Coverage of the Bahá’í Faith in Greensboro, NC, newspapers

This is a review of mentions of the Faith in Greensboro newspapers by primarily from Genealogybank.com. Greensboro is the longest lasting Bahá'í community of North Carolina with roots of a presence dating back to the 1930s, (see Amy Bailey,) raising the first Spiritual Assembly of the state in 1943, (see Ruth Moffett, Louise H. and Joseph J. Sawyer, John A. and Alise R. Goodwin, Naomi Simmons,) and save for 1953 itself operating continuously to the present, (and in 1953 the first visit of a Hand of the Cause came to help mind its community while several people pioneered to Raleigh and perhaps beyond.)

Up to 1949

Main article: Coverage of the Bahá’í Faith in Greensboro, NC, newspapers up to 1949

After a few mentions during the Ministry of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá beginning during his presence in America through to his commemoration after his Ascension, substantial coverage begins in the 1940s with activity established by Ruth Moffett in early 1942. This was not the first series of talks by Bahá'ís coming to the State - see North Carolina in the Baha'i News. The first visible sign of local response was when Louise and Joseph Sawyer hosted a reception for Moffett in April. After that initial success she is soon followed by others - Stanwood Cobb ('42) was invited and announced by Louise Sawyer., Virginia Camelon ('43) and Marion Little ('44).

There is no mention of the establishment of the first Spiritual Assembly perse in 1943 and it was Helen T. Inderlied who was first locally visible able to sustain a period of visible activity in the newspapers from 1943 into the beginning of 1944 when several unnamed Bahá'ís attended the first Centenary program at Wilmette at the Bahá'í Temple. Eva McAllister and Adrienne Ellis would be visible in late 1944 and early 1945. Adrienne Ellis in particular joined the staff of The Future Outlook African American Greensboro newspaper.

After a couple more talks by Bahá'ís and non-Bahá'ís a number of developments came in 1946: the community rented a Center at 235 1/2 North Green St where Margaret Ullrich gave the first known talk and sustained talks mentioned in the newspapers for several months, the Spiritual Assembly was named in the papers, and the first representative of the community to the newspapers is designated - Kay Whitmore. The next traveling speaker was Margery McCormick. From 1947 a few more talks are noted by Bahá'ís and some non-Bahá'ís - the next major speaker to come through was Harlan Ober, and then Paul Haney.

1949 was the next year of several developments. In mid-January 1949 Terah Cowart Smith gave her first known talk mentioned in the Greensboro newspapers. Terah's first presence in the state goes back to 1938 in Raleigh and as of September 2022 closes out this entire review of Bahá'í coverage in the Triad. Her life and service in the State and this region particularly covers a vast era of time for the Faith in North Carolina. She was one of the few local Bahá'ís to appear in all the newspapers including the Outlook and appeared over 30 times in print most often for Bahá'í events and then UN appreciation events and did so in a broad period from the 1950s through the early 1970s. It was also 1949 when the state-wide convention of Bahá'ís to elect a delegate to the national convention first made the newspapers - the sixth one, it was said, so leading back to the first year of the Spiritual Assembly for the state, in 1943. Mildred Danford of Chapel Hill was elected the delegate. The convention chair was Mrs. John A. Goodwin and secretary Mrs S. B. (Naomi) Simmons, both of Greensboro. And it was the first appearance of Louise Sawyer, long thought to be the first native Bahá'í of North Carolina, and certainly still recognized so of the Triad area. Ruth Moffett returned to the Greensboro area to give a series of talks. And lastly it was the first publicized mention of the community observing the Birth of Bahá’u’lláh, and a couple more traveling speakers closed out the year.

1950s and 1960s

Main article: Coverage of the Bahá’í Faith in Greensboro, NC, newspapers 1950 - 1969

From 1950 the observances of a variety of "Days" supported by the Faith became staples of published activities of the Faith in the region. It was also the first published observance of the Martyrdom of the Báb. In 1951 national travelings teacher of the religion A. K. Kalantar came through and that summer is the first mention of Bill Tucker and then a regional conference including naming Louise Sawyer, Bill Tucker, and others attending. Another regional conference took place in 1952. In 1953 Hand of the Cause Shu'á'u'lláh `Alá'í visited, the first while serving as a Hand, but the articles were colored by concerns in America over the politics in Iran. 1954 opened with news of the death of Hand of the Cause Dorothy Beecher Baker - though it hadn't made the local news, Baker had actually spoke in Greensboro the year before Moffett. A rise in activity was noted in 1955 following the first mention of the Declaration of the Báb in the newspapers with coverage of the 2nd Southeastern Bahá'í Conference at the Blue Ridge Assembly in the mountains, a prelude to the first Bahá'í seasonal schools.

Since Inderlied's early work there had not yet re-appeared weekly notices of the religion but under the convening series of Pearl Easterbrook in 1955, she herself, but primarily Kathryn Potter, and with various traveling and a few other local speakers, held approximately weekly meetings most of the year. Potter continued this service into early 1956 and then the pace of meetings slowed while the diversity of people presenting increased though John M. 'Jack' Davis Jr lead the largest part of them. 1956 also saw profiles of Ludmila Van Sombeek and Terah Cowart-Smith published. But it was her sister that was the object the first public opposition to the Faith locally published in the newspapers near and far in the state - Elah Cowart was let go (not automatically re-hired as most teachers are most years) as a 4th grade teacher from Rankin school for 1957-8 for being a Bahá'í - the complaint was lodged by Jack (John) M. Davis Jr for the local assembly. It was observed that comments had been made that the “missionary activity” of Elah distributing materials for Bahá'í meetings on school grounds on her own time, and mimeographing these invitations on school equipment, “would have been ok if it was for Methodists or Baptists…". The article covering all this also noted the community was then 16 adults. From some points of view surely a small number, but from inside surely also a mark of progress, and the first obituary mentioning the Faith was in the passing of Naomi Simmons. Davis seems to have been the first community member to go on Bahá'í pilgrimage in November, 1958, at least to make the news doing so followed by Frank Kimball Kinney and Terah Cowart-Smith in 1959. Meanwhile the Center, held since the mid1940s, was no longer mentioned in the newspapers since the latter 1950s. Instead Kathryn Potter's home at Oak Ct was the host of many activities into the early 1960s. The Local Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Greensboro incorporated in 1958 with particular mention of John M. Davis Jr, Frances Pearce and Frank Kimball Kinney, probably officers of the Assembly that year. First appearing earlier, Frank Kimball Kinney and David Jurney lead various aspects of public mention of the Faith the coming decade. In fact Jurney officiated at Kinney's wedding and Jurney's own wedding came in 1961 after his promotion to partner at an architectural firm. Indeed it was Mrs. Vedad Mansoori Jurney who was noted several times in the newspaper. Perhaps more than any other local Bahá'í, her personal life was more visibly documented than any other - her pursuit of the nursing profession, citizenship, her Persian family most notably her mother who recalled seeing Bahá'u'lláh, her life before in Iran and since in America, the Jurney pilgrimage and slide shows, and introducing the Bahá'í New Year observance to the public in 1963 as one of her several talks mentioned in the newspaper. She was last visible in the newspaper in 1980.

Weekly events begun largely by Potter carried on by Kinney into 1962 and who was also visibly having some recognition for his work on WFMY-TV. Winston Evans came in the Fall of 1962 with a major series of advertisements for a few talks. 1963 opened with Bahá'ís holding a prayer service for persecuted Moroccan Bahá'ís and soon switched to noting the Centenary of the Declaration of Bahá'u'lláh and the first Bahá'í World Congress and named a list of who was going to London - - Mrs. Joseph J. Sawyer, David and Mrs. Jurney and 17 mth old son Nabil, Vedad’s brother and sister - Abe Mansoori and Mrs. Walter Arnold, Robert and Mrs. Berryhill, Terah Cowart-Smith, and Mrs. Robert Haith. Kinney followed up by being among the self-identified white men of Greensboro calling for integration. In 1965 the Baha'i wedding ceremony was recognized through State Law, followed by the CBS show "Lamp unto my feet” called “And his name shall be one”. Events began to take shape more often on college campuses and occasional Bahá'í Clubs were noted and A&T most often and in 1967 gathering from all the local colleges most especially with second generation Bahá'ís Charmion Gordon, Joseph Sawyer, and Van Gilmer, who would go onto leading national choirs of the Faith in America.

1970s and 1980s

Main article: Coverage of the Bahá’í Faith in Greensboro, NC, newspapers 1970 - 1989

Small personals carried on a series of daily mentions of the Faith from 1967 into 1968 and mentions of college activities continued into the 1970s. The growth of the religion was called "fast but thin" but coverage began to appear a community in Rockingham and coverage of the persecution of Bahá'ís in Iran, in various talks, in repeating testimony films and in the news of further executions, settlement of refugees and memorials. A number of "Faith of the week" advertisements appeared profiling the religion and more occasional advertisements on the TV listings page, and a TV show from WPTF out of Durham channel 28 “Spiritual Revolution - Bahai(sic) Faith” and then the end of available coverage in 1989.

See also

• North Carolina in the Baha'i News
• Coverage of the Bahá'í Faith in Charlotte, North Carolina
• Bahá'í Period of Historical mentions
• Historical mentions of the Bábí/Bahá'í Faiths
• Coverage of the Baha'i Faith in the Old Gold and Black, Wake Forest University
• Category:Bahá'ís from North Carolina