User:Smkolins/Sandbox6

The Baha'i Faith and African-American history as the process and sometimes struggle to apply its teachings of the oneness of humanity.

Abolitionists, Civil War veterans, ex-slaves and free people, and descendants

Around 1900 there were some 76 million Americans, and about 1000 Bahá'ís. That means Bahá’ís were around 0.001% of the American population. About 1 million veterans of the Civil War were living in 1900. So there should be roughly 5 veterans of Union side who could have encountered the religion to join it; none are yet known among Confederate soldiers. There were about 9 million blacks in America. We seem to know about most of the veterans but not most of the blacks who joined the religion. As of 2019 some 41 individual blacks have been documented to have identified as Bahá'ís by 1921. This up from an 1936 estimate of 26 done via a survey.^p205 Short biographies of many of them were published in The Bahá’í Faith and African American History: Creating Racial and Religious Diversity in 2018 which followed previous work in Lights of the Spirit: Historical Portraits of Black Bahá'ís in North America, 1898-2004 and is supplimented by Champions of Oneness: Louis Gregory and His Shining Circle. Original work in the area was included in Gayle Morrison's To move the world: Louis G. Gregory and the advancement of racial unity in America, and Robert H. Stockman's initial books on American Bahá'í history, published in the 1980s. A roughly chronological order of them identifying as Bahá'ís is:

1. Robert Turner
2. Olive Jackson
3. Pocahontas Pope
4. Louis G. Gregory
5. Mrs. Andrew J. Dyer
6. Alan A. Anderson, Sr.
7. Louise Washington
8. Harriet Gibbs-Marshall
9. Coralie Franklin Cook
10. Millie York
11. Nellie Gray
12. Rhoda Turner
13. Edward J. Braithwaite
14. Alonzo Edgar Twine
15. Susan C. Stewart
16. Leila Y. Payne
17. Hallic Elvira Queen
18. Alexander H. Martin, Sr.
19. Mary Brown Martin
20. Sarah Elizabeth Martin (later Periera)
21. Lydia Jayne Martin
22. Alice Ashion [Green]
23. Elizabeth Ashton
24. John R. Ashton
25. Mabry C. Oglesby
26. Sadie Oglesby
27. Beatrice Cannady-Franklin
28. William E. Gibson
29. Mary Joyce
30. Rosa L. Shaw
31. George W. Henderson
32. Zylpha Gray Mapp
33. Annie K. Lewis
34. Alain Locke
35. Georgia M. DeBaptiste Faulkner
36. Roy Williams
37. Amy Williams
38. Felice LeRoy Sadgwar
39. Dorothy Champ
40. John Shaw
41. Caroline W . Harris

Thorton Chase

Main article: Thornton Chase

Thornton Chase (February 22, 1847 – September 30, 1912) was a distinguished officer of the United States Colored Troops during the American Civil War, and the first western convert to the Bahá'í Faith.

Chase was born in Springfield, Massachusetts to parents of English background and Baptist religion. After being schooled for college by Rev. Samuel Francis Smith he instead enrolled as an officer in the American Civil War serving with two regiments of United States Colored Troops, the 26th and 104th mostly in South Carolina, where he was wounded. For his service Chase was included on the Wall of Honor of the African-American Civil War Memorial completed in 1997. After the war he worked as a businessman, performed as a singer, and was published as a writer of prose and poetry while living in several states after leaving Massachusetts. He married twice and fathered three children.

Long a seeker in religion, when he was nearly 50 he joined the Bahá'í Faith in 1894-5 – almost as soon as possible in America – and is recognized as the first convert to the religion of the western world. After having organized concerts and businesses in his earlier days, he advanced the organization of communities of the religion especially in Chicago and Los Angeles, serving on early assemblies and publishing committees, the first national attempts at circulating news and guidance for the religion, and an elected national council. He also aided in the founding of other communities, gave talks for the religion in many places including Greenacre in Eliot, Maine, in the northeast and Seattle in the northwest, and authored early books on the religion including an account of his Bahá'í pilgrimage in 1907 and an introductory review of the religion in 1909. During his journeys to the West, `Abdu'l-Bahá, then head of the religion, singled Chase out and identified his gravesite as a place of religious visitation. Ultimately Chase was named a Disciple of `Abdu'l-Bahá. Collections of his papers began, posthumous articles by him were published, biographical articles about him appeared and his place in the history of the religion in America was contextualized. In 2002 a full biography on Chase was published by Robert H. Stockman and websites have had entries about him since.

While we know the most about Chase’ Civil War service among all Bahá’ís, he is not the only veteran who came to the Faith. Another we know some about was Nathan Ward Fitzgerald. While Chase had his own complicated history, Fitzgerald and others of his family served in Indiana-based infantries, and after the war became involved in the government’s pensions system, fell to the political intrigues of the day, and eventually was despondent of all things until he was galvanized by the Bahá’í Faith. It dug deep into his roots recalling his mother’s fervor as a Millerite. Despite being somewhat untutored in the teachings of the religion his enthusiasm and skills as an orator lead to the establishment of the Faith in America’s north west.

Robert Turner

Robert Turner is recognized as the first African American Bahá’í in God Passes By, and named a Disciple of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá by Shoghi Effendi, head of the religion during the earlier 20th century. Turner was probably born in 1855 into slavery in Virginia.

By the 1870s Robert lived in California, where he was employed by the Hearst family as a butler and steward. He worked for both George and Phoebe Hearst for thirty-five years. When George Hearst passed in 1891 Robert and his wife were specially invited to the funeral by Phoebe.

Robert first heard of the Bahá’í Faith while accompanying Phoebe on a trip to Paris when Lua Getsinger visited Phoebe and spoke about the religion. He listened to Getsinger while serving tea, and remained to hear her talk, and both Phoebe and Robert became Bahá’ís in July or August 1898 after returning to California from a trip to see 'Abdu'l-Bahá in Palestine.

In 1898 Phoebe funded the Pilgrimage of the the first Western Bahá’í Pilgrim group, which consisted of fifteen Bahá’ís, including both herself and Robert Turner. The Pilgrims departed the United States on September 22, 1898 and arrived in ‘Akká on December 10 the same year.

As ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was still a prisoner of the Ottoman Government the pilgrim group could only visit him in small numbers, and they visited him in three smaller groups. Robert met with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá on December 10, 1898. He initially waited outside the room where the pilgrims met with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, feeling that he was not worthy of meeting him, but ‘Abdu’l-Bahá left the room to meet Robert and embraced him. He met with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá again on February 17, 1899 before returning to America.### add comment of Richard Thomas…

Robert remained a faithful Bahá’í after returning to America from Pilgrimage, when several other early Bahá’ís either left the Faith or supported Covenant-breaking. He wrote that he "refused to let the world throw dust in his eyes."

In 1909 Robert fell ill and became bedridden. Ali Kuli Khan visited him while he was ill, and reported his condition to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, who sent a Tablet in reply. A provisional translation of the Tablet prepared by Khan:

"Convey wondrous Abhá greetings to Mr Robert, the servant of that honorable lady, and say to him: ‘Be not grieved at your illness, for thou hast attained eternal life and hast found thy way to the World of the Kingdom. God willing, we shall meet one another with joy and fragrance in that Divine World, and I beg of God that you may also find rest in this material world."

Robert reportedly recited the Greatest Name as his illness became worse, even when he became delirious. Ali Kuli Khan donated a Bahá’í burial ring-stone after Robert's passing, which Robert was buried with in Colma, California.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá‎ revealed a Tablet in Robert's honor after his passing. An excerpt of a provisional translation:

"As to Mr Robert (Turner), the news of his ascension saddened the hearts. He was in reality in the utmost sincerity. Glory be to God! What a shining candle was aflame in that black-colored lamp. Praise be to God that that lighted candle ascended from the earthly lamp to the Kingdom of Eternity and gleamed and became aflame in the Heavenly Assemblage. Praise be to God that you adorned his blessed finger with the ring bearing the inscription: ‘Verily I originated from God and returned unto Him’ … This too is a proof of his sincerity and that in his last breath, he breathed the Alláh-u-Abhá, whereby the hearts of those present were impressed."

He is burried at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park Colma, San Mateo County, California.

Olive Jackson

Very little is known of Jackson - she was recognized as a Baha'í in New York in later 1899. She was born in about 1875 in Virginia, probably the daughter of slaves. She is listed as marrying Lewis Meritt in October 1894, but may have been divorced by 1900 - she was listed as a single lodger (zero years married) at a building on W. 30th St. and as a dressmaker, though then unemployed, on the 1900 Census.

Nathan Ward Fitzgerald

Nathan Ward Fitzgerald (March 4, 1844 - February 6, 1924) volunteered to serve in the Indiana 132d infantry which served for 100 days, as a private in Company A. Later he earned a degree, and by 1875 was a lawyer specializing in military pensions, and began publishing or editing journals. and became partners with Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll, a well known agnostic of the period.^p195 Fitzgerald was soon bought out of the pension service business. Shortly after having left legal practice Fitzgerald suffered the loss of one his daughters in 1888^p195, and his mother by 1890. All his elder siblings had passed by this time.

Fitzgerald was in Washington D.C. by late 1901, and in the winter between 1901 and 1902 he first encountered the Bahá'í Faith.^p195 The Washington DC, Philadelphia and Baltimore Bahá'í communities trace their origins back to Charlotte E. Brittingham Dixon and it is possible she introduced Fitgerald to the religion.</ref> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá limited presenting the religion in Washington D.C. at the time.^p135 By January 1902 Fitzgerald had joined the religion, and began to be known regionally for his speaking ability promoting the religion.^p195 His view of the religion was influenced by his mother's experience with the Millerite expectations and explored prophecies of the apocalypse often in his writings on the religion. Around early 1904 Fitzgerald took up residence in Tacoma, Washington, and around late 1904 or early 1905 he went on pilgrimage to Palestine.^p196 Thornton Chase noted that on March 19, 1905, Fitzgerald visited Chicago and spoke about his pilgrimage, staying for a few days. Fitzgerald knew his understanding of the religion was limited and as of 1906 he was giving people cards addressed to the Chicago Bahai House of Spirituality for them to seek further information. That year eighty-seven people requested information from the House of Spirituality with sixty-two being from Portland, ten from Walla Walla, two from Seattle and thirteen from elsewhere.^p199 Portland Bahá'ís regard this effort as the establishment of the Faith in the area. Some notable Bahá'ís were introduced to the Faith by Fitzgerald in 1906. Fitzgerald's life as a Bahá'í has been called "audacious" and "colorful".^p194 He was one of the 108 Bahá'ís to go on pilgrimage before 1912, among the six most noted for traveling highly for the religion, and noted as one of the teachers of the religion who had died prior to 1944.

John Wilson Gift

John Wilson Gift was the first Bahá'í of Peoria, Illinois. Gift was born in Salona, Centre County, Pennsylvania. He joined the Iowa Volunteers and was rose to the rank of captain in the 12th Iowa Volunteer Infantry Regiment. Most of the 12th was captured during the Battle of Shiloh, April 6-7, with most captured at the Hornet’s Nest. Gift was a prisoner of war for 7 months. He built a businness and fortune across the 1870s in milling living in various states. Gift and partners also established the Peoria Cattle Company in 1883. The family worshipped at the St. Paul German Reformed Church. His first wife died, and in 1901 Gift began writing of biographies of several fellow soldiers. Gift served in the Regiment’s reunion organization across 1880-1903, appeared at several meetings, and was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States veteran groups. The Gift “mansion” (three story house with a castle turret) was built in 1890, had electricity, forced air central heat and tiled bathrooms - and was restored circa 2007-2013. Gift learned of the religion in 1915 and soon he met Dr. Zia Bagdadi and Albert Vail who spoke often in 1916 in Peoria on the religion. He reached out to Maye Harvey after learning she was a Bahá'í in the area and may have heard of her through the mutual interest in philanthropy. John’s two sons died in 1924, and he died in 1927.

Others

We know of a few more Civil War veterans who found the Bahá’í Faith. John C. Ruddiman was also among the first wave of Bahá’ís in the United States going through the same kind of classes on the religion Thornton Chase went through and, also like Chase, served in the Civil War out of New York though when he come to the religion he and his wife were living in Kansas. Oscar S. Hinckley was a Civil War veteran who had also been injured in the war. He was disabled, living on a government pension, and served on the precursor to the local Spiritual Assembly in Chicago from January 1902 until September 1906. Another early Bahá’í, Arthur Pillsbury Dodge, served in the Civil War as a drummer boy in the regiment from New Hampshire under the command of his father, Colonel Simon Dodge.

Immediate Descendents and 19th Century connections

Sarah Farmer

Further information: Green Acre Bahá'í School

Beyond those who were themselves were in the Civil War and joined the religion, there are those who had family directly related to the issues and realities of the Civil War. Perhaps earliest is Sarah Farmer who found the Faith in 1900. Farmer’s mother, Hannah Tobey Shapleigh Farmer, (1823-1991), was an abolitionist. Farmer saw to it that Green Acre hosted a meeting of Civil War vets in 1906.

Eva Webster Russell

Eva Webster Russell (September 1856 - July 1914) was an early Bahá’í close to Frederick Douglass. She seems to have lived most of her life in Chicago. She finished high school in 1875, already active in art, and did exhibitions, while also working in various schools.

It was in May 1877 that Webster finished a portrait of Frederick Douglass, and exchanged letters with him. appears to be she was kin of Douglass' long time friend Martha Green. The evidence being: her mother's maiden was Greene, she appears to be a distant cousin (sharing great grandparents) of a Martha Greene, one Webster mentions as a mutual friend and a Martha Green who was a long time family friend of Douglass, and Webster mentions seeing Douglass upon the death of her mother.

In anticipation of the Chicago Exposition of 1893 an association of women's groups was formed in January 1891 - the Queen Isabella Association - with Webster, now married, one of six local women serving the association. A month later she was treasurer of the association. The association saw itself in the context of the new millennium and century as the "New Woman". Chapters were opened in other cities and attracted professional women aiming to work their life outside the home. The association sponsored a meeting of black women lawyers in August 1893. The association had fought to lead the presence of organized women showing at the Exposition, but lost to the more traditional Board of Lady Managers who were seen as wealthy socialites rather than business women.

In 1893-4 she also carried on some correspondence with Frederick Douglass again After the Exposition, in December 1893, she was noted among those artists supporting a relief fund for the poor, and other exhibitions, and teaching.

Chicago was an early center of the religion in the United States. It is not known when Webster encountered the Bahá'í Faith. Webster is listed at the same address as another early Bahá'í, Susan Moody,{fact}} in 1900 in the US Census. Webster photographed a group of early Bahá'ís about 1905. At the time she rented, (listed as a drawing teacher,) a home with Bahá'í Dr. Susan Moody and had a lodger in the person of Bahá'í Ameen Fareed. Webster and Moody received tablets from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in March and April 1906 and in December Webster, Beatrice Davies and Moody were among 15 named in another. Webster also took a picture of women Bahá'ís in 1909 - Shahnaz Waite, Christine Loeding, Luella Kirchner, Laura Jones, Ida Brush, and Jean Masson. Webster became public about her religion in 1908 when Linné, Moody, and Harrison, along with others, had newspaper stories printed about them in Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina, and Kansas noting their religion and their dedication to raising the first House of Worship of the West. In March 1909 she assisted at the new year meeting of Bahá'ís in 1909, and took some pictures of Bahá'í events and individuals visiting the land that would later host the Bahá'í House of Worship. In June 1911 it was announced Webster would be host and teacher for Persian art student Ghodsea Ashraf. Indeed Ghodsea was front page news in Philadelphia. The study was to last 4 years. On November 2, 1912, Webster hosted a meeting at her home for ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, at which Dr. Moody and some relatives attended and that evening he attended an interracial meeting, on ‘Abdu’l-Bahá's return to the east coast.

However in March 1915 it was announced that Webster had died in July 1914, aged 57 years, in Fernandina, Florida, attended by a nurse who wrote of her faith in the religion. Her estate had been settled in November. She would have been interred, if there, in the now old section of the Bosque Bello Cemetery. The closest present Bahá'í community in the area today would be the Bahá’ís of Jacksonville, Florida, a community founded in 1919.

Agnes Parsons

Agnes Parsons' father was a Civil War general who’s gravesite `Abdu’l-Bahá also visited, in Arlington Cemetery.

Claudia Coles

Claudia Coles' father was a Civil War vet.

Elizabeth Carpenter

Elizabeth Carpenter's father served in the Civil War.

Pocahontas Pope

Pocahontas Kay Grizzard Pope (~1864-1938) was born, raised and married in North Carolina. Her Mother was Mary…

^{pp. 209–210}

Pocahontas then married John W. Pope on Dec 26, 1884. She was recorded as 18 yrs old and he was 26. John W. Pope had been a teacher and was just promoted to be principal of a school in Plymouth, NC, at $50/mth and would serve there into 1886. He had been there since at least 1883. Before that John was known in republican politics in the region and struggling with racism. While at Scotland Neck, Pope was known to play organ for the school graduation ceremony in 1887 and read a paper. That autumn John looked to be continuing there, however he did not. In 1890 John served in the state republican convention. In later November, 1892, John wrote for a group to celebrate Emancipation coming up in January 1893.

In July 1895 Pope was part of a committee arranging a lawn party in Rich Square, for the benefit of an AME Church. In December 1896 John was one of the managers of a fundraiser for the Rich Square AME Sunday School. John offered a presentation at the Rich Square emancipation celebration in January 1897. The principal for the Rich Square Academy, who had been with the school at least since 1894, died in February. From at least April 1897 through the spring of 1898 John was principal of the Rich Square Academy, and identified as a minister and was soon a visible leader of the community as well. In May 1897 he assisted the local newspaper on a column covering information of interest to colored people, and also gave instruction for local teachers lasting about two months. In December he performed a wedding. In January 1898 the Popes hosted NC Representative George H. White. In April John gave a speech on the “progress and achievement of the negro race” at a gathering of thousands. In May he was elected a commissioner for Rich Square.

However statewide politics and society became more dangerous for blacks in 1898 with violence and a coup in Wilmington, the establishment of white supremacy practice with Jim Crow laws and general disengranchisements. From the Spring of 1898 the Popes were known living in Washington, D.C.; initially John had a job in the Register of Deeds office though some hoped for his return in the fall, instead another person was named principal there. Pocahontas Pope did return in the fall of 1899 to support the Rich Square Academy. It would struggle on through a number of reorganizations and attempts to sell it though it continued into 1910. The 1900 US census places the Popes in DC as boarders of the African-American Frank D. Allen family, (there are other mistakes though - John’s name for James, listed as married 14 years but it would have been closer to 17 years while on the other hand it correctly identifies John’s job as for the government.) Allen died in 1904.

Pope participated in the scholarly discussions of the day in a number of events and both took leadership actions. In May 1900 she was among the respondents to criticism of the progress of blacks in the newspaper by Charles Dudley Warner, and in July she was in the Baptist Lyceum educational fair even to presenting a paper of her own on race relations that earned her a positive reputation. Pope was an officer of the 1901 lyceum, and both Popes were officers of the next lyceum in the summer of 1902. Meanwhile John earned a raise at the Census office, and helped honor George H. White's retirement from Congress. In the winter of 1901-2 John was let go from the Census office but moved over to the federal government printing office. In 1905 Pocahontas was on the committee pledged to meet with the city school board for introducing black history in the public school curriculum, and John was part of a delegation meeting with President Theodore Roosevelt urging a position for ex-Congressman George H. White.

Pocahontas or both continued to take trips back to Rich Square some years. The Popes moved the Spring of 1903 to 1300 Florida Ave NE.

In November 1902 Pauline Knobloch Hannen joined the Bahá’í Faith.^{pp. 137, 224–6} She had been born in DC, raised in Wilmington, NC, and lived again in DC some years, joining the religion only a few years after its introduction there in 1898, and only some months after Mírzá Abu'l-Fadl came to the city. The community’s most lasting impact was its success in reaching black Americans and much of the credit for that success was attributed to Joseph and Pauline Hannen, and particularly to Pauline’s initiatives. Pope joined the religion in 1906 - she was the first black Bahá’í of Washington, D. C. Her inquiry to the religion thus would have been between 1902 and 1906, the period of much of her scholarly efforts and activism. Pope had been employed as a seamstress of a sister of Pauline's and held Bahá’í meetings in her own home including talks by Lua Getsinger and Hooper Harris while other meetings were held in another home of a black Bahá'í, Rhoda Turner, with Howard MacNutt. By 1908 fifteen black Americans joined the religion in DC and Louis Gregory in 1909, then a rising leader of the Bethel Literary and Historical Society. Pope received a tablet from `Abdu’l-Bahá, then head of the religion.

There has been some question what “that race” refers to. The compilation from 1986 with the quote did not elaborate. Robert Stockman considered the possibility of Indian heritage but favored only viewing her as of African descent because the 1900 Census listed her as black though she was not the first black Bahá'í.^{p. 225} However terms like black, mullato, even free black, are of mixed use in the local area. - the county is known as the home of the majority of the Haliwa-Saponi nation. There is not any definitive evidence of her being of Native American descent so far.

In 1909 John became an officer of the local branch of the Interdenominational Bible Education Association. The association especially marked the birthday of George Washington and John gave the keynote address, and spoke also at a Bible study session in May. Meanwhile Pope’s mother died in April 1909. In January 1910 Pope attended a reception at St. Luke’s Church, and in April received visitors at her home then at 12 N St, NW, and a sister in May. In the 1910 census John is listed as a laborer and she is listed as a dressmaker.

Relatively little is known of Pope after about 1910 and most of that related to Will probations noted in the newspapers.

The one year anniversary of the death of Mary Gizzard, naming daughters Malissa Lyles and Pocahontas Pope, was noted in the Evening Star in April 1910. She was recieved by Mrs. M. C. Maxfield in January 1911, and Dr. John W. Kay from Shaw University visited his aunt in November. The next year Pope may have been visited by `Abdu'-Bahá in 1912 during his sojourn in America - he is reported to have visited a sick African-American in November and visited in return by an African-American minister who may have been John W. Pope. The Popes then lived at 1500 1st St. The progression from a multiracial community to an integrated one proceed - the Hannens already held integrated meetings but not all were. Consultations in the community proceeded, and, following requests of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, in 1910 another set of integrated meetings took place and multiplied. A national standard with rare exceptions of integrated meeting was not put in place until the 1930s, and then those exceptions put to rest.

In February 1915 John was reported sick, and was on a leave of absence in August, and listed sick again in December, and August 1916, and again in December. He was let go in later March, 1918, and died the end of the month, followed by the settling of the Will, with Pocahontas Pope the sole beneficiary, and named kin as Dr. Manassas T. Pope and Rev. Cicero Pope. Dr. Pope was a prominent African-American doctor of North Carolina - he graduated from Shaw University in 1885 with a degree in medicine, had a pharmacy business, served in the Spanish American War, and His home is on the national register of historic places by the National Park Service and is a museum.

Pocahontas Pope died 11 Nov 1938.

former religious communities and indeed sometimes were encouraged to remain active in them.^{pp. 190, 228-9, 397}

A compilation of the Bahá'í Writings on Women was produced in 1986 and included the tablet written to Pope. In 2009 members of the Washington, D. C. Bahá’í community produced a tour of the early sites of the Bahá’í Faith which in 2012 included the home of the Popes.

Louis George Gregory

Main article: Louis George Gregory

Louis George Gregory (born June 6, 1874, in Charleston, South Carolina; died July 30, 1951, in Eliot, Maine) was a prominent member of the Bahá'í Faith posthumously appointed a Hand of the Cause, the highest appointed position in the Bahá'í Faith, by Shoghi Effendi.

He was born on June 6, 1874, to African-American parents liberated during the Civil War whose number included his future stepfather, 1st Sgt. George Gregory. His mother was Mary Elizabeth whose mother, Mary, was African and whose father was an enslaver named George Washington Dargan of the Rough Fork plantation in Darlington, South Carolina. When Gregory was four years old, his father, Ebaneezer George died. At seven years of age, Gregory was witness to the savage lynching of his grandfather who had taken the family in and who had succeeded in a blacksmith business. Then his mother married George Gregory, who was the only freeman of African descent to join the Union Army from the 3000 in Charleston at the time. George Gregory rose to 1st Sgt. in the 104th United States Colored Troops (USCT) after being recruited by Major Delaney, of African descent.

Gregory's stepfather paid for his first year at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, where he studied English literature. There being no law schools that would accept him in the South, he continued on to Howard University in Washington, D.C., one of the few universities to accept black graduate students, to study law and received his LL.B degree in Spring 1902. He was admitted to the bar, and along with another young lawyer, James A. Cobb, opened a law office in Washington D.C. The partnership ended in 1906, after Gregory started to work in the United States Department of the Treasury. In 1904 Gregory was listed as a supporter of the committee for a celebration of Booker T. Washington. In 1906 Gregory served as vice president of the Howard University Law School Alumni association. Gregory had been attracted to the Niagara Movement and active in the Bethel Literary and Historical Society, a black organization devoted to discussing issues of the day – he had been elected a vice president in 1907 and president in 1909. Meanwhile, Gregory was visible in the newspapers over racist incidents.

At the Treasury Department Gregory met Thomas H. Gibbs, with whom he formed a close relationship. Gibbs, while not being a Bahá'í himself, shared information about the religion to Gregory, and Gregory attended a lecture by Lua Getsinger, a leading Bahá'í, in 1907. In that meeting he met Pauline Hannen and her husband who invited him to many other meetings through the next couple of years, and Gregory was much affected by the behavior of the Hannens and the religion after having become disillusioned with Christianity. Among the readings Gregory reviewed on the religion was an early edition of The Hidden Words. The meetings were also held among the poor at a school and a Bahá'í view of Christian scripture and prophecy much affected him and presented a framework for a reformulation of society. While the Hannens went on Bahá'í pilgrimage in 1909 to visit `Abdu'l-Bahá, then head of the religion, in Palestine, Gregory left the Treasury Department and established his practice in Washington D.C. When the Hannens returned, Gregory once again started attending meetings on the religion and the burgeoning Bahá'í community of DC was holding more and more meetings - particularly integrated meetings of the Hannens and some others. `Abdu'l-Bahá also began to communicate either in letters or to those that visited on pilgrimage a preference for integration. On July 23, 1909, Gregory wrote to the Hannens that he was an adherent of the Bahá'í Faith:

It comes to me that I have never taken occasion to thank you specifically for all your kindness and patience, which finally culminated in my acceptance of the great truths of the Bahá'í Revelation. It has given me an entirely new conception of Christianity and of all religion, and with it my whole nature seems changed for the better...It is a sane and practical religion, which meets all the varying needs of life, and I hope I shall ever regard it as a priceless possession.

At this point, Gregory started organizing meetings for the religion as well, including one under the auspices of the Bethel Literary and Historical Society. He also wrote to `Abdu'l-Bahá, who responded to Gregory that he had high expectations of Gregory in the realm of race relations. The Hannens asked that Gregory attend some organizational meetings to help consult on opportunities for the religion. With such meetings the practical aspects of integration with some Bahá'ís became crystallized while for others it became a strain they had to work to overcome. Gregory received a letter in November 1909 from `Abdu'l-Bahá saying:

I hope that thou mayest become… the means whereby the white and colored people shall close their eyes to racial differences and behold the reality of humanity, that is the universal truth which is the oneness of the kingdom of the human race…. Rely as much as thou canst on the True One, and be thou resigned to the Will of God, so that like unto a candle thou mayest be enkindled in the world of humanity and like unto a star thou mayest shine and gleam from the Horizon of Reality and become the cause of the guidance of both races.

In 1910 Gregory stopped working as a lawyer and began a long period of service, holding meetings and traveling for the religion and writing and lecturing on the subject of racial unity. Some initial meetings were held in parallel among the races, but `Abdu'l-Bahá made it known that the direction of the community was toward integrated meetings. The fact that upper class white Bahá'ís repeatedly achieved steps towards integration was a confirmation to Gregory of the power of the religion. Gregory, still president of the Bethel Literary and Historical Society, arranged for presentations by several Bahá'ís to the group.

Gregory initiated a major trip through the South. He travelled to Richmond, Virginia; Durham, North Carolina, and other locations in North Carolina; Charleston, South Carolina, the city of his family and childhood; and Macon, Georgia, where he told people about the religion. In Charleston he is known to have presented talks at the Carpenter's Union Hall and made contact with a priest who had encountered the religion at Green Acre and met Mirzá `Abu'l-Fadl. In Charleston African-American lawyer Alonzo Twine converted, the first Bahá'í of South Carolina, even though Gregory's stay was short and he did not return to Charleston for some years. In the meantime, unbeknownst to Gregory, Twine was committed to a mental institution by his mother and family priest where he died a few years later - still handing out Bahá'í pamphlets he made himself.

In April 1911 Gregory served as an officer of Harriet Gibbs Marshall's Washington Conservatory of Music and School of Expression along with George William Cook of Howard University, as well as others.

On March 25, 1911, at the behest of `Abdu'l-Bahá, Gregory sailed from New York City through Europe to Egypt and Palestine to go on pilgrimage. In Palestine, Gregory met with `Abdu'l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi and visited the Shrine of Bahá'u'lláh and the Shrine of the Báb. After he had returned to Egypt from Palestine, the discussion of race unity in the United States came about with `Abdu'l-Bahá and the other pilgrims. `Abdu'l-Bahá stated that there was no distinction between the races, and then gave blackberries to each of the pilgrims, which Gregory interpreted as the symbolic sharing of black-coloured fruit. During this time, `Abdu'l-Bahá also started encouraging Gregory and Louisa Mathew, a white Englishwoman who was also a pilgrim, to get to know each other.

After leaving Egypt, Gregory travelled to Germany, before returning to the United States, where he spoke at a number of gatherings to Bahá'ís and their friends. When he returned to the United States he continued to travel mainly the southern United States talking about the Bahá'í Faith but elsewhere as well. He held his first public meeting on the religion after his return to the States in February 1911 and published his own article in the Washington Bee in November being inspired by the action of `Abdu'l-Bahá in Britain, when he was also first elected to a Washington Bahá'í working committee.

1912 was a momentous year for Gregory. In April he was elected to the national Bahá'í "executive board" and assisted during `Abdu'l-Bahá's visit to the United States during which he repeatedly emphasized the oneness of humanity and used black-colored references for pictures of beauty and virtue. See `Abdu'l-Bahá's journeys to the West.

There are several prominent engagements where `Abdu'l-Bahá thanked the efforts of Gregory. The first was on 23 April 1912 when `Abdu'l-Bahá attended several events; first he spoke at Howard University to over 1000 students, faculty, administrators and visitors — an event commemorated in 2009. Then he attended a reception by the Persian Charg-de-Affairs and the Turkish Ambassador; at this reception `Abdu'l-Bahá moved the place-names such that the only African-American present, Gregory, was seated at the head of the table next to himself.

Then `Abdu'l-Bahá spoke at Bethel Literary and Historical Society where Gregory had a long history including being president.

Later in June `Abdu'l-Bahá addressed the NAACP national convention in Chicago - and reported by W. E. B. Du Bois in The Crisis.

During his travels, whenever he was accompanied by his wife, they received a range of different reactions because interracial marriage was illegal or unrecognized in a majority of the states at that time.

The struggle of the Washington Bahá'í community, where the Gregories lived, towards fully and only integrated meetings and institutions came about in Spring 1916. That summer `Abdu'l-Bahá's earliest Tablets of the Divine Plan arrived. The Tablet for the South arrived to Joseph Hannen with whom Gregory worked on a committee. By December Gregory had traveled among 14 of the 16 southern states named mostly speaking to student audiences and began a second round in 1917. Complementing Gregory's priorities was the founding of NAACP organizations in South Carolina starting in 1918 though the KKK activities increased the pace of lynchings. Many of the initial organizers of the NAACP were personally known to Gregory. In 1919 after the remaining letters of the `Abdu'l-Bahá arrived and used the example of St. Gregory the Illuminator as the model of effort in the spread of the religion. Hannen and Gregory were subsequently elected to a committee focused on the American South and Gregory focused on two approaches - presenting the religion's teachings on race issue to social leaders as well as to the general public - and initiated his next more extensive trip from 1919 to 1921 often with Roy Williams, an African-American Bahá'í from New York City. During 1920 a pilgrim returned from seeing `Abdu'l-Bahá with a focus on initiating conferences on race issues called "Race Amity Conferences" and Gregory consulted by letter on how to begin. The first one was held May 1921 in Washington DC.

Among the contacts in South Carolina Gregory made was Josiah Morse of the University of South Carolina. As a result, several Bahá'ís speakers would be known at university based events starting in the 1930s. Gregory developed a friendship with Samuel Chiles Mitchell, president of the University of South Carolina (1909–1913), and shared that `Abdu'l-Bahá's views he heard at the Lake Mohonk Conference on International Arbitration affected him in his interracial work into the 1930s. In addition to supportful connections there was also increasing opposition. Gregory's January 1921 appearance in Columbia SC registered African-American ministers who warned of his presence and the dangers of his religion though others positively invited Gregory to speak. One of the ministers who opposed him was the self-same minister who assisted in committing the first declared Bahá'í in South Carolina to an institution for the mentally insane.

Gregory was then the first African-American to be elected to the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States and Canada, a body which he would be elected to in 1922, 1924, 1927, 1932, 1934 and 1946. Correspondence and activities he carried on sometimes was carried in local newspapers in the US and beyond.

In 1924 Gregory toured the country to a number of engagements and this tour he was able to be on stage with fellow African American Bahá'í and prominent thinker of the then developing Harlem Renaissance, Alain LeRoy Locke.

On the personal side his father died in 1929 but Gregory heard his father's commendations for his work, marriage, and principles and was known to hand out pamphlets of the religion though he never officially converted. At the funeral some thousand people came and Gregory read Bahá'í prayers.

In the 1930s Gregory would apply himself in intra- and international developments of the religion. In December 1931 he helped start a Bahá'í study class during a brief visit to Atlanta, and lived in Nashville a number of months helping inquirers from Fisk University who eventually helped found that city's first local Spiritual Assembly. In response to Shoghi Effendi's call to the wide goals of the Tablets of the Divine Plan the United States community arranged a program of action and Gregory, this time with his wife, traveled to and lived in Haiti in 1934 promoting the religion though the Haitian government asked them to leave in a matter of months. In 1940 the Atlanta Bahá'í community struggled over integrated meetings and Gregory was among those tasked with resolving the situation in favor of integrated meetings. In early 1942 Gregory spoke at several black schools and colleges West Virginia, Virginia, and the Carolinas as well as serving as on the first "assembly development" committee especially focused on supporting materials for the growth of the religion in south and Central America. In 1944 Gregory was on the planning committee for the "All-America Convention" which was going to have attendees from all Bahá'í national communities north and south and wrote the convention report for the Bahá'í News national journal and then traveled again starting the winter of 1944 through 1945 among five southern states.

Talks of his and his work in Race Amity conventions organized by Bahá'ís would appear in a variety of newspapers from the 1920s through the 1950s.

In December 1948 Gregory suffered a stroke returning from a funeral for a friend and between him and his wife, whose health also declined, began to stay closer to home, now at Green Acre Bahá'í School in Eliot, Maine. Nevertheless, Gregory carried on correspondence with U.S. District Court Judge Julius Waties Waring and his wife in 1950-1 who was involved in Briggs v. Elliott.

Gregory died aged seventy-seven on July 30, 1951. He is buried at a cemetery near the Green Acre Bahá'í school. Significantly, his wife Louisa went for comfort with the Noisette family in New York after his passing.

On his death, Shoghi Effendi, then head of the religion, cabled to the American Bahá'í community:

Profoundly deplore grievous loss of dearly beloved, noble-minded, golden-hearted Louis Gregory, pride and example to the Negro adherents of the Faith. Keenly feel loss of one so loved, admired and trusted by 'Abdu'l-Bahá. Deserves rank of first Hand of the Cause of his race. Rising Bahá'í generation in African continent will glory in his memory and emulate his example. Advise hold memorial gathering in Temple in token recognition of his unique position, outstanding services.

This was Shoghi Effendi's first round of appointees as having achieved a distinguished rank in service to the religion named Hands of the Cause. Memorial observances of his death were among the first events of the newly arrived Bahá'ís and first converts in Uganda from which Enoch Olinga, the father of victories, would appear in just two years. Bahá'í radio station WLGI is named after Gregory: the Louis Gregory Institute.

Alonza Twine

Alonzo Twine, South Carolina joined the Baha'i Faith via Louis Gregory in 1910. Twine is mentioned …. After joining the religion he was soon declared insane and died a few years later in an insane asylum, still handing out a pamphlet on the religion to his former minister. A Christian miniter's view of his life and the affect of Louis Gregory was published under Rev. I. E. Lowrey's column - "The Bahai Movement", The Southern indicator, February 19, 1921, p. 6, His grave has been identified.

`Abdu'l-Bahá

• A chapter published in Social justice philanthropy entitled "The role of the American Bahá'í community in addressing racial injustice and racial disunity".

Portals of Freedom anecotes… echoed in Lights of the Spirit?

Harriet Gibbs Marshall

Main article: Harriet Gibbs Marshall

Harriet Gibbs Marshall (1868 – February 21, 1941) was a Canadian-born African-American musician, writer, and educator best known for opening the Washington Conservatory of Music and School of Expression in 1903 in Washington, D.C.

Marshall joined Gregory and Cook's wife Coralie from Howard and a faculty of the Conservatory, in the Bahá'í Faith in 1912, while Cook remained friendly to the religion. Marshall hosted Bahá'í events at the Conservatory. In 1919 Marshall signed a letter of Bahá'ís hoping that `Abdu'l-Bahá, then head of the religion, could come back to the West, (recalling the 1910–1913 trips.) Many years later Louis G. Gregory thanked Marshall for her letter of introduction for his Bahá'í pioneering to Haiti in 1934 and credited her as a pioneer for the religion ahead of him. In 1932, Marshall contributed a poem Brotherhood published in the Bahá'í news magazine Star of the West.

Leila Young Payne

Leila Young Payne (Nov 1881, Abbeville?, South Carolina - 22, Mar 1969, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) was the daughter of the second marriage of former slave Jane Young. Her father was Thomas L Young, Presbyterian minister. Much of Payne's life remains undocumented but circa 1902 Leila married Henry Power Payne Sr in Washington, DC. Already in 1903 her comings and goings were noted in the society pages of The Pittsburgh Courier starting with taking trips to see a kin in DC and Abbeville, and entertaining guests. Their son Henry P Payne Jr was also born in South Carolina. In spring of 1912, Leila and young Henry Jr were visiting family and friends in DC and heard `Abdu’l-Bahá’s presentation at the Bethel Literary and Historical Association - a talk she long remembered. She has been called the third black Bahá'í of Washington DC. Perhaps more properly she should be considered the first black Bahá'í of Pittsburgh and perhaps the first of Pennsylvania.

From about 1922 Payne begins to appear consistently in community service and women’s clubs adding to her social engagements hosting guests in her home and visiting others. The first appearance is through a branch of the Urban League in Pittsburgh. The circa 1924 the family entering the mortuary business. 1925 was a big year for Payne. She performed on a radio program, hosted Louis Gregory for a talk about the Bahá'í Faith in her home, and was elected president of the Charity Club of Pittsburgh, a position she held into 1929. Between many other events across 1927-1929 Payne was visible in a variety of situations as a Bahá'í. She encountered fellow Pennsylvanian black Baha'i and HBCU Cheyney president, Leslie Pinckney Hill. This was capped off by a tour of many meetings around Chicago covered in Baha'i News, The Pittsburgh Courier, and The New York Age in 1929. A decrease in social engagements followed the onset of the Great Depression though she continued a mix of black society events and Bahá'í meetings. Coming out of the Depression, in the spring of 1933 the Bahá'ís of Pittsburgh elected an Assembly with Payne as a member. Payne was also part of submitting a universal arms reduction petition to the mayor and President Roosevelt for the Women’s International League for Peace (WIL). Payne's involvement in WIL increased over the next several years into 1939 while at the same time she was active in black society issues such as the need for a hospital to serve the black population but when her husband died she took up being the director of the mortuary. She still managed a couple appearances in a couple years but following the death of her son Henry Jr in November 1942, she made only an appearance a decade or so before her death in 1969.

Leila Young was the daughter of the second marriage of former slave Jane Young. Her father was Thomas L Young, Presbyterian minister, who worked for the board of missions for freedmen of the Presbyterian church and who had been given an education by her slave owners. Thomas had died by 1900. Jane was born in Edgefield, South Carolina, in about 1835, bore 11 children of whom 5 were alive in 1900. Her first husband was Dennis Williams who died in the early 1870s, but was father to Leila's elder brother Sam. "Leila" was known by many names and misspellings and nicknames along the way but it is the name she used most often and on legal documents towards the end of her life. She was born between 1880 and 1885, according to the various sources, but clearly she was Thomas’s daughter. She was born in South Carolina - the 1900 census places the extended and blended family living in Abbeville, South Carolina. Later her mother was living in Sumpter, South Carolina, before moving to live with Payne in 1924.

Much of Payne's life remains undocumented but circa 1902 Leila married Henry Power Payne Sr in Washington, DC. Among the Census’ Henry is variously from Ohio or West Virginia. Already in 1903 she is taking trips to see a brother in DC and visiting her mother in Abbeville, and did so other times, and other times she’s hosting guests - artists, school principals, kin and friends - at the 2703 Bedford Ave home, a place that today is in the midst of the Dwayne Cooper Garden of Hope community urban farm. Before it was a farm it was the site of a public housing community and before that it appears to be a set of homes. The 1910 Census has her married to Henry P Payne, had a son Henry P Payne Jr, who was born in South Carolina, and Sr who was working in the Post Office. In 1911 Payne chaired a musicale at a multi-church Presbyterian event in Pittsburgh.

Though the Bahá'ís date their community in Pittsburgh to 1909, Leila Payne encountered the religion going to Washington, DC, in 1912.

In March 30, 1912, Leila and Henry Jr were off to DC "through the Easter holidays" and on into May visiting kin and friends and staying with two families then leaving for Sumpter where her mother lived where they visited through June. Through whatever connection, Payne heard of `Abdu’l-Bahá’s presentation at the premeir African-American social institition of Washington DC, Bethel Literary and Historical Association, which she attended on April 23.^p206

‘Abdu’l-Bahá's talk, opened with:

"As I stand here tonight and look upon this assembly, I am reminded curiously of a beautiful bouquet of violets gathered together in varying colors, dark and light."

He addressed the nobility of science and its virtue for humanity above that of the animal and attirbuted the fact of intelligence to a supernatural source and aclaimed science as a gift from God.

"All blessings are divine in origin, but none can be compared with this power of intellectual investigation and research, which is an eternal gift producing fruits of unending delight."

He included the arts and sciences both as party to this "eternal gift" of "intellectional investigation and research" and lauded that kind of work:

"The man of science is perceiving and endowed with vision, whereas he who is ignorant and neglectful of this development is blind. The investigating mind is attentive, alive; the callous and indifferent mind is deaf and dead. A scientific man is a true index and representative of humanity, for through processes of inductive reasoning and research he is informed of all that appertains to humanity, its status, conditions and happenings."

He then went on to demonstrating evidences of how humanity was freer than the material world since we could find the processes that made things happen and choose where and how to manifest them. Then he continued:

"How shall we utilize these gifts and expend these bounties? By directing our efforts toward the unification of the human race. We must use these powers in establishing the oneness of the world of humanity, appreciate these virtues by accomplishing the unity of whites and blacks, devote this divine intelligence to the perfecting of amity and accord among all branches of the human family so that under the protection and providence of God the East and West may hold each other’s hands and become as lovers." and allowing, even appreciating our diversity, saying "Flowers may be variegated in colors, but they are all flowers of one garden." 

He continued:

"And now as I look into your faces, I am reminded of trees varying in color and form but all bearing luscious and delectable fruits, fragrant and delightful to the inner and outer senses. The radiance and spirituality of this meeting is through the favor of God. Our hearts are uplifted in thankfulness to Him." 

Payne wrote of this talk saying it "left its imprint on my memory for ever".^p206 It was discussed and echoed a number of times in black society. Payne has been called the third black Bahá'í of Washington DC.^p206 Perhaps more properly she should be considered the first black Bahá'í of Pittsburgh - with two others dating back to 1931 - and perhaps the first of Pennsylvania.^p205

In May `Abdu’l-Bahá stopped in Pittsburgh where He stayed at the Hotel Schenley and was attended by Dr. Zia Bagdadi. Payne was in South Carolina then being received by the Federation of Negro Women’s Clubs in Orangeburg, South Carolina.

In 1917 Henry registered for the draft for WWI noted as still working for the Post Office and the family living on Center Avenue in Pittsburgh. The 1920 Census has the same three in the family.

In 1921 a step brother from DC aided in the care of his sister in Pittsburgh during a protracted illness of hers.

From about 1922 Payne begins to appear consistently in community service and women’s clubs adding to her social engagements hosting guests in her home and visiting others as well. This first appearance was through a branch of the Urban League in Pittsburgh at which time she was one of three assistants to the executive secretary heading a campaign to raise funds for a summer camp for boys though there was some hope of establishing one for girls too. In the meantime, the Urban League branch had arranged for a free dental clinic and there was an ongoing general call and meetings on the education of the children and becoming teachers.

March to April 1923 Henry Sr made a bid for the state legislature while in April Payne was one of the singers at a church concert. In the winter of 1923-4 Payne visited kin in Virginia, however, in February 1924 a step brother of her mother’s first marriage died in Pittsburgh. Though officially these were step siblings sharing her mother, Payne is consistently called sister to these Williams siblings so the family was close. The family was soon visible entering the mortuary business. Following loosing that brother in February, in March Payne is noted particularly contributing to another funeral arrangement. In May Payne assisted in a wedding. From 1924 most of the coverage of Payne's activities comes from the African-American Pittsburgh Courier, though occasionally she is visible in other newspapers. In September Payne's mother Jane moved in with her from Sumpter. And this is when the family moved to 2701 Wylie Ave, just a couple blocks from the circa 1912 home on Bedford Ave. In April 1925 Henry is noted publicly in thanks for a funeral he managed. On May 31 we have mention of Payne hosting Louis G Gregory for a talk about the Bahá'í Faith, having come from Somerville, Massachusetts, and giving “an impressive talk" to a group of men and women. In the summer of 1925 Henry Sr was a member of the Improved Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of the World as an “Exalted Ruler”. In September Henry Jr went to attend a professional embalmer’s school for mortuaries. In October Payne begins an extended presence in the newspapers as the new president of the Charity Club of Pittsburgh which contributed to a Home for the Aged, a YWCA, charity to the poor and orphans among many other services. She held the position into 1929.

In February 1926 her mother Jane Young died while staying with a daughter in New York City, though the funeral was arranged in Pittsburgh through Henry's facility. She also began to be visible with the Lucy Stone League though in this she was often visible with her husband. In November Payne was one of the patronesses selling tickets for attending the Marion Anderson performance held as a fundraiser for the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.

In June 1927 Payne visited a brother in Ohio. Though there was no delegate to the 1927 national Bahá'í convention in Chicago from Pittsburgh, noted as a “lack of response” from there, and Albert Vail, already a co-leader of the nationally sponsored Race Amity Conventions and other travel-teaching activity having visited Pittsburgh earlier in the year, but in August comes the next public mention of Payne as a Bahá'í, now more than hosting Bahá'í meetings, and was done so in both The New York Age and The Pittsburgh Courier. She is going to the national conference of Bahá'ís; this was a Race Amity Convention held in Green Acre though in the newspapers she is listed as a “peace delegate” after which she intended to visit in Boston and New York. Just previously the Paynes had entertained house guests who then moved to West Virginia. In the convention she would have seen fellow Pennsylvanian HBCU Cheyney leader Leslie Pinckney Hill on stage with Alfred E Lunt, and Hill’s talk was “The New Negro”. Hill had encountered and developped working knowledge of the religion also back to 1912 as well. Hill had attended Race Amity Conventions back to 1924, and worked with Bahá'ís on further presentations. That winter Payne organized a vesper service at the YWCA at which a Bahá'í gave a talk on the Faith.

A 1928 city directory place the family living at the same address and profession. In February 1928 Payne's son Henry Jr was reported recovering from a prolonged and serious illness living in Buffalo. In April the Paynes were among those on a guest list of a large party in Pittsburgh, and then a week later Payne is a contributing either in song or reciting at a fundraiser for the Home of the Aged and Infirm Colored Women. In May Henry Jr finished his embalming schools and returned to Pittsburgh taking up work under his father’s mortuary business and near the same week Henry Sr wrote to the editor a highly race-partisan letter thanking those who supported his run for state legislature in a majority black district that was represented by "a Jew and an Irishman" and found those of the "race" working for those leaders a "Judas". In September the Paynes hosted Bahá'í Mrs. Alexander Martin of Cleveland^{pp140, 254} for a week on her way home from a Muncie, Indiana, inter-racial conference. During that winter Henry Sr and Jr were injured in a car crash returning from an early morning funeral and later Leila was visible at some fundraisers.

1929 would be the peak of Bahá'í activity visible in the newspapers for Payne. In April 21, 1929, Payne was already running a children’s group “The Rose Garden” and held a meeting for parents and friends. The May Courier coverage of the meeting which was held on Ridvan noted the main speaker of the event was Mrs. Harlan Ober with a talk about spiritual gardens and her travels to California, New York, and the Holy Land where she also saw gardens. Music performances of various kinds added to the event and Harlan also spoke. There was a reception held afterwards at which Payne introduced the speakers again. Then Payne attended the Bahá'í national convention. Baha’i News then also mentioned Payne's service to children. The convention itself was much to do about the importance and progress needed on the Bahá'í House of Worship. Payne’s work in the Rose Garden was noted in the Star of the West coverage as well. Dr Zia Bagdadi summarized Payne's extended stay in the Chicago area to the Bahá'í Interracial Committee and was reported the next year. Payne attending meetings of Bahá'ís and black civic groups and clubs in several communities - Chicago, Evanston, and Wilmette (where she stayed a week) and other towns - as well as being given receptions such as by Louis Bourgeois, architect of the Bahá'í House of Worship. She visited with the Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs, the (Jane Addams?) Unity Center, the Phyliss Wheatly Club, the Fraternal Spiritualist Church, and a group of Christian Scientists. From there Shelley Parker drover her to Muskegon, MI, where she attended a special integrated meeting there. The trip was also highlighted in the Pittsburgh Courier. Amidst other social club events the rest of the summer in September she went on trip to promote the Faith in Alliance, Ohio, as guests of the Dickerson family.

The stock market which had been in trouble since March but had recovered occasionally suddenly and severely collapsed mid-October. Wall Street Crash of 1929 A couple more social engagements marked the time for Payne. A worker in Payne’s efforts for trying for a seat at the state legislature himself was advanced to try to run for office. In February Payne stated at the Ransom YMCA in New York City, (see Reverdy C. Ransom.) In mid-March 1930 Payne appeared as one of the speakers at the Willing Workers Club followed by one for the New York Union of women's clubs in mid-May. The 1930 Census has her with the family living on Wylie Ave and both men of the family employed as embalmers/undertakes. The rest of 1930 passed without known newspaper comment. In March 1931 the Payne mortuary hosted a major funeral and Henry SR was noted taking part in a fundraiser for a “Y” and Payne performed at a church. Later in early December Payne spoke before a Poro Beauty Agents meeting, founded by Annie Malon. Payne attended a January 1932 club meeting sponsored by the Lucy Stone Civic League and the Aurora Reading Club. June a Bahá'í presentation is given at the Lucy Stone Center meeting. Another several months go by without notice until the Payne’s host kin and social events carry on August through October. In November when Alice Parker hosted a series of 9 firesides that carried on until late December there was one talk by Payne on “The Eternal Christ”. In 1932 Pittsburgh hosted a Race Amity Convention assisted by the local branch of the Urban League by the small population of Bahá'ís.^p190

Amidst social events in the spring of 1933 with Payne, the Bahá'ís of Pittsburgh also elected an Assembly with Payne a member. In May Payne was part of a group with a universal arms reduction petition signed by Pittsburgh citizens presented to the mayor and President Roosevelt for the Women’s International League for Peace (WIL) in cooperation with other clubs. Other social events close out the year, and Payne again appeared amidst the WIL event in mid-February for a fundraising for an “All-Nations Musicale” which was done in May. Other social events had Payne participating as well. While that was finishing up the Bahá'ís initiated another round of meetings and this time one was hosted by Payne in May as well, which included co-Assembly member Walter Buchanan. However, in June a brother of Payne’s in New York City died and he was buried in Pittsburgh as well. Other social events carried on the rest of the year including a Howard University branch club meeting for which Payne oversaw the refreshments table and another Peace League musical was coordinated coming out of the winter into spring of 1935 amidst other events into the summer including joining with others urging neutrality in the burgeoning troubles in Europe, and the leadership of the Jane Addams Peace Center with which Payne would be noted. Payne was noted among those lending support in the case of Angelo Herndon, and a member of the Pittsburgh branch of the Women's International League early in 1936.

In April 1936 Payne was noted as a vice-chair of the Pittsburgh chapter of WIL. Circa 1936 there are three known black Bahá'ís in Pittsburgh recorded in a national survey done through assemblies,^p205 and an Assembly is noted in 1937 as well.^p358 Payne was also a member of the lead staff of the Pittsburgh branch of the Scottsboro Defense Committee in 1936, and a state WIL delegate. WIL discussion of a hospital followed. The summer of 1936 had many meetings about peace being established by the Jane Addams Peace Center and the WIL supplementing the efforts. That pattern repeated in 1937 as well Henry Payne Sr died in 1937, and may be a cause of her participation in the drive to get a hospital to serve colored people the next couple years. Leila, and son Henry Jr though Le Leila lia was listed as the director and Henry Jr as the embalmer, took up the business. In September 1939 they took a trip to New York together and down to see a kin in Sumpter. Payne ended 1939 ill.

With being the funeral director, she began to be less visible in social/club events. She attended a funeral for an in-law in Sumpter SC in the fall of 1940. She did make a single known appearance in 1941 for a fundraiser, but almost none after her son died in November 1942. In December 1942 she was part of a committee for the 80th Anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. In 1944 she contributed to a birthday who listed her among many “whether they like the publicity or not". A decade later she was noted in 1954 for a foster son of her’s that died, and in 1956 she assisted for a Howard University Alumni chapter meeting.

Funerals run out of the Payne Funeral Home occur annually through the period until into 1949. Though it moved in 1946 to a new location.

Leila Payne died in March 1969 and is buried next to her husband and son.

The Martin family

Daughter Lydia's biography was writted in 1973 and then published in Lights of the Spirit: Historical Portraits of Black Bahá'ís in North America, 1898-2004. (LOTS) It maintains Mary Brown Martin was born in Raleigh and her parents were slaves. He was a lawyer and they owned their home. Young Mary was friends with the neighborhood garbage collector who was a girl only alittle older than herself. At nine (1886) the Brown family moved to Cleveland. In Cleveland she took singing and piano classes in addition to regular school classes and sang at the school commencement and was a member of the Mt Zion Congregational Church and singing in the choir. She went to Flora Stone Mather College (for Women) of the Western Reserve University and then a Normal School before receiving an appointment as a teacher academy for Negroes in Cotton Plant, Arkansas for two years before marrying Alexander Hamilton Martin. According to Ancestry.com he was born abt 1873 in Ironton, Ohio. His father was Jacob Martin and mother was Lydia Calloway. Staying at home after marriage she still did some tutoring of immigrants in English and also took part in the suffrage movement in Cleveland. She learned of the Baha’i Faith in 1913 in Cleveland shortly after Abdu’l-Baha’s visit in 1912. Mary's home was known for Baha’i activities.

More details are in her obit in the Cleveland Gazette Born May 31, 1877 in Raleigh to Winfield Scott and Jane Curtis Brown among 6 other children. Attended “old Rockwell school” which became the School Administration Building and then the Sterling School. She attended Central High where her 4 children also went. Mary graduated from Cleveland Normal School in 1903, then went south to teach at St. Mark’s Episcopal School in Birmingham, Alabama and Cotton Plant Academy (Presbyterian) Arkansas. She returned to Cleveland and married A. H. Martin in 1905.

We don’t know Mary's story joining the Faith - Cleveland was an active community by 1910 at least with prominent families of Swingle and Peekes being mentioned in older references. The American Bahá'í biography of Sarah Martin Pereira maintains that her parents heard a talk by Louis Gregory in 1913. Pauline Hannen visited Cleveland in 1917 and mentioned that they implemented children’s classes quickly based on guidance from the DC assembly. However in 1919 there is also a tablet to Roy Williams, care of Mr. Hannen, of tests of the covenant sapping energy of the Cleveland community, and presents a compilation of texts, another briefer tablet is noted along the same lines.

There is mention that Mary was a representative from the Minerva Club to the investigation department of the local Council of Women’s clubs in 1916.

The Martin entire family including in-laws is among those listed in a mass signatory letter to `Abdu’l-Bahá in August 1, 1919 issue of Star of the West. — “Mary B. Martin, Lydia J. Martin, Sarah E. Martin, Alexander H. Martin Jr, Stuart B. Martin, Jane M. Brown (Mary’s mother), Sarah T. Mason (Mary’s sister??), Alexander H. Martin” - note Sarah Mason is noted living with the family in 1910 and seems to be a grandmother and the last entry would have been Sarah’s father, a black lawyer in Cleveland.

LOTS notes that in the 1920s Mary went back to work in a local school.

There is a notice Mary was part of a group that gave a program for the Minerva Reading Club - members presenting were “Mrs. H. K. Price, Mrs. C. F. Nickens, Mrs. Mary Martin, Mrs. Hazel Walker, Miss Blanche Johnson.”

There is a notice of a talk by Mary at the “Cedar Y” of Cleveland on “The modern method of rearing children” for the Mother’s Club.

She was urged to run for Cleveland School Board and in 1929 won a four year term and was elected again in 1933. She skipped the next cycle (which must have changed from 4 yrs) when a daughter (must have been Sarah's) was getting married but ran and won again in 1939. But she died two weeks later, Nov 19, 1939. Her death notice also appears in Baha’i News.

In 1965 Mary B. Martin Elementary School was named in her honor. This also appears in Baha’i News.

Sarah Martin Pereira

After her parents and kin (see above), Sarah Martin is listed first in a tablet of `Abdu’l-Bahá from 1919 care of Mrs. Kibby of Cleveland Ohio. Sarah would have been 9-10 yrs old. This tablet lists many of the Martin family among the community in Cleveland - Sarah, Alexander H, Lydia, Stuart B, Mrs Mary E. In it `Abdu’l-Bahá praises the training of children and that each child become “an ignited candle of the world of humanity” and forwarded their request for pen-pall contact with Bahá'ís in Persia.

Noted as earning a BA from Ohio State in 1931 in Languages, and “appointed from Shaw Univ, NC”, (she is listed as a faculty at Shaw in 1933-1934.)

She was noted studying at the Western Reserve Univ in Ohio, 1934-35, while still working at Shaw. She earned a MA from Western Reserve in 1935, again while working at Shaw.

Shoghi Effendi, who was named ‘Abdu’l-Bahá's successor, wrote a cable on May 1, 1936 to the Bahá'í Annual Convention of the United States and Canada, and asked for the systematic implementation of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá's vision to begin. In his cable he wrote:

"Appeal to assembled delegates ponder historic appeal voiced by 'Abdu'l-Bahá in Tablets of the Divine Plan. Urge earnest deliberation with incoming National Assembly to insure its complete fulfillment. First century of Bahá'í Era drawing to a close. Humanity entering outer fringes most perilous stage its existence. Opportunities of present hour unimaginably precious. Would to God every State within American Republic and every Republic in American continent might ere termination of this glorious century embrace the light of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh and establish structural basis of His World Order."

Following this, Baha’i News notes Lydia and Sarah were in Raleigh possibly in 1936? at least early 1937.

In the later Spring of 1937 Sarah married Charles Reginald Eason of Shaw University in a high profile wedding. Participants in the wedding included a Shaw University professor and a Tuskegee student. Edna White is noted from Durham. The best man was Shaw Dean, Foster P. Payne. A reception was held by Dr. and Mrs. A. M. Brown (Sarah’s mother's family?) from Birmingham, and Mr. Payne of Raleigh and Lula Gee of Cleveland. The newspaper article notes Sarah had Phi Beta Kappa membership. Charles, born in 1905, is not listed in 1937-8 at Shaw though he had various responsibilities since 1933, such as “acting dean of men”, while also holding the position of professor of mathematics. and had with a BS and MS from Rutgers U., kin from Rich Square, NC, an adult son and many committee responsibilities. Sarah was listed as Shaw faculty in 1937.

Sarah Martin Eason was called an isolated believer in Raleigh NC in June 1938, in the Baha'i News who was visited/supported by Terah Cowart Smith and Marguerite Reimer (perhaps less than a year before marrying William Sears.) They were able to present at Shaw University and had contacts in Durham. She’s listed as an instructor in French at Shaw in 1938, along with various university committees. Sarah was elected president of the Negro College Women's Association of Raleigh, and noted at a sorority function December 1938 in Raleigh. She was still listed as faculty in 1939-40, albeit on leave, the year her mother died, and 1941-2. She is reported living in Raleigh in December 1940 in the Baha'i News, serving on the NC/SC/Southern GA committee. She reported there would be five believers in Raleigh that winter. A 1940 Draft card notice from Ancestry.com places their residence on Blount St, Raleigh. But since he continued to work at Shaw he must have had an exception to service. Their son Carlos, the first child of a Bahá'í born in the state and probably initially named Charles Reginald Eason Jr. initially, was born October 9, 1940, (he adopted the name Carlos Martin Pereira by about 1967-68.) She is not listed in or after 1942 as Shaw faculty while he is through 1947. In 1942 Sarah was listed serving on committee for Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia. and finished her PhD from Ohio State in 1942 in Romance languages. In 1943 Sarah is listed as unable to serve on the Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia committee.

In 1944 Sarah Martin Eason is listed as hailing from Washington DC while presenting at Greenacre with sister Lydia. She published a journal review in 1944. She had taught at Miner Teacher’s College in Washington DC and at Howard U. at night before 1946 and that year she was an instructor in Spanish at Cleveland College .

Sarah next appears 1945 as Sarah Eason Pereira serving on the Green Acre committee. And from 1946 she is employed and living in Cleveland; Dr. Pereira started as a part-time instructor of French and Spanish in 1946 at Fenn College, named after Sereno Peck Fenn and eventually became Cleveland State University in 1964 and joined the University System of Ohio. She was appointed an assistant professor in 1948. In October 1946 Sarah Pereira commented on activity of Baha’is of Cleveland for the Baha'i News.

In 1947-48 Sarah Martin Pereira is listed serving on the editorial board for the Baha’i World Vol 11. She also did a small tour presenting talks for the Faith in 1948 - in Chicago, and Mansfield, Ohio. In 1949-50 she is listed on board for Baha’i World vol 12. And again in 1950 there is a speaking tour - January talks in Oberlin, Ohio, and she and her sister went to give institutes classes on the Faith in Latin America.

In 1951 she was listed as an instructor in French and Spanish at Fenn College. She was last listed in the College catalog for the 1952-1953 academic year. She’s then also listed as a “general education board fellow” from North Carolina and Ohio in 1952 in Languages, and gave a talk on the religion in Akron, Ohio in June 1952, and again in 1954 in Mansfield.

In January 1954 there is an interim election for the US national assembly and it listed Sarah Pereira down list of vote getters. This was the first hint of a future in serving in Bahá'í Institutions.

In October 1954 Sarah is listed as an Auxiliary Board member and attended the Blue Ridge Conference held outside of Asheville, NC, to which 75 people attended. The fact that she was among those appointed to the first board was communicated to state conventions of Bahá'ís in a letter later published in Baha'i News.The facilities in the picture appear to be the Robert E. Lee Hall of the YMCA Blue Ridge Assembly. In November 1954 another by-election is held and again Pereira was noted among other vote-getters.

A photograph of the distinguished Martin African-American family was hung by the Guardian in the Mansion at Bahji as an indication of a significant milestone in the progress of the Faith.

In 1955 she is more noted for traveling for the Faith - across West Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky on weekend trips and at least into November. In 1956 Pereira gave a talk in Louisville, KY, in January, and in March she gave presentations at WV State College classes as well as firesides in Beckley and meetings in her home. That Fall she is again noted giving talks in Baltimore She is listed as Department Chair of Romance Languages at West Virginia State College by the end of the year, while giving a talk in Durham, NC. Similar travels are noted in 1957, and 1958. In February 1958 she was assigned to the Auxiliary Board of Protection. Trips presenting talks on the Faith continue in 1959 including one at Fisk University invited by the widow of the president of the University. And the Chicago Defender noted she was one of their top ten college women.

In September 1960 she gave workshops in Haiti to support the National Assembly election. November she aided Hand of the Cause Paul Haney in a presentation for the Birthday of Baha’u’llah. In 1961, however, she was elected to the National Assembly, still traveling giving talks, and went to Haiti. In 1961 she served as one of the faculty advisors for the Bahá'í Club at Tennessee State University. While busy as Auxiliary Board and National Assembly member she also served on the Spiritual Assembly of Washington, D.C., from 1962-71. Magdalene Carney credits Pereira with introducing her to the Faith around August of 1962, then Professor of Romance Languages at Tennessee State University. Dr. Pereira gave Mag a pamphlet, "Modern Religion for Modern Man." It summarized the purpose of religion, outlined the essential features of a new religious system, and invited the reader to investigate its principles. Mag wrote, "By the time I finished reading, I believed in the new system: the Baha'i Faith. Unimaginable joy flooded my heart!" Carney would eventually be appointed a counselor near Pereira's retirement.

Pereira returned to Tennessee in 1963 to give a talk for the Bahá'í Club at Fisk University. She continued to serve as Aux Board member until 1964 before the rule distinguishing such options as Auxiliary Board, Local Assembly, and National Assembly. She was noted in Ebony Magazine in 1965. In 1967, six international conferences were set by the Universal House of Justice - one was held in Chicago and Pereira attended it. and several National Assembly members including Pereira participated in a series of talks and a state convention with proclamation by Mayor John J. Barton of Indianapolis for a "Baha'i week". In 1969 she gave a talk outside of Columbia, Maryland. In 1970 she was living in DC and working at the Teacher’s College and gave a talk. She served on the Spiritual Assembly of Silver Spring, Maryland, 1971-73. In 1972 she helped the dedication of the LGI Institute in South Carolina. LOTS says in 1973 Sarah was Head of the Romance Languages Department at Washington DC Teacher’s College and all the Martin family were active Baha'is: Lydia worked at Case Western Reserve University Library, brother Alexander H. Martin Hr was a lawyer in Cleveland, and Stuart Martin was a teacher in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, and various grandsons of Mary Brown Martin were noted. Sarah's son Carlos Martin Pereira was noted as physics professor at University of Maryland in 1973 and as a special guest along with Lydia at election of NSA of Leeward/Winward and Virgin Islands. And Sarah was appointed a continental counsellor for North America that summer.

In 1974 she attended the Canadian and US national conventions. In May 1975 she attended a reception in honor of the 50th anniversary of the election of the US National Assembly. She also signed a congratulatory telegram to Dr. Dorothy Nelson when she won a national legal award, and attended a one of the two national conferences on promulgating the religion - specifically the Borckport, New York, as well as the dedication and conference in Alaska for its new Center, (both in November.) In 1976 she joined with the US National Assembly in praising the work of Charlotte Linfoot at the national convention. In 1979 Sarah attended the US national convention, and an international conference for Bahá'í Women in Brazil, (where her retirement from Washington DC Teacher’s College was mentioned too,) in 1980. 1981 she attended the memorial services for Leonora Armstrong, and the first election of the National Assembly of Bermuda, and conferences and receptions around the event. In December 1982 she attended a luncheon for 30 members of the US Congress in thanks for their support of a resolution about the treatment of Bahá'ís in Iran. She attended the 1983 US national convention. In 1984 she attended the election of the first National Assembly of Martinique, followed by attending an international youth conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. followed immediately by a conference in remembrance of Hand of the Cause Louis Gregory and integration issues in Nova Scotia. In February 1985 she attended the Bahá'í-sponsored third annual 'Honor Kempton Awards Banquet' program in Alaska to which then governor William Sheffield and others attended.

She retired from being a Continental Counselor in 1985. Ancestry.com has Sarah living near Charlotte around 1986. She was elected to the Assembly of Charlotte for some years.

In retirement in 1990, Pereira, grandchild of slaves from North Carolina, gave a talk on race harmony as the fifth in the series of talks at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on March 21. The talk by Pereira and piece profiling the Faith got notice - a letter to the editor was published two days later, March 23, heavily criticized the Bahá'ís for appearing to unify with Jesus Christ and perhaps even misquoting the Bible but it was by far the largest non-Bahá'í comments on the Faith in the entire history of the Faith at UNC. Two letters to the editor and a cartoon were printed in response a week later, April 2nd, covering about 1/3rd of the page.

In 1991 Pereira contributed the National Baha'i Archives oral history collection.

Her grave stone has the Hidden Word beginning "My claim on thee is great…”. The gravesite is very near latitude 35.187417, and longitude -80.770111.

On learning of her passing, the Universal House of Justice cabled:

Deplore irreparable loss stalwart promoter, vibrant teacher Cause God Sarah Martin Pereira. Radiant faith, indomitable spirit, cheerful disposition characterized her manifold outstanding Baha'i services for over six decades including homefront pioneering and membership first Auxiliary Board western hemisphere, National Spiritual Assembly United States, Continental Board Counselors Americas. Her achievements have left traces for generations to come. Confident her joyful reunion company her distinguished forebears and siblings Abha Kingdom. Praying Holy Threshold progress her soul divine worlds.

Advise hold memorial services her honor Mother Temple and throughout country.

The Universal House of Justice April 6, 1995

The U.S. National Spiritual Assembly remembered Dr. Pereira with these words:

With saddened hearts we inform you of the passing early this morning in North Carolina of Dr. Sarah Martin Pereira. Her commitment to the Blessed Beauty for more than three-quarters of a century included membership on the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States from 1961 until 1973 when she was appointed by the Universal House of Justice to the Continental Board of Counselors. Dr. Pereira's unwavering devotion to the Cause of God can inspire every believer to greater service and is her legacy to each of us. Our prayers join yours that the soul of our beloved Sarah will find swift reunion with its Creator.
National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States April 5, 1995.

Sadie and Mabry Oglesby

Main article: Sadie and Mabry Oglesby

Sadie (April 10, 1881, Concord NC - Feb 1956, Boston, MA) and Mabry Oglesby (January 14, 1870, South Carolina - May 19, 1945, Boston, MA) were married in October 1901 and were early African-American Bahá'ís. The couple became interested in the religion in 1913, joined it in 1917. Mabry was visible in newspaper coverage first as a Bahá'í from 1920, was a railroad Pullman porter all his life and president of the Boston chapter of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in 1936. Sadie went on Bahá'í pilgrimage and met Shoghi Effendi, then head of the religion, in March 1927. Race issues were a prominent part of the conversations during the pilgrimage and that Sadie should take a more engaged effort towards encouraging whites towards race unity as well as blacks. Sadie was the third black pilgrim, the first black woman pilgrim, and the first black pilgrim to meet Shoghi Effendi as head of the religion. Following this encounter she devoted her later years to giving talks and urging Bahá'ís towards the race unity that Shoghi Effendi called for. Sadie had also worked and taught as a nurse. The Oglesbys were both elected to the Boston Spiritual Assembly where Sadie often served as secretary and occasionally as treasurer. Prominent Bahá'í Louis G. Gregory commented that the Boston Bahá'í community was integrated by 1935 with a large proportion being colored and largely through the work of Sadie.

Alain Locke

Main article: Alain Locke

Alain Leroy Locke (September 13, 1885 – June 9, 1954) was an American writer, philosopher, educator, and patron of the arts. Distinguished as the first African-American Rhodes Scholar in 1907, Locke was the philosophical architect —the acknowledged "Dean"— of the Harlem Renaissance. As a result, popular listings of influential African Americans have repeatedly included him. On March 19, 1968, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. proclaimed: "We're going to let our children know that the only philosophers that lived were not Plato and Aristotle, but W. E. B. Du Bois and Alain Locke came through the universe." Alain Locke’s mother’s kin were among those who served in the Union Army.

Felice Leroy Sadgwar

The Sadgwar family history begins in Wilmington with the birth of David Elias Sadgwar around 1811-1817-1819. The population of Wilmington was 2,000. There were concerns from a decade before, around the time of the independence of Haiti and the French "disgorging" rebellious slaves along the South East including North Carolina as part of the slave trade. Concerns were also ripe from the War of 1812 which ran to 1815 even along the NC coast. The special circumstances of slave life on the coast has also been documented - the singing of Sally Brown sea shanty, the assisting in smuggling slaves among ships with captains sympathetic to their plight, or fleeing and living in the swamps. David's future wife was also born in the period - It is recorded Fannie was born 1817, and blue eyed.

It is family tradition that David Elias Sadgwar, Sr. was the child of a French sea captain named "Sadgwar” or ("Sadgeward”) though this seems an anglicized name. His father apparently was ashore in Wilmington for one night and his birth mother is unknown. It was reported his mother was white as well but, only because of the illegitimate liaison with a daughter of a prominent white family, David was given to slaves, to raise as a slave, despite being "white" from both parents. David was given to slaves Elias & Sophie who raised him as their own. The biological facts and being raised in a slave family would play into both the division and unity among races and circumstances as time went on. In the period of David's youth slaves wore badges certifying their owner and legal presence and guards patrolled the area with curfews. The city hosted statewide leading families like Colonial Governors Yeamans and Tryon, and Governors of the State Dudley, Vance, and Russell. Indeed Alex Manly, later noted during the Wilmington Insurrection, was related to governor Charles Manly who's brother lived in Wilmington.

It is family tradition that David and his wife Fannie tried to flee to the North after their second child was born and before the Civil War. They made it to New York before being discovered and during the resulting imprisonment their first two children died - according to family tradition they had been fair skinned, had straight hair, and blue eyes. Indeed a few years later Thomas H. Jones, a slave from WIlmington who earned freedom, did flee to the North and wrote and toured about giving talks on the evils of slavery. After the death of two babies following the attempt to flee to the North, David and Fannie had seven children registered in birth records across 12 years:
Frederick Cutlar (1843-1925), Sophie (1846-1898), Daniel A. (1848–1898), Fannie "Nan" (1850-1917), David Elias Jr.(1852-?), James(1854-?), and George(1855-?). The family also recalls that a kin of Caroline Huggins, David's future daughter-in-law and Frederick's wife, had escaped slavery, served at sea, joined the Navy, returned and bought the slave owner's home after the Civil War.

Wilmington was also a place of blockade running and the infectious yellow fever that killed many. Nevertheless in the period of the Civil War freed blacks piloted Union ships into waterways they were familiar with. Union units of armies mustered out of North Carolina did battles in the eastern region of NC, and United States Colored Troops did as well with one company that did come to Wilmington. And some 225 units of various sizes were organized on the Confederate side out of North Carolina, with at least four units out of the nearby region. It may also be noted Thornton Chase, generally called the first Bahá'í of the West, mustered out of Massachusetts and served as a white officer leading a different United States Colored Troops company than came to Fort Fisher and was wounded in a battle in Charleston, SC. There were other later Bahá'ís that served in the Civil War as well - Nathan Ward Fitzgerald, Oscar S. Hinckley, and Arthur Pillsbury Dodge served as a drummer boy under his father. The Battle of Wilmington was fought February 11–22, 1865 mostly outside the city after the Second Battle of Fort Fisher in January, and for a time Wilmington became a base of operations for the North.

It is recorded David married Fannie Merrick August 11, 1866 in Wilmington but this was a slave/legal matter, and was required by a law passed after the Civil War. Their partnership already included the birth of all their children. Their 24 yr old eldest son had already been at college since the year before and was near graduating, and would be married the next year. The population of the city was near 10,000. David was among the trustees of the reorganized Chestnut Street Presbyterian Church in October, and was noted as a carpenter.

After the Civil War it is noted that David was "provided" a plantation out Castle Hayne Rd., and soon owned much of the land near the original slave market as well as an early black newspaper. David was also listed as part owner of the newly formed Pine Forest Cemetery in 1868-9, and was listed in the 1870 & 1880 census as a "mulatto" which by definition meant that one parent was white and the other black but this could have been an assumption of the census worker or the context of the times. A rendering of David, either a lifelike drawing or a faded photograph - tintype or a Daguerreotype, exists and reproduced in two books: Wilmington: A Pictorial History, by Anne Russell, and Strength through struggle: the chronological and historical record of the African-American community in Wilmington, North Carolina 1865-1950 by William Reaves each who produced a number of local histories.

Frederick Cutlar Sadgwar, their first son, is the eldest connection of the family to the Bahá'í Faith though it would come late in his life. Frederick attended Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, leaving Wilmington sent by his father as soon as it was feesable in 1865 and graduated in 1866. Among the members of his class was fellow Wilmingtonian and later state senator for Halifax county, William P. Mabson. Frederick married Caroline Huggins August 8, 1867, daughter of James Bender and Julia Huggins. Caroline was born December 1847 in Wilmington. According to family history she took the last name from her slave owning family. Family tradition also maintains James Bender was a Cherokee Indian.

Frederick and Caroline had 12 children across 25 years: Charles Ward (c. 1868-1952), David C(or Elias) III (1869-1908), Caroline Sampson (1871-1966), Frederick C (Jr) (1873-1962), Edward Roane (1874-1973), Norwood (1876 - 1898), Julia Adelaide (1879-~>1900), Byron Taylor (1880-1946), Ernest Linwood (1882-1966), Otis Aubrey (1885-1962), (Frances) Fannie Mabel (usually just Mabel) (1888 - 1986), Felice LeRoy (1893-1988).

A year after being wed, a few years after the Civil War and attending University for two years, and the same year as their first child, Frederick was threatened in Whiteville, Columbus County, for running a school in the next major town some 50 miles west of Wilmington.

File:Democratic arguments, The Wilmington Post (Wilmington, North Carolina)03 Sep 1868, Thu • Page 2.jpg

Threats against Frederick Sadgwar

As an aside you can already see politics are entering into it too, aside from the threats and violence of which more is to come. But people will try politics along the way too, and that unfairly.

In addition to this school to the west, family records include a signed letter from the superintendent of the Wilmington schools asking Frederick to be a teacher, by founding that school in Whiteville. In January 1869 Frederick read Lincoln's Proclamation of Emancipation at the third observance in town. In October Frederick was listed among "teachers and missionaries" for the American Missionary Association(AMA), and the next year Frederick was one of the secretaries of the town committee celebrating the 15th amendment to the Constitution prohibiting the federal and state governments from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude". It was ratified on February 3, 1870. The parade went on despite torrents of rain. In the Fall Frederick helped found a tradesmen union - the “Mechanics Association” bringing together a number of stone masons, carpenters and painters - and he had a position in the association as “W. Computer”. You may recall from the movie Hidden Figures in this era people who were called “computers” were mathematically skilled and checked people’s work. So Frederick was literate and knew math to the point of teaching and checking other people’s work, active in the community and area. A text refers to Frederick and Caroline as slaves at the time of Caroline Sampson (Carrie)'s birth, but perhaps it is confused of the timing or interpreting the circumstances or was even a mix up and her report was actually about her grandfather learning letters - it refers to a friend teaching letters then destroyed with a jack-plane while her mother was not literate at the time but learned later. Other slaves letters were recently discovered in hidden joints of plaster in Wilmington.

Wilmington had gained a signifcant black police force and black militia in the latter 1860s into the 1870s. Black state senator Abraham Galloway represented the area and died in 1870 and some 6,000 people attended his funeral. Business and trade was thriving and 59% of the population of the city and nearly that of the county was black in 1870. Sadgwar family history held that the city was not segregated during the time.

It is clear the entire family was furthering the success of David Elias Sadgwar and supported education. Frederick’s younger brother Daniel was also a graduate of Lincoln 1867, went on to finish Howard University in 1871, was finishing at Harvard the next year, and took a position clerking for the federal government. Sister Fannie was a teacher at the Williston School run by the AMA in Wilmington. The school itself dated to just after the Civil War but had the reputation that there were no black teachers before 1874. The school would progress to the point of having high school grades. More instances of education would appear among David's grandchildren. This was the year Frederick's mother died, August 3, 1872.

One of the Sadgwar family homes was noted burned in a fire on the roof in 1873, and in 1875 Frederick was petitioning for funding a fire truck for one of the firemen brigades as its secretary. That year Frederick’s sister Fannie “Nan” was part of the first “colored” state fair which was held in Wilmington by having a dress on exhibition. Frederick showed a well developed collection of native woods. In 1877 state governor Vance had called for a coordinated effort among colored populations of the state to establish a State Normal School to train "colored" teachers. Frederick was asked to be secretary of the Wilmington organization. By about 1878 brother Daniel was back in town living with David at one address and Frederick was living at another.

In 1880, by now father of seven children, accomplished business and education community leader, Frederick was a republican delegate of third ward, (in the post-Civil War Era thanks to Lincoln almost all blacks joined the republican party,) and was a secretary in a black insurance association. In May 1881 the Marine Hospital was renovated and Frederick was listed as one of the laborers being paid. In inflation adjusted terms he would have been paid well over $2000 for his work. In 1881 Frederick was also an "immaculate" of the local AME church. That year David was in charge of constructing a guano processing structure that was shipped to Baltimore. In 1883 Frederick was getting involved in the debate of a railroad extension to Wilmington aiding in estimating the cost per mile of the work. The next day Frederick reported that though the committee hadn’t finished the work they did get an estimate from another company and, all matters being settled, joined the committee to see to the establishment of the railroad extension. Frederick remained among the stockholders and Daniel joined the board of directors. Fifteen years after starting as a community leader and businessman, a few months later Frederick was on a list of jurors for the court, (thus also a property owner,) and about the same time Frederick served as one of the first wave of mail carriers, at the age of 40 yrs old, and worked the job for for two years.

Starting the wave of David's grandchildren going to college we have Frederick's eldest son Charles at Biddle University in Charlotte circa 1883-4. Carrie attended the Wilmington Gregory Institute in her youth and was commended to Fisk. More on that soon.

A Mrs. Sadgwar - unclear exactly who, perhaps Frederick’s mother, went to Washington, NC, to “visit relatives and friends” in 1883. Washington, NC, would later be a locus of Bahá'í activity.

In 1884 Frederick was a poll worker for Wilmington's third ward, and was on stage as one of the town leaders hearing a talk about West Africa, around the time of the peak of the emigration to Liberia. A house built by David burned down in 1885 and immediately rebuilt.

In 1887 the Knobloch family, later Bahá'ís and influence on many early Bahá'ís related to NC, appeared in Wilmington, alas with the passing of Pauline’s father. That year Frederick was nominated for the republican primary. Brother Daniel was employed for the US Senate for some of 1884, being paid $2.50/d or $77.50 for a full month, and then being paid at $80/mth for some of each Spring/Summer/Fall of 1887, and then the month of April 1888.

Keeping in mind ahead of us we have the Wilmington Insurrection of 1898 where whites rioted against the black community, we have the beginnings of visible political strife in a conflict over a letter to the newspaper by a Judge Russell who called black people savages incapable of governing. “Independent Republicans” styled themselves “Judge Russell’s Savages” held their own convention and Frederick’s youngest brother George was a member of the committee to nominate county officers. Frederick was nominated for coroner. Frederick’s younger brother James was nominated for state senator of the region. Frederick refused to run to be coroner, Circa 1888-1889 Daniel was noted living in DC and co-inventing a folding chair. That year Daniel was also noted employed during 1888-9 for the Senate possibly for the entirety of a year's period in there (the annualized salary working out to $80/mth for a 12 mth term.) Their father David Elias Sadgwar died May 23, 1889, and was buried in Pine Forest Cemetery.

The Knobloch's were last known in Wilmington in 1889, and were definitely known in DC in 1893. In 1889 the town’s black doctor died and Frederick, now the father of 11 of his 12 children, was among his pall bearers. Also in 1889 Caroline Sadgwar, Frederick’s wife, was listed as an owner of some land in town. And again Frederick was listed as a poll worker, and four people even voted for him.

In 1890 Frederick was again a juror for the local court. Two children of Frederick - Carrie and David Jr - were listed finishing at the local "Gregory Institute" school then too. Frederick was again a poll worked in 1891. Carrie Sadgwar, Frederick’s eldest daughter, was noted attending Fisk University the same year. This was also later well known Bahá'í Louis Gregory’s first year at Fisk, and commented they did meet. They were both at Fisk for four years; she was a year ahead of him. Gregory was listed as a Freshman from Charleston for 1891-2, graduating 1896, and teaching at a school in Nashville in 1897 - the particular bound collection of the Fisk Catalogue is missing the 1890-1 edition so Caroline was not listed as a incoming Freshman but was listed as a Junior in 1891-2, and graduating 1894. About a decade later Gregory would attend multiple talks with Pauline Knobloch Hannen in DC and join the Bahá'í Faith.

That year Frederick also served as secretary of a meeting honoring a priest of a local church, and the Frederick household held a reception for saying farewell to a minister in August. Daughter Julia, one of Frederick’s younger daughters, at 13 yrs old, was listed was an assistant at the Bricks school near Enfield in 1892. Bricks founding leader was Thomas Inborden, another Fisk graduate.

Frederick was again a delegate for the third ward in 1891, and in 1892 it was noted in particular the Frederick was among the speakers at a corner on the streets. That Fall ballots for Sadgwar and others were thrown out because they weren't on white paper. Still he was listed in elections in 1893, while continuing to be a poll worker. Another cycle of being a juror came again in 1893 as well. This was also when Frederick’s youngest child was born - Felice, destined to be among the first Bahá'ís of NC,(see below.) Also circa 1893-5 son David Elias the III was at Howard University, and son Fred finished Biddle University in 1893.

In 1894 the Knights of Pythias formed a chapter in Wilmington and Frederick was published as a member. The Knights are a fraternal organization founded in 1864 with values of loyalty, honor, and friendship and requires belief in a supreme being. That summer Frederick also joined a broad businessmen’s alliance to set up an association as its secretary. A statewide conference of the Knights of Pythias met in Wilmington and Federick picked up a statewide position in the organization. The new year of 1895 opened with a celebration of the Emancipation Proclamation at which Carrie was present. A few days later Frederick was elected to the board of a new local “United Charities” association. Still in January, Carrie sang at a fund raiser for one of the humanitarian organizations.

A harbinger of the tensions rising towards the Insurrection came later in 1895 when an interracial meeting of republicans Frederick was in was overrun by a mob against the organizing of black people. This division then manifested in the meetings of each side, and there was a letter published in the mid-west of the state a year later noting that the election of the white leader was highly controversial and Frederick was among the black leadership in Wilmington not supporting the white leader as was Daniel. The next state wide meeting of the Knights of Pythias again had Frederick as an officer of the association but was advertised out of DC instead of locally. The next year Frederick then paid an official visit to the Knights in Charlotte, and this was published in Raleigh, and another year serving at the state level followed that summer. And back in Wilmington Frederick was among the partners in a new Livery Stable (horses) business that summer too. So despite rising tensions Frederick's own work had clearly entered a state-wide awareness.

In January 1898, the year of the Insurrection, came the news of the death of Frederick’s younger brother Daniel, who had been a Howard and Harvard graduate and carpenter for the US Senate, who died suddenly while working at a flour mill in Wilmington between 7 and 7:30 in the morning. One of Frederick’s sisters died a month later (Sophie; it comes out later that the other sister Fannie was the executrix of her will and taxes were owed on some land in 1901.) Another kin died in March - this time son Norwood. Two police related incidents are then reported. A kin of Frederick, possibly one of his sons, was cut in a fight and the assailant arrested. Another Sadgwar had his bicycle confiscated for lacking a bell ringer, contrary to the ordinances of the city, and this Sadgwar was actually taken down to the courthouse to appear before a judge for the offense. That was in June.

The Wilmington insurrection of 1898 began in November with a hostile white “committee” summoning black leaders on the matter of Alexander Manly’s newspaper editorial - Frederick was among those summoned. Frederick was among the black leaders recognized in the period. An interview of Lewin Manly, grandson of Alexander Manly, mentions the Sadgwar family had not being banished. Lewin learned separately that during the insurrection Mabel and Felice had been in the school and an older brother (alas all the brothers were older and around so don't know which,) was to get them “during the mayhem”. Daughter Julia was listed as at Fisk graduating in 1899; News of the riot reached London the next day. Carrie was singing in London as part of the Fisk Jubilee Singers from around November 1897 to October 1889; "I stood on stage that night to sing my solo and my voice quivered and stopped." Son Byron was serving in the US army/navy, then living in New Jersey. He served on the USS Vermont, Wasp (blockade of Cuba), as part of the Spanish-American War, and then the USS Franklin.

"Newly appointed mayor Alfred Moore Waddell offered Collier’s Weekly a first-hand account of the Wilmington Race Riot. His account provided the structure and substance of the collective memory of events for nearly a century. Waddell’s story whitewashed the bloodshed and disorder that historians have since associated with the riot.” Various chapters of the state report on the Insurrection of 2006 mentions the Sadgwars.

In 1899 Frederick bid on repairing a bridge damaged by storm flood and lost even though he underbid - all reported in the paper.

Mabel was 10 years old when the Insurrection happened - she recalled growing up bitter and feeling "I was a Negro" though teachers remained on friendly terms. For the first time since 1882 there is no mention identified of the Sadgwars in the local newspapers in 1900. Indeed from now on there is a clear decrease in the visibility of Frederick in the local papers and despite not being banished by the mob several Sadgwars were soon away. Frederick was now some 55 years old and had been a local, regionally active, and statewide recognized leader before the Wilmington Insurrection. Now his family included those driven out by it. Carrie Sadgwar, who was very dark skinned, married Alexander Manly victim at the center of the Insurrection, who often passed as white, in Congressman George Henry White’s home with the news mentioned in a couple diverse places like Baltimore, Maryland, St. Paul, Minnesota, along with DC. The wedding was announced just a few days before. The betrothal was actually before the Insurrection and Frederick had built a house for them. The year prior to the wedding Carrie was listed as principal of a school in Wilmington through the Fisk Catalogue of alumni. About a week before the wedding Carrie was in Wilmington for a Memorial Day parade she sang at. Louis Gregory was in DC by then, but he was not yet working for the government - he began to work for the Treasury Department in 1906 where he heard of the Bahá'í Faith and was not yet even a practicing lawyer until 1902. Fredericks’ namesake son injured his eye later that year too. Daughter Julia Sadgwar worked at the Enfield Brick's school again that year and would on through 1909. Frederick's brother George was next known in DC in 1911 as a public school teacher.

But as was said, the Sadgwars generally stayed in Wilmington. In 1902 Frederick’s daughter Mabel performed a piano piece as part of graduation year at the town Gregory Normal Institute. That Fall Julia, now close to 24 yrs old, went off to visit friends in Washington, NC - indeed among the visitors were people from Pennsylvania and Illinois as well and the newspaper story mentioning the event itself was published in DC.

Around 1903 a business of Frederick's - the "Afro-American Mercantile Company" was registered with the State. The Knobloch-Hannen family, partly from Wilmington but moved to DC, was closely encountering the Bahá'í Faith. In Winter of 1901-2 Mírzá Abu'l-Fadl, there through 1904, and Laura Barney were among the active Bahá'ís of DC. In another few years several people from or related to NC would hear of the Faith either from Pauline Knobloch Hannen or through somebody she and her husband accompanied with the Faith - most notably Louis Gregory though that remains a few years in the future. In between there was also Pocahontas Pope who was from Bricks area of NC and became a seamstress in DC of another Knobloch sister. But it would be Gregory that would make the most trips to NC over the coming many decades.

In 1904 a fire at the Bricks school at Enfield, NC, burned down some buildings and Frederick undertook gathering materials for students. At the end of that summer it comes out that Fannie, Frederick’s sister, not daughter, was the executrix of their sister Sophia’s Will and other beneficiaries of the Will were not available for settlement so it had to be settled in court. The land was sold in 1905 at order of the court. A couple months later Frederick was among the trustees of the Chesnut St colored Presbyterian church which was seeking to build a parsonage. Meanwhile son Charles married in New Jersey in 1904.

Catching up on the Knoblochs, Pocahontas Pope joined the Bahá'í Faith around now. She grew up in Halifax county near Bricks, and then had connections with the black school at Rich Square, NC, where her husband had been principal, and Raleigh where he grew up, but at ths time she worked for one of the Knobloch sisters.

In 1907 Alexander Manly and his wife Carrie Sadgwar Manly sold some land in town to Frederick.

This period circa 1906-1910 would later have connections with the Bahá'í Faith and North Carolina. We don’t know much of the details but during this period Louis Gregory had quickly become a rising community leader in the black community of DC including being a counter sitting protestor at the Capital, writing letters to the editor deploying the lynchings going on across the South, and being elected to the DC Bethel Literary and Historical Society leadership and eventually president, and then running into the Bahá'í Faith, joining the religion in connection with the Knobloch-Hannens, going on pilgrimage, and on the return trip through Germany stoping to see a Knobloch sister. All these connections to Wilmington perhaps lead to a trip to Wilmington in less than a decade, and other trips before that to other places in NC that we know of. In particular Gregory’s known first trip to NC was in 1910 but so far as we know he only stopped in Durham. Felice Sadgwar was noted outside of Wilmington in 1910 working as an assistant at Lincoln Academy, King's Mounting, NC, west of Charlotte, at about the age of 17 working for the same institution that ran the black school at Bricks and that her father had worked for since after the Civil War. Also there is the connection between Carrie Sadgwar Manly and Gregory to be mindful of - though the Manly’s had moved to Philadelphia they could have kept in contact with developments and Gregory’s rising status in DC and may have heard of Gregory's religious involvement.

In 1912 Felice was back graduating in Wilmington at the Gregory Normal Institute; she was the valedictorian among the six graduating students. Felice recalled her valedictorian speech calling for raising people to be citizens of the world and not just North Carolina. However Felice also recalled being denied the graduation diploma because she wore, according to the administration, a silk dress. That year two daughters were teachers in Wilmington schools: Julia and Mabel. In 1913 two or three of the Frederic's daughters were involved in a local (segregated) flower decorating contest. And Mabel was again listed as a teacher from 1913 for some years at the Williston school. Felice also worked at a number of NC schools across 1913-1915 through the AMA.

In 1916 there was a newspaper piece mentioning that Frederick’s home was broken into but nothing stolen - along with two other homes that night. Mabel also attended the summer school at Greensboro A&T College in 1916. She continued working for the Williston school, joined by Felice, in 1917. Another land dispute had to be settled with Sadgwar kin, (noting son Fred was now married,) vs an absent family relation in 1916. During this time Frederick's sister Fannie died. In 1917 Felice and, perhaps a grandchild of the family or other kin, Annie, won prizes in the black regional fair in "fancy work” (sewing?). In 1917 Felice and Mabel served as assistants in court.

Since we don't know how the connections with the Bahá'ís came to be we'll explore some things in the vicinity. Gregory was at Fisk in December 1916, and by March was in Wilmington, Delaware, before ending up in Maine in August. We don't know if his trip to Fisk or back connected with any Sadgwars. Joseph Hannen and Pauline Knobloch Hannen visited Wilmington August 1917. We don’t know if they met with the Sadgwars.

In 1918 Hubert Parris gave a talk for the observance of Emancipation Day in Wilmington. Mabel and Felice were noted teaching still and through into the 1920s Brother Ernest' draft registration card noted in Sept 1918 that he was partially paralyzed. Brother Otis' noted he was in good health and was working as a clerk for the railroad Atlantic Coast Line company.

Gregory made a trip to NC including Wilmington in early 1919, perhaps February. Gregory’s trips are known to have contacted the Sadgwar family at least in the 1920s. Some years later Gregory speaks of a Bahá'í community in Wilmington. This “young woman”, he says seven years before 1925, meaning around 1918-1919, seems most likely to be Felice Sadgwar. Felice was specifically named in a Bahá'í publication in 1923. Mabel, the only other sister in town, was known to have joined the religion decades later, (see below.) Carrie is known to be living in Pennsylvania in 1919 helping establish a "Fisk Club" with Carrie as its first president (even noting her address then was in Lamot, PA.) Carrie was also never mentioned as joining the religion.

Bahá'ís also had contact with folks in Washington, NC - specifically Dr. W. H. Carter's wife, Lula Rawls Carter, was sister to early Bahá'í Hooper Harris' wife, Sarah Gertrude Rawle Harris. The Carter family had moved in circa 1908. The Carter family also knew the Beckwiths. Kate Beckwith was Principal of East Carolina Teacher's Training College from 1909 to 1925 in Greenville, to whom these Bahá'ís were commended as they headed west. Beckwith had previously opened a school in Washington, NC, and Lula had been working on renovating or making a new school for the black population of Washington. We don't know if Felice or Frederick were present in town for their presentations including this discussion of a new school.

Unfortunately the Wilmington Morning Star, a key newspaper covering these events, falls silent in 1922 in the searchable archive. Mabel later said she married Thomas Manly, brother of Alex Manly, and moved to Philadelphia, but a date closer to early 1920s is supported - but that in Philadelphia she felt no prejudice and picked up gardening.

By 1922 there was evidence Parris was less active as a minister and he was not listed as a minister after 1924. He also moved out of Wilmington at some point and by 1930 is noted living in Rich Square, NC, where Pocahontas Pope and her husband had worked in a school several decades before and after which she had joined the Bahá'í Faith.

Felice was named as a Bahá'í in a Bahá'í publication about education in 1923.

In January 1925 Gregory spent an extended time in Wilmington:

Wilmington NC during January (1925) afforded many opportunities for service. In this city there lives a truly remarkable believer. A young woman who for seven years has been devoted to the Cause under most difficult circumstances. At present her long trials and sacrifices are bearing fruit and Louis Gregory feels that in this city an Assembly will soon be organized. In Wilmington meetings were held daily in churches, with the Ministers Union, in the public schools, and in many private homes. An influential Catholic invited Louis to address a gathering of Catholic young people in Wilmington and the response was so enthusiastic that he was invited to return.

Family history claims Gregory stayed with the family and this was when Frederick joined the religion. Felice explained, "My father was always searching for that togetherness that the Christian faith didn't have." when she was 95. His involvement with the religion was acknowledged in the 1998 Strength through struggle: the chronological and historical record of the African-American community in Wilmington, North Carolina 1865-1950 published by the New Hanover County Public Library.

A Bahá'í Race Amity Convention was hoped for in April, 1925, perhaps in DC, but was postponed though Gregory spoke of someone who might help with it. Alas the postponement of the convention became alittle prolonged. Frederick died May 30, 1925, after a prolonged illness, was buried June 2, attendees including Alex and Carrie Manly, and came to be known in Bahá'í circles as the first Bahá'í of NC in later years though his name was unrecorded at the time.

Gregory made a trip to the South from October, 1925, but was in Florida and Georgia mostly. Alain Locke, a Bahá’í since 1918, also did a speaking tour of the South for the religion starting in 1925 but what states is less clear. By July, Felice attended Columbia University in New York City with some friends. New York City Bahá'ís had “according to the recent testimony of an impartial and qualified observer… a real fraternity between black and white, and an unprecedented lifting of the 'colour bar', described by the said observer as 'almost miraculous'". See Coverage of the Baha'i Faith in New York City via the New York Age newspaper. But it is unknown if Felice was aware of it. This appears to be a period where Felice did a lot of traveling. Felice and friends went to visit Pittsburgh in August Felice and the friends are back in Wilmington by later September. Of the winter of 1925-6 Felice ("Miss Sadgwar") is mentioned in a report of the Bahá'í Southern Regional Committee report offered at the spring 1926 annual convention as being "working as ever." In Spring 1926 Felice and these ladies were visible at a Valentines Day reception in Wilmington, DE. That following Summer Felice was among those at a reception party in Wilmington, NC and then off to Philadelphia. In 1927 she played music as part of a wedding in Pittsburgh. Another 6 months later she played piano accompaniment at another performance in Pittsburgh.

Gregory did make a trip through NC in 1928 but so far the trip only mentions Durham.

Felice would have been minding her mother's care in later years. She was also sick in 1929 - son Otis made the trip down from Baltimore to see her. Brother Fred Sadgwar Jr was a funeral director.

In 1930 Felice was a teacher at the Williston school. In the 1970s a Bahá'í News piece mentions Bahá'ís were leading the Bricks school at Enfield in the early 1930s, and Gregory visited it in 1931 and another year. However the AMA canceled plans for an expansion of the school in the face of the Great Depression and instead the school was closed in the Fall of 1933 much to the pain of the local residents who had built up a community around it. Another Bahá'í, Sarah Elizabeth Martin,(later Pereira) began working at Shaw University in Raleigh in 1933 through 1942 - her parents were from Raleigh but they had moved away by the turn of the century and then learned of the Faith from Gregory. It is unknown if Sarah and Felice knew of eachother.

In 1932 Felice was on the board of the United Charities her father had helped found. Mother Carolina Huggins Sadgwar died September 12, 1932 in Wilmington. The next visible reference to Felice in the newspapers, minding we are presently blind to of a significant source in Wilmington, was in 1934 when Felice managed to be noticed vacationing to New York and stopping to see her sister Mabel, (Mrs. Thomas Manly.) It was later noted Felice had already been serving in emergency relief planning from Wilmington serving from 1932-5.

In town a playground was constructed and donations from Frederick were acknowledge in 1936. That year Sarah, wife of early Bahá'í Hooper Harris, and her sister, who had contact with other Bahá'ís traveling through the state in 1919, died in Washington, NC. It is not known if Felice had had any contact with them. Felice was also listed affiliated with the Fayetteville State Teachers College, as it was known then, with an "Extension Center" in Wilmington in 1937, another Extension Center in Elizabethtown in 1939, and with the college itself in the summer of 1940. Julia Sadgwar died in 1944, and brother Byron died in 1946.Meanwhile and the first spiritual assembly of Bahá'ís in North Carolina was elected in Greensboro in 1943 and Hubert Parris officially joined the religion the same day. Felice was also there in the summer of 1953. Parris died in 1956. In 1947-8 Felice was a teacher at the Wrightsboro School, which alas burned down that year and the school merged with the Peabody School.

In 1952 Felice's eldest brother Charles died. In 1958 Felice wrote a letter to the editor of the Ebony magazine. Though the religion had been visible in various nationally and statewide circulated black newspapers it should be noted Ebony had several articles in the 1950s and 60s on the religion. It is not known if Felice noticed the coverage. Mabel moved back to Wilmington around 1959.

Otis Sadgwar, living in Wilmington again for some years and part owner of the Sadgwar Funeral Home, died in December 1962. That summer Felice retired from teaching. From around then Felice began to volunteer at the Retired Senior Volunteer program. Carrie (Caroline) Sadgwar Manly died in 1966, as did brother Earnest. The “Sadgwar sisters” are noted a few months later in Wilmington holding a “Garden Market” benefit for the Chestnut St. Presbytrian Church in October.

Shortly before Bahá'ís from the wider area moved to Wilmington because of excitement in South Carolina, in 1969 the “Sadgwar-Manly Garden” was among the private gardens opened to an azalea tour in Wilmington.

Where North Carolina might have had no enduring communities of Bahá’ís before 1942, there were about 20 Bahá’ís in 1944, and around 70 in 1963, it may have been approaching over 100 adults in 1968. At a conference of Bahá'ís a summary of the North Carolina community noted there were 30 localities with Bahá'ís, and 6 assemblies. Goal cities listed were - Ahoskie, Asheboro, Boone Clinton, Concord, Cullowhee, Dodson, Eden, Elizabeth City, Gastonia, Goldsboro, Henderson, Hendersonville, Hickory, Jacksonville, Kinston, Laurenburg, Lumberton, Marion, Monroe, Morehead City, Murphy, Roanoke Rapids, Salisbury, Smithfield, Washington, Wilmington, Wilson - and some of these already had at least one new Baha'i since Ridvan 1969 - Gastonia, Morehead City, and Roanoke Rapids.

Circa 1971, after Bahá'ís had populated various parts of NC including the Triad and Triangle, Asheville and Charlotte, Bahá'ís came to Wilmington pioneering and discovered the sisters present, still alive, with recognition of Felice and her father, and the new addition of Mabel as members of the religion.The template {{Expand}} has been deprecated since 26 December 2010, and is retained only for old revisions. If this page is a current revision, please remove the template.

In September 1972 Diana DeChesere was noted secretary of the New Hanover County Assembly, surrounding Wilmington. In 1973 Felice and Mabel's brother Edward died.

Felice and Mabel were interviewed about the Wilmington Insurrection in 1975 and 1977 as research for books.

The integration of the Bahá'í community was such that by 1978 the Sadgwar home hosted a publicly advertised Feast. Next it held the observance of the Birth of the Báb with a slideshow by Frank Stewart of his pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and regular meetings on Sundays.

In 1979 Felice attended a Chestnut Street United Presbyterian Church dedication service of a piano and new stained glass windows.

Felice also went to speak at historic Wilmington events such as the New Hanover County Museum in 1981, and recalling elders who had passed and been buried. Both sisters were profiled the summer of 1981. In fact it noted Mabel had blue eyes and contributed to the New Hanover Library oral history program as well as a thick folder of documented materials. Roger Hamrick wrote a letter to the editor in thanks for the story and referred to Frederick as the first Bahá'í of the city and Mabel joining the religion in her later years after returning from living in Philadelphia. Timed with a comment of the Universal House of Justice about the religion emerging from obscurity, a North Carolina historic marker and tribute for Frederick and his house was set with talks and coverage in 1982 during human relations month, followed by Felice being profiled and pictured having won "Citizen of the year". She was quoted saying "What America needs today is to get rid of its racial and religious and political prejudices."

In 1983 the city sold some land originally deeded to the Sadgwar family.

Felice and Mabel were interviewed by various Bahá'ís but available archives have not been published. In this period their notoriety was high and many Bahá'ís of the region met them.

In 1984 Felice’s sister Caroline (Carrie), and Felice were recognized as Wilmington Women during history week. In 1985 Felice and Mabel attended the Azalea Queen presentation at the New Hanover County Museum. A month later Felice sang at the Shuffler Senior Center. Another couple weeks later Felice and Mabel were interviewed for history research on the Insurrection.

Mabel died near a year later, in early May, 1986. Several months later the Bahá'ís of Wilmington were profiled. Emerging more obscurity a statewide review of religions was produced with one author out of Wilmington and mentioned the Wilmington community and heritage in 6 pages spread with many large pictures featuring Louis Gregory, the Sadgwars, Bahá'ís elsewhere in the state, many names of Bahá'ís from the 1960s, the formation of some Assemblies, and the persecution of Bahá'ís in Iran. They described the religion as "principally nonwhite". And a picture of Felice with two children on her lap closed the text of the book.

Felice died in July, 1988. A commemoration was held the next year. Historical research recalled David Sadgwar in 1989, and Frederick was noted as well.

In 1989 the estate of Felice Sadgwar had given $1000 for more than one year to UNC-W.

Sites of district conventions of Bahá'ís were published in August as 1991 - one was hosted in Wilmington: Unit 80, "Eastern-A in Wilmington" was held October 6 at Sadgwar Bahá'í Center arranged by the LSA of Wilmington, and absentee ballots could be sent to Joan Canterbury.

The Spiritual Assembly of Wilmington established the Felice L. Sadgwar award in 1993. The Sadgwar Bahá'í Center hosted a meeting on prophecy in 1994, and classes on the religion in 1995. The Sadgwar House was included in a Heritage Trail, itself a student lead project as part of some course work, in 1997.

There seems to have been a Frederick C. Sadgwar Mathematics Award (recall he was a “computer” in his day) in the high school some years - occasionally as “TC” or “FC”.

1998 was the centeniary of the Insurrection and several events noted the Sadgwars. The New Hanover Library published Strength through struggle: the chronological and historical record of the African-American community in Wilmington, North Carolina 1865-1950 and the writer, William Reaves, acknowledged that Felice and Mabel had "spent many enjoyable times with me, helping me to realize the importance of recording Wilmington's black history". A picture of the christening of the son of Carrie Sadgwar Manly and Alexander was published. The house was part of an historic tour in 1998 as well. A local play of the Carrie-Alex marriage and history was put on the stage as part of the centennial events. A dedication stone remembering Felice was placed at William H. Blount Elementary School the next year. The Bahá'ís held a race unity festival as well.

The Sadgwar home acting as a Bahá'í Center was not sustainable and it was sold in ???. Regardless, an article on the history of events including the Sadgwars was published in 2000, and in 2002 there was a series of articles. Articles referencing the history also came in 2003 and 2004 as well.

In 2012 the memorial stones including of Felice Sadgwar were uncovered at the new Mosley Performance Learning Center, formerly the Blount Elementary School.

In 2014 new inductee of the Wilmington Walk of Fame, Grenoldo Frazier, thanked Felice for teaching him piano.

Florence Mayberry

Main article: Florence Virginia Foose Wilson Mayberry

Florence Mayberry's father served in the Civil War - she tells an anecdote in her autobiography: "…the whole family moved to Waverly Missouri. The family became friends several African-Americans: Ollie, a neighboring African-American, and insisted an African-American family eat with them at their kitchen table. There was a "visit" from the social ladies of the town who communicated to them that the norm in the area was in favor of maintaining segregated eating - and her grandfather quipped back, as Mayberry recalled, 'Tell your menfolks this. As a boy I fought in the Civil War for Abe Lincoln. The idea was to fix things so black folks are free to be like God wanted 'em to be. Free and equal. A colored man or woman is as good as Becky'n me. In my house they eat at my table, because I eat at my table. And tell your menfolks this, too. I keep a loaded shotgun under my bed. And the first man, or men, steps on my land I bought and paid for to force me or my woman to change how we treat folks on our property will get its full blast. And I reload fast. I thank you, Ladies, and good afternoon.' "

Roy Williams

Roy Williams was born February 19, 1888 in Washginton, DC. He had a sister Amy and his mother was named Bertha Joyce.

Very little is known of Williams growing up or his early adulthood. His grandmother, Nellie, was from Virginia but her children were born in Maryland. The Joyce family of his mother and grandmother and kin lived in Washington, DC, at least most of this period. After being born in DC himself, his mother Bertha, perhaps also known as Marie Bertha, is mentioned a member of 19th Street Baptist in DC in 1895. An uncle had died in 1901, and in 1910 the Joyce family, with Bertha divorced by then, lived on 1st St NW. It is known that Williams had seen ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, perhaps in New York or DC, in 1912. He was a workman and saw a crowd of people in eastern garb and recognized 'Abdu'l-Bahá from the newspaper coverage.

It is also known that by 1918 he, possibly with his sister, were living in Harlem and he had joined the Bahá'í Faith. He and his sister are among a list of some 40 known African Americans to join the religion during the ministry of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.</ref> Louis and Louise Gregory often dined at Williams' grandmother's home in DC and may have taught Louise some recipes in southern cooking Louis had grown up with. Williams learned that his mother had joined the religion in New York. He was impatient at a meeting she was attending and interrupted it to borrow the book that was so much of their attention - it was a book about, and perhaps by, Thornton Chase; perhaps his The Bahai Revelation. Upon reading it he was convinced of the religion.

Williams was much in the company of early Bahá'í Hooper Harris and also gained skills in carpentry to build and repair furniture, and met Louis Gregory and witnessed him leading sessions at the national convention.

In advance of the formal release of the Tablets of the Divine Plan, Gregory and Williams had teamed up to travel to the South to promote the religion. Gregory and Williams were “starting for the Southland to present the divine Glad Tidings in all the states mentioned in the Master’s great Tablet to the South" before March 1919, perhaps even a more than a year before. In March Gregory also reports that Williams had written an article on the Faith and the League of Nations for the Portsmouth Star. Williams addressed the 1919 national convention in New York, and was noted "of Cleveland". This may have been the event at which it became known he had also learned the prayer by the Báb in Arabic known as "the Remover of Difficulties" which he did at a convention setting when asked by Zia Baghdadi and Louis Gregory during which there was much division and settled upon his chanting the prayer. Amy was noted going to the convention in a Cleveland newspaper as well. Roy and his sister Amy had taken up residence in Cleveland, a community long knowning Gregory and integrated, which continued to be their place of residence. Williams had spoken of traveling for the Faith which 'Abdu’l-Bahá endorsed. Amy also received a Tablet. Williams was also mentioned in a Tablet to Gregory. Another uncle of Williams died in early May.

Though initiated before the formal unveiling of the Tablets of the Divine Plan as a group of Tablets at Ridvan, (the first Tablet to the Southern States was published in Star of the West in 1916,) the work became specifically known by the summer of 1919. By June Gregory and Williams had been through Richmond, Virginia, and Charleston and Huntington, West Virginia. Williams also made it to Atlanta during 1919 where Williams and Gregory spoke to many churches, colleges, and ministerial meetings, and encountered brave whites in Atlanta who supported the work of integrated meetings. In Atlanta some children had been much moved by the meetings. Public meetings across the south were regularly segregated in the period and some were unadvertised. Among Williams’ topics before November was of the Bahá'í Temple to which well-wishers gave him money to donate to the work of raising a Temple allowing all races to worship together, but the people were confused Williams and Gregory would not accept donations to help them in their travels. Williams went on to southern Florida, perhaps the first black Bahá'í to make it there before traveling included to Austin, Texas, and speaking at Sam Houston College and HBCU Tillotson College, but ran out of money in Texas by spring 1920. Williams recalled Gregory and he would often meet ahead of public meetings with the local police to establish relations and was sometimes the only place they could sleep. At other times he received bus fair from Louis Gregory or Agnes Parsons. Overall, despite the tension of a year of riots across the nation, Williams found that the topic of the Covenant was the safe and calming to whites and blacks. That winter, in December 1919, Williams mother and grandmother attended the New York community's Feast which included Juliet Thompson and Laura Barney-Dreyfus. Williams work was more commented upon by July 1920. Williams efforts were second only to Gregory.

Taken mid-winter, the 1920 US Census at the beginning of the year has Williams' residence on Cedar St. in Cleveland, working as a machinist in a factory. Williams returned to traveling though he always gave the priority of achievement to Gregory either following him or using his network of contacts. Across the next few years Gregory and Williams went through 30 towns just in South Carolina. Williams was also a skilled carpenter which aided financing the trip. However communications were cut off with the death of Joseph Hannen when he was run over in DC - in fact he had letters in his pocket for Williams on him. After this death there is a gap in documenting Williams efforts - Hannen was crucial in maintaining communications and continued correspondence with travelers in the South. Williams wept some 60 years later remembering receiving the blood splattered mail for him that Hannen had had on him.

In February 1921 Williams spoke in Philadelphia on the spreading religion. He was there two weeks among churches and colleges. Next Williams spoke at the 1921 national convention in later April in a section with May Maxwell on "the inviolability and power of the Word”. In August 1921 Williams received a Tablet from 'Abdu’l-Bahá referring to racist attitudes and animosities between the races, that, if not changed would result in "great calamities". Circa 1921 Williams also carried on a correspondence with Agnes Alexander and a blind Bahá'í in Japan as well. Gregory came through town in the fall of 1921.

By December of 1921, after the first Race Amity Convention in DC in May, Williams aided the two white women Bahá'ís of Springfield, Massachusetts, the birthplace of Thornton Chase but which he had long left behind, in setting up their own Convention. Planning began in November, which, to the surprise of Williams had already garnered interest and energy from the first convention, and to the surprise of William H. Randall, roughly equaled the first in size. Williams wrote up an article for Star of the West published in April 1922. He notes it was among the last words of 'Abdu’l-Bahá to American sending a confirming telegram November 8 and dying twenty days later, and was held the first week of December. Christian ministers, a rabbi, Bahá’ís and philanthropic workers, choirs signing negro spirituals, piano and soloists and an audience around a thousand filled the Central High School auditorium. Mayor E. F. Leonard spoke as did a state senator. African American colonel Charles. L. Young spoke as well just a month before he died.

It would be three years before the next Race Amity Convention, perhaps partly out of grief of the passing of 'Abdu’l-Bahá. From 1922 to 1924 there is a gap in mention of Williams. In 1924 he was named to a committee for having the next Race Amity Convention. It was held in Philadelphia. The Secretary of the Assembly claims it was Williams who “first planted the seed” of having the Convention there. This was the first appearance of Leslie Pinckney Hill at Bahá'í events and soon he would be counted as a Bahá'í while leading a nearby HBCU. Williams was reappointed to the Race Amity Convention committee in 1925, however no convention was held that year. In 1926 Williams was included in gathering called by National Spiritual Assembly to review race issues. In 1927 a national committee with Williams suggested to the national assembly to appoint national Race Amity Committee again, and a convention was held at Green Acre along with several in other cities. While many more occured in 1928 and 1929, there is a gap in mention of Williams as there was in the earlier 1920s. This time it extended to the 1930s. No Bahá'í source yet identified mentions him. A reasonable 1930 Census report has him with a wife of 10 years, Annie L. Williams, born in Jamaica and speaking Spanish, and living with a grandmother Nellie Joyce, the same surname as his mother Bertha. They were living on Unison Landing Rd in Burlington, New Jersey, just a few miles and a few years from being involved in the 1924 Amity Convention in Philadelphia. However things had changed by the 1940s and there is as yet no documentation when or how these changes came about.

Bernice Cooper--who attended Bennett College in Greensboro- learned of the Faith in Greenville, South Carolina, and joined the Faith in 1942. And she married Williams in 1941 in Greensboro, North Carolina. Bernice had been born 1914 in Seville, Florida, worked in South Carolina schools many years, and graduated from Bennett College in 1937. She was an honor student at least in 1934. Both her parents were born in South Carolina, while she and her mother rented a home in Orlando, Florida, in 1930 on North Bryan St. Her mother Olive was a waitress. In 1940 Bernice rented an apartment in Henderson, Vance county, North Carolina, on Rockspring Street, had finished 4 years of college and was a high school teacher, (as were all her neighbors) at Henderson Normal Institute, the only school for blacks under the segregation system at the time in Vance County. The couple briefly moved to Rocky Mount, North Carolina, in 1943, just before national assembly member W. Kenneth Christian taught at the state college in nearby Greenville, North Carolina, and William Tucker joined the Faith, as well as the formation of the first assembly in North Carolina in Greensboro in 1943, (see Louise Sawyer.) However the couple soon moved then to Greenville to aid the community recover an assembly and were the first black pioneers to there. The assembly re-formed in November, 1943. By then Williams was a master carpenter and had a shop for furniture restoration while Bernice taught at Sterling High School, which burned down in 1967.

Newspaper coverage of the Williams, or at least the address they lived at on Madison St, and the Bahá'ís began in March 1944 under the segregation laws of the period and led up to the Ridvan period when members of the community including Williams attending the national convention as well as the Centennial of the Declaration of the Báb. The following October Williams appeared in Atlanta for a Race Unity meeting. However there were tensions over personality and sensabilities between Roy Williams and William Bidwell that did not relate to race. However their issues also complicated other differences in the community causing it to mount to a paralysis by 1944. Gregory came through in the winter of 1944-5 to try to improve community relations though the community remained unstable.

Another gap of some years from the mid-1940s passed until in 1950 when a series of meetings were held at various centers in Greensboro, North Carolina, with speakers including Williams with newspaper coverage and radio stations. Interestingly he was being called "Dr.". Could there have been an academic degree? In 1951 there was a North and South Carolina Regional conference in Greenville and coveraged noted that Williams was chair of the Greenville assembly.

In early 1953 the Greenville community rallied and Williams presented the case for Bahá'í meetings being integrated to the city council and was given approval, (and being called "Dr." again.)

Another gap in identified coverage and then in 1955 the community was noted holding Martyrdom of the Báb in Greenville; Williams was noted as “publicity director”.

Again there is a gap in known mentions from the mid-1950s. In 1961 a Mrs. Bernice Williams, quite possibly Roy's wife, was visible speaking to the city council against segregation.

The next visibility presently known is in 1963 when Williams gave a talk for World Peace Day in Greenville. Then, though Williams is not specifically mentioned, the Greenville community hosted an initiative similar to the Freedom Summer campaign with connections at the Bahá'í School in Michigan, later called Louhelen Bahá'í School, because Greenville was integrating its schools that Fall. Training sessions for a project were noted in the Bahá'í News in August. Some 80 youth attended the training in mid-June with faculty like Firuz Kazemzadeh. After the classes in various subjects, 27 individuals went to 8 locations including Greenville. Six youth went to Greenville under the sponsorship of the local assembly there for a 6 week program. Local youth joined in. The group worked on tutoring some 55 black students about to attend newly integrating schools, held informational meetings on the religion, and supported petitioning for the public swimming pool being integrated. The work was capped with a parent-teacher banquet reception at a church and a picnic for the students conducted by the Bahá'í teachers. The group visited many churches, restaurants, parks, stores, and a community center to demonstrate solidarity with the black community. Side ventures included the Bahá'í Summer School near Ashville, North Carolina, going to Greensboro, and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference training camp near Savannah, Georgia.

It is not clear but probably it was during this period that Williams was a school principal though this was noted only much later.

After about a decade of not being mentioned, Williams was noted treasurer of Greenville Assembly in 1973, just after the wave of activity mostly down east in the state.

Williams died September 14, 1981, in Greensboro and the funeral was held in Wilmington, North Carolina. where he was buried in the Sadgwar family plot. The relationship of the Sadgwar family with Gregory, and the family's reconnection with the Bahá'ís from the mid-1970s, may have been a strong draw for him.

Bernice lived out her years in Greensboro where she died in 2002, and was buried.

Leslie Pinckney Hill

Main article: Leslie Pinckney Hill

Leslie Pinckney Hill, (14 May 1880 – 15 February 1960) is mostly known as the leader of what grew to be Cheyney University] near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In the 1920s, and after, Hill was enthusiastically involved with the Bahá'í Faith.

Hill's known connections with Bahá’ís go back at least to visits by Louis Gregory in 1912. At the time Hill was teaching at the Manassas Industrial School for Colored Youth in Virginia and Gregory spoke before Hill's class twice - first on his trip to the Holy Land and secondly on the theme of universal brotherhood. In 1915 Hill wrote a paper for the The Journal of Race Development mentioning the progressive integrative views and practices of Bahá’ís, and by 1924 was taking part in a Bahá’í co-sponsored Race Amity Convention in Philadelphia. The other co-sponsor was the local Quaker community, which was also a founding and long-lived sponsor of Cheyney.

In light of the developing relationship one can speculate on earlier connections. In February 10, 1905, The New York Press, reported that "Harvard Alumni (were) aghast" on page 1 when Professor William James (1842-1910) had invited Bahá'í Ali Kuli Khan to hold meetings on campus and that alumni would surely pressure James to stop him teaching the religion on campus. James was a favorite Harvard professor of Hill's, who attended 1899-1904 and wrote a eulogy for him. Additionally, after hearing of the religion in 1907 and meeting 'Abdu'l-Bahá in 1912, another Harvard graduate Albert Vail reported on the religion in the July 1914 edition of The Harvard Theological Review Vail published an article surveying the religion. It is possible Hill encountered the article; Hill's 1915 article does not say where he got his information.

In April 1925 Hill spoke at a public meeting during the National Bahá’í Convention which elected the first National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís for the United States (NSA) in its modern form. In Louis Gregory’s coverage in Baha’i News he said "If I were to speak out of my heart, he said in part which I want the privilege of doing… He paid an eloquent tribute to Jesus of Nazareth, Baha'u'llah, and Abdu'l-Baha." In earlier July Hill was in the 2nd day of the fifth Race Amity Convention this time held in Green Acre Bahá’í School. Harlan Ober’s record of Hill’s presentation mentions him being moved by the unity at the Bahá’í convention and now at Green Acre compared to the racism in the general society. He noted the mutual cooperation of Bahá’ís during the (first) World War and saw the need of cooperation as the next steps for society - “with true eloquence, and the exaltation of yearning, he made a most stirring appeal for cooperation and for the establishment of the new brotherhood” and the audience responded strongly. Hill then attended a National Association of Teachers in Colored Schools meeting in Durham, North Carolina, and asked the National Assembly to send a speaker - Keith Ransom-Kehler, who had chaired the Green Acre session Hill had just participated in, was sent, and in a quote from his letter of thanks said “I want you to know how deeply grateful I am that the N. S. A. decided to send Mrs. Keith Ransom-Kehler to Durham …. She was heard not only by the colored teachers in attendance but by the United States Commissioner of Education and a number of white superintendents, … I believe that she created many centers of influence from which the light and truth will spread." This was in late July.

In November 1926 the US Bahá'í National Assembly assembled a small group of avowed Bahá´ís which included Hill and others, Louis Gregory, Agnes Parsons, and Alain Locke, in a special consultation on the progress of the subject of race unity. It is on the basis of this meeting that Bahá'í sources specifically date his status as an avowed Bahá'í, as well as one non-Bahá'í source.

In February 1927 Hill appeared at the opening of a new Bahá’í Center in New York in the evening. His subject was “the spirit that sustains ideals”. Alfred E. Lunt and Hill, both graduates of Harvard, reunited at the Green Acre Race Amity meeting in July. Hill’s talk was entitled “The New Negro”. Gregory noted Hill and Lunt “Due to their common faith in Bahá’u’lláh which each expressed in his own way, their friendship was more than personal, more than sectional…. So the black man with the grasp of a statesman and the vision of a seer, could present a survey of the world with no trace of bitterness, commending his own group to a program of high hopefulness through his faith in the eternal verities….”

Hill participated in the next Bahá’í Race Amity Conventions in DC, one of six in the country that year. Other presenters included Coralie Cook and Mordecai W. Johnson. The national inter-racial amity committee of the Bahá’ís circulated a letter on the broad scope of the work. A summary of the event by Locke was printed in Star of the West where he hailed it “as the most successful (of the year) … its discussion of issues…came to more practical grips with the problems of race relationships than ever before.” Mordecai’s talk wrestled with how prejudice can come from “our devotion to our ideals and from the zeal and enthusiasm with which we have set out to conquer the world for the things we have thought were right.… the good impulse gone wrong.… The conquest of prejudice was thus the crusade for a spiritual radicalism which would place moral consistency above social conformity and be willing to concede to all minorities, as indeed to all individuals, the right of self-expression, self-determination, and self-appraisal.” Hill’s own talk Locke commented on as “Getting on together” focused on the non-retaliative social spirit of black America, their involvement in the arts and moral life in society “waiting to be met and understood by the enlightened conscience of his fellow citizens." Immediately after the convention, Hill contributed a talk at the Wilmington, Delaware, meeting organized by their International and Interracial Goodwill committee just before Thanksgiving.

By late January 1928 it was announced Hill was chair of an civic Inter-racial Peace Committee and spoke at one of a series of sessions in a Wilmington, Delaware, at an AME Church. His talk was titled "Peace! The Essential Negro Progress” and held shortly before the large Armstrong Association meeting held in Philadelphia at which Hill added a talk of his own near mid-February. Some of his speech was quoted, starting “We should educate and interest our children in Negro History, pointing out to them the men and women of achievement in our race so that there might be some incentive and inspiration for them to attain similar heights of greatness and achievement." A week later Hill was back at Cheyney for the interracial gala unveiling of a bust of abolitionist and newspaper reporter John Milholland and one of the founders of the NAACP. Race relations meetings began in early April in Pittsburgh to which Hill contributed. Gregory was at Cheyney sometime after around October-November 1928.

In 1928 and 1930 there was no Race Amity meetings, but in August 1929 the Race Amity Convention was held at Green Acre. Gregory’s report, later published in Bahá'í World volume 3, noted Hill opened it thanking the workers at Green Acre, contrasted the service of those alive and dead compared to the work of tyranny ravaging lives, praised the use of tact, and the spread of more books about race relations and organizations along these lines. He commented that blacks were encouraged by the progress so much that communism and violence were minimized among them and also the spreading influence of art and literature from black people and in reference to the meaning of his book of poetry, to make of oppression wings to fly towards heaven. Then in March 1, 1931, Hill gave a talk at the New York Bahá’í Center, followed a couple days later by Hill giving a talk at an observance of the death of Crispus Attucks. Hill was back in mid-March to take part in a series of race amity meetings in the NY Baha’i Center co-sponsored by the Urban League.

Alain Locke wrote a critical comment about Hill in his acceptance of joining the Race Unity Committee written to Gregory June 6, 1931: "I wish… could be persuaded to come to Green Acre… his temperament is rather acid as you know… although his is first and last a truth-seeker - and I would rather have this element even with some irritation than the deceptive platitudes of some of our friends, including even Dr. Leslie P. Hill. Please accept these reactions as constructively meant…."

Martha Root spoke at Cheyney and other area universities - Swarthmore College, Haverford College, and Temple University - around late 1931/early 1932.

As Cheyney Normal School became Cheyney College and prepared to become Cheyney University, and in the face of not only being school president and the campus' renovations but the fundraising in the face of the Great Depression, Hill’s appearances at Bahá’í events became more spread out but continued late into his life. There are two connections beyond his own to mention. One is that Amy Bailey joined or encountered the religion around the time she attended Cheyney in 1935-6 and was an avowed Bahá'í in 1936 when she went home to Providence, Rhode Island. The other is a reported comment of Evangeline King, Cheyney Librarian, in Baha’i News in 1941: “Personally I am deeply interested in the Baha’i teachings and you may be sure I shall try to capture the interest of others. I should say that nothing could be more timely for us than this clear pure gospel.” However there is no record in the National Bahá'í Archives she officially joined the religion. On the other hand it should be noted the first community of Bahá'ís in West Chester, the civic community hosting Cheyney, has so far been dated only back to 1941-2, so before then there appears to be no community of Bahá'ís for Hill to be a part of locally.

In 1942 Hill sent a letter of regret he could not participate in the Green Acre race unity meeting in 1942, though in mid-December 1943 Hill spoke at the New York Bahá'í Center with the topic “Rebuilding our Future”. In 1947 Hill gave a talk on a familiar Bahá'í theme of "One World", also referred to in a more Christian-phrase of the "gospel of love", followed by one on "intercultural solidarity". It wasn't until 1950 that Hill spoke at the local Philadelphia Bahá’í community observance of the Martyrdom of the Báb. Hill gave a talk as part of a series of presentations by Bahá'ís for Brotherhood Week in February 1955 in New York, and was part of the community race unity meeting in the city in June in which there was a comment that he "… often invited Baha’is to speak at his college in years past." Hill died in 1960.

20th Century

But just as peace is not defined or created by the absence of war, so too unity is not well characterized by a war that eventually promulgated the end of slavery. While there are various reviews of early connections of the Faith with Africans and African Americans, this is primarily a review of what “white” American Bahá’ís have done on matters of racial healing. I hope you have already seen several links to materials to read - more to come! Beyond those of individual efforts to follow, below, there is the case of the series of conferences Bahá’ís organized called “Race Amity Convention”s. These have been commented on in various places, (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) but there has yet to be a collective review. While Louis Gregory and Agnes Parsons were key founding participants, many others contributed in leading events or participating in talks. Most especially this was true of Albert Vail, (though some of this remains to be documented - some further links after 1921 are known *,*,*.) A moving speaker by Gregory’s own testimony, he participated in most Race Amity Conventions. Across some 15 years from 1921 to 1936, with sometimes more than one conference per year, usually held across more than one day in more than one venue, perhaps dozens of speakers and panelists ultimately took part. And these ran well into the Great Depression. The conventions were succeeded with more locally presented Race Unity conferences, and then Race Unity Day which is still observed. Even so, integration was a process repeated over and over, rising to become the national norm. Bahá’ís were also involved in the NAACP and other race-conscious organizations.*

Stories

Some stories have been gathered, some less so. Pauline Hannen’s story less so, so far, (but see 1, 2 though she and her husband taught the religion to Louis Gregory, a very well-known Bahá’í.) In the 1920s Bahá’í engagement in New York City,*a location of hundreds of Bahá’ís but without a Center of their own, became distinguished both among those recognizing the evil of racism and among those who supported it. The favorable comment was “…resulting in the formation of important Bahá'í centres in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and other cities. One of the most notable practical results of the Bahá'í ethical teaching in the United States has been, according to the recent testimony of an impartial and qualified observer, the establishment in Bahá'í circles in New York of a real fraternity between black and white, and an unprecedented lifting of the "colour bar", described by the said observer as ‘almost miraculous’.” But from a recognized newspaper associated with the KKK we have: “In several cities meetings are regularly held by Bahaists (sic) and Babist (sic) … in New York.” Though an Austrian and fleeing WWI, Ludmila O. B. Van Sombeek was visible in black newspapers for decades in America because of her personal and energetic participation in matters of African-Americans and interracial harmony at first alittle since the late 1920s but then much more in the 1950s and 60s. Robert B. Powers was a kind of state-wide police chief in California in 1945 and in 1946 was brought to a process to develop an early police training program geared to overcome assumptions of racism rampant among police and society and simultaneously began to read books on the Faith. Later his son joined a police force but when he witnessed undue violence this son testified against the police. Dorothy Beecher Baker helped develop a speaker’s bureau for race matters. More stories await documenting. Workers in the field of unity walked the paths of bringing people together.* Our predilection for inter-racial meetings has gotten us in trouble even in more recent days.*

While `Abdu’l-Bahá often spoke to the issue of race, and Bahá’u’lláh had freed the slaves inherited from his wealthy father, a noble in a society that also practiced slavery acquiring African slaves from its east coast compared the Europeans and US doing so in the west coast, Bahá’ís had not collected a compilation of the guidance presented in various circumstances until circa 1935. Two white women - Maye Harvey Gift and Alice Simmons Cox - did this. They both joined the religion in the Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, community. Some of the following is from a Master’s Thesis by Lori Vodden, The development of the Baha'i Faith in Central Illinois, 1898-1957at the Illinois State University Department of History as well as some newspaper and World Order articles. Gift had graduated from the University of Illinois there, took up the early days of philanthropy work, and got professional training and on return to Urbana she worked through several organizations ultimately becoming the director of the Pekin Social Service League in a neighboring town. She encountered the Bahá’í Faith about 1915 as did her soon husband and Civil War veteran John Wilson Gift and among their first acts as a couple was supporting soldiers in WWI through a university support system for veterans. Cox was from a small town in Illinois and attended Lombard College where she graduated summa cum laude and had David Starr Jordan as a faculty member. She married Levi Cox on graduating and the couple moved to Peoria. Cox encountered the Faith by 1934. Gift had attended the earliest meetings of the new Louhelen Bahá’í School in Michigan and began her service there with three presentations on race issues to eager adult learners of the religion. Cox learned of the work and together they decided to produce a compilation the first version of which came out in 1935. Cox worked as a writer and editor of World Order magazine. In anticipation of the Centenary of the Declaration of the Báb in 1844 the Bahá’í community choose race issues as one of the lead projects to be promulgated and Gift and Cox returned to their compilation, revising and extending it - a list of references was published in World Order in 1942 as “Bahá'í Lessons”*and the revised text Race and Man was published in 1943 - a year fraught with race riots in the US. During that period from November 1942 to April 1943 Cox wrote articles for the New York Age and Pittsburg Courier - two of the most prominent African American newspapers in the country - outlining the Bahá’í view on matters of race and social justice. The compilation was republished in 1946 and again in 1956. That edition eventually made it into the library of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.*Gift died in 1961 and Cox near 1985.

However, in that period from mid-1930s the attention of many Bahá’ís was directed overseas. In the face of being purged from southern Russia under the Soviet Union, the religion, and significantly the body of the Bahá’ís of the United States, were directed to promote the religion in South America, and then Europe, and then Africa by individuals choosing to live in foreign lands.* This was initiated in the latter days of the colonial period around the world and America was engaging on the world stage itself and promoting a hegemony. However, the Bahá’ís were directed and guided in specific ways and with specific goals to avoid any tendency of cultural colonialism and its baggage of racism. Multiplying institutional capacity across Latin America was specifically minded in such a way as to facilitate a shift in the balance of roles from Americans giving leadership guidance and Latino cooperation to Latinos leading and giving guidance and Americans cooperating.* When Americans went to Africa, care was minded repeatedly that the goal was to empower African adoption of the religion and leadership in locally implementing the religion among those that wanted to join it.* When the religion was brought to the attention of Native Americans, the lack of colonialization mindsets was observed by non-Bahá’í native scholars.*When the religion arrived in New Guinea, indigenous converts became known as the ones who preserved and advanced traditional knowledge.* When the Bahá’ís sought to promote village radio programs across Latin America it was in a context of developing locally sustainable skills as well as a distinction in promoting indigenous languages.* Indeed, following the founding and advancing of the community by white American Bahá’ís,*** in 1997 Bahá’ís contributed to the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission* as follows: “…both individual Bahá'ís and our administrative institutions were continually watched by the security police.... Our activities did not include opposition to the previous Government for involvement in partisan politics and opposition to government are explicitly prohibited by the sacred Texts of our Faith.... During the time when the previous Government prohibited integration within our communities, rather than divide into separate administrative structures for each population group, we opted to limit membership of the Bahá'í Administration to the black adherents who were and remain in the majority of our membership and thereby placed the entire Bahá'í community under the stewardship of its black membership.... The pursuit of our objectives of unity and equality has not been without costs. The "white" Bahá'ís were often ostracized by their white neighbours for their association with "non-whites". The Black Bahá'ís were subjected to scorn by their black compatriots for their lack of political action and their complete integration with their white Bahá'í brethren.…”

Though phases of activity were overseas there was some activity back in the States. In December 1947 Bahá’ís participated in a protest at the University of Chicago and echoes of the student protestors were published around the United States.*,*,*,*,*. This was over how black students were being treated in medical institutions on campus.*The question of participation in the protest was addressed to the leader of the religion after `Abdu’l-Bahá - Shoghi Effendi - by a leading black Bahá’í. He got a reply in January 1948 in support of the general and specific protest by Bahá’ís because of the general outrage in the society on campus and an awareness in that society of the Bahá’í views on race and justice.*

Having finished the 10 Year Crusade around the world, back in the US in 1964 Bahá’ís took part in an initiative similar to the Freedom Summer campaign with connections at the Louhelen Bahá'í School, and the burgeoning Bahá'í community of Greenville, South Carolina, which was integrating its schools that Fall. Training sessions for a project were noted in the Bahá'í News in August.*Some 80 youth attended the training in mid-June with faculty like Firuz Kazemzadeh. After the classes in various subjects, 27 individuals went to 8 locations including Greenville, SC.* Six youth including some white students went to Greenville under the sponsorship of the local assembly there for a 6 week program. Local youth joined in. The group worked on tutoring some 55 black students about to attend newly integrating schools, held informational meetings on the religion, and supported petitioning for the public swimming pool being integrated. The work was capped with a parent-teacher banquet reception at a church and a picnic for the students conducted by the Bahá'í teachers.* The group visited many churches, restaurants, parks, stores, and a community center to demonstrate solidarity with the black community. Side ventures included the Bahá'í Summer School near Asheville, NC, going to Greensboro, NC, and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference training camp near Savannah, GA.

In the mid-later 1960s a particular hotspot in American society was the situation in Montgomery, Alabama. A startup newspaper dedicated to coverage of events was the Southern Courier and it covered some Bahá’í mentions as well.* Before it started printing in July it should be noted Bahá'ís participated in the (probably third) March on Montgomery and arranged for telegrams according to the June issue of Baha'i News.* The National Assembly telegrammed the US President and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Bahá'ís that marched include Henry Miller, Diane Schable, Daniel Connor, Charles Carter, Mary Jane Austin, Joseph Mydell, Joan Bronson (the last two from Montgomery.) Though Bahá’ís had lived there in the 1930s, however, as of 1954 there were no known Bahá'ís in Montgomery.

Ludmila Bechtold Van Sombeek

Ludmila Ott Bechtold Van Sombeek (Jul 30, 1893 Vienna, Austria - Sep 7, 1979 in Phoenix, Arizona) was a nurse who fled World War I to the United States by marrying Adolph George Bechtold and learned of the Baha'i Faith from Marie Foote in Brooklyn, New York. Her first appearance in newspapers was supporting a black school for children and concerns of African Americans would follow through most of her life. She was active in some Race Amity Conventions and was visible in some newspapers such as The Pittsburgh Courier, The Chicago Defender, New York Age, and the The Carolina Times across two marriages which the husbands died in, though noting supporting her and her priorities. Between her husband's she became the first guild-licensed optician in the country and whether in Baha'i circles or not, served in volunteer associations along the way. She moved with her second husband to Durham, North Carolina in 1955 and after he died in 1958 she continued there until 1969 when she moved to be near her children and soon retired from public engagements. She died a decade later.

Perhaps the most revealing of the hundreds of newspaper articles about her was in 1935 done by African-American columnist L. F. Coles who had grown to know her first family and carefully noted the non-prejudicial atmosphere of the family, her active engagement in institutions focused on African-Americans and her advocacy of the Baha'i Faith.

Very little is known of Ludmila Ott before coming to the United States. She was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1893. She migrated to America in 1916 about the age of 23 fleeing the beginning of World War I and her first career was nursing. By 1919 her parents appear to have settled in Holland. He was 18 years her senior.

Ludmila was listed married to Adolph George Bechtold by 1916 when they returned from a trip to Bermuda. George, as he is more often called, was already an optician and business owner. The Bechtold's applied for passports in September 1919 traveling to Holland to assist Ludmila's parents, and returned in June 1920.

US Census data from 1920 does not indicate children of the Bechtolds - the 1930 census lists one child 10 yrs old and one seven, The Bahá'í World biography indicates these children were adopted. Schools would obviously be in the picture and Bechtold was soon involved in some schools but it not definitely known which schools their children attended. And the Great Depression in the United States was on the horizon.

Ludmila Bechtold attended introductory meetings on the Bahá'í Faith at Marie Antoinette “Aunty" Foote in Brooklyn and joined the religion in 1922.

Foote's history with the Faith goes back some decades. She is mentioned in the newspapers occasionally. Foote attended a Catholic Cardinal's visit in New York in 1893. In 1899 Foote gave a talk on education, and went on a vacation in Buffalo 1901. In 1903 Foote was listed as a member of the Bahá'í Faith while being teacher in Brooklyn. The article speaks of Bahá'ís holding "meetings in 'Genealogical Hall in 58th St' and at the home of J. Newcomb Witney"… "where Mr and Mrs MacNutt … lecture". Other active members noted were Mr and Mrs Frank Osborne, Ella Flower, Mr and Mrs Leyler, Mr and Mrs. George Witte, Mr. Hawkins, Mr. Marsh, Mrs Herman, and others. Others mentioned include "Miss Goin, of 5th Ave(Manhattan)", Phoebe Hearst, and Miss Barney. Edward Granville Browne's work is referenced a bit and it notes Kheiralla's founding and separation from the community. In 1906 Foote is promoted at work. In 1908 Foote is listed in a "Women’s Illuminati club". In 1909 her retirement as a teacher was announced. In 1910 Foote held a meeting for the Faith, and had joined a Press Club, and was listed living with her sister Stella. In August 1912 Foote attended the visit of `Abdu’l-Baha to Green Acre Bahá'í School Greenacre and is in the large panoramic picture, on the left, wearing a dark shawl over the arms of her dress. She was also noted in a Woman’s Press Club anniversary meeting in November. as well as a Phalo Club meeting.

On June 12, 1918, Foote presented “The Station of Women in the Cycle of Bahá’u’lláh”, and was noted still a member of the Phalo club in 1921. Bechtold also joined the club.

Foote died in 1930.

Though Ludmila, sometimes called Mrs. A. G. Bechtold, or Ludmila O. Bechtold, according to the norms of the day, had joined the religion in 1923, which was timed with when the religion had achieved some notability in race-relations in New York City - see Coverage of the Baha'i Faith in New York City via the New York Age newspaper - her first public appearance in the news as a Bahá'í was in October 1929 when she helped at a fundraiser the Bahá'ís held for a nursery school she was a broad member of, to be held the day after the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The nursery served black children giving them a Montessori education. This was just the small beginnings of her presence in newspapers.

As the Great Depression in the United States was unfolding, 1930 would mark a rising area of focus for Ludmila Bechtold. On November 1930 she took part in her first Race Amity Convention, a conference sponsored by the Bahá'ís at Green Acre Bahá'í School and area venues. Articles covered the three days of conferences and speakers; she then spoke Nov 2 in Chicago along with Mary White Ovington, of the NAACP, and Bahá'í Louis Gregory. Bechtold participated in another meeting on racism in February, and in September 1931 as a guest.

In January 1932 she was visible on the board of the same nursery school in Brooklyn and the school had a fundraiser at the Savoy Ballroom, clearly with African American connections. In February 1932 a set of race amity events took place. One was in Tennessee and featured the presence of W. E. B. Du Bois and another was in Los Angeles, featuring Chief Luther Standing Bear. The Tennessee event in particular seems to have drawn a moment of disunity with an issue of what seemed like a segregated meeting of Bahá'ís which Bechtold and others seem to have been partially informed of, and may have misinformed Du Bois of what happened, though another Bahá'í was noted as a more vocal critic after being mis-informed of the situation.

A leading impact of the Great Depression on Bahá'í affairs also occurred in 1932 when the employment of Albert Vail and Louis Gregory, who often spoke at Race Amity conferences and as traveling teachers of the religion, was terminated in 1932 (announced to them in April 1932, after the national convention, but paid through January 1933,) by the National Spiritual Assembly, The Depression affected the National Bahá'í Fund severely and the funds to continue the work of building the Bahá'í House of Worship were in question. Indeed priorities for beginning construction to finish by the goal date of June 1, 1933 were noted July 1932, reiterated in October, substantiated in January 1933, with further steps taking into the end of the summer.

Amidst the difficult period, the following summer Ludmila kept up with events in Portsmouth, New Hampshire where she chaired the closing session of the several-day Bahá'í Race Amity conference that was held at a church. In December the next Race Amity conference of the Bahá'ís was held in New York for which Bechtold served on the organizing committee. Indeed during 1933 two more Race Amity meetings were held in New York with Bechtold acting as substitute chair where she aided in organizing resources for the conferences. July of 1933 Bechtold spoke at the third session of the Race Amity conference then held at Green Acre Bahá'í School, and Bechtold was appointed officially on the national Race Amity committee of the Bahá'ís of the United States in 1934, and in November Bechtold is again noted chairing a Race Amity conference, this time in New York city. Earlier that summer she attended the Esslingen Bahá'í Summer School in Germany. A passenger list for the SS shows her returning to America in August 1934. An African-American columnist L. F. Coles wrote some two years after meeting the Bechtold family through a Bahá'í friend James F. Morton in The Pittsburgh Courier. The article notes various aspects of the family and Ludmila - the non-prejudicial atmosphere of the family, her trip back the summer of 1934, her interest as a nurse, and generally her involvement or interests in the NAACP and Urban League meetings, Howard University, Fisk University, Cheyney Institute], The Pittsburgh Courier, and other newspapers, was a friend of Louis Gregory, and that she had vindicated the Bahá'í Faith when Coles offered that Islam might have a greater stance on inter-racial harmony. Coles reported her feeling depressed that her contacts in the African American community "…feel that she is not sincere." He dismissed the concerns because African-Americans would spread rumors of African-Americans who appeared to get along with white people in days gone by.

Bechtold was again noted attending a Race Amity conference in 1935, and in 1936, when attending the Bahá'í national convention, she was received by African-American publisher and Bahá'í Robert Sengstacke Abbott and his wife; a fact published in The Chicago Defender. The national inter-racial committee was discontinued in 1936 so that more local events, with less pressure on the national budget during the Depressions, could be held and the fact that the national level engagement had "sometimes resulted in emphasizing race differences rather than their unity and reconciliation," according to the National Assembly, as it had reached the level of attracting national level leaders of minorities. Meanwhile she was one of the delegates from New York for the national Bahá'í convention. She presided for local Race Amity conference in August in New York city.

Crossing through 1936 Louis Gregory pioneered to Haiti and there is a clear drift from Bechtold's work in racism as well as exposure at the national level inside the religion, and overall less visible activity in newspapers, but there was an increase in diverse interests too. In 1937 Bechtold was mentioned as vice-president of the Speakers Club of women in New York. Soon she was a corresponding secretary, though she also continued working with Bahá'í Race Amity meeting in February in New York. Her work with the Speakers Club continued while she again attended the national Bahá'í convention. January 1938 similarly opens noting Bechtold was the corresponding secretary of the women's Speakers Club, Therein comes a gap from 1938 to 1940 in mentions of Bechtold. Whether matters of health with the approaching death of her husband, or classes on becoming an optician, or other matters played a role are unknown.

The next mention of Bechtold is a visit of hers to New Haven, Connecticut, wherein she met with a reading circle of black women discussing the religion. In the Fall she had a talk connecting religious ideals with community service/betterment, and assisting in fair at a Quaker Friend's school. Nine months later Bechtold chaired the last day of a Race Amity conference held at Green Acre. Her daughter Monaver sang for the next Race Amity conference in October 1942 though if Bechtold was active in the meeting it isn't said. In 1943 Bechtold gave a program at Green Acre on "Divine Justice", and was a guest speaker at the New York Bahá'í Center presenting Leslie Pinckney Hill, an African-American educator, writer and community leader. A year later Adolph George Bechtold died, and echoes of commemorating him appeared for some years later in the Bahá'í News.

In November of 1949, some fives years after the passing of Adolph George, Ludmila is noted a member of the Business and Professional Women's Club of Brooklyn. Indeed she had been busy, becoming the first licensed Guild Optician, was treasurer of the Prescription Opticians of Greater New York, and lead the company founded by her husband some 50 years earlier. While busy with running the business and her work as an optician, she was relatively not visible in the news until 1950 when she gave a talk on being the (still) only licensed optician in America at the Women's Downtown Club meeting in Brooklyn, was again visible as a member of the Business and Professional Women's Club of Brooklyn, and attended their state convention.

Her first appearance in religious activities known since 1943 came in January 1952 when she assisted at an interfaith social. That year she also served on a committee aiding in placing Bahá'í pioneers to Africa with job opportunities, and took part in an African Intercontinental gathering of Bahá'ís in Kampala, Uganda. In the Spring of 1954 she hosted a Women’s Committee of Brooklyn Interfaith Fellowship.

George Van Sombeek, Ludmila's future next husband, first appears in Bahá'í national coverage changing his service on committees in 1947 advising Bahá'ís about the United Nations. In February, 1954, Ludmila, appears as married to Van Sombeek returned from a trip in Europe for the religion, and then in April when she is noted speaking in a home in Lockport, New York, noting she had attended the International Congress of Women’s Clubs in Stockholm, Intercontinental Conference in Kampala, Uganda followed by a trip through Africa from Uganda to Nairobi, Kenya. Now known as Mrs. George Van Sombeek or Mrs. G. Van Sombeek, in September she is noted as a member of the re-designated national Inter-racial committee, and was reported having taken a trip before February 1955 among southern black schools, and presided at a Bahá'í brotherhood meeting again presenting Leslie Pinchney Hill, among other speakers. Indeed she seems to have undertaken another tour because she appears in Louisville, KY, newspapers in March twice in a couple days. In April she was noted a member of the Local Assembly of New York, and was again noted a member of the national Inter-racial committee, the group of which itself was pictured in the African-American newspaper The Pittsburgh Courier in July.

The Van Sombeek family then moved to Durham, North Carolina. According to comments of the committee there was conscious engagement with African-American colleges and newspapers undertaken as well as dinners of international students and faculty. The family's first appearance in the local news was when George Van Sombeek wrote a letter to the editor of The Carolina Times, a prominent African-American newspaper with a state-wide reputation, noting the revived persecution of Bahá'ís in Iran. That winter they are noted among the Durham Bahá'ís going to Greensboro for the state convention to elect delegates for the national convention; listed were Mr. and Mrs. George Van Sombeek, Margaret Quance, Orpha Daugherty and son Mark; Louise Sawyer was off in Florida and would attend the convention there. In Spring 1956 Ludmila is noted going on a speaking trip before national convention in the society notes of The Carolina Times. Ludmila returned to Louisville in June of 1956, followed by Van Sombeeks attending the August Blue Ridge Conference at Black Mountain, North Carolina, including some visiting from the North who were guests of the Van Sombeeks. That October Challoner Chute from UVa from England speaks at Van Sombeek home, and a note of her return from another speaking trip was published in November covered her travels in some detail and noted her visit with the family of Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. among many others, though the entry was still just part of the society page. In December the first story in The Carolina Times to break out of the society notes was the visit of Bostonian lawyer Bahá'í Matthew Bullock who was a NC native and speaks at Van Sombeek home and though a short article it was on the front page. It is worth noting this was there an inter-racial meeting in a white couple's home in the still segregated South. A week later Bahá'í Sarah Pereira, Chair of a department at the integrated West Virginia State College, spoke in Durham at home of Van Sombeek, serves on the Auxiliary Board with responsibilities beyond the United States. The article was the first to present a picture of a Bahá'í. Ludmilla made news in Nashville with a talk while visiting in February 1957, while her husband George wrote another letter to the editor, this time on race unity and an appreciation of Black history. In March 1957 is the first article just about Ludmila, not her in the "society notes" but in an article just about her - this one reviewed her return from speaking tour. Noted People and places she visited with include African-American colleges Le Moyne College, Tennessee A & I College, Fisk University (noting she had spoken there in 1934,) and visited with Anna Arnold Hedgeman among others.

Just a month later, and some weeks after the fact, there was mention of a buffet dinner at Van Sombeek home to note the Bahá'í new year, though it was not called Naw-Rúz yet. In June it was noted that Ludmila was returned from a speaking tour, covering various African-American connections such as Percy Lavon Julian, Ted Berry, but also Hopi and Navajo engagements while visiting in Arizona, all before going to the national Bahá'í convention. In July Ludmila was guest of Lillian Evanti who performed at Greensboro. In August there was an article covering the first Race Unity Day, held in June in Durham with Ludmila supplying slides of Bahá'í activities in Arizona and of the Bahá'í House of Worship, a UNESCO delegate speaker, with guests from Duke, NCC (what became NCCU), and international guests from Australia and Iran, all at the Van Sombeek home. But in late August the Van Sombeeks had actually returned from a two week trip visiting family in Ohio; though nominally a society page type of entry it was instead granted it's own space as a stand-alone article. Notice of Ludmila's talk in Oklahoma City was noted in September, though by then she had returned to North Carolina where she wrote a letter to the editor about the golden rule across religions including the Bahá'í Faith, A number of religious leaders gathered that same day as the letter to the editor at a Presbyterian church and Ludmila delivered the principal talk of the event. In November visiting professor E. Thomas from Duke and Leonard DeSheild talked at UN Day with Ludmila presiding at a community center. That December Ludmila was among speakers at the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom's NCC forum, and Ludmila herself appeared in a picture on the front page alongside several others leaders of the group.

A notice in late December covered Etta Woodlen, chair of national Inter-Racial Committee of Bahá'ís, who had stayed at the Van Sombeek home and toured several cities in North Carolina. Others noted in the article included various international guests and speakers and Woodlen had an additional reception at Carlatta Holmes's home. January 1958 opens with coverage of some 31 students from universities/colleges from many states, including African American and others, gathered at the Von Sombeek home at which international students shared about their homelands, there was music, and a presentation on Bahá'í teachings. A week later a letter to editor was contributed by George Van Sombeek on the Bahá'ís observance of World Religion Day, with some of those students still around. At the time Ludmila spoke at Johnson C. Smith University for their observance of World Religion Day. A month later Bahá'í Helen Elsie Austin was a guest of the Van Sombeeks.

Though reported some weeks after the fact, there was a notice of a Persian dinner held at the Van Sombeek's for the Bahá'í New Year with tape by William Sears played, (he had just recently been appointed as a Hand of the Cause.) The article also noted Ludmila was a speaker at the Elizabeth City State Teachers College in the far north-east of the state during a session on religion at the school. A week later a picture of a group meeting with Rev. Dr. King included Ludmila. It also noted George Van Sombeek had died a few hrs after this meeting. He was buried in Woodlawn Memorial Park, Durham.

Challoner Ricard St. Clair Chite of the University of Virginia visited NCC accompanied by Ludmila two weeks after George died. Ludmila then attended Intercontinental Conference in Chicago with Mrs. Joe Sawyer and returned to Durham, only to quickly embark on a tour: to Fisk University for the inauguration of Stephen Wright, spoke at Tennessee University, then to Indiana where she was the guest of Dr. and Mrs. T. E. Jones, then president of Earlham College. Then she attended the Bahá'í national convention and then went to South Bend, Indiana to speak before visiting with family in Ohio and upon her return she entertained Manel Powell at her home. More than a month later Ludilla hosted Bahá'í Eruch Munsiff, wife in Indian diplomat, who spoke at various engagements. The rest of 1958 was quiet.

In February of 1959 the Van Sombeek home hosted a conference on race relations with attendees from North Carolina and Virginia sponsored by national Baha'i Interracial committee. Thirty four people attended and a photograph of the group was published in The Carolina Times. A couple days later Bahá'ís Dr. and Mrs. Raymond Piper were hosted by Van Sombeek while on their around-the-world trip while they visited area colleges and universities followed by a reception.

After a quiet March, Bahȧ'í A. K. and Mrs. Kalantar had returned and he was noted giving a talk at the Van Sombeek home during a tour. There is another quiet June but during July Van Sombeek went to Black Mountain, New Jersey for a World Affairs Institute sponsored by the American Association for the United Nations, (as it was called then,) and the North Carolina Council of Churches. In October Van Sombeek's home hosted international students and teachers at home for a UN Day party given by the Bahá'ís of Durham. Then in December Matthew Bullock, then a former Dean of Alabama A & M Normal School, began a two month series of talks in the area such NCC, Palmer Memorial Institute, and other colleges while guests of Mr. and Mrs. J L Moffit and was entertained long friends Van Sombeek and Carlota Holmes. Very soon after Van Sombeek went to visit the Bahá'í House of Worship at Wilmette, Illinois, and a visit to family. , family in Toronto.

January 1960 opened with World Religion Day being celebrated and attracting the proclamation by Durham Mayor Emanuel J. Evans, with talks by Viennese Professor Adolphe Furth, and Bahá'ís Albert James and Van Sombeek. Then national assembly member Ellsworth Blackwell returned to NC to lead a conference with attendees from four states as a guest of Carlotta Holmes and Van Sombeek held an open house reception. Ludmila then spoke at an integrated meeting at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem as a guest of Dr and Mrs. Emerson Head. The Pittsburg Courier published a picture of a meeting in March at which Ludmila was seated next to Mrs. Martin Luther King at a "Co-ed Weekend" at NCC. This was soon followed by the Bahá'í New Year observance hosted at the Van Sombeek home. In April Van Sombeek then spoke at Duke University's Internationalist Club in the Women's College. Van Sombeek's next visibility was in June in the newspapers was giving a reception for Dr and Mrs. R. Piper of Syracuse.

That Summer her daughter's family, Mr and Mrs Bruce Van der Heydt and children, visited her in Durham and Ludmila held a lawn party with a slide show provided by Danish visiting professor. Van Sombeek was then among the teachers advertised for the Davison Bahá'í School, (later known as Louhelen Bahá'í School.) Come September Van Sombeek returned to Durham after many stops and speaking opportunities such as Eliot, Maine, home of Green Acre Bahá'í School, Flint Michigan, New York City and Long Island where she was a guest of Mrs. and David Thomas. A week later Van Sombeek hosted the observance of World Peace Day.

In later October Van Sombeek was noted offering talks in Tennessee, and then she was a guest of Sarah Pereira and entertained by Mrs. Stephen Wright, wife of the then Fisk President. This was followed in later November with an international Bahá´'i fellowship evening at the Van Sombeek home with guests Dr. and Mrs. Peter Tadley showing slides, and then Challoner Chute was her guest in December.

January 1961 begins with Van Sombeek entertaining foreign students at her home, and a week later she hosted the World Religion Day observance. Then she went for a weekend to Washington DC to attend meetings for Lillian Evanti, again, with Ali Kuli Khan at the home of Mrs. Frank Snowden.

In February Van Sombeek hosted a party for Jean Norris, English teacher at NCC, and Henry Markot, church choir cunductor with guests from international sollection of guests; though not advertised as such this would have been during Ayyám-i-Há. In April Van Sombeek hosted Baháæí Allan Ward who spoke at a NCC series of talks and she hosted a reception for him. Ward would later write 239 Days: ʻAbud'l-Bahá's Journey in America, about ‘Abdu’l-Bahá's journeys to the America.

In May Van Sombeek attended the national Bahá'í convention and tour of luncheons and meetings opportunities in New York and Ohio where her daughter then lived. A month later Van Sombeek hosted a picnic birthday party for Bahá'í Jean Norris with students from area universities. And Allan Ward returned as a guest of Van Sombeek, and spoke at a series of meetings in the area. A week later Van Sombeek hosted Bahá'í Maude Dixon from New York. A regional observance of the Martyrdom of the Bab was held at the Penn Community Center in Frogmore, St. Helena Island, SC. Some Baha'is from Durham attended. In September Van Sombeek returned from a 5 week trip starting at Frogmore, then Maine, then Flint Michigan. And a week later she gave a farewell party for Henry Markot, soloist of Duke Chapel, Minister at Trinity Methodist Church with party of are colleges and community. A week later she hosted the observance of World Peace Day. A second article noted there was attendance from NCC and Duke.

In October an article an article covered that Van Sombeek returned from a tour to Nashville where the Bahá'í National Service Committee met and spoke to groups; she was a guest of Dr. and Mrs. E. G. High, related to E. N. tooles of Durham. And she wrote a letter to the editor noting the observance of UN Day among the Bahá'ís. A week later there was a profile of the Faith noting their working for peace and advise revising the UN charter - the article also announced a meeting of the United Nations Association at her home with talks by Dag Hammerskiold; perhaps mistakenly saying that Adlai Stevens, and Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt would also attend - they did not. The the meeting was undertaken with the assistance of Carlotta Holmes and Jean Norris.

The Birthday of Baha'u'llah observance in Durham was held at Van Sombeek home in November. Another article reflected on it weeks later. An article in March Van Sombeek spoke at the Nashville Bahá'í Center on a panel with Herman Long (Fisk), Amoz Gibson (Bahá'í) among a set of conferences. Two weeks later a photo of a Bahá'í meeting at the Van Sombeek home was published in the newspaper, noting it was one of the newest religious groups of Durham. In april Van Sombeek hosted a piano recital with an international audience and performers featuring visiting guests Mr and Mrs Head from Ann Arbor Michigan.

In June Van Sombeek was pictured and Bahá'í teachings were summarized in Phoenix, Arizona. Then there was notice that Van Sombeek returned from Pheonix for a two week visit with son and a Pine Spring Bahá'í conference with Indians and visitors from many countries.

Then there is a notice of the first Local Spiritual Assembly of Durham - members Carlotta Holmes, Jean Norris, Kathryn Potter, Pari Rowshan, Norma Sarji, Joe Sawyer, Earl Smith, Thelma Stevens, Ludmila Van Sombeek, and notes the newest community member Ethlynne Thomas. That summer's area Bahá'í school was held at Frogmore with some Durhamite attendees - Carlotta Holmes, Pari Rowhan, Ludmila Van Sombeek, Kathryn Potter, Joseph Sawyer… it also marked 50th anniversary of `Abdu'l-Baha visit to America; Eulalia Bobo gave the opening address and other speakers included Alan Ward, Mrs. Robert Lee Moffett, and Paul Pettit.

After Van Sombeek's summer trip she was home and entertained a return visit from her children and gathered Bahá'ís who listened to them talking about experiences in New Mexico with Indians. In November there is a notice Van Sombeek had been to Dayton for Association for the Study of African American Life and History meeting at Central State College where Hobart Taylor spoke, Charles H. Wesley presented awards, and Van Sombeek also visited Bahá'í family of the Wesleys. Van Sombeek was away the rest of November but returned from visiting family in Toronto, Ohio, and Phoenix, Arizona, and offered a dinner talk with slides and music of her travels. Bahá'ís then observed Human Rights Day at the Van Sombeek home, with recorded talks by Dag Hammarskjold and Eleanor Roosevelt.

In February 1963 there were two articles in The Carolina Times related to the Faith - Dwight Allen came and gave a talk in Durham in the Flowers building of Duke University and a prayer meeting held at the Van Sombeek home for Moroccan Bahá'ís were suffering persecution. Kathryn Potter was chair of the local assembly. A month later Dwight Harris, an NCC teacher, gave a talk at the Van Sombeek home. After that there was a notice Van Sombeek had been invited to speak to the "A and B Circle" of the Kyls Temple AME Zion Church, showing slides of Holy Land and Vienna. Indeed was just getting ready for a major trip - in October Van Sombeek returned after six months in Europe following the Bahá'í World Congress held in London. Van Sombeek then visited nine countries giving talks including some behind the Iron Curtain. A week later Etta Woodlen of Deleware talked at a Bahá'í meeting held in Van Sombeek's home. A month later Bahá'ís of Durham offered prayers for President Kennedy, who had been assasinate, at the home of Van Sombeek.

January coverage starts with Van Sombeek talking at meeting in Florida, and from there went on a month long speaking tour along east coast for the Faith, and then she in turn hosted Bahá'ís Mr and Mrs Ted Lipitt of West Virginia who gave talk and slide series at bank and her home. At the end of the month she hosted Bahá'í Aileen Beale from Bournemouth who was speaking supporting the UN. That March a week after the fact an article covered Bahá'ís observing "New Year's Day" at the Van Sombeek home with international visitors. Van Sombeek was then off to return after 3 weeks which included Bahá'í national convention, visiting family, going to New York UN events, and the 1964 New York World's Fair.

In June Van Sombeek again gave a birthday party for Jean Norris at her home, noted the arrival of Valerie Wilson from California, and all with friends from Duke and NCC. Two weeks later Van Sombeek hosted Mrs. Roan Orloff Stone of Gallup NM who was working with Indians there. Two more weeks later there was notice of three Baháa'ís from Durham who went to Camp Forothy Walls at Black Mountain, NC - Ethlynne Thomas, Ludmila Van Sombeek, and Jean Norris. A particular teacher at the school was Hand of the Cause Dhikru'llah Khadem. At the end of the summer, Van Sombeek hosted Mary Browne of High Point and Ann Homes of New York - both coming from a peace conference sponsored by Quakers - with a picnic and an indoor reception with Bahá'ís and the wider community. A few days later Jean Norris gave a talk at the Van Sombeek home on the Bahá'í view of prophecies of the age of peace coming. Van Sombeek also hosted then editor of The Africa Report Glenford Mitchell, who was to speak at the World Peace Day event, with guests from Raleigh Duke and NCC. He was pictured in The Carolina Times a couple weeks later as he spoke at an AME Church.

In November it was noted Durham Bahá'ís observed the Bahá'í Holy Day of Baha'u'llah's Birthday at the Van Sombeek home. A month later the Human Rights Day observance by Bahá'ís was held at the Van Sombeek home. There was also a notice that Bahá'ís from Durham went to the state Bahá'í convention in Greensboro - Early Smith, Carlotta Holmes, Ludmila Van Sombeek, Wiley Allison, Thelma Allison, Andrew Allison, Jean Norris along with Baha'is fom 20 other towns in NC. And then Bahá'ís gathered over winter at the Penn Community Center in Flagmore SC - including Jean Norris, Van Sombeek, and others from 15 states with over 200 people with Hand of the Cause William Sears. A week later Bostonian Bahá'í Matthew Bullock was the main speaker at the World Religion Day observance held at NCC. Later in February Bullock was hosted by Van Sombeek and gave talks in area some two weeks.

In later April Van Sombeek hosted Bahá'ís Eugene Byrd and family who spoke at the NCC Bahá'í club meeting. Another visitor was Bahá'í Albert James. That Summer Van Sombeek made another trip to Europe and helped start activities of Bahá'ís in Hungary. Her return from the trip over seas earned a picture in The Carolina Times. She was pictured again talking at a meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, and gave talks in Tucson, and gave slide shows in Gallup, New Mexico.

In February 1966 Van Sombeek visited the DC area for the Legislative Seminar for the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and hear a Foreign Relations Committee report on Viet Nam. Van Sombeek was a house guest of Sarah Pereira and upon return was asked to speak at a couple of local engagements. Two months later she had returned after going to the Bahá'í national convention and then visiting her daughter and giving a talk in Stony Brook, NY. The next week Van Sombeek hosted a picnic for guests from NCC and Duke, and international visitors where G. Hardin offered a paper and Bahá'í quotes. For the first time in many years there is a break in coverage of Van Sombeek's activities the rest of 1966.

The Southeastern region Bahá'í Winter School was held at FFA-FHA State Headquarters near Covington GA in late December. Among those there included Van Sombeek, Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Allison, Carlotta Holmes and Jean Norris. In mid-January Bahá'ís observed World Religion Day with a prelude slide show by Jules Lauret and Van Sombeek at the Van Sombeek home and then an interfaith presenters of Rev. John Chappell, Jay Scales (Moslem), Kent Auter (UU), Fath. Joseph Woods (Cath.), Jules Lautret (Bahá'í) at the Allied Arts Center.

In March Allah Kuli-Khan Kalantar, who was also pictured in The Carolina Times, was hosted by Van Sombeek and gave talks at area meetings. In May Van Sombeek sent a letter to Martin Luther King Jr responding to a comment that he was going to visit the Holy Land. It didn't happen though. Meanwhile Van Sombeek attended the election of the first National Assembly Leeward/Windward and the Virgin Islands.

In October some 30 North Carolinians attended the international Proclamation Centenary conference in Chicago. Speakers included Episcopal Bishop James Pike, Yale Professor and Bahá'í Firuz Kazemzadeh, Executive director of the Chicago Urban League Edwin Berry, UN NGO Bahá'í representative Mildred Mottahedeh, and Fisk University faculty poet and Bahá'í Robert Hayden.

In 1967 Van Sombeek again toured European countries and was pictured on her return. This time she also went to two Bahá'í international summer conferences, went to Israel and Iran (probably for Bahá'í pilgrimage), and then attending the placement of the cornerstone at the Bahá'í House of Worship at Panama. In November Durham Bahá'ís gather at her home for the Birthday of Bahá'u'lláh observance and she showed slides of Iran with music by Evander Gilmer.

In April Van Sombeek returned after a 1 month tour to DC, Maryland and Pennsylvania, showing slides of her Panama and Iran Bahá'í trips. She also attended a retirement reception at Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana of a friend. In May she attended the 4th annual human rights conference seminar at the UN sponsored by the US Bahá'í National Assembly. In June Van Sombeek returned after attending national Bahá'í convention and trips to Ohio and Arizona to see family and show slides of her travels to small groups. But she soon left the country again to return in September after touring 8 countries after the Palermo Bahá'í Oceanic Conference on the centenary of Baha'u'llah's arrival in Holy Land. But in October she was giving talks in Geneva, Binghamton, back in Geneva, New York. Her activity earned her a story and picture on her return to Durham.

In February 1969 Van Sombeek attended a 3 day conference in Atlanta on Bahá'í spiritual varieties with presentations by Layd Gardner, Albert James, "a Navajo" (Chester Khan?) and Mrs. J. Khadem. Notice was made in The Carolina Times article of African-Americans on local and national assemblies and the Universal House of Justice as well as a Navajo on the national assembly. In April Van Sombeek retuned from Chicago attending the Bahá'í New Year observance at the House of Worship and a there wedding followed by an invitation of area groups to hear Van Sombeek speak. A week later the marriage announcement of the Bahá'í wedding of Jean Norris and Jay Scales noted Van Sombeek attended reading the Marriage Tablet. In May it was noted Durhamites Van Sombeek, Mr and Mrs Andrew Allison and Wylie Allison attended the national convention where Van Sombeek gave talks to area talks and there was notice of 35% increase in adult enrollments in the Faith and 89% of youth - also announced were eight conferences to be held over the next few years. Additionally it was noted Van Sombeek toured after attending the convention and that she spoke in areas around Chicago as well as locally in Kinston, NC. In particular Van Sombeek presented to an audience of hundreds of teachers at a conference in Charlotte on the treatment of minorities in textbooks and included slides of Baha'i Shrines and Temples. She then received invitations to speak at various schools - the first black teacher in a white school in Kinston NC in particular had her address her school and the black school as well as a club, while another set of invitations came from Durham.

In September 1969 Van Sombeek announced she was moving to Reno, Nevada, after living in Durham some 14 years to live with her daughter and nearby family. They had moved here from New York to support the Baha'i Peace Plan and George passed in 1958. Her rate of being visible in the newspapers decreased. This represents almost the end of newspaper coverage of her activities. In Dec 1969 she did appear giving a talk at a meeting in Reno. But that appears to be the end of her public appearances except when she returned to Durham to attend the wedding of Mariam Parmelee and Tom Dessent. She died Sep 7, 1979 in Phoenix, Arizona.

Robert Sengstacke Abbott

Main article: Robert Sengstacke Abbott

Robert Sengstacke Abbott (November 24, 1870 – February 29, 1940) was an African-American lawyer, newspaper publisher and editor. Abbott founded The Chicago Defender in 1905, which grew to have the highest circulation of any black-owned newspaper in the country. An early adherent of the Bahá'í religion in the United States, Abbott founded the Bud Billiken Parade and Picnic in 1929, which has developed into a celebration for youth, education and African–American life in Chicago, Illinois.

In 1912, Abbott met `Abdu'l-Bahá, head of the Bahá'í Faith, through covering a talk of his during his stay in Chicago during his journeys in the West. By 1924 Abbott and his wife were listed as attending Bahá'í events in Chicago. After inventing the fictional character "Bud Billiken" with David Kellum for articles in the Defender, Abbott established the Bud Billiken Club. In 1929 Abbott and Kellum founded the Bud Billiken Parade and Picnic. It became an occasion for African Americans to celebrate their pride and connections

Abbott was seeking an atmosphere free of race prejudice. Even in religious communities, he sometimes found that mixed-race African Americans who were light-skinned sometimes also demonstrated prejudice against those who were darker. Abbott officially joined the Bahá'í Faith in 1934. He had found that its convention to elect its National Spiritual Assembly seemed free of prejudice.

Helen Elsie Austin

Main article: Helen Elsie Austin

Helen Elsie Austin (May 10, 1908– Oct 26, 2004) was an American attorney, member of the Bahá'í National Spiritual Assemblies in the United States and for the then regional assembly of North West Africa, and worked for years as an US Foreign Service Officer in Africa. She was among the first African American's admitted to the practice of law in the United States, was assistant attorney general in Ohio, served on numerous committees, executive positions, and consulted, for the Bahá'ís, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the National Council of Negro Women, and was a president for the Delta Sigma Theta sorority.

Elsworth Blackwell and

Ellsworth Blackwell (August 1, 1902 – April 17, 1978) was an American Bahá'í and insurance executive from Chicago who pioneered to Haiti, Madagascar and Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo).

Ellsworth was a member of the Chicago Local Spiritual Assembly from 1937 to 1939, a member of the Inter-American Teaching Committee in the late 1940’s, a member of the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States from 1954 to 1956 and 1958 to 1960, a member of the National Spiritual Assembly of Haiti from 1961 to 1965 and an Auxiliary Board Member for Haiti from 1965 to 1970.

He was also a member of non-Bahá'í organisations, being a member of the Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity when he attended the University of Iowa and serving as Chair of the Chicago Committee on Racial Equality's public accommodations committee in 1944.

Ellsworth was born in Greenville, Mississippi to Philip and Mary Blackwell. He became a Bahá'í in Chicago in November 1934 after attending meetings held by Elizabeth and Edgar Edward.

He became an official guide for the Bahá'í House of Worship in Wilmette Illinois, however in August 1937 he was prevented from guiding a tour of the temple and the Chairman of the Temple Guide Committee told Ellsworth that it was a policy of the Temple Committee that “Colored Believers” be prevented from guiding tours. Ellsworth wrote the following in a letter to Shoghi Effendi detailing the incident:

”From my knowledge of the [Bahá'í] Teachings it appears to me that the Principles of Bahaullah are being violated by the Believers. The only apparent excuse for their policy is that the presence of Colored guides would offend people of the White race. As you no doubt realize the aforementioned large touring groups are composed of all nationalities and races. Are we supposed to alter the Principles to accom[m]odate the prejudices of people outside the Cause, particularly within our own institutions? And, may I ask, when are we to begin to live the Teachings of Baha’u’llah?.”

The Chicago Local Spiritual Assembly told Ellsworth that the incident was due to a mistake, and that no policy discriminating against African-American tour guides existed in Temple Committee records. Ellsworth wrote the following in a letter to the Assembly in response:

"It is not surprising to me that you would be unable to find a record of such a policy. This subtle prejudice naturally could not be found recorded in the minutes of any religious group – much less a Bahai group"

Ellsworth was elected to the Local Spiritual Assembly of Chicago in 1937 shortly after bringing the issue of discrimination to light and served on the body until 1939.

In 1938 Ellsworth sent another complaint, stating that the discrimination against African-American tour guides had become worse, and the Secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States, Horace Holley, organised a meeting between Ellsworth and the Temple Committee to resolve the issue. Through consultation Ellsworth and the Committee came to the conclusion that the discrimination had been due to one individual, rather than a systematic issue, and Ellsworth was satisfied that the issue was resolved. He was particularly impressed that the Committee had already taken action before the meeting took place, writing the following to Horace Holley:

”…for my part the problem had already been solved a week or two before [the consultation], at which time a colored believer had been asked to guide. That act was at once sufficient for me.”

Ellsworth married Ruth Browne in January 1937 and the ceremony took place in the home of Elizabeth Edward where he had first heard of the Faith. They pioneered to Haiti together in 1940 and lived there until 1943. In 1941 they received a letter in Shoghi Effendi's own handwriting, an excerpt:

"The work you have done, the sacrifices you have made, the historic mission you have initiated, are highly praiseworthy, meritorious and unforgettable. I will specially pray for you both that in whatever field you may labour in the days to come, Bahá’u’lláh may reinforce, guide and bless you and aid you to enrich the record of your pioneer services."

They helped the Haitian Bahá'ís establish a Local Spiritual Assembly in Port au Prince 1942 and Ellsworth served on it as Chairman. Ellsworth wrote an article about Haiti that was published in World Order in the same year. The Blackwell’s service in Haiti was acknowledged when they were listed as American Bahá'ís who had served in other lands in the Bahá'í Centenary Book published in 1944.

In 1946 Ellsworth and Ruth sent a letter to the Holy Land asking if Nineteen Day Feasts could be rescheduled if they clashed with a publicly advertised Baha’i lecture. Shoghi Effendi’s secretary sent the following reply:

"This is really a matter of secondary importance, and should be decided by the Assembly. Meetings which have been publicly advertised for a certain date cannot, obviously, be cancelled."

In December 1947 several Bahá'í students took part in a protest against racial discrimination held at the University of Chicago. Ellsworth sent newspaper reports of the protest to the Holy Land and asked if participating in such a protest was appropriate. Ruhiyyih Khanum wrote the following reply on behalf of Shoghi Effendi:

"Your letter to our beloved guardian of Dec. 26th, 1947, was received together with the clipping you sent. and he has instructed me to answer it on his behalf. He does not see any objection to Bahá'í students taking part as Bahá'ís in a protest such as that mentioned in the clipping. On the contrary he does not see how they could remain indifferent when fellow students were voicing our own Bahá'í attitude on such a vital issue and one we feel so strongly about. He thinks that the quotation you cite, from "The Advent of Divine Justice," would certainly indicate that such a protest was justifiable, as there was nothing political about it, there was no reason for the Bahá'í students not to participate. He assures you and your dear wife of his prayers on your behalf and his loving appreciation of your trusted services to the Cause. With Warmest greetings, R. Rabbani."

The National Spiritual Assembly of the United States and Canada wrote an additional letter regarding the appropriateness of the protest, and the Guardian's position in the letter to Ellsworth was restated:

"In connection with the subject matter of Mr. Blackwell's letter and your reference to it, the Guardian feels that, as he said in his letter to Mr. Blackwell, there was no objection at all to the students taking part in something so obviously akin to the spirit of our teachings as a campus demonstration against race prejudice. The Bahá'ís did not inaugurate this protest, they merely were proud to have a voice as Bahá'ís in such a protest, took part, and he thinks they did quite right and violated no administrative principle."

In 1948 Ellsworth chaired a session on teaching the Faith at the Louhelen Bahá'í School, and in 1951 he led a session studying Advent of Divine Justice at the school. Ellsworth was first elected to the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States by a mail vote in 1954 when Lawrence Hautz retired before the end of his term. He was re-elected at the 1955 National Convention and served on the institution until 1956. As an Assembly member Ellsworth delivered a talk on Unified Action at the third Central States Conference at Orlando Hotel in Decatur, Illinois on September 25, 1955 and was a guest speaker at a Young Women’s Christian Association Dinner in 1956.

In 1956 Ellsworth announced that he would be pioneering to Haiti at the National Convention, prior to the election of the National Spiritual Assembly. He and his wife arrived in Haiti in August, 1956 and began working to consolidate the Baha’i communities in Port au Prince, St. Marc and Cap Haitian. The Blackwell’s returned to the United States some time later and Ellsworth was re-elected to the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States in 1958. Ellsworth taught classes on holding Firesides at the First Baha’i Summer School in the South-west of the United States at Bachman’s Lake in 1958, and spoke at the Davison Summer School later the same year. In 1959 he taught a course on the book Christ and Baha’u’llah by George Townshend at the second Alaskan Baha’i Summer School and delivered a speech on Race Amity Day at the Urbana Baha’i Centre which was reported on in the Illinois Times.

In 1960 Ellsworth retired from the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States, and he and his wife returned to Haiti. The first National Convention of Haiti was held in 1961 and the first National Spiritual Assembly was elected, with Ellsworth being elected as Chairman and his wife also being elected as a member. He served on the Institution until he was appointed an Auxiliary Board Member in 1965. He spoke about his experiences in Haiti at the 1965 Southeastern Baha’i Summer School.

In July 1966 he undertook a tour as Auxiliary Board Member to establish better relationships between the Baha’i communities of countries in the West Indies and prepare them for the establishment of a National Spiritual Assembly of the Leeward, Windward and Virgin Islands. He and his wife delivered a speech on teaching the Faith at a Conference in Puerto Rico later the same year. In 1967 Ellsworth was interviewed on Antigua television. In 1970 Ellsworth stepped down as Auxiliary Board Member and served on the National Spiritual Assembly of Haiti again for a time.

Ellsworth lived in Haiti until October 1975, when he and Ruth pioneered to Madagascar and he served on the National Spiritual Assembly of Madagascar from 1976 to 1977. In 1977 the Blackwell's pioneered to the Republic of Zaire and Ellsworth passed away there in 1978.

The Universal House of Justice cabled the following after his passing:

GRIEVED PASSING VALIANT LONGTIME SERVANT CAUSE BAHAULLAH ELLSWORTH BLACKWELL STOP OUTSTANDING ENDEAVOURS PIONEERING TEACHING ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES MANY LANDS EVIDENCE HIS DEVOTION DEDICATION FAITH HE DEARLY LOVED STOP ASSURE WIFE FAMILY FRIENDS PRAYERS HOLY SHRINES PROGRESS HIS SOUL ABHA KINGDOM

Adrienee Ellis Reeves

Adrienne Ellis Reeves (May 23, 1919 - August 18, 2018) was born into an African American family with documented roots before the Civil War that was spotlighted later in life - especially her father - but which suffered extensively from the privations of a segregated social system marginalizing minorities. At first firm Baptists and dwelling in the black community, Adrienne herself was moved to work out some major endeavors for the Bahá'í Faith and living in integrated circumstances: after rising to lead a local youth group in Phoenix during which her mother converted and eventually most of her family, Ellis helped found two local spiritual assemblies of the religion by homefront pioneering to Greensboro, North Carolina, in the 1940s and later San José, California, in the 1950s. She then rose above taking classes to being a leader on the committee organizing the programming of the Geyserville Bahá'í School as well as contributing negro spirituals. She was then appointed as an Auxiliary Board member for propagation in the New England area and nearby Canada and Bermuda and aided in the election of the first National Assembly of Bermuda. Later she served in the institution of the Huqúqu'lláh.

She also attended major centenary events of the religion - the 1944 remembrance of the Declaration of the Bab held in Chicago, and the 1963 World Congress in London as a remembrance of the Declaration of Bahá'u'lláh in the Ridvan Garden - as well as three pilgrimages with one that saw sites in Teheran and Shiraz before being closed by events in Iran and the last as the Terraces on Mount Carmel were advancing. Along the way she married and raised three children, earned her BA and MA in speech and drama, and a Doctorate in Education, and applied her doctorate in expanding and evaluating a pilot program trying to aid black, Puerto Rican, and white people whom the public education system and agencies of social welfare had failed. The project was considered successful running in roughly 12 week cycles but was unable to be scaled to meet the demand of a burgeoning underclass despite graduating over almost 300 people in 7 years while working for Travelers Insurance. She then retired and lived in South Carolina where she took up writing mostly young adult romance novels and youth learning spiritual values.

In more recent years she also wrote autobiographical articles about the process of her life and what it meant to her, and contributed to the remembrance of her parents in exhibitions and a researched documentary mostly centering on her father's many volumes of diaries writing about society from the perspective of sometimes being a sole black family in an area. Four autobiographical articles by Reeves have been identified: Lights of the Spirit: Historical Portraits of Black Bahá'ís in North America, 1898-2004 (10 pages, 2006,) The Bright Glass of the Heart: elder voices on faith(8 pages, 2013), The Chosen Path: stories of how everyday people became Bahá'ís (3 pages, 2005) and You, too, can pioneer, (4 pages, 1943.) Generally speaking the newer, and especially longer, the more details she discusses. However there are the occasional details mentioned in shorter pieces one can still glean unique information from and some reconciliation among points of the narratives is required. In addition there are over 100 newspaper articles, some of them profiles of her, that present sides of Adrienne for their reader's interest sake as well as anchoring events in time.

Adrienne Ellis was born May 23, 1919 in Altamonte, Illinois. Adrienne's great great aunt Helen Walker, three years older than Adrienne’s mother’s mother, was born July 20, 1863 to slave parents in Rolla, Missouri. Helen's father left his owner and joined the Union Army but she doesn’t say what unit or when this happened. There is a presence of the Union Army near Rolla, Missouri, in the summer/fall of 1861 as part of Major General James Zagonyi, a Hungarian “soldier of fortune”, as commander of General Fremont’s body guard troops, battles among the battles of Springfield, Missouri. Helen found herself in Virginia circa spring 1863 and escaped her owner disguised as a fat young man while pregnant and walked to Missouri to return and care for her husband James who was seriously ill with measles. She arrived and some months later birthed Helen. The family set out for Iowa after James was discharged from the army but stopped and stayed in Alton, Illinois, where they earned enough that in stages they were able to own land and build a home, later known as the Ballinger Homestead. Sadie grew up in that home, born February 7, 1892, to Mary Ballinger Johnson and William Madden Johnson. The family joined in strict observance with the Salem Baptist Church. Sadie had a serious health problem when young and stayed with a family in St. Louis to be close to doctors; it worked and she graduated from high school in St. Louis. Some sisters also graduated there since they were prevented by racism in Alton schools. Sadie graduated a leader in her class - salutatorian. The valedictorian was Charles Everett Ellis from Altamonte, Illinois. Charles and Sadie married about 1914 and they moved there. The Altamonte community was all white but Charles had a job as a barber. Charles began his diary January 1, 1927 beginning with his experiences as an isolated black family in a segregated society and kept it to December 5, 1970, four months before he died. Eight children were born to the Ellis' - one died in infancy. Only the last child Marilyn was not born in Altamonte - she was born in Alton. Sadie and the children moved away from Altamonte in 1930 and then to Alton in 1933. Sadie had longed to live back in a black community while her husband stayed in Altamonte sending money. Charles visited the family various times and met Sadie at various places until Charles had to close the shop in Altamonte and went to Chicago to find work, then to Detroit. Adrienne had attended Lovejoy Grade School and high School in Alton, but graduated high school in Chicago. Finally Charles left Detroit in 1933 and hitchhiked to Prescott, Arizona, in 8 days and got a permanent job two weeks later.

A couple of the Ellis boys went to Prescott then. The rest of the family moved in December 1936 traveling by Greyhound bus. They left during a snow storm and arrived to find blooming roses Charles had planted at the home. But segregation was still in place - eating was segregated at most lunch counters and seating in movie theaters while some stores excluded black customers totally, and blacks were 2% of the Phoenix population in 1930. Black schools, churches and parks were maintained in the area. Charles was able to start barbering in Phoenix in January 1938 and Sadie joined the First Institutional Baptist on 5th and Jefferson and Charles joined the Tenner (Tanner) AME Church, which was integrated and at which Louis Gregory had spoken in 1922. Adrienne began to attend Phoenix Junior College in 1937. The Phyllis Weatley Community Center was busy with the black community’s activities and Sadie had a birthday party there February 1939.

There is some confusion of events in 1937 to '39 that led to Adrienne joining the Bahá'í Faith. In Lights of the Spirit Adrienne says it was late in 1938 she was asked by Betty Hogan to join a group to sing spirituals and the group was invited to sing at the Schoeny home on Portland Street in a white neighborhood. In Bright Glass of the Heart there are no dates but agrees with many of the details, adding it was held outdoors at the Schoeny home. In Chosen Path and Bright Glass of the Heart she says this was her first Bahá'í meeting and the order of events is the same as in Lights of the Spirit, ie, that this was her first Bahá'í event. Most of the people were white but “there was a friendliness and warmth” there and they were invited back. She didn't know it then, but later figured out the event was for Naw Ruz in March. Adrienne seems to indicate this would have been in 1939 if she recalled joining the quartet in late 1938. However Adrienne also notes the Ellis family took on a border of Lucy Lucas who was a Bahá'í. She states that her mother, she, and Lucy, went to a Bahá'í picnic October 8, 1938, and Charles went to a Bahá'í meeting November 6 in Coolidge. In Lights of the Spirit she dates the conversation with Mrs. Schoeny asking "Don't you want to join us and be a Bahá'í?" to 1939 but in Chosen Path she dates the question to 1938 and identifies 1938 as when she became a Bahá'í.

There is no public mention of a Naw Ruz event in 1935 found so far identified. A 1936 Naw Ruz event was held at a YWCA which featured a talk by Edwina A. Powell. A 1937 Naw Ruz observance was held at the YWCA. In 1938 a newspaper article reviews a Naw Ruz observance at the Schoeny home with many attending and music. Though it mentions many performers, it does not mention the Hogan family though some spirituals are listed to be sung by another named performer. The 1939 Naw Ruz was also held at the Schoenys though the coverage was briefer. A history of the community gathered by Maureen M. Thur notes the 1938 and 1939 Naw Ruz events as well and does not take a position which Naw Ruz this was for Adrienne. However, independent of any statement of Adrienne, a Bahá'í Youth Group meeting at the YMCA lists an "Adrian(sic) Ellis" as among the attendees in late February 1939, before Naw Ruz, and a Bahá'í Youth Group was hosted at home of Charles and Mrs. Ellis in May 1939.

Whatever the timing of events, the three later autobiographical articles speak to the warmth of the meeting. In Bright Glass of the Heart Adrienne speaks of being moved by the parting with Mrs. Schoeny and being invited back. In Lights of the Spirit she mentions this warmth, spoke about the qualities of this interracial event with her mother, and shared information Mrs. Schoeny had given her. Adrienne felt a duality attending the Baptist church events but gradually attended mostly Bahá'í events. She felt her head and heart united at Bahá'í events. Adrienne felt she wanted to join the religion, “with all my soul and spirit. It was the most important question of my life.” She was eighteen. But Mrs. Schoeny said she’d have to study to learn of the Central Figures and tenants and began by reading Esslemont’s Baha’u’llah and the New Era. Her mother was concerned, and decided to study what it was all about too. But Sadie’s father had told her that the news of the Return of Jesus would come as a word from “a man among men” and not descending on a cloud so she felt her own reasons for studying the religion and enrolled as a Bahá'í June 24, 1939, four days after starting a class to review the teachings as a preparation to enrollment.

It seems most likely that the invitation to sing spirituals with the Hogans was in the fall of 1937, the Naw Ruz event Adrienne first attended was in 1938, the Ellis family attended both Baptist and Bahá'í events in 1938 a few of which had been commented on, Mrs. Schoeny asked the question at some followup meeting, and Adrienne, and then her mother, studied the religion in depth into 1939 and Sadie joined the religion, after Adrienne, in June 1939 though Adrienne felt committed to the religion in 1938.

The Baptist minister visited Sadie at her home about her withdraw from the church and could not understand the claim of the Return of Christ, as Sadie recalled the meeting. Sadie's letter of resignation caused a stir at the Baptist church. The Bahá'í community was already integrated - the first black Bahá'í of Phoenix was Lily Wiggins several years earlier and there were three other black declared Bahá'ís at the time and two more were affiliated with the community. Children’s classes had been organized and the Ellis children joined in, Feasts were attended, traveling Bahá'ís stayed at their home, and a youth conference was held there too. The community had a house raising for a family outside of town and a picnic was held there a month later. Sadie began taking the younger children - Caswell, Wilma, Marilyn - to Geyserville Bahá'í School and Bahá'í activities and engaged the older children - Charles, Marguerite and Howard - who joined the Faith. Across 1939 to 1941 Bahá'í events were also held at the Phoenix Junior College.

The Ellises often stayed with the Schoenys and their children at their "rustic shack” vacation home when attending the Geyserville Bahá'í School and went with them two months after joining the religion to her first session at the school in the summer of 1939, including Adrienne. She found it vastly confirming and the immersive environment brought a deep unity with the community into her experience, as a “living laboratory” for the community to live the story and values of the Faith. She wove “deep bonds of true fellowship” and “the love and affection that developed among the friends who attend the Baha’i schools have a tremendous and lasting effect. They are among the strongest links in our lives.” She also learned about the Bahá'í administration and a devotion to service. From there at least some of the Phoenix Bahá'ís went on to the Golden Gate International Exposition before returning home in later July.

In 1940 again many from Phoenix attended. The three younger siblings and Adrienne are listed living with their parents in Phoenix that year as well.

From 1941 Sadie served on the Regional Teaching Committee, Adrienne contributed an article reviewing the Summer School of 1941 in youth newsletter sent out of Phoenix. In February 1942 Adrienne was chair of Phoenix Youth Group and spoke for the group on radio KPHO, (now KFYI.) Sadie reached her mother in Alton on her deathbed and was able to share news of the new religion. Sadie was convinced she understood. Adrienne and a brother and sister had moved to LA and regular travels between LA and Phoenix began.

The family attended the summer 1942 at Geyserville which had the theme of applying the First Seven-Year Plan of the Guardian on establishing local assemblies in Latin America and in every state and province of the US and Canada. While there Ellis authored a local newspaper article reviewing events including a reception dinner given to her and Eva Flack. While not aware of the Plan perse she was moved by the theme and importance of bringing the religion into new areas -homefront pioneering - even if international pioneering was not within her means. As she recalled it, Eva Lee Flack prompted the idea of pioneering together to North Carolina “my home state”, and together they planned on pioneering despite Reeves having some "unresolved fear". Adrienne's mother approved while they were at Geyserville School and her father communicated his approval as well, perhaps by telegram.

All Ellis' autobiographical articles agree they left California in October 1942 and refer Greensboro as their goal, even her 1943 article in World Order. However some mentions specify they in fact initially planned to go to Asheville, described as Eva Flack's "home town" in an article in Baha'i News in August 1942. Vernice Haight in Asheville was informed they were coming. However after September there is agreement they were going to Greensboro. They stopped at many communities along the way - San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Laramie, Denver, Chicago, and Washington DC, before Greensboro.

On arrival in Greensboro, of an uncertain date, she recalled a newspaper article “stated the city was to be congratulated in not having had a lynching in the past seven years” but that segregation was firmly in place. She observed the Bahá'í community had a "solid foundation … needing only to grow in knowledge and experience." This community had very recently formed from efforts of Ruth Moffett in February-April. Moffett had arrived in mid-February 1942 and initially observed she "Never saw so much orthodoxy, conservatism, prejudice, apathy and smugness rolled together." But after two weeks of struggling for any chance at a public presentation she began to have some opportunities and after her second one Louise Sawyer, responded, then African American Naomi Simmons, and others by the summer and then by the fall the community was approaching the number of avowed Bahá'ís needed to form the first spiritual assembly of North Carolina. See Coverage of the Bahá'í Faith in Greensboro, NC, newspapers. Ellis later recalled “the only black members were Mrs. Naomi Simmons, Eva and me at the beginning”.

There was a teaching conference in the fall of 1942 in Greenville, South Carolina, and Moffett, Sawyer, Ellis, and Flack were among the attendees. It was held November 14-15, (see Coverage of North Carolina in Bulletins of Regional Teaching Committees.) The Bulletin of the Regional Teaching Committee mentions this was the first interracial public meeting held in South Carolina and that a similar public meeting was held in July in Greensboro by Ruth Moffett. At a public meeting during the conference, 20 Bahá'ís and 16 non-Bahá'ís attended from 7 states - GA, SC, NC, CA, IL, DC, and TN. Stanwood Cobb was the keynote speaker. The Welcome was by Ruth Moffett. Eva Lee Flack and Adrienne Ellis sang. At this and or other meetings racial tensions in the broad community were of course high and watchful. Comments by Bahá'ís in Greenville reported before late 1943, possibly including the 1942 November conference, mention one South Carolina attendee at the conference to have reported the Bahá'ís to the FBI and that they had replied with warnings of communism about one of the Bahá’ís specifically by name, though the accusation was often used against any integration oriented organization in the South.

Because of the pioneering to Greensboro Ellis and Flack were placed on an honor roll of pioneers. Flack married another Bahá'í pioneer, Charles McAllister, in Greensboro, April 3, 1943. The assembly was elected in April 21, 1943.

The members were: (with some question of clarity of the spelling) John and Elise Goodwin, Evangeline Rickart, Greta Sand, Pearle Kent, Naomi Simmons, Louise Sawyer, Eva Lee Flack McAllister, and Adrienne Ellis; Sawyer was elected chair, John Goodwin was treasurer, Rickart corresponding secretary and Ellis was elected the "historian". Adrienne refers to a period of intensity - “We forged ourselves into a Spiritual Assembly after overcoming some real difficulties because of race, local customs and our immaturity in the Faith.” Flack was named, in the words of Emogene Hoag of Greenville quoted in a PhD dissertation by Louis Venters, as pushing for all meetings to reflect total equality between black and white, which the community seems to have adopted despite it having “prevented many of the better class from investigating the teachings and caused no end of criticism.”

Ellis also is known in a photo of a youth symposium held in 1943 in Greensboro showing the integrated nature of meetings.

In early 1944 Ellis led a drama workshop, and a Bahá'í youth meeting. Another workshop followed in March, and Ellis served as the secretary of the convening committee for the first state-wide Bahá'í convention in 1944 who would go to the national convention. While Sadie and family moved to Los Angeles in March 1944, and in May Sadie, and Adrienne and others from Greensboro, attended the national convention (which was also the centennial of the Declaration of the Bab and served as a reason for an All-Americas conference) despite the limitations of World War II.

In 1944-5 Ellis undertook a college talk series - Atlanta School of Social Work, and several schools in Fayetteville: Morris Brown College, Teachers College (now the Fayetteville State University, and EE Smith High School.

In March 1945 there was a Bahá'í youth meeting in Greensboro. In May Ellis joined The Future Outlook African American Greensboro newspaper, and on June 28, 1945 married William A. Reeves with witnesses Eva McAllister and Naomi Simmons. William A. Reeves was from New York.

Among the guests hosted in the Ellis home in Los Angeles in 1945 was Firuz Kazemzadeh and a couple others. The Ellis family interacted with others and responded to seekers inquiries too. Reeves mother was first black to serve on Local Assembly of Los Angeles and aided various communities. Meanwhile the McAllisters and Reeves moved to New York. However they soon moved to Los Angeles where they began raising their three children, and went to Geyserville School.

Reeves next appears in newspapers giving a talk at Center in LA in 1948. Two year laster she is noted giving a talk on education.

Reeves contributed a reading of "The Doubts" by Glinka to a public program for the Geyserville School in late June 1952. Opening the next session at the School Reeves contributed a reading for the dramatic presentation at Geyserville entitled "The time is now, the privilege unique”.

In 1954 Adrienne's father Charles joined the religion and came to join them at Geyserville School.

An evening program at Geyserville in 1955 was given by Reeves, her mother and friend Eva Flack McAllister giving an "all negro" program of spirituals and readings from Bahá'u'lláh.

The Reeves decided to homefront pioneer to San José but moved before William’s transfer in the postal system was approved. Reeves and the children moved and joined the three Bahá'ís there. William would ride a bus the hours to San Jose every other week. After three years the separation was “too hard on the family” and they moved back to LA. After another five months the transfer came through though this time William moved first and the family moved a month later. Adrienne helped form the first San José Assembly in 1956. In August at Geyserville Reeves was the master of ceremony for a musical program, and was among the presenters in a dramatic narrative "Morning at Midnight" about the Twin Manifestations. She had also begun working on a degree of San José State College.

In 1957 Reeves was secretary of the San José assembly, and she was speaker for a Race Unity Day event at the home of Mrs. Leo Noah in June. In October Reeves was visible in newspaper coverage of a regional gathering of Bahá'ís for a picnic. It was during a meeting in the Reeves home November 15 that the news reached them that Shoghi Effendi had died.

For the June session at Geyserville of 1958 Reeves served in the kitchen, and sang a spiritual "Sometimes I feel like a motherless child" as part of one musical program, and then "Wayfarring Stranger" and "Lonesone Valley" as part of another. That fall Reeves was president of the Faculty-Student Council at the San José State College in 1958. That winter Reeves was listed as a member of Geyserville School program committee.

In February 1959 Reeves gave a talk at a meeting in San José and the newspaper published quotes of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. The talk was on "The abandonment of all prejudices". At the 1959 summer session at Geyserville Reeves was in charge of one of the weeks; about 80 people attended including 30 children, and at the Unity Feast Reeves read a prayer by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. In October it was again announced Reeves would serve on the Geyserville School program committee, specifying she would be the recording secretary of the meetings, a position she reprised in 1959.

In 1960 Reeves finished her Masters in Arts degree for the Department of Speech and Drama at San Jose State College. In her thesis she studied the portrayals of frustration in women in four plays by William Inge. She concludes that in all the four that although they have a female protagonist she is frustrated that “invariably is caused by loneliness.” Two of the plays focus more on the physical appearance of the women and two on “more spiritual aspects of love”. In both portrayals, with older and younger woman, and all minor female characters, “have some sort of maladjustment to life.” There is no biographical information on Reeves included in the thesis, nor is there any specific mention of the Faith.

For the summer 1960 session at Geyserville Reeves was a member of the executive committee, and opened the later July Geyserville School session.

In 1961 Reeves was chair of the Geyserville School program committee, and coordinator for the late August 1961 session at the Geryserville School.

In 1962 Reeves was a member of Geyserville School program committee, and served as receptionist at the School. She was also then a teacher at the San Jose State College and president of the San Jose Federated Women’s Club. Reeves added working at a winter session at Geyserville in 1962 among the kitchen staff.

Both Reeves were members of Geyserville School program committee in 1963, and she attended the first World Congress. After her return she was among those attending a San Mateo Race Amity Day, as well as another over in San Rafael.

Reeves continued to serve on the Geyserville program committee. In September Bahá'ís held a panel in Fresno for World Peace Day which included Reeves.

She later wrote that despite the importance of the “most vital and challenging issue” being presented to the community “we hadn’t come face to face with the reality of this statement… until the civil rights issue of the ‘60s confronted the whole United States.” She was a delegate to the national convention in the period, (which year is not identified yet,) and expressed the depth of her own feeling - she recalled the words: “I was born black, with all this implies in this country. I was not born Bahá'í, yet that is what I’ve chosen to become. How to satisfactorily resolve these two is difficult, sometimes agonizing. Yet, its what I want to do!” She outlined a number of initiatives and that the whole community was soon dealing with it. “I think we’ve come a long way…but…is still a goal to be attained.”

In 1965 Reeves was a delegate to the World Federalists Association, and gave a talk at a meeting of the Geyserville faculty in 1966.

In April 1968 Reeves represented Bahá'ís on panel at a local college on the topic of “The Negro and Religion”. The college was not named but it was near/in Concord CA. In May Reeves gave a talk "Questions the World is asking" as part of a program at the home of Mrs. Kenneth Houg as part of Bahá'í Week as proclaimed by Mayor Doug Badger for Healdsburg.

In June 1969 Reeves gave a talk for World Religion Day in Santa Rosa.

In November Reeves appears moved to Hartford Connecticut as one of the homes open by Bahá'ís for an observance of Birth of Bahá'u'lláh. In December Reeves spoke for the Bahá'ís who co-sponsored Human Rights Day with the local NAACP.

She recalled getting a phone call in 1970 appointing her as a Auxiliary Board member for Propagation by Continental Counselor Florence Mayberry. They met as a group in Denver for orientation though the community was still adjusting to how things worked with the institution. The new list of Auxiliary Board members was announced in August, and the family took a family vacation trip while in Arizona in 1971. That fall she was part of North Atlantic Oceanic Conference at Reykjavik. In 1972 she gave a talk by Reeves for youth interested in mysticism in Wilton. The region of her service as an Auxiliary Board was specified in 1972 for Connecticut, Nova Scotia, New Brumswick, Prince Edward Island, Maritime Islands, and Newfoundland, and continued in the service as an Auxiliary Board member. In May 1972 she attended youth conference in Storrs, CT, at which 400 youth attended.

She was also already director of the MOST program in 1970 and it was reviewed very postively in an ERIC report: “Of all the programs considered in this report, Project Most (sic) is the most carefully conceived, best equipped, and offers the widest supportive and follow-up services.… The teacher/student ratio is one to six.… Bilingual instruction is provided the Spanish speaking. Perhaps the most outstanding feature of the program is the time offered staff for evaluation, program development, and enrollee follow-up.… Unquestionably, statistics and overall plan show this to be a highly successful model program.… The program, regrettably, is one of few adequately funded programs and is limited in the number it can serve.” Between her services she had just finished her Doctorate in Education from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst in 1972. Reeves had gotten involved in MOST to replace an instructor.^p28 The program began August 14, 1967^p23 run by a Travelers Insurance HR personnel^p21 resulting in what was flet to be a successful class.^p24 Two instructors continued the project though one left for maternity reasons^p27 and was replaced by Reeves who then began an evaluation process of the program^p28 and otherwise began to amend the program. Reeves stated "In order for MOST to achieve its potential, a number of factors emerged as important. One was that each student is a whole person, not just a skill-learning entity, and must be responded to as such…. Another factor … was the principle that every student is able to learn and wants to learn.… Each student as well as as the class as a unit, needed to be constantly supported by the acceptance and encouragement of the instructors and the other class members.…"^p28,9 Reeves also introduced individual counseling to the program advising the women on sources of social support and in "developing self-directive understandings and insight".^p31-2 Group counseling also took place depending on the dynamics of the group if some problem arose. One student was terminated when the staff and students felt a particular individual was "a center of discord" but also that the individual and events should not be a topic of gossip and the whole process facilitated by Reeves.^p32-3 Students also led to introducing another factor evaluating the program - that the program should be longer than eight weeks.^p31 Reeves also introducted skits - formal and informal drama - because it "trancscends age and status differences" and addressed matters "that are relevant to the particular experience" of the persons and the group created a play they created themselves based around a purse snatching,^p42 as well as doing a performance of A raisin in the sun by Hansberry with everyone doing all the characters more than once as a substitute for "class reading" as part of the program.^p44-5 Reading poetry was also introduced by Reeves,^p45-6 as well as a class on "speech arts".^p48 However by 1972 Reeves also had to dismiss three students for totally inadequet skills in English and the MOST program did not continue employing a translator while making basic English an entry requirement for the program - though the issue was not settled how things were to progress with those needing assistance with English.^p60-1 Some decissions were clearly beyond those of Reeves,^p34-5 Among the people Reeves acknowledges for her work were Firuz Kazemzadeh, Daniel Jordan, and sister Wilma Brady.^pv Reeves also documented issues of race in the work of the classes of the program - of struggling between not making every difference of how black people are relative to white people a problem and pressure to fix while also managing when "characterisitics of the poor must be altered so they will not be susceptible to the poverty-forming actors in their environment" or "exhibits behavior that is consistently inapropriate to the circumstances."^p25-6 Seventy-four students had begun the process and 64 were hired though no long term followup was undertaken.^p27 "The future holds the answers to the MOST program…" is her main conclusion in her disertation.^p76

1972 she went on Bahá'í pilgrimage, this time with her brother Caswell, and they were able to visit in Teheran and Shiraz.

Though the date of the divorce is not identified yet, her re-marriage to William A. Reeves was August 1972. She was working with Travelers Insurance and had just been promoted to assistant director of the personnel department at Travelers Insurance by March 1972. In December there was a muitl-page profile of her work in the MOST (Modern Office Skills Training) program in the year following Reeves disertation reviewing the program. As described in the coverage, the program addressed the needs of black, Puerto Rican, and white indigent women who had become locked in cycles between social assistance agencies and or failed in public education. The program leaders were not counselors for personal problems but facilitators of a means to help people solve their problems themselves. Training sessions covered typing, etiquette, grooming, history, English, and an encounter setting for truth and action. The program evolved to a 10 week training and six weeks of on-the-job tasks. The program was reviewed by the University of Hartford and scored "high" - lauded in a report, probably at least related to Reeves dissertation - but a lot of work for a small sample of people "compared to the hundreds waiting to enter it". It had been co-funded by the National Urban League OJT(On the Job Training) program with a focus on Puerto Rico and southern blacks. State officials visited it in April.

In 1974 Reeves work with MOST continued. It was profiled in a publication The Handbook of Corporate social responsability: profiles of involvement in 1975. It was then being run by 8 people with support by 5 more peripherally. By 1974 it had graduated 271 students and it was no longer being co-sponsored by the Urban League. Some of the women were still employed from the first class. 87% finished the courses on average and were hired with 98% of hired employees gaining raises within 6 months. In 1975 Reeves gave a talk about it at a graduation ceremony in town.

In her role as an Auxiliary Board member for the Bahá'í Faith was allowed to appoint assistants by 1976; she also hosted weekend workshops in their home. She later thanked her husband’s long service supporting her work including driving her hundreds of miles while serving as an Auxiliary Board member. In 1976 Reeves was part of a meeting led by Hand of the Cause Rúḥíyyih Khánum. She was also the secretary for the American Society for Training and Development association. She and her sister Wilma were also at a family reunion event.

After this she almost disappears from the available record of newspaper coverage except for her work writing novels.

She did mention going on a second Bahá'í pilgrimage with husband William but the date is unknown.

Serving as the Auxiliary Board member for propagation, she mentions it was a five month stay in Bermuda when they were electing their first national assembly. This was finished in 1981.

She ultimately served 16 years as an Auxiliary Board member and then as an assistant to Auxiliary Board member Elizabeth Martin another 10 years in the New England area.

About 1979-80 the Reeves moved to South Carolina. William had also retired from working in the Post Office.

The Reeves lived in Summerville at least through 1996; "The longest we've ever lived in one house." she said. Adrienne herself joined in a conference in Orangeburg with Magdalene Carney, while she was a member of the US National Assembly.

Reeves returned to the Bermuda national convention in Bermuda in 1983. In 1986 Reeves was part of a Bahá'í sponsored Peace Forum, as well as part of the American Association of University Women; Reeves was chair of the “Women's Worth/Women's Work" program.

She then served in the Huqúqu'lláh institution from 1987 and they met at Louhelen the first time as part of the first group with a responsibility to educate the Bahá’ís on this law of the religion.

In 1992 Reeves was profiled for writing her first book but it is without any mention of her career or life as a Bahá'í but did review some of her life at Alton. The first book Willie and the Number Three Door and other adventures was about how children grow up and learn values. The next book was to be Shoutin’ Distance. The article also covers her marriage, began college, had three kids, and then at age 50 earned her Doctorate in Education from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, worked 10 years at Travelers Insurance, and since has been retired but began writing books, and has been published in the Charleston Magazine. Her first novel remains for sale at the Bahá'í Bookstore online.

On a third pilgrimage on a three day visit she was able to walk nine or more of the Terraces_(Bahá'í) Terraces which were completed 2001. In 1999 Reeves was invited to speak on her writing career before a writing class at Charleston Southern University.

Ultimately she would produce 11 books in addition to two disertations - her last book came out in 2007. Around the same time Reeves began to write autobiographical articles - in 2005, 2006, and 2013.

In 2011 Reeves and her sister Wilma Ellis Kazemzadeh attended the raising of a memorial plaque for their father. In 2016 an exhibition on her father and family was held. and

She died August 18, 2018. In 2013 she wrote she felt blessed to have a fifth generation of her family in the Bahá'í Faith.

Robert Hayden

Main article: Robert Hayden

Robert Hayden (August 4, 1913 – February 25, 1980) was an American poet, essayist, and educator. He served as Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1976 to 1978, a role today known as US Poet Laureate. He was the first African-American writer to hold the office.

Leaving the Federal Writers' Project in 1938, Hayden married Erma Morris in 1940 and published his first volume, Heart-Shape in the Dust (1940). He enrolled at the University of Michigan in 1941 and won a Hopwood Award there. Raised as a Baptist, he followed his wife into the Bahá'í Faith during the early 1940s, and raised a daughter, Maia, in the religion. Hayden became one of the best-known Bahá'í poets. Erma Hayden was a pianist and composer and served as supervisor of music for Nashville public schools.

In pursuit of a master's degree, Hayden studied under W. H. Auden, who directed his attention to issues of poetic form, technique, and artistic discipline. Auden's influence may be seen in the "technical pith of Hayden's verse". After finishing his degree in 1942, then teaching several years at Michigan, Hayden went to Fisk University in 1946, where he remained for twenty-three years, returning to Michigan in 1969 to complete his teaching career.

As a supporter of his religion's teaching of the unity of humanity, Hayden could never embrace Black separatism. Thus the title poem of Words in the Mourning Time ends in a stirring plea in the name of all humanity:

Reclaim now, now renew the vision of

a human world where godliness
is possible and man
is neither gook nigger honkey wop or kike
but man

                           permitted to be man.

Faynard Nicholas

Main article: Nicholas Brothers

Fayard (1914–2006) and Harold (1921–2000), were "The Nicholas Brothers" who were a team of dancing brothers who performed a highly acrobatic technique known as "flash dancing". With a high level of artistry and daring innovations, they were considered by many to be the greatest tap dancers of their day. Their performance in the musical number "Jumpin' Jive" (with Cab Calloway and his orchestra) featured in the movie Stormy Weather is considered by many to be the most virtuosic dance display of all time.

In 1967 Faynard converted to the Bahá'í Faith.

Dizzy Gillespie

Main article: Dizzy Gillespie

John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie (/ɡɪˈlɛspi/; October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, and singer.

Gillespie was a trumpet virtuoso and improviser, building on the virtuoso style of Roy Eldridge but adding layers of harmonic and rhythmic complexity previously unheard in jazz. His combination of musicianship, showmanship, and wit made him a leading popularizer of the new music called bebop. His beret and horn-rimmed spectacles, his scat singing, his bent horn, pouched cheeks, and his light-hearted personality provided some of bebop's most prominent symbols.

In the 1940s Gillespie, with Charlie Parker, became a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz.

He taught and influenced many other musicians, including trumpeters Miles Davis, Jon Faddis, Fats Navarro, Clifford Brown, Arturo Sandoval, Lee Morgan, Chuck Mangione, and balladeer Johnny Hartman.

Scott Yanow wrote, "Dizzy Gillespie's contributions to jazz were huge. One of the greatest jazz trumpeters of all time, Gillespie was such a complex player that his contemporaries ended up being similar to those of Miles Davis and Fats Navarro instead, and it was not until Jon Faddis's emergence in the 1970s that Dizzy's style was successfully recreated [....] Arguably Gillespie is remembered, by both critics and fans alike, as one of the greatest jazz trumpeters of all time".

Shortly after the death of Charlie Parker, Gillespie encountered an audience member after a show. They had a conversation about the oneness of humanity and the elimination of racism from the perspective of the Bahá'í Faith. Impacted by the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King in 1968, he became a Bahá'í in 1968. The universalist emphasis of his religion prodded him to see himself more as a global citizen and humanitarian, expanding on his interest in his African heritage. His spirituality brought out generosity and what author Nat Hentoff called an inner strength, discipline, and "soul force".

Gillespie's conversion was most affected by Bill Sears' book Thief in the Night. Gillespie spoke about the Bahá'í Faith frequently on his trips abroad. He is honored with weekly jazz sessions at the New York Bahá'í Center in the memorial auditorium.

In the 1980s, Gillespie led the United Nation Orchestra. For three years Flora Purim toured with the Orchestra. She credits Gillespie with improving her understanding of jazz.

In December 1991, during an engagement at Kimball's East in Emeryville, California, he suffered a crisis from what would turn out to be pancreatic cancer. He performed one more night but cancelled the rest of the tour due to his medical problem, ending his 56-year touring career. He led his last recording session on January 25, 1992.

On November 26, 1992, Carnegie Hall, following the Second Bahá'í World Congress, celebrated Gillespie's 75th birthday concert and his offering to the celebration of the centenary of the passing of Bahá'u'lláh. Gillespie was to appear at Carnegie Hall for the 33rd time. The line-up included Jon Faddis, James Moody, Paquito D'Rivera, and the Mike Longo Trio with Ben Brown on bass and Mickey Roker on drums. But Gillespie didn't make it because he was in bed suffering from pancreatic cancer. "But the musicians played their real hearts out for him, no doubt suspecting that he would not play again. Each musician gave tribute to their friend, this great soul and innovator in the world of jazz."

Projects and endevours

The Color line in New York

Glimmerings of community

Then there are notes of Bahá'ís holding meetings at other institutions - the "Clio Information Club" then at 135 West 136th St at which Howard MacNutt gave a talk in October 1912. The next known mention of Baha'is gathering in community in New York is at the St. Marks-on-the-Bouwerie Episcopal church, (note this is different than the Bowery Mission, where Abdu'l-Baha visited, which is about 1 mile away.) The May 17, 1919 Star of the West notes Rev. William Guthrie from St. Marks-in-the-Bouwerie was on the program of the national Ridvan Feast April 26, which was itself part of the very event of the official presentation of the Tablets of the Divine Plan. Rev. Guthrie met well known Baha'i Mountfort Mills and Abdul-Baha directed Mills to join William’s church. William confirmed him and he became a member of the vestry of St. Mark. In March 1921 Kahlil GIbran and several Baha'is held a public meeting at St. Mark's advertised in the NY Times and Brooklyn Daily Eagle . Note Baha'i participants - Glenn Shook, Howard MacNutt, Horace Holley, Juliet Thompson, Mrs. I. F. Chamberlain, and Urbain Ledoux. In 1923 Fazel Mazindirani spoke at St. Marks’s-in-the-Bouwerie more than once, and Baha’is had held the Ascension of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá commemoration in 1932 and had "for some years” previous at St. Mark’s-in-the-Bouwerie.

Around the same time Bahá'ís also were active in the starting on Christmas Day, 1920, at the First Emmanuel Church which continued for some time (sometimes with gaps in the coverage like from May 1921 to September 1921 but continuing into October 1922.) The news of the passing of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was among the notices.

Active members of the community

Note pastor Bolden of the church is usually noted as present and giving a talk or opening or closing the meeting. Note also well known Bahá'ís of the period like Juliet Thompson and others are not mentioned though the MacNutts are.

• Oct 1912 - the MacNutts, the Carters, Thelma Ruth Carter, M. Robinson, Marie Botay, Janie Cooper, Louise Washington, Lusie Wilkerson, Jessie Garcia, Elizabeth Sequaria, Nellie Leftwich, Marie Lewis, Edward Braithwaite, W Chisum, Edward Beander, Celester Sequaria, Leon Ploche, and J. Minott - Adena Price presented music and refreshments, with Adena Minott presiding.

• An organizational meeting established articles of incorporation, October, 1920 - present included Mary Hanford Ford, Beatrice Irwin and Fazel Mazindarani.

• December 1920 - the "Bahai meeting" was presided over by M. van Blacum with talks by van Bergen and Mrs Tate.
• January 1921 - Mary van Blacum presided over the "Bahai Association".
• March 1921 - Mrs Copeland presiding at the the "Bahai Association", Mr Davenport devotions, talks by Mrs' Lehman, Washington, and Silverberg.
• April 1921 - M van Blacum presided over the the "Bahai Association" and read "Are all Christians Bahais?" by Abdu'l-Baha followed by another talk by Mr Morris. The talk is probably "Are not all Christians Bahais? Is there any difference?"
• May 1921 - the "Baha'i Circle" had Mrs' Tate and Ford and Mr Morris speaking with Mr Davenport giving a reading from Abdul-Baha and closing prayer by Mrs Copeland.
• July 1921 - the "Rainbow Circle", as it is now called, has moved to a Thursday evening - Rev Simpson gave a reading from "Abdu'l-Baha's book" with prayer by Mary Ford, talks by Florian Kruge and Mary Ford - "Mary Ford" was almost certainly Mary Hanford Ford.)
• August 1921 - M. van Blacum presided, Mary Ford, Mr Morris, William Townsend speakers.
• September 1921 the "Rainbow Circle" had Rev JT Simpson read from the Hidden Words, a Miss Small did an additional reading, then L. Fieldman read from Answered Questions, with talks including Mrs F Kruge, Mary Ford, A Blackstone and others.
• December 1921 - the "Rainbow Circle" shared news of Abdu'l-Baha's passing - Mrs Copeland, Mr Hanks, Miss Sanford and Mr Zim all read from the Hidden Words, and Mary Ford read "The necessity of following divine teachings" by Abdu'l-Baha and Mrs Kelsey read from the 19th chapter of Revelations, and a talk by Mr Manucheron was given. Ford's reading was probably from Some Answered Questions, "The Necessity of following the teachings of the DIvine Manifestations". Note the 19th chapter of the Revelation to St John - about the 24 elders and others praising the Lamb, etc. - were probably understood by some to refer to Baha'u'llah and other important figures of the Babi-Bahá'í Faiths though Some Answered Questions and Star of the West, Promulgation of Universal Peace and Tablets of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the main publications of the time, did not discuss chapter 19.
• January 1922 - at the Sunday afternoon meeting of the "Bahai Association" one person "joined the church"; the Thursday evening "Rainbow Circle" meeting was served dinner by Mrs Davenport, was interacial, and had readings from the Hidden Words by Mrs Fittey, Mr Hanks read from "Mysterious forces of naturalization", Mrs Kelsey read a letter from her son in Haifa telling of the death and funeral of Abdu'l-Baha and further talks by Mrs' Ford and Copeland. "Mysterious forces of naturalization" could be a mis-reading of the old title of the Secret of Divine Civilization which had the former title of "Mysterious forces of civilization".
• February 1922 - The "Bahai meeting" had "splendid attendance" with van Blacum presiding with talks by Mrs' Ford and Copeland.
• October 1922 - The "Bahai services" had short talks by Mrs' Copeland and Lockett and others.

The overall affect of these circles is apparently behind some comments of E. G. Browne when he wrote a testimonial obituary for ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in January 1922 published in the The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland wherein he says:

…. In all these countries he had followers but chiefly in America, … resulting in the formation of important Bahá'í centres in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and other cities. One of the most notable practical results of the Bahá'í ethical teaching in the United States has been, according to the recent testimony of an impartial and qualified observer, the establishment in Bahá'í circles in New York of a real fraternity between black and white, and an unprecedented lifting of the "colour bar", described by the said observer as "almost miraculous".

Observations about the Bahá'ís over time

In addition noting meetings, other mentions of the Faith are to be found:

"An effort was made not long ago to promote a new cult known as Bahaism, but whether the doctrine attained the dignity of a permanent meeting place does not appear." in 1920

A KKK newspaper The Fiery Cross had an entry mentioning "Bahaists and Babist" from New York. On the other hand a 1925 brief profile of the religion sums it up

"That is quite a volume of advanced beliefs to introduce in one movement."

In 1927 note was taken of the election of Louis Gregory echoing coverage in the "The Washington Sentinel on the election of Louis Gregory exemplying the

"spirit of racial amity" at the 19th convention electing the National Spiritual Assembly…"

Sometimes the news was of events beyond New York - "pastor speaks to Baha'is of Tanneck NJ" in 1938.

Race and man compilation

Race and Man, the first widely circulated Bahá'í compilation on the issue of race, was gathered by Maye Harvey Gift (1885-1961) and Alice Simmons Cox (1903? - 1985?) starting in the mid-1930s. A listing of the references was extended and published in World Order magazine in 1942 and then was reformulated and extended to be part of a book together with a summary of scientific evidence about the idea of race in a volume entitled Race and Man. This was revised and republished a number of times into the 1950s and the last edition was published in 1956. Praised in some African American press, a copy of this made its way into Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King's personal library by 1963. However it was allowed to go out of print, a summary of it was printed as a pamphlet, and it would be some two decades before an attempt was made at a compilation on the issue of race again. That new work was based on the effort of Bonnie J. Taylor commissioned by the US National Assembly in 1980 and used first in a Most Challenging Issue Seminar sponsored by the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Wilmette, Illinois, in 1982, following which it was published as Power of Unity. A successor text was published in 1995 entitled The Pupil of the Eye: African Americans in the World Order of Bahá'u'lláh and most recently in 2019 as The Power of Unity: overcoming racial divisions, rebuilding America.

In 1925 a compilation "Racial Amity" was published in 1925. A new and seemingly separate work, a "Compilation on Racial Amity", was compiled, and approved by review, by Maye Harvey Gift and Alice Simmons Cox, white Bahá'ís, in 1935. This followed an impulse in the work of race amity in the religion which started in 1931 with a comment of Shoghi Effendi's during a pilgrimage.

Maye Harvey Gift, (1885 - 1961) was born and raised in Illinois. She graduated High School in Urbana, attended the University of Illinois in Champaign, and gained an advanced professional degree in philanthropic work before serving communities in that work several years. Along the way she was active in society and Methodist conferences to which she as a delegate. She met John Wilson Gift, the first Bahá'í of Peoria, and joined the religion herself. It was a May-December marriage - he was 77 and she was 32 when they married. Maye was his second wife. They lived together as a couple several years and the year he died in 1927 the community elected its first Spiritual Assembly. After his death Maye became visible in race issues in the early 1930s: first giving several courses on the teachings of the religion on the oneness of humanity specifically on the issue of race at Louhelen Bahá'í School in its first organized year, and then on co-producing the first widely published compilation on the issue of race in the American Bahá'í community with Alice Simmons Cox.

Alice Simmons Cox (~1903 - ~1985) was born and raised in Illinois. She graduated summa cum laude at Lombard College in 1924, which later merged with Knox College, and married Levi Cox. The couple moved to Peoria and by 1931 Alice was visible publishing poetry in Star of the West magazine. Alice co-produced the compilation with Maye Harvey Gift and, in addition to numerous other articles on other themes, produced a newspaper article series published in a number of African American newspapers on the Faith and race issues.

In 1942 an update of the Gift-Cox compilation was published in World Order magazine.

There was publicity of the new compilation in the fall to winter of 1943 in several newspapers. This edition was republished in 1946, and 1956, when it was reviewed by the Associated Negro Press; Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had a copy of this last edition in his library by 1963.

Meanwhile Cox wrote a series of articles from November 1942 to April 1943 usually in the African-American The New York Age but also in the Pittsburg Courier and other newspapers about Bahá'í views of the race issue. In 1944 the national Race Unity committee included the compilation in their list of major achievements of the year.

1943

For the anticipatory year of 1943, before the Centenary of the Declaration of the Báb, also a year of three race riots in America, plans were announced to expand the compilation and to include scientific views about race. The compilation was redone by Gift and Cox and published as Race and Man in November. It arrived following a campaign by Bahá'ís of three months of nearly five dozen local "race unity" themed events across the country, after the Race Amity Convention in Green Acre.

Louis Gregory summary

published successivly… Baha'i News, Star of the West, Baha'i World, Lights of the Spirit…

1947 student protest

echoes. Students

Birmingham and protests

A newspaper covering civil rights issues in the South in the latter 1960s called The Southern Courier published a few references to the Faith mostly centered around the Montgomery Bahá'í community, however a couple editions went well beyond. According to their website "Two undergraduate journalists at Harvard College, veterans of the ‘64 Freedom Summer, decided to fill the void. They raised some money, recruited some friends, and founded The Southern Courier. It began publication in July, 1965, and every week for three years - 177 issues - it reported the stories of a movement that changed America.” The last issue was Dec 7-8, 1968. A documentary on it is at YouTube. Of those 177 issues 9 mention the Faith. Note the hi-res files are of the entire edition of the newspaper and may take a minute to load.

Before the Southern Courier started printing in July it should be noted Bahá'ís participated in the (probably third) March on Montgomery and arranged for telegrams according to the June issue of Baha'i News. The National Assembly telegrammed the US President and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Bahá'ís that marched include Henry Miller, Diane Schable, Daniel Connor, Charles Carter, Mary Jane Austin, Joseph Mydell, Joan Bronson (the last two from Montgomery.) Liz Coleman places Joseph Mydell in the London Borough of Hackney in 1982, serving on the Assembly there.

Historically it is known that Walter Blakely moved to Birmingham in early 1938, and Louis Gregory was in contact with a Bahá'í in Montgomery around then as well. A study group on the Faith organized in Montgomery in 1938, and books were placed in the library in 1947. John C. Inglis is mentioned living in Birmingham in 1952. However, as of 1954 there were no known Bahá'ís in Montgomery.

The first mention of the Faith in the Southern Courier appears alittle more than a year after the start of the newspaper. August 1966 two editions mention the Faith. First on page 5 of August 6-7, there is a notice of a Montgomery meeting at the home of Ralph and Marion Featherstone. And second there is a brief mention on page 5 of the August 13-14, 1966 edition. It also notes a meeting of Montgomery Bahá'ís at the home of Marion and Ralph Featherstone.

Ralph Featherstone was a visible presence in the community partly because he worked at the radio station which he joined in 1964 after moving down from New York. A community meeting was called a few months before the mention of the Faith in the newspaper about comments of his about ministers on the radio; it ends not stating his religious affiliation (but the question was asked.) The Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance of Montgomery sent a letter to the editor about the incident clarifying it did question Featherstone but not that he himself was part of a seeming movement to undercut black (aka religious) leadership. However another letter to the editor supported Featherstone’s criticism of Christian leadership - that "half of them were not called by God".

A brief notice on Bahá'ís then appears in October 29-30, 1966, page 2, noting a meeting with 100 guests, some wearing clothes from different countries, who listened to three speakers - Robert Edington of Guatemala, Rev. T. E. Williams, and Bahá'í Stan Bagley, at a Holiday Inn. Bagley was known from Flint, Michigan a decade previous. Unyoke Baker of Gulfport, Miss., sang for the event and Rosey E. Pool read a poem by WEB DuBois. She is profiled in Bahá'í World vol 19. She had joined the religion April, 1965. In January 1966, she was involved in Robert Hayden's award in the first World Festival of Negro Arts in Dakar, Senegal. This article in the Courier was followed by a brief notice that the Bahá'í Alabama state convention to elect a delegate to the national convention was going to be held Nov 6 in Birmingham on page 5 of the Southern Courier, November 5-6, 1966 edition.

Just six months after the first mention of the Faith there is the first article of any length on the Faith. It was in “sermon of the week” column quoting (and picturing) Rosey E. Pool, a native of Holland and then teaching in Alabama A&M College. The article quotes her about the Faith and her arrest and imprisonment in Holland in the face of Nazi influence there in 1943. This is in The Southern Courier, January 14-15, 1967, p. 2. This was also referred to in the Baha'i News.

Separately, in the same issue, a notice also has a meeting of Bahá'ís on page 5. There it notes that Mel Campbell presented at the Holiday Inn and that he was a former licensed Baptist minister before converting to the Bahá'í Faith.

A notice of meetings in Montgomery is noted on page 2 of The Southern Courier of March 25-26, 1967, just a couple months later. There was a talk by Ralph Featherstone there for Naw Ruz. This is followed the next month, April 29-30 edition, which has a mention of the Faith on page 2. It notes the first Assembly of Montgomery being elected and that it’s members included former Catholics, Baptists, Jews, Episcopalians and Presbyterians. In between Featherstone was the invited speaker to the Lowndes County Christian Movement second anniversary meeting. He supported not valuing a person just because they were black but because they were better for a job. This Ralph Featherstone (New York, 1932 - Yonkers, NY, 2003) should not be confused with Ralph 'Feather' Featherstone (1939-1970), of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

Then there is a gap until the Fall when there is a brief mention in the September 23-24, 1967 edition on page 5. It noted Tuskegee Bahá'ís meeting with Jess Chambliss of Montgomery who gave a talk at the home of Mr. and Mrs. David Gordon. David Gordon had lived in New York and was one of the first Seneca Nation Bahá'ís, in 1964, and been living in Nevada. David Gordon married Donna Lisle Brook in Montgomery in July 1967. The Chambliss couple had moved from Salem, Oregon in 1966, a few months after being elected to the Spiritual Assembly there.

Featherstone sponsored "Operation Goodwill" on the radio making Thanksgiving meals for families.

The mention of the Faith greatly expanded in 1968 when several articles and pictures amounting to a whole page covered the Faith in Montgomery. Page 4 of The Southern Courier, January 13-14, 1968 edition, was all in three articles on the Faith with pictures and the coverage extended alittle across to another page. This coverage was noted in the national newspaper of the Baha'is as well.

The articles are: “You learn to love people instead of hating them” by Sarah Heggie, "The story of the Baha’is - new religion survived in spite of persecution", by Sarah Heggie, and "Teachings of Baha’u’llah stress racial equality", also by Sarah Heggie. Sarah Heggie herself remains something of a mystery. Almost nothing other than articles by her is known at the moment. Heggie only other articles for the Courier - were from September to December 1967 - her last stories were these in January, 1968. Heggie was pictured in the period. The photos included in the Courier articles are not credited but might be her own, or perhaps another photographer, though some surely sourced from Bahá'ís such as of `Abdu’l-Bahá and the Bahá'í Temple.

The first article quotes black man Willie Richardson speaking at a fireside on Bahá'í teachings both of racial unity and others like world peace and obedience to the government. Kay Chambliss is also quoted that she and her husband had gotten threatening phone calls accusing them of trying to start a religious war. White couple John and Mrs. Ray shared they had a burning cross in their driveway after holding an integrated fireside at their home. Some cases of harassment lead to Bahá'ís moving. David Gordon notes people fear change and the trouble of opening people’s minds and there is hostility among both whites and blacks towards the religion. Ralph Featherstone was noted a disk jockey for WRMA, as it was known then, and had several Christian ministers spoke against the Faith and accusing him of not having any religion. But Featherstone is noted clarifying in the article Bahá'ís accept Christ. Blacks at the meeting noted at first they were skeptical of this claim - Eddie Wallace was quoted “I’ve come to the conclusion that this religion is what I think a religion should be - no separatism or discrimination.” Nevertheless, Featherstone was fired in February, technically for comments about flipping policies of police hiring blacks. He next shows up in Terra Haute, Indiana, a few months later, giving a talk about what the Faith can do for the South. Jess Chambliss in fact died in late June after suffering a heart attack and his wife buried him back in Salem, Oregon. So by that summer several active members of the community were away from Montgomery. Gordon was noted living in South Carolina in 1974.

The second article reviews the history of the religion. It starts the story with the history of the Bab, the eventual martyrdom, and the spread of His religion and waiting for the promised one - Baha’u’llah. Then there are his banishments and announcements, and imprisonments. Then `Abdu’l-Bahá’s appointment as center of the Covenant, his travels to America and the promulgation of race relations as the Faith grew in the US and his warning of many challenges.

The third article reviews the teachings on racial equality. “Baha’i (sic) is probably the most democratic religion the world has ever known” she says. It notes of equality, the Manifestations, the idea of heaven being a condition, not a place, of the end times being a change in the world, not its destruction, that there are no priests, and forming assemblies at first locally, then nationally, and then the Universal House of Justice. It noted then black member Amos Gibson on the Universal House of Justice. The Temples in various continents as known in 1968 are listed and that they are open to all people of races and economic status. Firesides are described and how Bahá'ís live within the laws of the country and serve in the military. And it notes the calendar and gatherings for Feasts as well as Holy Days such as Ridvan.

In the period of the closing of the newspaper in its last year, the March 2-3, 1968, page 5 Tuskegee Bahá'ís are noted gathering to hear National Assembly member Daniel Jordan speaking at a meeting and separately that other meetings.

1964 Louhelen project

In 1964 Richard Thomas took part in an initiative similar to the Freedom Summer campaign with connections at the Bahá'í School in Michigan, later called Louhelen Bahá'í School, and the burgeoning Bahá'í community of Greenville, South Carolina, which was integrating its schools that Fall. Training sessions for a project were noted in the Bahá'í News in August. Some 80 youth attended the training in mid-June with faculty like Firuz Kazemzadeh. After the classes in various subjects, 27 individuals went to 8 locations including Greenville, S.C. Six youth including Thomas went to Greenville under the sponsorship of the local assembly there for a 6 week program. Local youth joined in. The group worked on tutoring some 55 black students about to attend newly integrating schools, held informational meetings on the religion, and supported petitioning for the public swimming pool being integrated. The work was capped with a parent-teacher banquet reception at a church and a picnic for the students conducted by the Bahá'í teachers. The group visited many churches, restaurants, parks, stores, and a community center to demonstrate solidarity with the black community. Side ventures included the Bahá'í Summer School near Ashville, NC, going to Greensboro, NC, and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference training camp near Savannah, GA. Thomas met men who cooperated with projects he was later involved with: John Mangum, and William "Smitty" Smith. Thomas recalled that black and white Bahá'ís stayed in the homes of the other color and that their efforts received threatening notes because they held interracial meetings. Thomas also recalled a tense morning breakfast he and a white Bahá'í went on one Sunday morning.

Baha'i Faith in South Carolina

Main article: Bahá'í Faith in South Carolina

The Bahá'í Faith in South Carolina begins in the transition from Jim Crow to the Civil Rights Movement but defines another approach to the problem, and proceeded according to its teachings. The first mention in relation to the history of the religion came in the 1860s in a newspaper article. Following this the first individual from South Carolina to find the religion was Louis Gregory in 1909, followed by individuals inside the state. Communities of Bahá'ís were soon operating in North Augusta, Columbia and Greenville struggled with segregation culture through the 1950s externally and internally. However, in the 1969-1973 period, a very remarkable and somewhat unsustainable period of conversions to the religion on the basis of a meeting of Christian and Bahá'í religious ideas established a basis of community across several counties - notably Marion, Williamsburg, and Dillon, served by the Louis Gregory Institute and its radio station WLGI but also across the wider area. That community continues and has gathered news coverage as part of the second largest religion in South Carolina.

Anisa Kintz made news as a child more than once, and won a Prudential Spirit of Community Award in 1996. Then Kintz was more broadly noted with a conference Calling All Colors, for which she was noted in React Magazine's "Take Action" awards in 1997, was profiled in an Odyssey Channel special also covering Dan Seals on the issue of racism, and won a Points of Light award. She earned a Discover Card silver "Tribute scholarship".

In the 1990s the Universal House of Justice, the current head of the religion, announced a decades-long effort to develop human resources and institutional capacity to sustain growth around the world. Youth activation, organization at a cluster level, training programs were initiated and expanded as resources and orientation became available. "By 2008 and 2009, membership growth in the country as a whole had returned to the level of the mid-1980s." A nationwide county-by-county breakdown of Bahá'í populations ranks some counties in South Carolina as among the highest in the nation, (with a few in Georgia and South Dakota also notable): Marion at 10%, Williamsburg at 7.2%, and Dillon at about 6.3% in 2010, though the area of the county of Colleton where levels of activity had been high, were less than a third and closer to the statewide average. The fact that the Bahá'ís formed the second largest percentage of the religious in the whole of South Carolina made the news in 2014 even convincing a skeptic - Mark Silk, and avowed atheist Herb Silverman, founding leader of Secular Coalition for America, took the opportunity from the news to check out the local Charleston Bahá'ís - and was favorably disposed. Coverage by WMBF News in eastern South Carolina occurred in February 2016. And based on data from 2010, Bahá'ís were the largest minority religion in 80 counties out of the 3143 counties in the country, including a few from South Carolina: Anderson, Horry, and Williamsburg.

Bahá'ís run a museum on Louis Gregory. in 2003 and a collection of Find-a-grave for South Carolinian Bahá'ís exists.

Ronald McNair was a physicist and NASA astronaut. McNair died during the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger on mission STS-51-L.

Louis Venters of Francis Marion University who wrote a PhD on the religion in the state has won an award and has been consulted by media for the news of the religion in the State.

Muhiyidin Moye (1985 – February 6, 2018) also known as Muhiyidin D'baha was a leading Black Lives Matter activist known nationally for crossing a yellow police tape line to snatch a Confederate battle flag from a demonstrator on live television in Charleston, South Carolina in February 2017.

Successor Compilation

The compilation and commentary Race and Man text was followed by a pamphlet based on it, though these were then allowed to go out of print in the later 1950s. It wasn’t until 1986 that a successor work was published. According to the Forward, the new compilation was based on Bonnie J. Taylor’s personal work and not directly based on Race and Man. Power of Unity was commissioned by the National Assembly in 1980 and solicited the Universal House of Justice for more quotes. It was “ascertained that Race and Man was not suitable for reprinting”. Taylor’s work was used for a Most Challenging Issue Seminar sponsor by the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Wilmette, Illinois in 1982. The result was called more comprehensive, “address(ing) not only the serious matter of racial prejudice but also the broader issue of unity itself.” According to the forward, “no new materials on the subject of race unity have been published in the United States Bahá'í community since the national focus on race relations in the 1960s.” Meanwhile the community had grown to be 1/3rd rural black thanks to events in South Carolina and other places and a significant percentage of other minorities had joined the Faith especially from the 1960s. “The National Race Unity Committee has found that the most creative and successful efforts to integrate racial and cultural diversity have come from Bahá'ís who are the most deepened in their understanding of the process of unity and the most aware that achieving unity is above all a spiritual rather than a cultural issue.” Selections from the text have been posted online. It was used in reviews of race issues. It continues to be published. Taylor also wrote a successor The Pupil of the Eye: African Americans in the World Order of Bahá'u'lláh in 1995. A pre-publication version adjusted to suite the published 1998 edition was posted online. In 1998 Taylor contributed a workshop "Origin and Fallacies of White Superiority Attitudes" at the 1998 3rd National Conference on Whiteness at University of Chicago.

Taylor began working at Health for Humanity, an innovator in community development programs in 1995 and served for 12 years and then after a break returned to Health for Humanity in 2013.

Governance and policy

The cultural norms in the religion have gone through major transitions. In the later 1930s and 1940s Bahá'ís in the West began a systematic implementation of the Tablets of the Divine Plan towards Latin America. At a certain stage of the process regional coordinating committees were appointed and a stated purpose for them was to facilitate a shift in the balance of roles from North American leading guidance and Latin cooperation to Latin leading guidance and North American cooperation. The process was well underway by 1950 and was to be enforced about 1953. By 1961 most Latin and South American countries had their own national assembly. See Bahá'í Faith in Latin America. Almost in parallel with this process in the West in the East Bahá'ís in India were embarking on a comparable process. The Bahá'í message had for decades been primarily addressed to Indian Muslims and Parsees (Zoroastrians), a re-interpretation of the Bahá'í message in accordance with Hindu ideas was undertaken to reach the masses of Hindus. In two more years almost as many people converted as had been Bahá'ís through regions of Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat. By 1970 there were 3,350 assemblies and over 312,000 believers. See Bahá'í Faith in India.

While those early processes continued locally international attention shifted to Africa for Bahá'ís in the West and East. In Africa there was widespread conversions to the religion following the 1950s. It was emphasized that pioneers be self-effacing and focus their efforts not on the colonial leadership but on the native Africans - and that the pioneers must show by actions the sincerity of their sense of service to the Africans in bringing the religion and then the Africans who understand their new religion are to be given freedom to rise up and spread the religion according to their own sensibilities and the pioneers to disperse or step into the background. See Bahá'í Faith in Africa.

The religion itself is organized primarily around elected institutions such that no one runs for office and, instead, everyone votes only as their conscience dictates, respecting only the qualities of the spirit each sees through their own eyes among their fellow believers. As a result, the Faith abides no quotas perse, though tie votes are yielded to the minority in the society in question. It is in this situation where the Bahá’ís of the United States have, since 1922, almost always elected at least one African American to the national assembly, and usually two, sometimes 3 or 4. An average of 17% African American have been elected any particular year. Of the 78 Bahá’ís who have been elected to the National Spiritual Assembly annually since 1922, 15 (19%) have been African-American whereas the average in the US Congress is approaching 10% although not actually reaching it. Nevertheless, in 1939, Shoghi Effendi, then head of the religion, said: “Let the white make a supreme effort in their resolve to contribute their share to the solution of this problem, to abandon once for all their usually inherent and at times subconscious sense of superiority, to correct their tendency towards revealing a patronizing attitude towards the members of the other race, to persuade them through their intimate, spontaneous and informal association with them of the genuineness of their friendship and the sincerity of their intentions, and to master their impatience of any lack of responsiveness on the part of a people who have received, for so long a period, such grievous and slow-healing wounds.” (See also this.)