Waddie Welcome & the Beloved Community

February 25, 2025

Authors Susan Earl and Tom Kohler welcomed allies
across the world in another telling of the Waddie Welcome story. –
They remind us of the who, what, when, where and how of
building the beloved commuity.

Beloved vs Bullies 

Feeling a little lost on the journey toward a more just and welcoming way of life? Feeling like the bullies are getting bigger and badder?  One hundred and one years after his birth, and 20 years after publication, Waddie Welcome and the Beloved Community continues to offer a vision of, and roadmap toward, the creation of a ‘beloved community’… “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. Above all else, it is an idealistic community”. 

the Waddie Welccome Reading only

We have edited out the Introduction and followup commentary – so you can view
Tom & Susan’s presentation without any additional commentary., You can fiew this here, or download the full file

Additional Reading and the PADLET Resource Collection


On Tyrany: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder

Moses of Rovno Characteristics

How to Do a Waddie Welcome Reading

QR code to post photos to the Padlet

Susan Earl

Born in New York City, Susan Earl is a Savannahian by choice. She is a past or present member of 20/20 New York Women Photographers, the Ossabaw Island Project, The Storytellers, The Renegade Readers Book Club, and Wednesday Writers. She is the author of four novels and at work on a fifth.

Tom Kohler


Tom Kohler is a born and stayed Savannahian, having lived here for 71 of his 73 years. Tom served as longtime Coordinator of Chatham Savannah Citizen Advocacy, where he invited hundreds of people who live on “thick ice” into a variety of voluntary personal relationships with people who live on “thin ice.”  Tom has been active in a variety of civic organizations, including Leadership Savannah, The Jim Collins Bar Alumni Association, Emergent Savannah, and Savannah Rocks. He and co-author Susan Earl have
Marsha Forest Centre

 Sponsored by the Marsha Forest Centre and Inclusion Press