The Bah ' Faith is increasingly acknowledged as South Carolina's second-largest religion, part of the social fabric of the state. The earliest mentions of the distinctively interracial, theologically innovative faith community in the state date back to the Civil War. Black, white and indigenous South Carolinians defied racial and religious prejudices to join the religion during the tumultuous civil rights era. From the visit of the first Bah ' teacher in 1910 to the "Carolinian Pentecost" of the 1970s and beyond, the faith has deep roots in the Palmetto State. Author and Bah ' historian Louis Venters provides, for the first time, an overview of the first century of the Bah ' Faith in a state with one of its strongest followings.
Since the early twentieth century, the Baha'í religion has worked to establish racially and ethnically diverse communities. During Jim Crow, it was a leader in breaking norms of racial segregation. Each chapter of this book presents an aspect of Baha'i history that intersects with African American history in novel and socially significant ways.
The battle for equality in education during the civil rights era came at a cost to Black Americans on the frontlines. In 1964 when fourteen-year-old June Manning Thomas walked into Orangeburg High School as one of thirteen Black students selected to integrate the all-White school, her classmates mocked, shunned, and yelled racial epithets at her. The trauma she experienced made her wonder if the slow-moving progress was worth the emotional sacrifice. In Struggling to Learn, Thomas, revisits her life growing up in the midst of the civil rights movement before, during, and after desegregation and offers an intimate look at what she and other members of her community endured as they worked to achieve equality for Black students in K-12 schools and higher education. Through poignant personal narrative, supported by meticulous research, Thomas retraces the history of Black education in South Carolina from the post-Civil War era to the present. Focusing largely on events that took place in Orangeburg, South Carolina, during the 1950s and 1960s, Thomas reveals how local leaders, educators, parents, and the NAACP joined forces to improve the quality of education for Black children in the face of resistance from White South Carolinians. Thomas's experiences and the efforts of local activists offer relevant insight because Orangeburg was home to two Black colleges—South Carolina State University and Claflin University—that cultivated a community of highly educated and engaged Black citizens. With help from the NAACP, residents filed several lawsuits to push for equality. In the notable Briggs v. Elliott, Black parents in neighboring Clarendon County sued the school board to challenge segregation after the county ignored their petitions requesting a school bus for their children. That court case became one of five that led to Brown v. Board of Education and the landmark 1954 decision that declared school segregation illegal. Despite the ruling, South Carolina officials did not integrate any public schools until 1963 and the majority of them refused to admit Black students until subsequent court cases, and ultimately the intervention of the federal government, forced all schools to start desegregating in the fall of 1970. In Struggling to Learn, Thomas reflects on the educational gains made by Black South Carolinians during the Jim Crow and civil rights eras, how they were achieved, and why Black people persisted despite opposition and hostility from White citizens. In the final chapters, she explores the current state of education for Black children and young adults in South Carolina and assesses what has been improved and learned through this collective struggle.
This book examines the intersection of African American history with that of the Bahá’í Faith in the United States. Since the turn of the twentieth century, Bahá’ís in America have actively worked to establish interracial harmony within its own ranks and to contribute to social justice in the wider community, becoming in the process one of the country’s most diverse religious bodies. Spanning from the start of the twentieth century to the early twenty-first, the essays in this volume examine aspects of the phenomenon of this religion confronting America’s original sin of racism and the significant roles African Americans came to play in the development of the Bahá’í Faith’s culture, identity, administrative structures, and aspirations.
"Growing up as an African American child in the 1960s in Greenville, South Carolina, Rick Abercrombie has seen it all. He has experienced racial prejudice all his life. He goes through the motions of attending school, but his heart isn't in it. He carries a gun for protection, and he is not afraid to use it. Then he is invited to a Bahâa'âi fireside, and his life changes. After hearing the message of Bahâa'u'llâah and the Bahâa'âi teachings on racial equality, social justice, and progressive Revelation, Rick experiences a spiritual awakening and resolves to turn his life around. The path is not easy. His friends and family initially question his newfound faith and even his sanity. But Rick perseveres, and his parents and family gradually warm to the new religion and investigate the Bahâa'âi Faith for themselves. This is a true story of the steadfastness of one young man transformed his life, as well as the lives of his family, friends, and community"--
The amazing four-thousand-year-old story of Abraham from a fresh and intriguing interfaith perspective that joins together the scripture and traditions of five religions! The author combines scripture/sacred text from the five Abrahamic Faiths - Christianity, Judaism, Islam, the Babi Faith and the Bahai Faith - and combineshistorical data and archaeological evidence and identifies content that falls within the category of probably and possibly.
Written by a well-known author in the field of Baha'i studies, this is a comprehensive and accessible encyclopedia to the youngest of the world religions. Regarded as the second most widespread faith after Christianity, with adherents in almost every country around the globe, the Baha'i faith is nevertheless unfamiliar to many. here Dr Smith traces the origins and development of the religion from 19th century Iran to the modern day, introducing its central figures and major historical events. combining breadth with a readable yet concise style, he provides a balanced overview of Baha'i scriptures, doctrines and practices, social teachings and organization. This reference work presents a clear and knowledgeable view of a fascinating new religion.
An analysis that challenges the conventional Christian hierarchy of John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth While the Christian tradition has subordinated John the Baptist to Jesus of Nazareth, John himself would likely have disagreed with that ranking. In this eye-opening new book, John the Baptist in History and Theology, Joel Marcus makes a powerful case that John saw himself, not Jesus, as the proclaimer and initiator of the kingdom of God and his own ministry as the center of God's saving action in history. Although the Fourth Gospel has the Baptist saying, "He must increase, but I must decrease," Marcus contends that this and other biblical and extrabiblical evidence reveal a continuing competition between the two men that early Christians sought to muffle. Like Jesus, John was an apocalyptic prophet who looked forward to the imminent end of the world and the establishment of God's rule on earth. Originally a member of the Dead Sea Sect, an apocalyptic community within Judaism, John broke with the group over his growing conviction that he himself was Elijah, the end-time prophet who would inaugurate God's kingdom on earth. Through his ministry of baptism, he ushered all who came to him—Jews and non-Jews alike—into this dawning new age. Jesus began his career as a follower of the Baptist, but, like other successor figures in religious history, he parted ways from his predecessor as he became convinced of his own centrality in God's purposes. Meanwhile John's mass following and apocalyptic message became political threats to Herod Antipas, who had John executed to abort any revolutionary movement. Based on close critical-historical readings of early texts—including the accounts of John in the Gospels and in Josephus's Antiquities—as well as parallels from later religious movements, John the Baptist in History and Theology situates the Baptist within Second Temple Judaism and compares him to other apocalyptic thinkers from ancient and modern times. It concludes with thoughtful reflections on how its revisionist interpretations might be incorporated into the Christian faith.
"A richly detailed study of the rise of the Bahá’í Faith in South Carolina. There isn’t another study out there even remotely like this one."--Paul Harvey, coauthor of The Color of Christ: The Son of God and the Saga of Race in America "A pioneering study of how and why the Bahá’í Faith became the second largest religious community in South Carolina. Carefully researched, the story told here fills a significant gap in our knowledge of South Carolina's rich and diverse religious history."--Charles H. Lippy, coauthor of Religion in Contemporary America The emergence of a cohesive interracial fellowship in Jim Crow-era South Carolina was unlikely and dangerous. However, members of the Bahá’í Faith in the Palmetto State rejected segregation, broke away from religious orthodoxy, and defied the odds, eventually becoming the state’s largest religious minority. The religion, which emphasizes the spiritual unity of all humankind, arrived in the United States from the Middle East at the end of the nineteenth century via urban areas in the Northeast and Midwest. Expatriate South Carolinians converted and when they returned home, they brought their newfound religion with them. Despite frequently being the targets of intimidation, and even violence, by neighbors, the Ku Klux Klan, law enforcement agencies, government officials, and conservative clergymen, the Bahá’ís remained resolute in their faith and their commitment to an interracial spiritual democracy. In the latter half of the twentieth century, their numbers continued to grow, from several hundred to over twenty thousand. In No Jim Crow Church, Louis Venters traces the history of South Carolina’s Bahá’í community from its early origins through the civil rights era and presents an organizational, social, and intellectual history of the movement. He relates developments within the community to changes in society at large, with particular attention to race relations and the civil rights struggle. Venters argues that the Bahá’ís in South Carolina represented a significant, sustained, spiritually-based challenge to the ideology and structures of white male Protestant supremacy, while exploring how the emergence of the Bahá’í Faith in the Deep South played a role in the cultural and structural evolution of the religion.
The 2010 Religion Census lists the Bahai faith as the second-largest religious tradition in South Carolina. So according to the census, South Carolina has a higher percentage of Baha'is than in any other state. (Christianity remains the largest religious tradition in every state.) To many, this will come as a surprise. This true story gives a glimpse into South Carolina Bahai activities beginning in the mid-1960s. It is told by personal narratives, news stories, and archival research. This is the story of peaceful evolution toward building spiritual communities. Spiritual community building can happen in South Carolina, anywhere and everywhere in the world. The story revolves around memories of Trudy, a selfless and devoted Bahai pioneer. Bahais in South Carolina and from around the world contributed stories of traveling with Trudy and sharing the Bahai Faith. Bahais from around the world were interested in and visited South Carolina throughout the storys time frame. The authors experiences as a native of South Carolina, as well as other South Carolinians, add local flavor. What is the Bahai faith? Who are the Bahais? Who is Bahaullah? In her later years, Trudy suffered from Alzheimers. However, there were two things Trudy never forgot: her granddaughters green eyes and that Bahaullah is who he says he is.
