For more than a century, the Phyllis Wheatley Community Center in Minneapolis has been a place to help members of the African American community navigate life.

"Phyllis Wheatley has always been that pillar within the community where people can always go and get whatever, as my grandmother would say, whatever ails you, we can help you with it," said Armondo Dickerson, the center's managing director of operations and program.

Phyllis Wheatley opened as the first settlement house for Minneapolis' small-but-growing Black community. It offered services other settlement houses did not.

It was a boarding house for Black college students blocked from living at the University of Minnesota dorms. And it also housed Black luminaries, including W. E. B. Du Bois, Marian Anderson and Langston Hughes, who could not stay in Minneapolis hotels.

"Where could I go that I knew I could make it home or I make it to my destination? And so Phyllis Wheatley was one of those stops in Minnesota," Dickerson said.

The Phyllis Wheatly House was listed in the Green Book.

"In the 40, 50s, we couldn't just stop at a gas station, we couldn't just stop at a restaurant, so this Green Book gave us a guide of where we could go where it was safe, we could get food, we could get shelter," he said.

Dickerson says not only was Phyllis Wheatley a safe haven, but it has and continues to be a social and cultural center. 

In the 50s, Prince's father, John L Nelson, played there with his jazz group, the Prince Rogers Trio.

Music and music education are a big part of this century-old organization, according to Kimberly Caprini, the center's Quality Parenting Academy Program manager. She also has great memories of time spent at Phyllis Wheatley and the trips outside the community.  

"I have memories of swimming in the pool of course, coming here for afterschool activities," Caprini said. "I do recall going up to Camp Parsons."

For more than 40 years, generations of Northside youth spent summers at Camp Katharine Parsons. For most who went, it was their first time out of the city, and their first time immersed in the majesty of nature.

"I can remember being walked down to the water and they said, 'Keep your eyes closed,' and then when we opened them. I had never seen so many stars in my life and I literally just screamed because to me it was just like unreal," she said.

There is a push to restore Camp Parsons so future generations can understand the healing powers of the outdoors. 

Phyllis Wheatley is working to make sure it keeps the organization's founding principles at the forefront, all while creating new opportunities for the future. 

"If the family units are together, we have a community of strong families, strong children, strong communities," Dickerson said.

Partnerships are important, and because of them, Phyllis Wheatley offers programs that focus on family restoration, health and wellness. It also offers a DigitalTech Works Academy, Mary T. Wellcome Child Development Center, Wheatley eSports Club and Quality Parenting Academy — keeping Phyllis Wheatley Community Center relevant for another century.

"The goal is to continue to do that good work and make an even bigger impact going forward," she said.

Phyllis Wheatley Community Center is planning to celebrate its centennial with a gala on April 11.