About Waddie Welcome & the Beloved Community

“Our purpose is to tell a story. A story about a man named Waddie Welcome. There are five points to make up front. . . . . .This telling of Mr. Welcome's story began as Tom Kohler joined slides and written materials with a reflection written by Susan Earl to create a talk for people concerned about community building, and especially about community building as it is done by people associated with Chatham-Savannah Citizen Advocacy, as Mr. Welcome was. Response to the talks led to this book. You will see Lester Johnson, a citizen advocate, in this story, but this story is bigger than that.

It is the story of Mr. Welcome's eighty-seven years. . . .We would not usually be telling a person's story in such detail; people's lives are private. But Mr. Welcome became in the latter part of his life a public figure and a man who felt his life had a message. Mr. Welcome's great nieces have seen the story and think that it is respectful. This is the story of a remarkable man and the people who surrounded him to make their whole community stronger. It is a life lesson in community building from people who became masterful by doing it. It is a treasure story with amazing photos.”

"The beloved community is not a utopia, but a place where the barriers between people gradually come down and where the citizens make a constant effort to address even the most difficult problems of ordinary people. It is above all else an idealistic community."

— Reverend James Lawson

Reverend James Morris Lawson Jr. (born September 22, 1928) is an American activist and university professor. He was a leading theoretician and tactician of nonviolence within the Civil Rights Movement. During the 1960s, he served as a mentor to the Nashville Student Movement and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Often called “the mind of the movement,” the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., named him the leading theorist and strategist of nonviolence in the world. He remains a staunch defender of human rights.

“When I look at the photographs of Waddie Welcome in this book and see that great grin, I respond in kind. What a legacy! But then - to read the story - the legacy expands into life lessons for us all. Waddie Welcome’s life gives new meaning to the phrase “power to the people.” Power is an intriguing concept, and this story opens up for exploration the power of personal story, the power of personal relationships, the power of prayer, the power of place, the power of persistence and the power of the possible.”

— Connie Curry

Constance Winifred Curry (1933 – 2020) was an American civil rights activist, educator, and writer. A longtime opponent of racial discrimination, she was the first white woman to serve on the executive committee of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Curry’s book, Silver Rights won the 1996 Lillian Smith Book Award for non-fiction.

5 Reasons to use the story of

Waddie Welcome & The Beloved Community

It’s a model for citizens in our communities who are interested in organizing and creating a change on behalf of a person who has been marginalized.

It reminds us all that good human services alone do not make a good life and how important personal relationships are to making a good life.

It highlights the power of ordinary people and sometimes overlooked people.

It is a story about American democracy and calls us back to our real roots of participatory, civic action to make our communities better.

It’s about what a group of people can do when they have a bigger vision for the future and the service system is stuck. It is about what is possible.