights leaders, with the help of lawyers such as Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center and Norm Gissel of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Rights, won a $6.3 million civil judgment against Butler and some of his followers, resulting in the group’s bankruptcy. Human rights advocate and philanthropist Greg Carr, an Idaho native, purchased the property that was awarded to the plaintiffs in the lawsuit and had the buildings on the compound torn down. He then gave the property to North Idaho College in Coeur d’Alene.
Gregory C. Carr, human rights philanthropist
Destruction of Aryan Nations Compound
Carr provided seed money to kick off a fund drive for a human rights center in Coeur d’Alene, as well as funds for the Idaho Human Rights Education Center and the Idaho Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial. Carr also funded a five-year human rights campaign with the Association of Idaho Cities. Mayors and city council members are working to ensure that their municipalities are good places for all residents. There are over 200 listings of human rights groups in the directory published by the Idaho Human Rights Commission.
Cultural and intergroup activities occur regularly from Sandpoint to Idaho Falls. Idaho still has many issues to deal with in the area of human rights, but we have made progress. Thanks go to people like you who take the time to learn about our history so that the mistakes of the past will not be repeated.