Anchor of Faith

Written and compiled by Frederick Landry and Richard Thomas

Bahá’í Publishing, Wilmette, Illinois 401 Greenleaf Ave, Wilmette, Illinois 60091 Copyright © 2022 by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States All rights reserved. Published 2022 Printed in the United States of America 25 24 23 22 1 2 3 4

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Landry, Frederick, author. | Thomas, Richard, 1939–author.

Title: Anchor of faith : the enduring spirit of the Black Men’s Gathering / written and compiled by Frederick Landry and Richard Thomas.

Description: Wilmette, IL : Bahá’í Publishing, [2022] | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021051754 (print) | LCCN 2021051755 (ebook) | ISBN 9781618512093 (paperback) | ISBN 9781618512109 (epub) Subjects: LCSH: African American Bahais. | African American men—Religion. | Bahai Black Men’s Gathering. | Bahai Faith— United States—History—20th century.

Classification: LCC BP388.A35 L36 2022 (print) | LCC BP388.

A35 (ebook) | DDC 297.9/30811—dc23/eng/20211213 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021051754 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021051755

Cover design by Carlos Esparza Book design by Patrick Falso

CONTENTS Acknowledgments.........................................................................ix About the Cover............................................................................xi Note on Sources..........................................................................xiii Preface......................................................................................... xv Foreword.................................................................................... xvii Introduction...................................................................................1 1987..............................................................................................7 1988............................................................................................21 1989............................................................................................25 1990............................................................................................27 1991............................................................................................31 1992............................................................................................39 1993............................................................................................45 1994............................................................................................49 1995............................................................................................55 1996............................................................................................67 1997............................................................................................77 1998............................................................................................85 1999............................................................................................97 2000..........................................................................................111 2001..........................................................................................123 vii

CONTENTS

2002..........................................................................................149 2003..........................................................................................177 2004..........................................................................................215 2005..........................................................................................225 2006..........................................................................................257 2007..........................................................................................273 2008..........................................................................................295 2009..........................................................................................315 2010..........................................................................................325 2011..........................................................................................329 2012..........................................................................................355 Reflections on a Journey of Spiritual Transformation.................375 Notes.........................................................................................427 Selected Letters..........................................................................431 Bibliography...............................................................................437

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FOREWORD You got a right, I got a right, We all got a right to the tree of life; Yes, you got a right, I got a right, We all got a right to the tree of life.

The very time I thought I was los’ The dungeon shook an’ the chain fell off.

You may hinder me here But you cannot there ‘Cause God in his heaven Goin’ to answer prayer.

O Brethren, You got a right, I got a right We all got a right to the tree of life.

This was one of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of hymns created and sung by people held in bondage in the United States before the Civil War. These “spirituals” gave voice to the feelings of women and men who endured inconceivable humiliation, oppression, and abasement, who had no control over their lives or even their own bodies—yet whose faith sustained them and gave them the courage to endure. In spite of the attempts by their enslavers to rob them of their humanity, these people still knew in their hearts that there was xvii

FOREWORD

a God who saw them, who loved them, who knew their true value, who understood their trials, and who would in time redeem their sufferings. Many of these songs affirmed the hope of a time to come when all of God’s children would live in freedom.

As countless children of Africa intoned these verses amidst their unrelenting, unrewarded toil, the Tree of Life sprang up anew upon the soil of a faraway land, in the Person of Bahá’u’lláh, the Glory of God. Bahá’u’lláh, and the Cause He founded, were the fulfillment of the prophecies in ancient scripture that God’s Kingdom would be made manifest on earth. At long last, humanity had now entered an era that would witness the establishment of universal peace and the advent of divine justice.

This book is the story of a small group of African American men, descendants of those slaves and our own contemporaries, whose hearts were enkindled by the vision proclaimed by Bahá’u’lláh of a world free from prejudice in all its forms and suffused with the spirit of divine love—a world in which all would be able to realize their full potential and make their contribution to “an ever-advancing civilization.”

Together, they gathered every year over the course of a quarter century to understand, and then to realize through active service, the part they were called upon by Bahá’u’lláh to play in what they understood to be the greatest spiritual enterprise in human history.

The first Black Men’s Gathering (BMG) was convened in 1987 with twelve participants. Over the course of time, the numbers of participants at national, and later regional and local gatherings, grew into the hundreds. Using artistic forms that drew upon the traditions of their forebears, the gatherings were characterized first and foremost by intense prayer and devotion. In these settings, an atmosphere of loving intimacy, trust, and openness was created in which the participants studied the Bahá’í sacred texts and other guidance with the aim of charting the course of their services to the Cause of God. xviii

FOREWORD

The intent of the Black Men’s Gatherings was not to create a segregated cadre of Bahá’ís pursuing their own lives in isolation from the rest of the believers. Rather, it arose out of recognition of the need for a space where people could come together who had borne, and continued to bear, the heaviest effects of America’s omnipresent racial prejudice—an insidious and pervasive national derangement that even the Bahá’í community itself was struggling to come to grips with.

In these gatherings, the participants could speak frankly of their personal struggles against incessant indignities, find solace in each other’s loving sympathy, and together reconnect with their inner nobility and the purpose for which God had created them. Upon remembering who they truly were in God’s sight, they could, with renewed determination, enter into the arena of service alongside their follow Bahá’ís.

Perhaps no other statement from the Bahá’í writings was a greater source of strength and inspiration than these words of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá: “Bahá’u’lláh once compared the colored people to the black pupil of the eye surrounded by the white. In this black pupil is seen the reflection of that which is before it, and through it the light of the spirit shineth forth.”

In these words. an entirely new vision was revealed, at complete odds with the dismissive notions of Black people promoted and enforced in countless ways by the dominant culture in the United States. Bahá’u’lláh Himself had indicated that people of African descent had an essential contribution to make to the spiritual transformation of society. His statement implied that their sufferings had in some way prepared them for a noble and outstanding destiny.

It meant that their trials had made them keenly aware of the need for justice, deeply appreciative of the nature of true freedom, and attuned to the special joy that comes from service to One Who also had trodden the path of sacrifice for the betterment of the world: xix

INTRODUCTION What was it like for Black men, who were accustomed to being part of a multiracial and multicultural religious community, to suddenly be exposed to and encouraged to participate in the Black Men’s Gathering? It should be noted that some saw the Gathering as contradictory to the basic Bahá’í teachings of the oneness of humanity and the watchword of the Bahá’í Faith—unity in diversity.* Many participants, however, realized that the Gathering presented an opportunity to heal deep, emotional wounds—inflicted on them by the greater society—that perhaps their local Bahá’í communities and close friends and family either did not understand or know how best to address.

Of course, not all African American Bahá’í men experienced the same degree of emotional and spiritual despair from their experiences in wider society. Many had learned how to adapt and adjust to the racial hardships, slights, and insults that became part and parcel of their daily lives. In the midst of this toxic racial environment, they had raised families, had taught and served the Faith in a variety of ways, had pioneered to faraway places, had been called upon to serve in various appointed and elected roles within * Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 42.

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INTRODUCTION

the Faith, and had succeeded in building a range of fulfilling and notable careers.

Yet despite their ability to adapt, adjust, and prevail, even these hardy souls still bore the wounds of living in a society often bent on breaking the spirits of Black males. Notwithstanding the great love and affection they no doubt received from their families and communities, they needed—often unbeknownst to even themselves—something more. Like many minority groups within any society, these Black men craved a genuine validation of their racial self-worth that could only be given to them in an environment of caring and loving Black men who shared relatable and quite often similar histories and journeys.

How did it feel to be in the company of these supportive men, who were working together to heal wounds and uplift spirits? The first section of this book attempts to convey this unique experience, and the comments that follow explore some of the participants’ first impressions of the Black Men’s Gathering. These impressions from participants’ experiences ranged from the time of the 1987 meeting to the time of the last Gathering in 2012. These recollections also include the reflections and comments of relatives and friends of BMG participants.

As previously mentioned, some individuals approached the Gathering with a certain degree of skepticism. However, once these individuals found themselves either at the Gathering or in the presence of a participant of the Gathering, they were able to witness its power and significance. They were also able to grasp the value and importance of the Gathering through the guidance of local, national, and international Bahá’í institutions, and they were able to see the unity present in the BMG. Armed with this understanding, their concerns regarding the BMG quickly vanished.

From the comments below, one can see the differences in the various experiences of those who had the bounty of being 2

INTRODUCTION

connected in some way to the Gathering. However different their experiences, the love, joy, and commitment to being a better Bahá’í and serving mankind is embedded in each of these reflections. This first comment speaks volumes to what could be described as an unfortunate sense of racial alienation that existed among some Black men who did not feel spiritually or emotionally connected to their Bahá’í community and who had resigned themselves to the status quo: “My first impression was that I had never thought [I would witness] something like this in the Bahá’í Faith, and I was delighted.”

A non-participant but supporter of the BMG shared this impression: “Wow, this is amazing, what a blessing for those long-suffering brothers, how dear they must be to the heart of the Blessed Beauty.”

The first impressions of most of the participants in the BMG were often deeply influenced by the powerful spiritual and emotional energy that pervaded the Gathering. Even longtime Bahá’ís expressed wonder and awe at how the Gathering, with its intensive prayer sessions, singing, hugging, drumming, fellowship, and study of the guidance, had affected their spirits in ways that they could never have imagined. One of the original twelve BMG members who met in 1987 wrote, “though I had been a Bahá’í for quite a while, my first BMG experience can be summarized as an unprecedented conversion experience.”

One must ask why the BMG made such an impression on a longtime Black Bahá’í that he would consider it an “unprecedented conversion experience.” What was it about a gathering of Black men that would create such a transformative experience, amounting to a feeling of conversion? Other BMG participants shared similar comments: “It was a very spiritually moving experience. The camaraderie among the Black men is a feeling that I’ve never had 3

INTRODUCTION

before. Genuine love and fellowship. I totally miss the BMG experience.”

“Earth shattering, transformative, personal recreation.”

“I was enthralled.”

“Excellent and very uplifting experience.”

“Complex and eye- and heart-opening experiences.”

“Fantastic. It has been my anchor with the Faith.”

There was an urgent need for a spiritually and emotionally secure space to heal wounded souls. The Black Men’s Gathering provided that space for participants to address concerns unique to the experiences of Black males in a society that marginalizes them. As the following reflections suggest, some BMG participants also sought spaces within the Gathering to understand and contextualize their racial and cultural identities: “I found the freedom to worship in an African American male setting, and I realized that I could give unrestricted testimony about my feeling for race within our faith.”

“A welcoming and familiar atmosphere in the presence of a diverse group of African American men.”

While there was obvious joy among BMG participants for the unprecedented opportunity to gather and bond in fellowship, the first impressions of their wives, daughters, and female friends offer additional and valuable insight into how they perceived the BMG. 4

1987 In 1982, Dr. William (Billy) Roberts was appointed to serve as Auxiliary Board member* for Propagation serving Mississippi, Georgia, North Carolina, and Bermuda. Later, as a member of the Board for Protection, he served the states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C., Virginia, West Virginia, and Bermuda. He observed that in the early to mid-1980s, many news media outlets featured headlines referring to Black men as “an endangered species.” In newspapers, magazines, and television, there were growing conversations throughout the world about the challenge of being Black and male in the United States. In fact, in Harlem, a Black person was very likely to die before the age of fifteen. In Harlem, which was 96% Black, only 40% of men would live to sixty-five years of age due to cirrhosis, homicide, heart disease, drug dependency, and alcohol.1 In the entire United States, a Black male was nearly seven times more likely to die of homicide than a white person.2 In 1987, the chance of being a homicide victim for a

* A Bahá’í who is appointed to serve under the direction of the Continental Boards of Counselors to promote and protect the Bahá’í Faith. An Auxiliary Board member is sometimes abbreviated as ABM. 7

ANCHOR OF FAITH

Black young adult male age 18–24 was 96.4 per 100,000, whereas for a white male it was 12.3—indicating that a Black young adult male was eight times more likely to be a victim of a homicide than his white counterpart. In addition, Black females had a 19.6 per 100,000 chance of being such a victim, while white females had a 4.6 per 100,000 chance—indicating that a Black woman was approximately 4 times more likely to be a victim of a homicide than a white woman. A Black male was most likely to be the victim of a homicide committed by another Black man,3 and there were statistics showing that the percentage of Black men incarcerated in jail or prison was virtually the same4 as the percentage of Black men to complete a college degree or higher.5 While these tragic figures from the wider community were troubling, they reflected the reality that many men of African descent faced in the United States. The Bahá’í community, too, had its own challenges that required the transformative power that the Gathering would provide in years to come. In the 1960s and 70s, thousands of people of African descent—both men and women—had entered the Cause in the United States.6 However, by the mid-80s, many of these individuals were not active participants in Bahá’í community life. Moreover, attendance at many regional and national Bahá’í events included fewer and fewer men of African descent. When they were present, they gave only passing acknowledgment to each other—as if it were taboo for them to be seen with one another for too long. An internal conflict appeared to exist for these Black men. On the one hand, they had accepted Bahá’u’lláh and believed in the oneness of mankind.

On the other hand, they felt pressured to not associate with others who were of African descent. Instead, many felt obligated to be the “integrators” of the Bahá’í community and to associate with other races. They felt that if they were seen together with other African American men, others would see them as not being “true believers.”

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1987

An unspoken rule seemed to exist where no more than one of each of them had to be in a group, and with so few of them, they had to spread themselves around.

Another phenomenon Billy Roberts considered was the societal conditions with which men of African descent had to contend. He saw that regardless of the goodness of their hearts, Black men were constantly being forced to grapple with the image that the media and a historically racist society imposed on them. According to this image, Black men were to be feared, were lawless, unpredictable in their behavior, and most likely to be criminals of some sort. In other words, being a Black male meant always being dehumanized as being the potential suspect of a crime. Additionally, Billy observed that while a number of women of African descent were serving as role models in the Bahá’í community, very few Black men were visibly serving the Faith, either regionally or nationally.

With that, Billy asked himself, what can I do about this situation?

How can I help change the lack of and the waning presence of Black men in the Bahá’í community? What does Bahá’u’lláh have in mind for us, and what does Bahá’u’lláh expect from Black men in this community? Essentially, who are we in the eyes of God, and what part are we to play in the development of a new world civilization?

As an Auxiliary Board member, Billy thought that perhaps he had the type of regional recognition and responsibility to assist Black men in the Bahá’í community to discover the role Bahá’u’lláh had given them. As he reflected on these questions, Billy realized that the answer surely was not to continue in the same vein and face the same challenges without doing anything.

What Billy did next may have seemed sensible in hindsight, but at the time, it was audacious and courageous, and it was precisely what was needed. He decided that he would call together various men of African descent whom he knew, and he did so completely

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End of this sample.

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