The Wassmuth Center for Human Rights marked its 30th anniversary this weekend, bringing together community members to reflect on three decades of human rights education in Idaho and consider what comes next.

“Thirty years ago, a group of visionaries looked at what Idaho was known for and dared to imagine something different,” said Executive Director Christina Bruce-Bennion. “That vision is very much alive today — in every student who walks through our doors, every program we offer and every conversation we help people have about human dignity. We're proud of what this community has built and we're just getting started.” 

The Wassmuth Center was founded in 1996 as a direct response to a long history of discrimination in Idaho.   

The center is named for Father Bill Wassmuth, a Catholic priest who stood up to the Aryan Nations in North Idaho in the 1980s. 

Wassmuth led the revitalized Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations, whose members fielded anonymous threats. The night of Sept. 15, 1986, white supremacists tried to assassinate Wassmuth by placing a bomb at the back of his parsonage. 

Three more bombs went off in Coeur d’Alene in the weeks that followed, at the old U.S. courthouse, Gibbs Mercantile and Jax Family Dining. A fourth bomb was found undetonated. No one was injured. Three Aryan Nations members were convicted in the bombings. 

Wassmuth went on to leave the priesthood, marry and direct a regional human rights group. He died in 2002, at the age of 61, from Lou Gehrig’s disease. He lived to see a multimillion-dollar civil trial bankrupt the Aryan Nations. 

Today, the Wassmuth Center draws 120,000 annual visitors to the Idaho Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial and welcomes 12,000 more to the Philip E. Batt Education Building, which opened in 2024 in the heart of downtown Boise.

Mary Frances Dondelinger, Wassmuth's widow, said she believes her late husband would be overwhelmed "in the best possible way" to see how the center has grown.

“He spent his life believing that ordinary people, when they choose courage over fear, can change the course of history,” she said. “To see what this center has become, the lives it touches, the conversations it starts, the young people it reaches — I think he'd say that's exactly what he was fighting for. The mission he helped plant here has only grown stronger. That would mean everything to him.” 

The center now offers more than 20 ongoing programs for all ages, including opportunities for international and virtual audiences, 90% of which are free to the public.

“The center has helped generations of Idahoans and visitors alike understand the importance of protecting human dignity, stopping the spiral of injustice and building a community where every person belongs. Boise is a safer and more welcoming city because of this work,” said Boise Mayor Lauren McLean.

    Wassmuth