Press coverage during the Ministry of Shoghi Effendi

Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá (1922)

The Jamaican Kingston Gleaner reported on the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá following its public reading on January 7, 1922, mentioning the appointment of "Shawgi Effendi" as His successor. The news appeared in its February 10, 1922 edition.

1920s in the US

As early as 1925 Bahá'í News reported gathering newspaper clippings reporting the coverage of a Persian Bahá'í's lectures in the Denver area. A broader gathering of newspaper articles was done by a yearbook committee in the US in June 1925 and a compilation on newspaper coverage of the persecutions in Persia was assembled by Horace Holley as acknowledge by the Guardian in October, 1925. A newspaper account from the National Assembly was published in many newspapers. A partial list was recovered.

Baha'i News

The beginning of the publishing the Baha'i News from December 1924 and carried on through October, 1990. Similar to other synapses of coverage in this list, there will be summaries of US States presented.

North Carolina

See North Carolina in the Baha'i News.

letter to the John O'Croat Journal

In 1928 Mr. E T Hall, member of the Assembly of Manchester England submitted a story to the John O'Croat Journal which was accompanied by an appreciative editorial.

Responding to a "A Confusion of Tongues"

In 1929 Bertha Hyde Kirkpatrick reviewed/responded to [Charles W. Ferguson] who wrote "A Confusion of Tongues" about cults and a chapter on "Baha'ism". She compares the work with other writers including Upton Sinclair, who wrote "Profits of Religion" who also mentioned the Baha'is as well as Earl Curzon and notes Henry Jessup's comments at the Congress of Religions in Chicago as the first mention of the Baha'is, as well as those of other Baha'is.

Baha'i panel

March 28, 1924, The Sun, p. 31, reports on upcoming talk by a panel of Baha'is and non-Baha'is at "Community Church".

Christian Union Quarterly

The October 1932 Christian Union Quarterly, a periodical devoted to "… those, growing up in all parties, who are interested in the Unity of the Church of Christ", had a short review of the Dawn-Breakers highlighting the religion of the Báb as "an approach to Christianity" though noting the parallel of John the Baptist to Jesus in the Báb's pointing to Bahá'u'lláh. The summary reviews through Abdu'l-Baha's leadership and his death but does not mention Shoghi Effendi. In April the Quarterly published an paper by George P. Hedley of the Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, California presented at the San Francisco Bay Conference of the Christian Unity League held Feb 24-26, 1933 that included a prayer by Baha'u'llah - "Glory be unto thee, O God, for the manifestation of thy love to mankind…" which appears to be a permutation, perhaps an early translations, of a similar prayer available online originally published 1923.

encounters in Iran

1933-6 in Iran encounters with a missionary....

Slain Bahá'í

The Evening News-Dispatch covered the funeral of a murdered young lady, Helen Clevenger, in Asheville NC.

New Yorker

The New Yorker began publication in 1925. It has referred to or mentioned the Baha'is usually in passing in a story or social anecdote as early as 1933. However it has occasionally gone to some some length in the mention of the Faith. See The Baha'i Faith in the New Yorker.

University of North Carolina

First mention in 1934, then meetings in 1949 and 1954, then from the 1970s on. See The Bahá'í Faith at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. ("UNC")

West Chester University

A paper speaks to the 1941 founding of the Baha'is in the area thanks to a visit from Mrs. Ali Kuli Khan in 1941.

The Carolina Times

The Carolina Times begins to mention the Baha'i Faith in 1942 and does so over the years to come. An online archive covers most of 1937 through 1982 and there are nearly 400 mentions of the Faith directly. See Coverage of the Bahá'í Faith in the Carolina Times.

Greensboro, NC

The Greensboro Newspapers - three of them - are partially available behind one or another paywall though one is currently free too. An annotated bibliography is at Coverage of the Bahá'í Faith in Greensboro, NC, newspapers at this point covering mostly 1942-1989 (though a few mentions stretch back to 1912.)

The Carolinian

The Raleigh North Carolina African American newspaper The Carolinian began to sparsely cover the Bahá'ís in 1945 but coverage grew in the 1950s.

Fresno State

Starting perhaps in 1959 the student newspaper [ The Collegian] had many articles on the Baha'i Faith. See Coverage of the Bahá'í Faith in the Daily Collegian.

The Manitoban

The Manitoban is the student newspaper of the University of Manitoba, Canada. Starting in 1943 it had several stories on the religion.

The first known story in the paper mentioning the Bahá'ís comes with "Religion in the Modern world" by Ross Woodman, Oct 8, 1943, p. 2. It is a broad review of the religion including twelve principles and various fundamentals. Woodman's article and world view were challenged Oct 13th. Woodman would continue to be active in the summer in Baha'i circles and chaired a committee on promulgating the religion on university campuses in 1947.

Part I of articles of a Baha'i column began Nov 15, 1946 with "Looks at History" by "R.W" (quite possibly Ross Woodman still.) Part II was published Nov 19.

Following up was an article about the coming up appearance of two presenters for the religion on Nov 25th - Emeric Sala and E. Rice-Wray. The next edition has a reaction and a brief reaction to the reaction. First (probably) "Mr. Jaenen" (but clearly "C. J. J.") responds with Christian criticisms, to which someone replies in the top left of the page briefly.

Archives of the newspaper are limited. Modern comments on the religion in the newspaper are found in it's current web presence:

• Feb 2010 "Why our generation must support Israel" about supporting Israel in a conflict ultimately with Iran and mentions the Bahá'ís suffering in Iran.

• Sept. 2010 a "Letter to the Editor" responds to another article that didn't actually mention the religion but the theme followed supporting Israel.

• Aug, 2011 follows a conciliatory approach to both "sides" mentioning the Iranians should be at peace with Bahá'ís.

• Oct 2011 the same author underscores the failures to approach peace and the severe suffering of people.

• Feb 2013 the writer summarizes a list of religion-on-religion violence and the Bahá'ís in iran.

Woodman would eventually serve on the Canadian National Spiritual Assembly, and after many years of service and publishing, died in March 2014.

Ebony Magazine

Ebony magazine began publication in 1945. The first issue it mentioned the Baha'i Faith was in 1965. It ran a few stories through 2001 on the Faith. See The Baha'i Faith in Ebony and Jet Magazines

University of South Carolina at Columbia

The student newspaper of the University of South Carolina at Columbia, The Gamecock, has mentions of the religion from 1947 but most of the coverage is in the 1970s onward. See The Bahá'í Faith at the University of South Carolina at Columbia. Forence's "Francis Marion College" is also noted but only recent mentions can be found.

Jet Magazine

Jet magazine began publication in 1951, only mentioned the Baha'i Faith once in 1990. See Jet magazine

Further reading

"European Language Bibliography: Babi Religion, Chronological, 1844 - current". Babi-Baha'i Bibliographies. Association of Baha'i Studies, New Zealand chapter. May 2011. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

Ghadimi, Riaz (2009) [1984]. The Báb - The King of Messengers (PDF) (3rd ed.). www.juxta.com. ISBN 978­0­9698024­0­2. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); soft hyphen character in |isbn= at position 4 (help)

MacEoin, Denis (2009). The Messiah of Shiraz: Studies in Early and Middle Babism. Iran Studies. Vol. 3 (illustrated ed.). BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-17035-3. - note "In order to distance this work from the thought processes of true believers, I have deliberately written in a style designed to force a dislocation from the sort of pious veneration that closes the mind and leads to knee-jerk responses… the Bab was just a human being…" (from page xx)

Warrick, David (2019-09-08). "Declaration of the Báb" (pdf). Research. self. Retrieved 11-17-2023. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)

"Mirza Malkam : L'inspirateur de la République Islamo-Maçonnique en Iran" (in French). iran-resist.org. 3-20-2007. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)(has several citations of works in 1850s.)

Momen, Moojan (9-8-2000). "Premiers récits occidentaux sur les religions Babies et Baha'ies de 1844 à 1944" (in French). Médiathèque - Centre de Resources Baha'ies Francophones. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)

Momen, Moojan (1999). "Early Western Accounts of the Babi and Baha'i Faiths". Draft for The Baha'i Encyclopedia. bahai-library.com.

MacEoin, Denis. "Babi history". The Babi and Baha'i Religions: An Annotated Bibliography. Greenwood Press's ongoing series of Bibliographies and Indexes in Religious Studies. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help) It noted several early newspaper accounts and other publications to a total of 231 entries to 1995 just on the Babi period. However of the 19th century it noted 9 stories repeated a total of 16 times. As of Feb 2013 new finds documented here raise this total considerably. Just the first story and its echoes now count at least 12 instances. And by March it had perhaps doubled from that.

Amanat, Abbas (1989). Resurrection and renewal: the making of the Babi movement in Iran, 1844-1850. G - Reference, Information and Interdisciplinary Subjects Series. Cornell University Press.

Moojan Momen (1981) [1977]. The Bábí and Bahá'í religions 1844-1944: some contemporary western accounts. G. Ronald. ISBN 978-0-85398-102-2. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)

Smith, Peter (1987). The Babi and Bahaʼi Religions: From Messianic Shiʻism to a World Religion (illustrated ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521301282.