Reconsidering the Civil Rights Era in the Footsteps of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá

Abstract

This article reviews major principles concerning racial prejudice that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá explained during His 1912 visit to North America. Three of the principles that emerged from talks He gave during that trip were the fallacy of racial prejudice, the need to judge people by their moral character rather than their race, and the mutual responsibilities of different races toward each other. The article describes how these principles helped the author research and then write a combination history and memoir of race relations and desegregation in South Carolina during the civil rights era. The author comments on the difficult task of writing academic material that caters to a secular audience but draws on Bahá’í insights, and then explains attempts to do so in this research project.