June Manning Thomas

June Manning Thomas
June Manning Thomas
NSA member	United States; 2023 - Present

June Manning Thomas is an American Bahá'í currently serving on the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States. In her career she was a university professor of urban and regional planning at two Michigan universities.^[1]

Background[edit]

Born and raised in South Carolina, she earned her undergraduate degree from Michigan State University and her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan ^[2] She married Richard W. Thomas; they have two adult children^[3]^[4] In 1986 she was named as an Auxiliary Board member for Propagation; she served several states through 1995^[5]^[6] She was elected to the twelve-state Regional Baha’i Council of the Central States in 1997, the first year regional councils in the US were created;^[7] she served on that body for nine years and then later served on the Regional Baha’i Council of the Midwest States. In 2023 she was elected to the National Spiritual Assembly.

Publications[edit]

1983 - The Poor in America: A Visionary Assessment^[8]
1984 - Poverty and Wealth in America: A Bahá’í Perspective^[9]
1995 - Race Unity: Implications for the Metropolis^[10]
1996 - Educating Planners: Unified Diversity for Social Action^[11]
1997 - Shoghi Effendi’s Plans for Progress: Practical Lessons^[12]
1999 - Planning Progress: Lessons from Shoghi Effendi^[13]
2002 - Racism and the Planning of Urban Spaces^[14]
2017 - Race, Place, and Clusters: Visions and Possible Strategies^[15]
2020 - Spatial Strategies for Racial Unity^[16]
2021 - Reconsidering the Civil Rights Era in the Footsteps of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá^[17]
2022 - Struggling to Learn: An Intimate History of School Desegregation in South Carolina^[18]
2023 - Reconsidering the Civil Rights Era^[19]

Talks (recent)[edit]

2022 - A Baha’i Perspective
2022 - Struggling to Learn: Legacy of an Incomplete Civil Rights Movement

References[edit]

[1] ttps://taubmancollege.umich.edu/faculty/directory/june-manning-thomas/

[2] ttps://bentley.umich.edu/new-collection/june-manning-thomas-papers-1951-2021-majority-of-material-found-within-1990-2010/

[3] ttps://uscpress.com/Struggling-to-Learn/

[4] ttps://brilliantstarmagazine.org/articles/stargazer-dr.-june-manning-thomas

[5] ttps://bahai.works/File:The_American_Bah%C3%A1%E2%80%99%C3%AD_Vol17_No12.pdf

[6] ttps://bahai.works/index.php?title=File:The_American_Bah%C3%A1%E2%80%99%C3%AD_Vol26_No3.pdf&page=27

[7] ttps://bahai.works/index.php?title=File:The_American_Bah%C3%A1%E2%80%99%C3%AD_Vol28_No10.pdf&page=25

[8] ttps://bahai.works/index.php?title=File:World_Order2_Vol18_Issue1.pdf&page=41

[9] ttps://www.kalimatpress.com/product/circle-of-unity-bahai-approaches-to-current-social-issues/

[10] ttps://journal.bahaistudies.ca/online/article/view/440

[11] ttps://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0739456X9601500302

[12] ttps://journal.bahaistudies.ca/online/article/view/272

[13] ttps://www.bahaistudies.ca/books/planning-progress

[14] ttps://bahai.works/index.php?title=File:World_Order2_Vol34_Issue1.pdf&page=19

[15] ttps://journal.bahaistudies.ca/online/issue/view/8 [NOTE: This was later reprinted as a chapter in a 2021 book The Baha’i Faith and African American History, not to be confused with the 2023 book listed below.]

[16] ttps://bahaiworld.bahai.org/library/spatial-strategies-for-racial-unity/

[17] ttps://journal.bahaistudies.ca/online/article/view/341

[18] ttps://www.bahaibookstore.com/Struggling-to-Learn-P10444.aspx

[19] ttps://www.amazon.com/Bah%C3%A1%C3%AD-Faith-African-American-Studies/dp/1666900168

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