Atlanta, Georgia

Atlanta
City in the United States
Local Spiritual Assembly of Atlanta, 1942
Location of Atlanta
History: Firsts
-	Local Assembly	1940
How to contact:
-	Phone	(404) 688-0208
-	Email	weare1@atlantabahai.org
-	Address	379 Edgewood Avenue Atlanta, Georgia 30312-1839
-	State	Georgia
-	Country	United States
Official Website		http://www.atlantabahai.org/
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Atlanta is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Georgia. In December 2008, Atlanta was the site of one of the 41 regional conferences of the Five Year Plan. Later, in August 2013, the city hosted one of the 114 youth conferences held during the following Five Year Plan.

History

Dr. James Charles Oakshette, who became a Bahá’í in Chicago, moved to Atlanta in 1909, and he began holding a weekly study class on Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era which led to some locals becoming Bahá’ís. He also successfully petitioned the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce to invite ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to visit the city during His 1912 tour of North America although ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was unable to make the trip. Fred Mortensen pioneered to Atlanta and lived in the city from autumn 1914 to spring 1916 working in the mailing department of the Atlanta Constitution and teaching the Faith during his time there. There was a Bahá'í community in the city as of 1919 which applied for and was granted membership in the Bahá'í Temple Unity that year.

Among the earliest Atlanta residents to accept the Faith was J. Elmore Hays who assisted in establishing the Faith in the city and represented it as a delegate to the 1919 Convention for the United States and Canada community. Another early Atlanta Bahá'í was Rev. Dr. Pontor, who accepted the Faith but did not actively teach due to his church connections. Dr. Oakshette and Fred Mortensen were involved in teaching activities in Atlanta in 1920.

In 1927 Oakshette established the Liberal Catholic Church of St. Michael the Archangel, as Bahá’í membership did not yet require withdrawal from other religious organizations, and he used his sermons at the Church to promote the Bahá’í Faith quoting from Bahá’í prayers and utilizing the Bahá’í principles. Some of the congregation became Bahá’ís and in the late 1930's when Shoghi Effendi formalized the requirement for Bahá’í to resign from other groups Oakshette requested permission from the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States and Canada to continue to speak at the church to teach the Faith which was granted.

Olga Finke and Doris Ebbert moved to the city to teach the Faith and open a nursery in 1938 and Terah Cowart Smith and Louis Gregory also assisted with teaching work the same year with Terah moving to the city and holding public meetings and Louis giving talks at schools and churches. In 1939 Orcella Rexford gave a Bahá'í Talk in Atlanta which was attended by over fifty people. A travelling Bahá'í Institute intended to fulfill the role of a Summer School visited Atlanta in June 1939 with Terah Smith, Georgia Wiles, Nellie Roche and Louise Caswell giving talks to twenty-one attendees, only eight of whom were Bahá'ís.

There were eleven Bahá'í's in Atlanta by October 1939, and a Local Spiritual Assembly of Atlanta was established in 1940. The National Spiritual Assembly of the United States and Canada held a public meeting in Atlanta in November 1940 at the Biltmore Hotel which agreed not to impose race restrictions on attendence. Harlan Ober and Dorothy Baker gave talks at the meeting.