Elmhurst, Illinois
Elmhurst | ||
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| City in the United States | ||
 LSA of Elmhurst, 1944.
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| Location of Elmhurst
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| History: Firsts |
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| - | Local Assembly | 1944 |
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Elmhurst is a city of the U.S. State of Illinois. It is also considered a suburb of Chicago, overlapping into Cook County.
History[edit]
The Local Spiritual Assembly of Elmhurst was established in 1944,[1] and the community began holding an annual banquet the same year. In 1946 the communities third annual banquet was attended by over one hundred people and at which Horace Holley delivered a talk.[2]
As of 1947 the Elmhurst community was reported to be maintaining various Bahá’í activities and that year the community established a relationship with the local Kiwanis Club, arranging to have a Bahá’í deliver a talk at a club event.[3] In October 1948 the community hosted a meeting on the Faith which was attended by fifty and consisted of talks by Marvin Newport and Katherine True.[4] In 1949 the Student Christian Association of Elmhurst College invited a Bahá’í speaker and Carl Scheffler gave a talk to one hundred and fifty students.[5]
Despite the activity of the late 1940's the community struggled at the beginning of the 1950's with the Assembly lapsing, however it was successfully re-established in 1952.[6] By 1954 Elmhurst had just thirteen Bahá’ís and the Assembly was on the verge of lapsing again however a teaching campaign conducted with the assistance of Bahá’ís from Addison and Lombard reinvigorated the community,[7] and the Local Spiritual Assembly was incorporated.[8]
In 1963 the Local Spiritual Assembly of Elmhurst was in danger of lapsing again and Samuel C. Jackson, an African-American, was one of three Bahá’ís who pioneered to the city to preserve it. As Elmhurst was an all white neighborhood a local protested to the mayor regarding Jackson's residence and the Local Spiritual Assembly formally responded to the Mayor's office on Jackson's behalf. The Assembly's response was distributed to all homes within a two block area of Jackson and four days later the Mayor issued a letter to the community quoting the Assembly's letter in full and stating that the Mayor would act in defense of the Bahá’í community in the event of persecution.[9]
References[edit]
- ↑ Baha'i News (1944). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada. No 172, Pg(s) 17. View as PDF.
- ↑ Baha'i News (1946). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada. No 190, Pg(s) 9. View as PDF.
- ↑ Baha'i News (1947). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada. No 201, Pg(s) 9. View as PDF.
- ↑ Baha'i News (1949). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 215, Pg(s) 6. View as PDF.
- ↑ Baha'i News (1949). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 221, Pg(s) 11. View as PDF.
- ↑ Baha'i News (1952). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 260, Pg(s) 3. View as PDF.
- ↑ Baha'i News (1954). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 281, Pg(s) 14. View as PDF.
- ↑ Baha'i News (1954). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 282, Pg(s) 9. View as PDF.
- ↑ Baha'i News (1963). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 393, Pg(s) 8. View as PDF.
