The Southern Christian Leadership Conference is considering establishing the West’s first Martin Luther King Jr. Conflict Resolution Center in the Denver area as a way to address the region’s increasing inner-city problems.
Charles Steele Jr., the SCLC’s president and chief executive, was in Denver on Wednesday to gauge the level of interest in a center that could train police officers, teachers and community leaders in peaceful conflict- resolution skills.
“The interest is here,” he said. “People are pleading for one. … This takes your community to another level.”
The SCLC is an Atlanta- based civil-rights group founded by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1950s. One of its overriding goals is establishing at least 60 resolution centers around the globe over the next five years to teach the “King- ian” philosophy.
Fifty years ago, King believed nonviolent protest was the best way to address the civil-rights struggle.
Today, leaders of the organization want to take King’s peaceful campaign to the streets, seeing it as the best way to solve inner-city violence.
Already, centers have been created in Dayton, Ohio, and Dimona, Israel. Plans are underway to establish similar centers in New Orleans, Russia and Taiwan.
The centers are intended to train a “cadre of conflict- resolution specialists who can be deployed into the community to offer training to churches, community- based organizations and other organizations,” according a statement by the SCLC.
“We are here to bring about the further establishment of Martin Luther King’s theory,” Steele said. “We are taking it around the world. We want Denver, Colo., to be one of our international cities because of the strategic location.”
Steele said he is looking for donated space, “like a school or a library. If they could just provide us with the space, we would bring in the training.”
Wendell Pryor, director of the Colorado Division of Civil Rights, welcomed the plan.
“It’s a very positive move,” he said. “I am certainly supportive of it and am interested in cooperating in any way we can.”
A spokeswoman for Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper said the center could be a big help. “Any city would be fortunate to have one of these centers,” said Lindy Eichenbaum Lent. “We are delighted that Denver is being considered. Preventing youth violence is one of our top priorities, and we would welcome the assistance and expertise of an organization like the SCLC, whose reputation and history of accomplishment are internationally renowned.”
Steele met with the Rev. Acen Phillips of Mount Gilead Baptist Church, who is leading the effort in Denver to establish a center. Phillips announced the plans Wednesday at a news conference connected to a June 20 shooting in Aurora that killed two Colorado State University students.
“We cannot have crime run rampant and not have a world view about it,” Phillips said. “What is happening here … is typifying what’s going on in the world today. People of goodwill of every walk of life must come together to put crime down.”
Stephen Nash of Denver Copwatch, which has been critical of the Denver Police Department, said he would welcome the SCLC center.
“We get a lot of input from TV that makes it look like violence is an appropriate way to solve issues,” he said. “Right now, our own government thinks war is the way to solve problems. It would be nice to have some people who know what they are doing … working on ways to solve problems without violence.”
Staff writer Jeremy Meyer can be reached at 303-820-1175 or jpmeyer@denverpost.com.
