Coverage of the Baha'i Faith in the Southern Courier

A newspaper covering civil rights issues in the South in the latter 1960s called The Southern Courier published a few references to the Faith mostly centered around the Montgomery Bahá'í community, however a couple editions went well beyond. According to their website "Two undergraduate journalists at Harvard College, veterans of the ‘64 Freedom Summer, decided to fill the void. They raised some money, recruited some friends, and founded The Southern Courier. It began publication in July, 1965, and every week for three years - 177 issues - it reported the stories of a movement that changed America.” The last issue was Dec 7-8, 1968. A documentary on it is at YouTube. Of those 177 issues 9 mention the Faith. Note the hi-res files are of the entire edition of the newspaper and may take a minute to load.

Firsts

Prologue

Before the Southern Courier started printing in July it should be noted Bahá'ís participated in the (probably third) March on Montgomery and arranged for telegrams according to the June issue of Baha'i News. The National Assembly telegrammed the US President and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Bahá'ís that marched include Henry Miller, Diane Schable, Daniel Connor, Charles Carter, Mary Jane Austin, Joseph Mydell, Joan Bronson (the last two from Montgomery.) Liz Coleman places Joseph Mydell in the London Borough of Hackney in 1982, serving on the Assembly there.

Historically it is known that Walter Blakely moved to Birmingham in early 1938, and Louis Gregory was in contact with a Bahá'í in Montgomery around then as well. A study group on the Faith organized in Montgomery in 1938, and books were placed in the library in 1947. John C. Inglis is mentioned living in Birmingham in 1952. However, as of 1954 there were no known Bahá'ís in Montgomery.

In the Courier

The first mention of the Faith in the Southern Courier appears alittle more than a year after the start of the newspaper. August 1966 two editions mention the Faith. First on page 5 of August 6-7, there is a notice of a Montgomery meeting at the home of Ralph and Marion Featherstone. And second there is a brief mention on page 5 of the August 13-14, 1966 edition. It also notes a meeting of Montgomery Bahá'ís at the home of Marion and Ralph Featherstone.

Ralph Featherstone was a visible presence in the community partly because he worked at the radio station which he joined in 1964 after moving down from New York. A community meeting was called a few months before the mention of the Faith in the newspaper about comments of his about ministers on the radio; it ends not stating his religious affiliation (but the question was asked.) The Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance of Montgomery sent a letter to the editor about the incident clarifying it did question Featherstone but not that he himself was part of a seeming movement to undercut black (aka religious) leadership. However another letter to the editor supported Featherstone’s criticism of Christian leadership - that "half of them were not called by God".

A brief notice on Bahá'ís then appears in October 29-30, 1966, page 2, noting a meeting with 100 guests, some wearing clothes from different countries, who listened to three speakers - Robert Edington of Guatemala, Rev. T. E. Williams, and Bahá'í Stan Bagley, at a Holiday Inn. Bagley was known from Flint, Michigan a decade previous. Unyoke Baker of Gulfport, Miss., sang for the event and Rosey E. Pool read a poem by WEB DuBois. She is profiled in Bahá'í World vol 19. She had joined the religion April, 1965. In January 1966, she was involved in Robert Hayden's award in the first World Festival of Negro Arts in Dakar, Senegal. This article in the Courier was followed by a brief notice that the Bahá'í Alabama state convention to elect a delegate to the national convention was going to be held Nov 6 in Birmingham on page 5 of the Southern Courier, November 5-6, 1966 edition.

Just six months after the first mention of the Faith there is the first article of any length on the Faith. It was in “sermon of the week” column quoting (and picturing) Rosey E. Pool, a native of Holland and then teaching in Alabama A&M College. The article quotes her about the Faith and her arrest and imprisonment in Holland in the face of Nazi influence there in 1943. This is in The Southern Courier, January 14-15, 1967, p. 2. This was also referred to in the Baha'i News.

Separately, in the same issue, a notice also has a meeting of Bahá'ís on page 5. There it notes that Mel Campbell presented at the Holiday Inn and that he was a former licensed Baptist minister before converting to the Bahá'í Faith.

Continued presence in the newspaper

A notice of meetings in Montgomery is noted on page 2 of The Southern Courier of March 25-26, 1967, just a couple months later. There was a talk by Ralph Featherstone there for Naw Ruz. This is followed the next month, April 29-30 edition, which has a mention of the Faith on page 2. It notes the first Assembly of Montgomery being elected and that it’s members included former Catholics, Baptists, Jews, Episcopalians and Presbyterians. In between Featherstone was the invited speaker to the Lowndes County Christian Movement second anniversary meeting. He supported not valuing a person just because they were black but because they were better for a job. This Ralph Featherstone (New York, 1932 - Yonkers, NY, 2003) should not be confused with Ralph 'Feather' Featherstone (1939-1970), of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

Then there is a gap until the Fall when there is a brief mention in the September 23-24, 1967 edition on page 5. It noted Tuskegee Bahá'ís meeting with Jess Chambliss of Montgomery who gave a talk at the home of Mr. and Mrs. David Gordon. David Gordon had lived in New York and was one of the first Seneca Nation Bahá'ís, in 1964, and been living in Nevada. David Gordon married Donna Lisle Brook in Montgomery in July 1967. The Chambliss couple had moved from Salem, Oregon in 1966, a few months after being elected to the Spiritual Assembly there.

Featherstone sponsored "Operation Goodwill" on the radio making Thanksgiving meals for families.

1968

The mention of the Faith greatly expanded in 1968 when several articles and pictures amounting to a whole page covered the Faith in Montgomery. Page 4 of The Southern Courier, January 13-14, 1968 edition, was all in three articles on the Faith with pictures and the coverage extended alittle across to another page. This coverage was noted in the national newspaper of the Baha'is as well.

The articles are: “You learn to love people instead of hating them” by Sarah Heggie, "The story of the Baha’is - new religion survived in spite of persecution", by Sarah Heggie, and "Teachings of Baha’u’llah stress racial equality", also by Sarah Heggie. Sarah Heggie herself remains something of a mystery. Almost nothing other than articles by her is known at the moment. Heggie only other articles for the Courier - were from September to December 1967 - her last stories were these in January, 1968. Heggie was pictured in the period. The photos included in the Courier articles are not credited but might be her own, or perhaps another photographer, though some surely sourced from Bahá'ís such as of `Abdu’l-Bahá and the Bahá'í Temple.

The first article quotes black man Willie Richardson speaking at a fireside on Bahá'í teachings both of racial unity and others like world peace and obedience to the government. Kay Chambliss is also quoted that she and her husband had gotten threatening phone calls accusing them of trying to start a religious war. White couple John and Mrs. Ray shared they had a burning cross in their driveway after holding an integrated fireside at their home. Some cases of harassment lead to Bahá'ís moving. David Gordon notes people fear change and the trouble of opening people’s minds and there is hostility among both whites and blacks towards the religion. Ralph Featherstone was noted a disk jockey for WRMA, as it was known then, and had several Christian ministers spoke against the Faith and accusing him of not having any religion. But Featherstone is noted clarifying in the article Bahá'ís accept Christ. Blacks at the meeting noted at first they were skeptical of this claim - Eddie Wallace was quoted “I’ve come to the conclusion that this religion is what I think a religion should be - no separatism or discrimination.” Nevertheless, Featherstone was fired in February, technically for comments about flipping policies of police hiring blacks. He next shows up in Terra Haute, Indiana, a few months later, giving a talk about what the Faith can do for the South. Jess Chambliss in fact died in late June after suffering a heart attack and his wife buried him back in Salem, Oregon. So by that summer several active members of the community were away from Montgomery. Gordon was noted living in South Carolina in 1974.

The second article reviews the history of the religion. It starts the story with the history of the Bab, the eventual martyrdom, and the spread of His religion and waiting for the promised one - Baha’u’llah. Then there are his banishments and announcements, and imprisonments. Then `Abdu’l-Bahá’s appointment as center of the Covenant, his travels to America and the promulgation of race relations as the Faith grew in the US and his warning of many challenges.

The third article reviews the teachings on racial equality. “Baha’i (sic) is probably the most democratic religion the world has ever known” she says. It notes of equality, the Manifestations, the idea of heaven being a condition, not a place, of the end times being a change in the world, not its destruction, that there are no priests, and forming assemblies at first locally, then nationally, and then the Universal House of Justice. It noted then black member Amos Gibson on the Universal House of Justice. The Temples in various continents as known in 1968 are listed and that they are open to all people of races and economic status. Firesides are described and how Bahá'ís live within the laws of the country and serve in the military. And it notes the calendar and gatherings for Feasts as well as Holy Days such as Ridvan.

Last mention

In the period of the closing of the newspaper in its last year, the March 2-3, 1968, page 5 Tuskegee Bahá'ís are noted gathering to hear National Assembly member Daniel Jordan speaking at a meeting and separately that other meetings.

Addendum

Though the community in Montgomery changed, at least by 1971 Michelle Binford was listed as the Assembly secretary, and in 1972 it was Lynda Keisling.

There is no more evidence yet of Featherstone's involvement or status in Bahá'í circles after 1968. Meanwhile the religion went through a major period of growth - see Bahá'í Faith in South Carolina.

See also

• Bahá'í Period of Historical mentions
• Historical mentions of the Bábí/Bahá'í Faiths
• Category:Mention of Baha'is in African-American newspapers