NO subject of general advancement and progress more vitally concerns the Bahá’í Cause than that of race relations. In America the problem of races has been the outstanding one for centuries and has been full of such perils as to affect the very life of the nation. It is significant that although from the Supreme Pen of His Holiness, Bahá’u’lláh, but one brief utterance concerning this nation is known to us, it contained what appears to be an obvious reference to our greatest difficulty.
The Manifestation, Bahá’u’lláh, in His Tablet* addressed to the Presidents of the United States and the Governors of the states therein, following His wonderful declaration of the appearance of the Divine Cause, commands: “Assist with the hands of justice the broken-hearted and crush the oppressors with the scourges of the Commands of your Lord.”
All activities and gatherings of the followers of Bahá’u’lláh have as their purpose the unity of mankind. The friends throughout the world, under the guidance of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, extending over many years, and more recently that of Shoghi Effendi, have had revealed to them ideals, principles and methods that are unique in their exaltation, universality and adaptation to human needs. The evolution of inter-racial amity has a subtle fascination and abiding interest. It has taken the form of a succession of conventions held in various cities and calling into active association and spiritual fellowship some of the gentlest and finest spirits found in the realm of humanity.
During the period immediately following the great war when communications were reopened with the Orient, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said to an American pilgrim at Haifa in 1920, Mrs. Agnes S. Parsons of Washington, D. C., “I want you to arrange in Washington a convention for unity between the white and colored people.” A detail which He added to this laconic instruction was, “Of course you must have people to help you.”
Thus came about the first convention for amity between the white and colored races in America and so far as we know, the world. It gathered at Washington, D. C., May 19 to 21, 1921. It received a great spiritual confirmation and was very successful. Various units co-operated in this fine service; foremost among whom were Mrs. Parsons and her associates. Great was her responsibility. Nineteen ladies from the social life of the city gave the prestige of their names as patrons. The Congress of the nation was represented in Senator Samuel Shortridge of California, Hon. Martin B. Madden and Hon. Theodore Burton as speakers, while the venerable ex-Senator Moses E. Clapp, was a valuable counselor and friend. Other speakers were Mr. C. Lee Cook, a white business man of the South, Dr. Alain Locke of Howard University, Mr. Alfred W. Martin of New York's Ethical Culture Society, Mr. William H. Randall of Boston, Messrs. Mountfort Mills and Howard MacNutt, Mírzá Aḥmad Sohrab and Jinib-i-Fadil-i-Mázindarání of Persia. Mrs. Coralie F. Cook made a beautiful presentation of the poems of Negro poets at one of the sessions. Thus colored and white, East and West, Orient and Occident were represented among