Press Release: June 17, 2008
Contact:  Henry Shelton or Liz Marsis (401) 728-5555

Pawtucket, R.I. — The George Wiley Center is honoring its namesake Wednesday, June 18, with a reception at Local 121 in downtown Providence. Thirty five years after his death in a boating accident, George Wiley continues to be a force for economic and social justice, inspiring others to continue his work.

Wiley, a Rhode Island native with many family members still in the area, was a Syracuse University professor of chemistry who left his academic position to devote his full energies to civil rights through the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Troubled by divisions within the Civil Rights Movement, which was splintering in the mid-1960s, Wiley decided to focus on one compelling problem: the persistence of poverty. The founder of the Poverty Rights Action Center, which became the National Welfare Rights Organization, Wiley worked tirelessly to "get a better shake for people," as he once put it.

Nick Kotz (pictured, right) and Mary Lynn Kotz, authors of an acclaimed 1977 book, “A Passion for Equality: George Wiley and the Movement”, will be at the June 18th reception to talk about George Wiley's legacy.

In recent years, the Wiley Center has focused on fundamental “heat and eat” concerns: access to heat and other basic utilities, universal school breakfast programs, food stamp issues, and outreach to food pantries, continuing George Wiley's example of organizing people to advocate for themselves. The June 18th reception, a fundraiser for the George Wiley Center, will feature a champagne toast and is open to the public (at $75 per person).