Coeur d'Alene _ The planned conversion of the former Aryan Nations compound into a human rights center was lauded Wednesday by Gov. Dirk Kempthorne, who said the state is making real strides on human rights and tolerance.

The Carr Foundation confirmed that it will turn the Aryans' former home near Hayden Lake into a low-key education center.

There, local business groups, college classes and others could explore the history of civil rights, Nazism, hate and tolerance. Neo-Nazi paraphernalia from the defunct hate group will be displayed in a museum located in the structure that the Rev. Richard Butler used as church, where he preached white supremacy.

Other buildings on the 20-acre site will be demolished, and replaced with a human rights classroom that features a history of civil rights in America.

"The days of the Aryan Nations using this facility as a national headquarters for promoting religious and race-based hatred and violence are over," said Greg Carr, the Idaho native and former Prodigy Inc. chairman who purchased the site through his foundation this week.

"The property's future is to serve as a reminder that justice prevails when it comes to human rights."

Kempthorne used Carr's announcement to also tout Idaho becoming the first state in the West to recognize an African American holiday marking the emancipation of American slaves. The governor was joined at a Boise news conference by supporters who have worked two years to win recognition of Juneteenth National Freedom Day in Idaho.

"Idaho is a beautiful, peaceful place," Kempthorne said. "We welcome diversity, and refuse to allow the beliefs and insensitivity of a few individuals to tarnish our reputation."

Butler's Aryan Nations went out of business last year when a North Idaho jury awarded a $6.3 million judgment to a mother and son who were attacked by the group's armed guards. In a bankruptcy sale last month, Butler lost the compound where he preached hate for more than two decades.

Kempthorne said the transformation of the site joins the newly recognized June 19 holiday as signs that Idaho is moving forward on promoting tolerance -- despite insensitive racial comments about African Americans, Hispanics, Jews and American Indians made by several Idaho political leaders in recent weeks.

"We know that we have challenges," Kempthorne said. "But each of these elements are building blocks as we put together a very strong foundation celebrating the human spirit and the rights of people -- all people."

The Juneteenth National Freedom Day resolution passed both houses of the Legislature unanimously, Kempthorne noted. It recognizes the June 19 date that official word of President Abraham Lincoln's signing of the Emancipation Proclamation reached Texas, finally freeing the last African American slaves more than two years after Lincoln first signed the proclamation. The resolution merely designates and recognizes the holiday; it doesn't close government offices that day.

Juneteenth is typically celebrated by African Americans with family picnics and gatherings.

Tony Stewart, a founding board member of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations, said the transformation of the notorious Hayden Lake site and the recognition of Juneteenth are "two positive steps."

"This is a good day for Idaho and human rights. We have different kinds of days, but this is a good day," Stewart said.

Stewart was picked by Carr to head a local committee that will oversee and administer the new 20-acre human rights center.

"We're still in the planning stages," Stewart said, but many of the details about the new center will be settled in time to announce at a human rights fund-raising banquet in Coeur d'Alene on April 6.

Carr said, "It is in a remote location, so it isn't going to be some sort of place that's open all the time with people coming and going. It's going to be a center that is used by special appointment or invitation."

Displaying the former Aryan Nations' Nazi paraphernalia will help back up the center's message, Carr said.

"I think it's important to recognize that this kind of philosophy, this kind of hate, still exists. Sad as it is, we must admit that, and we must fight against this."

Carr said he first got the idea for the education center from Coeur d'Alene Mayor Steve Judy.

Judy could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Carr's $250,000 purchase of the site was just his latest contribution to human rights in Idaho. He's also funding a five-year human rights campaign by the Association of Idaho Cities, backing the Idaho Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial in Boise, and supporting other efforts.

Last year, Carr's foundation endowed a major center for human rights policy at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.