Mary Wyatt, who forged unity among races in Amherst, dies at 96
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Mary Pittman Wyatt, a pioneer in bringing people of various races and religions together in Amherst and a promoter of social justice and tolerance, died last week.
Wyatt, who inspired the Amherst community to gather once a year to honor the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., passed away Nov. 21 at the Hadley at Elaine Care and Rehabilitation Center. She was 96.
Richmond Ampiah-Bonney, who has helped organize the King breakfasts in recent years, said Wyatt was a pillar of the community.
"Though we mourn her departure, we also rejoice in a life so well-lived in dedication to bringing together peoples of all races and religious persuasions," Ampiah-Bonney said.
At the forefront of this was the annual celebration Wyatt co-founded to appreciate King through music, speeches, scholarship awards and a meal. She had attended King's "I Have a Dream" speech in Washington, D.C., in 1963.
Prior to the 25th celebration in 2009, Wyatt said the breakfast had become an important tradition because it unifies the community.
"It's really working with people, talking with people and meeting various areas of concern with people," Wyatt said. "You'd be surprised at how much persons get out of talking."
Reynolds Winslow, chairman of the town's Human Rights Commission, said the event has been drawing in excess of 500 people, representing a wide cross-section of Amherst and surrounding towns.
"For the past 27 years of the event, it has been a focal point of bringing the community together to recognize a national hero and helping to change attitudes of tolerance, heal racial divisions and stimulate protests for social justice," Winslow said. "She helped Amherst in all those needs, among many others."
Wyatt's consciousness of race issues developed early in her life, she told the Daily Hampshire Gazette in an interview several years ago, in part because her grandfather, an escaped slave who used the Underground Railroad and later built a home in Greencastle, Ind., told her many stories of life in the Civil War-era South.
Her love for singing - she regaled the King breakfast crowds almost every year - also grew out of her childhood, she said, as her father repaired instruments at a music conservatory and she began studying voice and violin.
She went on to earn a bachelor's degree in sociology at the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical University in the early 1940s.
In the 1960s, she got caught up in the civil rights movement, participating in the march on Washington. She said she was so moved by King's address that she later joined in the push for integration in Baltimore, where she was then living. Many public facilities there remained segregated.
After divorcing her husband, she came to Massachusetts, where she had relatives, and worked for the Northampton city schools and then as a parole officer in Springfield. She was later employed by the Hampshire Community Action Commission.
Louise Minks, a Leverett artist, got to know Wyatt well while doing a series of portraits of 10 important African-Americans, both contemporary and historical, who had lived or spoken in the area.
When doing Wyatt's portrait, she found they shared a common bond of having grown up in Indiana.
"Talking with Mary about living in Indiana was always a treat for me," Minks said. "We talked at length while I painted her portrait in 1993."
Ampiah-Bonney said Wyatt was recognized locally for her vision, including earning a Janet and Winthrop Dakin Community Service Citation for contributions in the area of human services from the Amherst Area Chamber of Commerce in 2007.
In her acceptance speech, Wyatt spoke of King, the need to work for all people to improve society and the MLK Breakfast Committee's efforts to help students attend college by giving out scholarships. She closed her speech by singing "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands."
She also led a delegation of youth at the Wesley United Methodist Church, when it was still located in Amherst, that sent a petition to the national Methodist organization that eventually led to a resolution prohibiting members from belonging to the Ku Klux Klan and other hate groups.
One of Wyatt's most well-known quirks was never revealing her age. She once told a reporter that she was "not 100," but declined to be more specific.
Ampiah-Bonney said Wyatt's last years were spent at the nursing home where her vibrant nature, strong principles and friendliness endeared her to staff and fellow residents.
He recalled Wyatt's reaction to the 2008 presidential election, when Barack Obama became the first black citizen to hold the highest office in the land.
"On the night that our current president, Mr. Obama, was elected, Mary paraded the hallways of the facility, singing the 'Battle Hymn of the Republic' and 'We Shall Overcome' and other similar songs," Ampiah-Bonney said. "Soon the other residents and some staff members joined in what became a victory celebration."
