Terah Cowart Smith

Terah Cowart Smith
Born	August 23, 1897 Emanuel County, Georgia Emanuel County, Georgia
Died	October 30, 1989 Greensboro, North Carolina
Media

Terah Cowart Smith (Aug 23, 1897 - Oct 30, 1989) was born into a large higher-society family in the rural countryside of Georgia around the turn to the 20th century and she others of the family would go to college in Georgia. Raised in the environment, she had both distinguishing beliefs and beliefs in common with the majority of her social circles.

She believed in America making the world safe for democracy, she spoke of the equality, even the priority, of women, yet she also held people of African descent innately incapable of civilization - while being the editor-in-chief of a college journal and publishing the lead editorial stating the issue plainly. Yet after her marriage to a New Englander businessman who she recalled pursuing her more than she was initially interested, and the birth of two children and the loss of another, she encountered the Bahá'í Faith as her marriage was dissolving affected by the spiritual tests of the material losses of the Great Depression in the United States.

She took trips to the West and South as an early believer. In encountering the religion she resonated with the sense of the mission of America in the world though it had to be modified to be in a non-colonial sense, in the equality of women and men, but was of some challenge with the issue of racism. She believed but had a lifetime in the other world and southern pride, Shakespeare and the social circle of playing Bridge. Perhaps her first serious challenge was as a table mate to an African American at Green Acre Bahá'í School who didn't believe there was a Southern white woman who could actually behave according to the teaching of the oneness of humanity. She felt her own honesty but on a car ride in the countryside near Green Acre they were refused service at a diner so she began to see the contrast of private belief and social reality. She also encountered and became friends with Jews at Green Acre. One of her first trips after that was to Raleigh NC where she assisted granddaughter of slaves Sarah Martin Pereira living and working at African-American Shaw University. From living and serving the religion in the North especially around New York State she decided to move to Atlanta to participate in the goal of raising a community in every state of the country and wanted to add Georgia to the list.

In Atlanta she went through perhaps her hardest time as a Bahá'í dealing with raising the standard of integrated meetings of the religion in 1940, yet with the friendship of Dorothy Beecher Baker out of it came a firm sense of identity. On the one hand she had faced the southern antagonism to yankees having just moved from New York, while on the other side the burgeoning community had to be led to having those integrated meetings by the personal corrective attention of the National Assembly. From there she undertook more travels and soon participated in a UN speakers initiative, serving in various League of Women Voters groups, while also living a few months at a time in various places as well as short term visits to many communities for a few years while her children went to college or had lives of their own in new marriages and then moving her last time to Greensboro NC. There she would assist the visible presence and action of the religion as she had in many other places and just here be visible another 25 years in activities as the burgeoning community established itself in addition to giving a keynote talk at a National Organization for Women meeting.

Her approach to faith was marked by experiences she termed paranormal including seeing her father after his death which left her with the conviction of life after death, and others leading her to study psychology and orienting to investigating the Bahá'í Faith and joining it in January 1936. Regardless, she devoted her life to many conventional and extraordinary services appearing in newspapers for opportunities to talk about the religion several hundred times while also serving in a number of regional teaching committees that coordinated and encouraged the work of establishing the religion in both the Georgia-South Carolina-North Carolina region and New York, while also appearing and being "drafted" several times to assist at one or another of the main Bahá'í Schools. She undertook specific training in meditation and journaling in her later years while continuing to recite Bahá'í prayers as she looked forward to entering, as she called it, the Open Door.

Early

Family of origin

Terah Cowart was born the newly formed Emanuel County, GA. She was one of 14^p.vii or 15 siblings of the second wife, Dora Virginia Roundtree(1863–1953), of James Emmitt Cowart(1855-1915). The Cowarts go back at least to 1842 in the area and perhaps back to the 1830s. In her self-published autobiography she says there was a period in her childhood her favorite book was a dictionary.^p.xii She also refers to the family land and region being in the path of Sherman's March to the Sea.^p.1 Cowart remarks that her father helped establish one of the primary schools in her area but doesn't name which one.^p.2 Cowart often refers to an event (or it could have been a few related events) from when she was about 7 years old:

• "Ere a dozen years (she is counting from the Parliament of the World's Religions, placing this in 1905-6, about 7-8 yrs old) had passed my child consciousness was quickened by Its power through a bit of verse."^p.iii
• "When I consider that at the tender age of seven I was given the awareness of what my life's work was to be and I ponder the spiritual experiences that strengthened this inner knowing I am overwhelmed with gratitude."^p.x
• "When I was seven years old, a very special teacher trained in the Montessori System of education gave each member of the class a different poem to be memorized. This was mine:

'I cannot do much,' said a little star,

to make the dark earth bright, My little beam cannot pierce far into the gloom of night,

Yet I'm a part of God's great Plan, so I must do the best I can.'

It touched my heart and sparked instant joy and assurance. I knew what I had to do! But I had no understanding of what it really meant."^p.1(appearing to be a section from a poem as early as 1872 or earlier.)

She refers to agreeing with Ella Wheeler Wilcox's, "I hold it true that thoughts are things" in her late teens.^p.xii Cowart attended the Emanuel County Institute (a high school.) and there is mention of her in 1912 at the graduating ceremony speaking of the school history. She refers to being the salutatorian.^p.vi

Her father died in 1915. She refers to an experience she perceived as a visitation from him leaving her repeating "Death is not the end?" - describing the experience as "…astonishing, it was also exhilarating." It also lead to a difficulty with her family because her "grief was pushed aside."^p.3–4

Several events came together as World War I unfolded. She observed that "A third episode which expanded my spiritual awareness occurred when our nation entered World War I".^p.4 Her eldest brother had lead the family after the death of her father and in 1917 by the induction of her brother into the war effort. In private she prayed for God's intercession in the world in light of the mess the world was in and she got the sense that there was already a response "It is in the world, seek and you will find it" of which she says: "The timbre of the voice and the impact of the words were so shattering that I collapsed on the floor. Fortunately, I was alone."^p.4

College years

In college she mentions the years being "lackluster" and becoming more of a "history buff", majored in education, enjoyed being in the Glee Club, and graduated with honors.^p.5 In the Fall of 1917, her senior year there, Cowart was the founding editor in chief of The Pine Branch - a student publication at what was then called the South Georgia State Normal College or the Georgia State Woman's College, or what is today Valdosta State University. Her older sister Elah attended Milledgeville College Georgia, today Georgia College & State University. Her autobiography does not directly refer to this work.

The first issue of the Pine Branch explained the title "If anyone should wonder at this title, let him but come and see where we live. To us the name seems quite unavoidable for the pines are all about us. This tree with its strength and straightness, its beauty and its upward-striving habit, its service and its nativeness to our good South Georgia clime, came early to be recognized as the symbol of our school.” Several themes in the magazine and her editorship and writing relate positively or negatively to the teachings of the religion she would identify with in another eighteen years: equality of women and men, the roll of America in the world, and the equality of races. The changing aspect of some of her positions remains to be explored, perhaps in her autobiography, Terah. On the first, she was already an advocate for the equality of women and men. An editorial in that first issue spoke of the courage and service of women in the face of World War 1: "In the present war women are doing their bit as courageously as in other wars, but they have been more fortunate - except in conquered lands - in that they have had more opportunity for active service. Through the Red Cross and other helpful organizations they have literally come to the front in hundreds of ways. There is hardly any work of men that women are not doing, and doing effectively.” By name, Cowart contributed to a joke published in the magazine.

In the second issue, January 1918, "TC" (there is only one contributor with the initials TC) Cowart wrote a piece about new year resolutions which again undercores an equaity of women angle "We sing 'tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.' Isn't it also better to have resolved and split than never to have resolved at all?" An editorial for the growth of America in the following February issue might be a preview of her paper at graduation:

The return of Washington's birthday this year finds our country plunged in the midst of a war, violating apparently the fundamental tenet of that Americanism which Washington did so much to establish and make safe in the world. Every American statesman has held dear and every American demagogue has roared forth the precept of no entangling alliances with European governments. And yet under the guidance of President Wilson, who is said to possess an unusual amount of the quality of mind and spirit which characterized the Father of his Country, we have thrust, with all our energies, into the very heart of the worst tangle of governments the world has ever seen.… It became necessary, therefore, if democracy was to be safe in the United States, to make it safe throughout the whole western world.…Just as it became necessary for Monroe to make all America safe for democracy in order that the United States might remain safe, it now has become evident that if America is to be safe for democracy, the whole world must be made safe.

It may preview for Cowart references to the roll of America in Bahá'í teachings. The April edition has a number of pictures of unnamed women, including "the staff of the Pine Branch"; it is reasonable Cowart is among them. More importantly, however, the edition had a lead editorial “Our new negro problem”. Contrary to the two points made earlier of stances that could be seen to be aligned with the teachings of the Bahá'í Faith the editorial position Cowart would have the lead responsibility for was quite opposed to those of the Bahá'í Faith. The editorial defended Disenfranchisement after the Reconstruction Era saying for example

"It is not in the soul of the black man to attain the cultural, intellectual, moral, and religious heights reached by his white brother.… So it was a long, slow process that excluded the undesirable vote of the negro man.… Now that we seem about to have woman suffrage, how are we to exclude the undesirable vote of the negro woman? Because of their utter shiftlessness some of the men were excluded from the polls on a purely educational ground; but would this do in the case of the woman? Scarcely; for she has in most cases superior mentality to the man; and then, too, a stringent educational test would exclude some of the more desirable votes of the white women."

However in less than two decades Cowart would be a leading speaker at Bahá'í Race Amity meetings, an initiative to support a keystone teaching of the religion. In her autobiography written in her mid80s she says:

The region's cultural foundation had its roots in slavery and its corollary white supremacy. All plus factors of the dual society accrued to white people. Every advance in monetary affairs and education widened the gap between blacks and whites. This moral injustice coupled with the collapse of the Confederacy and the ensuing ordeals of the carpetbaggers era created a residue of incalculable negative emotions. These blocked individual as well as collective creativity of a positive forward-looking nature for a long time. During our country's early history the South contributed noteworthy leadership. After the Civil War practically one hundred years would pass ere the dearth of leadership would change.^p.vii–viii

The May edition had coverage of the graduation ceremonies. Cowart played the role of Leontes in the class play "The Winter's Tale" and mentioned her paper being read. She was a graduating senior 1917-8. She read her paper “The development of Americanism” at Commencement.

Married

Her auto biography refers to a professor friend accept a position as principal of a public school in Pelham, GA, and he asked her to join the faculty and after that experience she was offered a position in a school in Albany, GA.^p.5–6 After her graduation Cowart was visible visiting from the "twin towns" of Graymount-Summit, GA, for the wedding of Frances Kaylor and George Frank Barker in the summer of 1921. In the summer of 1922, along with two older sisters, she went to Teachers College of Columbia University in New York City to study social science.^p.6 That summer she met her husband to be - Lynn H. Smith - who had also attended Columbia^p.7 and was already owner of a manufacturing company, doing sales.^p.7 She recalls he declared his interest in her a week after meeting her, and that initially she was not mutually attracted - she had two other personal relationships of longer or shorter duration and also took up a teaching job in El Paso Texas and Atlanta.^p.7–13 Her family also arranged to live in Atlanta for an opportunity for her elder brother and needing to conserve costs.^p.13–4 In the Fall of 1923 Cowart was guest of Mr. and Mrs. H. L. Smith, parents of her soon husband, in Binghamton, NY though initially there wasn't a commitment from her to marry.^p.11–2 However that winter she did warm to him^p.14–5 and in the summer of 1924 she was wed to Lynn H. Smith, at her mother's home in Atlanta. There was a musical program with strings and a soloist, "rose straw" hats, and Cowart was attended by Mary Amon of Forsyth, GA. The wedding was officiated by the minister of Ponce de Leon Avenue Baptist Church and Cowart's sisters assisted at the reception. The couple honeymooned on a trip to Cincinnati, Buffalo, and Niagara Falls and ultimately to the summer home of the groom in the Adirondacks. Sisters Elah and Mae were also addressed "from New York". Cowart refers to a still birth of their first child and the medical treatment affecting her with lasting problems and son Robert being born two years later,^p.17 however September following the marriage social pages of the town newspaper with their new son Robert gone visiting, and the family visited or was visited successively. Her autobiography noted the couple exchanged conversations and references to literature, she enrolled in a two-year course in English and American literature and made it a priority to join the Shakespeare Dramatic Club whom she understood to limit its membership to twenty.^{p. 16–7} She joined the town Shakespeare Dramatic Club which would continue some years. Travel was also a mentioned aspect of their lives - visiting her mother in Georgia, or going to Florida, or Massachusetts in a "motor car" despite the challenge of the Great Depression in the United States. Cowart would be visible attending social functions or holding her own.

In March 1929 came the first public event held by Bahá'ís was attempted in Binghamton - a Race Amity Conference - though it became mired in controversy, about the fact it was sponsored by Bahá'ís, but not wanting to make it the leading point of the meeting. The apologists trying to explain the event and resolve the controversy was Howard and Mrs. Colby-Ives, who insisted on the good character of the religion's effort to bring the races together and not wishing to dwell on the religion itself. A local spiritual assembly had in fact been elected in Binghamton that year despite the troubles - a couple of the founding members known were Delphia Kent, Helen Inderlied, and Grace Palmatier.

Cowart was a guest of Mrs. I. K. McLendon - and been a teacher in Albany - at least in 1930, with the news coming in Macon, Georgia, though she was soon returned to Binghamton. Bahá'ís made some mention in the local news as well with the goal of building a "Temple" in Chicago a few months later. In the face of the expanding Depression Cowart remembered the bank for the business closing in November and in the facing of spreading privation Lynn asked a close friend in the church for help which was turned down and was seen, to Cowart's understanding, as a "very dramatic experience" for Lynn and lead him to quitting the church and he forbade her from attending.^p.19–20 She feels this lead directly to their estrangement as he made demands of her amidst his collapse of a moral compass in his life.^p.20–1 In 1932 Cowart began to be noted chairing a department/committee of the Shakespeare club. Her autobiography attest this period she was pregnant and birthed her daughter in March.^p.21 By the Fall she was presenting on one or another play over the new few years. (and occasionally had her picture published.) Meanwhile her marriage continued to sour.^p.22 During the time she was moved to study psychology sources like "William James, Carl Jung, the Mennenger brothers, Overstreet and Fritz Kunkle."^p.27 Cowart also joined an Episcopal Church.^p.25 Around the same time Cowart mentions Helen Inderlied was a member of the Shakespeare Club and gave Cowart a Bahá'í prayer book which she at first discarded, felt guilty, and then simply put on the shelf unread.^p.25–6 Then Cowart forced the issue of financially supporting herself and the children living in Florida for a few months which also gave space in the relationship.^p.26–7

In the winter of 1934-5, the year before Cowart's appearance as an active Bahá'í, the family wintered in the South and returned in April. Cowart refers to pivotal experiences in the following year:

• "Several months later that (Bahá'í) book was a focal point in an extrasensory experience that was self-validating and contributed to my confirmation in the Faith."
• (After leaving Florida and visiting family and friends in Georgia)…"I got hold of the Easter issue of a magazine whose feature article was based on the theme of a current best seller entitled Modern Man in Search of a Soul by the renowned psychiatrist Carl G Jung. I knew when I touched the magazine that it contained a message for me because of my body's electrifying response. Its pages mirrored my desperate search and struggle to find "me." But more important was the excitement and assurance that I wasn't a nobody or a mistake but an expression of God's love and that I would soon discover His Plan for my life. No longer was I a frightened, sad and depressed person. I wanted to hurry home to get the book and gain further confirmation that at long last I was on the right track and would continue to receive guidance."^p.24–5
• After their return from Florida there were challenges of financial responsibilities facing the issue of separate households.^p.27
• In the summer of 1935 Cowart and the children moved to a new address in Binghamton which turned out to be neighbors to Baha'is and near at hand for attending firesides and then assisting in the visiting of speakers - she mentions Horace Holley, Dorothy Baker, Mountford Mills, Leroy Ioas, Roy Wilhelm, Harlan Ober, Mary Hanford Ford, Saffa Kinney, Grace Krug and access to Ruhi Afnan. In particular she had a "confirmation" encounter with Krug, "My heart knew at long last I had found the Word of God for the new Age 'the storehouse of all good, all power and all Wisdom.' But my head wasn't convinced."^p.28–9 That Fall a series of Bahá'í presentations took place in the town, and at least once a talk were summarized in the newspaper. A book on the religion was mentioned donated to the town library as well. In early November Horace Holley gave a presentation at the town Unitarian Universalist Church entitled "This historic crisis". Cowart's husband was a leading member of the Church.

1935 closed with Cowart giving another talk for the Shakespeare Club.

Bahá'í tours and pioneering

According to her autobiography January 20, 1936, Cowart officially joined the Bahá'í Faith^p.30 and in February news of another Bahá'í presentation in Binghamton was in the news - that of Mountfort Mills, and a summary of the talk appeared a few days later. Cowart hosted a Bridge Club luncheon a week later. Dr. Genevieve Coy talked at the next advertised meeting of the religion in early March. A regional gathering was held for the Bahá'í new year at the home of Mrs. Alvin Palmatier and the article noted there were 68 assemblies in the US and Canada. A month later Dorothy Beecher Baker gave a Bahá'í presentation at a meeting in town. Cowart was noted a director in the town theatre for a play a couple weeks later. A few days after that it was announced that Helen Underlined was the Bahá'í delegate for the national convention. A series of Bahá'í talks was then mentioned, and the last, of Philip Sprague, was at the Unitarian Universalist church. Later in May Cowart hosted a reception for the theatre.

Two months later Helen Underlied and Beryl Edgecomb reported on a regional Bahá'í conference and talk by Mountford Mills, and some 10 days later a Bahá'í meeting was held at home of "Mrs. Lynn Smith" (aka Cowart) at which Florian Krug, who had met ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, spoke, and the article noted Helen Inderleid was chair of the assembly. Frank Warner, an Austrian WWI vet, gave a talk at a Bahá'í meeting a month later,

A talk series for the Bahá'ís was announced in early October - Charles Mason Remey, Marzieh Carpenter (later Gail), Julia Goldman, Dorothy Baker, Mountfort Mills, Horace Holley, and prominent Africa-American Bahá'í Louis Gregory. Meanwhile Cowart recalled the legal separation was arranged in December 1936 with Cowart intent on a year of patience.^p.32

That Winter the newspaper noted Cowart and kids returned from visiting her brother, and Cowart was soon noted back at the Bridge Club. A conference was held dedicating the local Bahá'í Center with a series of meetings. Cowart was mentioned as the chair of the assembly, and speakers included Mountfort Mills at the Arlington Hotel, Ida Noyes lead the dedication itself with readings by Alice Vergason, Mary Georgia, Alice Palmatier, and a quote from Herbert Sammuel of Palestine: "If I should be asked to say which of the religions represented here is nearest the purpose and aim of this congress my reply would be the Baha'i Faith.… (which) exists for the sole purpose of achieving the fellowship and unity of mankind.” Cowart was at a Shakespeare club meeting a few days later and would be in several Shakespeare and Bridge Club meetings yet this year. However in early spring Cowart maintains that Lynn Smith approached her with a plan for a divorce in Las Vegas and offered to pay her way on a general trip to the West.^p.32–3 Child care was arranged for the children to last some months and in Spring later it was noted that both Cowart and Helen Inderfied had gone to the national Bahá'í convention; Cowart was a delegate.

After the convention Cowart took her first promulgation trip for the religion to Las Vegas. Her autobiography refers to the trip - she perceived disunity at the national convention and resolved to volunteer to go to Las Vegas, there she set a public meeting at a hotel that turned out to have a Bahá'í manager to which about a dozen people came and half that set up a study class though further support was sent to Reno, NV instead.^p.34–40 The divorce was accomplished there,^p.32–3 on June 22, 1937.^p.40 From Las Vegas she went to the Geyserville Bahá'í school where she was "drafted" to make a presentation on the Lesser Peace though she also suffered a bout with poison oak.^p.40–2 On return to the East she stopped at Louhelen Bahá'í School.^p.42–3 On return home she was then invited to go to Green Acre.^p.43–4 It was there she was challenged with applying her new ideal of the oneness of humanity. First she was directed to attend a prominent black former director of an NAACP unit who, as she recalled in her autobiography, "had requested a white woman from the South be a tablemate, for he didn't believe there could be one not even one."^p.45–6 Together they also went on an excursion and at a dinner were refused service because of the integrated pair of them. Following this she was directed to visit with a Jewish couple, and a friendship was struck up that opened a luncheon invitation next year to their home.^p.46–9 An article in the Binghamton newspaper noted her return from a tour of Western states and Maine (probably for Green Acre.) Cowart's ex-husband was noted chairing a committee of the Rotary Club for international service. The last mention of “Mrs. Lynn Smith” appears by that name in the newspapers at a Shakespeare club notice in September, 1937. Two weeks later she was noted among the Bridge Club - as "Mrs. Terah Smith" - and the only one to go by her own name rather than their husband's. A week plus later she was noted attending the Shakespeare club social appearing in the article as "Mrs. Terah Cowart Smith", and only one that didn't go by her husband's name. The notice a few days later repeated her mention as "Mrs. Terah Cowart Smith", and she would continue her club activities the rest of the year. In November Harlan Ober talked at the Center - Cowart was mentioned again and Helen Underlined was recognized as a regional committee representative.

Cowart was listed as a club member in Shakespeare club but not attending a meeting in January 1938, and her only presence in the club in the year was in December. In the Spring she was on a second trip with Marguerite Reimer, later Sears, this time in the American South. They were in Raleigh, NC, visible at African-American college Shaw University assisting African-American Sarah Martin Pereira. In March she was in Atlanta giving a talk on "Seeing Beyond the impending Crisis" at the Winecoff Hotel. Cowart was among those invited by Bahá'ís at Cornel in 1937-8. In April she was noted having been in Aiken, SC, on a trip for the religion, followed by Augusta, GA. Two weeks later the membership of the Binghamton Assembly was published as: Lester Kaley, Terah Cowart Smith, Ida Noyes, Mrs. Paul Fernald, Jesse Wells, Roberta Maybin, Delphia Kent, Helen Inderlied, and Bert Edgcomb. A month later Cowart was giving a talk at the Center in town. A regional conference for the religion was held at the home of Allen McDaniel, then chair of Bahá'í national assembly(NSA), with 125 people attending - speakers were noted in the article as Frances Stewart, Cowart, Roberta Taylor, and Kenneth Christian. She kept her Shakespeare member listing in the Summer. Bahá'í News named Helen Inderlied, Cowart, Palmatier, and Verguson, going to neighboring cities of Scranton, Syracuse, Ithaca, from Binghamton while keeping up local activity like a youth conference and send 47 people to the “annual McDaniel farm” meeting, cottage meetings, and planning a new Center.

Atlanta

This first Seven Year Plan (1937-1944) was established by the Guardian, according to the House of Justice, as part of the process of establishing “small centers of Bahá’í activity and erect the first pillars of the Administrative order.” 153 Bahá’ís moved from cities having Assemblies to one of 28 goal cities as part of the first organizing Plan of the Bahá’ís - an average of six per goal city. Adding previous Bahá’ís in most of those cities, they achieved Assembly status. In her autobiography Cowart recalls in early September 1938 she answered a call for pioneers as part of the first Seven Year Plan and was motivated to move to Atlanta to help her home state. She, her son Robert then aged 10 and daughter "Ginny," age 6 moved there,^p.50 though the year closed out with Cowart at a Christmas party for the Shakespeare Club back in Binghamton. In Atlanta, according to her biography, she hoped to raise enough Bahá'ís to elect a spiritual assembly.^p.vii Though official records did show enough Bahá'ís on paper to form an assembly there was a feeling the community was too weak. Her early efforts were to find a group of people who could be open to learning of the Faith in her view^p.51 - despite having a neighbor who treat her as a foreigner because the moving truck had a New York company name on it.^p.vii In May 1939 she notes Orcella Rexford came to Atlanta and presented a series of talks on health and nutrition and her last talk introduced Bahá'u'lláh.^p.50–1 She took evening college courses to help her undertake new efforts for her and focused her work on a group of people interested in natural foods.^p.51 Cowart refers to 2-day institutes held in Knoxville, Atlanta, and Augusta in her autobiography.^p.55 This also appears in the Baha'i News in October 1939. She names other members of the team making these institutes happen: Nellie Roche, Georgie Wiles, and Birdie Cunningham.^p.55

Her son refers to graduating from high school in Atlanta in a few years. The group in Atlanta interested in the Faith met at the Henry Grady Hotel regularly and the assembly was elected in Ridvan 1940 and she received a letter from the Guardian.^p.52–3 Cowart was credited in the Bahá'í World yearbook with furthering the pioneer work by traveling to places there are no Bahá'ís in the US - 1 of 27 people listed. However there are records of black Bahá'ís in Atlanta and they did not aid in the forming of the assembly.^p.236–7 An attempt at an integrated meeting held by a white couple met with resistance from police and Cowart asked they stop trying at the time and the assembly is not recorded acting on the request of a black woman to join the religion then either.^p.237

For 1940-1 Cowart was a member of the Kentucky, Eastern Tennessee, Northern Alabama, Northern Georgia regional teaching committee (RTC). In June there was a week long regional institute held in Vogel Park near Cleveland, Georgia, with 19 Bahá'ís living there the week and an additional 10 spending the occasional day. The event was chaired by Cowart who also gave classes. Her autobiography notes the setting was "ideal" at an altitude of 2500 feet, "well-equipped cabins" and the faculty were: Glen Shook, Mabel Ives, Orcella Rexford, in addition to herself.^p.56 By late 1940 she owned a residence in Atlanta. The national assembly observed resistance in the Atlanta assembly to the national policy of integrated meetings and events of the community and embarked on a plan of a public integrated meeting.^p.237–8 Louis Gregory and Dorothy Baker formed the advance team for the event. Cowart recalled it as part of an initiative of the NSA holding its monthly meetings in places with newly established assemblies.^p.53 Gregory's first meeting for the event was not widely attended while Baker's followup meeting was fully attended.^p.237–8 Baker insisted the membership request of the black woman be acted upon, and, in the words of historian Louis Venters, "…interracial unity was a matter of spiritual principle and an article of their faith, and that there could be only one, integrated community in Atlanta."^p.238 Cowart recalled leading the meeting about the integrated nature of the meeting with the hotel staff at the Biltmore Hotel and briefed employees on the basics of the religion and reasons for the meeting - she recalled 74 people came and three quarters were black while six white women invited refused to participate.^p.53–4 Venter's PhD agreed many blacks did come.^p.238 Horace Holley lead the public meeting. The meeting was held in November as a conference called by the NSA was held in Atlanta at the Biltmore Hotel. Cowart attended and spoke on a radio station. The next assembly meeting approved the membership of the black woman and she was elected to the Assembly the next year.^p.239 Cowart mentions Baker as "deeply loved friend and counselor" of hers.^p.59 She recalled in the first 18 months in Atlanta being very difficult and would surprise her with a visit when her "ebb tide was lowest".^p.75–6

The conference called for another to follow in 1941. In June 1941 Cowart aided the second Vogel Park Conference. 19 Baha'is attended again through the week and 12 attended some days. Then in July Cowart was back in New England - she was in Rhode Island to aid the new Bahá'í communities of Pawtucket and Providence.

In January 1942 Cowart was listed as the secretary of the RTC for 1942-3 for NC/SC/GA with her address in Atlanta. In February Cowart spoke before the Sylvan Hills PTA Study Group in Atlanta attended by PTAs of Capital View and Ragsdale schools. In 1942 the third southern regional Bahá'í conference was held, according to her autobiography, in Cheehaw State Park near Anniston, Alabama to facilitate the participation of several black Bahá'ís in the region and that park was open to both races.^p.57 Cowart also joined Dorothy Beecher Baker for talks including at a black school in Montgomery, AL.^p.59–60 She observed in her autobiography that in her view the principal was "bristling with prejudice", unbelieving there was anyone in Atlanta who could accept the principles presented by their talks. Cowart invited him to visit and meet the members of the Bahá'í community there as well as at the Louhelen Bahá'í school near Flynt, Michigan just north of the principle's home city, Detroit. She underscored that they wished the youth to understand that the current situation would change and, as she put it in her autobiography, "twenty-five years they would be enjoying more personal freedom due to changed conditions and new laws enacted by Congress."^p.60

Ruth D. Meurer recalled that Dr. Bidwell hosted a Bahá'í conference at his sanitarium during the last week of June 1943; present at that conference were Emogene Hoagg, Terah Cowart-Smith, Luda Dabrowski, Villa Vaugh, Marian Crist Lippitt, Virginia Camelon, Dorothy Campbell, Ann Stokely, Adeline Loghe, Esther Sego, Charles Mason Remey, Teen Bidwell, Mrs. Hogan, Mrs. McDonald and Ruth D. Meurer. The last three persons mentioned were not believers at that time. A major point of discussion was integrated meetings, and some were put off enough to call in a report of the integrated meeting to the FBI.^p.283 For 1943-4 Cowart was the RTC secretary for NC/SC/GA with address in Atlanta.

There were about 2600 identified Bahá’ís in the US in 1937 and in 1944 there were about 4800. In May 1944 Cowart reported in her autobiography attended the Centenary of the Declaration of the Báb at a service in Wilmette in May 1944.^p.67 Cowart also mentions she began a practice of eye training by the summer of 1944, however in July, shortly before the opening of Green Acre for its summer session pleas came from the National Assembly that she drop her plans and arrange to be at Green Acre to take over the management of the summer session.^p.61–7 She reports great difficulty in deciding to go in the face of having to drop her clients, and in getting there, and many privations figuring out how to feed the guests. Mildred Mottahedeh was there assisting her through the period and 75 guests came. The public news covered her at Green Acre. Among the programs was a Race Amity Conference in mid-August and one of the reports given was by Cowart. She told of an Interracial Commission set after WWI now enlarged to a Southern Regional Council serving the black population and outlined new publications appearing discussing race in a new light. Other major speakers were Sarah Martin Eason (later Periera), Matthew Bullock, Louis Gregory, Harlan Ober, Lydia Martin (Sarah’s sister) and Ali Kuli Khan. In the Winter of 1944 Cowart was noted as the chair of the Georgia state convention to elect a delegate in Atlanta. Talks of her activity in Atlanta over the winter were noted in Baha'i News. The RTC, chaired by Cowart, hosted a week long training institute in Atlanta in November 1944 with 19 attending. In the Spring of 1945 Cowart gave 4 sessions in the chapel at Georgia State College. Cowart was the chair of the RTC for NC/SC/GA that year as well. She gave a talk at the Center in Binghamton, and mentioned she going to the next Race Amity conference in Green Acre. She was a speaker there. Following this she stopped at several cities in October in the South including Greensboro, NC, Greenville, SC, and Colombia, SC. In February 1946 she spoke at several colleges. In April she was at a meeting for the religion in Greenville, SC, with Alvin Blum and William de Forge. Cowart spent two weeks in Greenville, SC, and more broadly cited for her activity in the College Speaking Bureau at the national convention. Cowart stayed after the April convention for a week to design and publish study courses for guides of the Temple. Shoghi Effendi launched the Second Seven Year Plan in 1946 calling for the completion of the interior ornamentation of the House of Worship in Wilmette and its landscaping, so that it could be dedicated; the establishment of National Spiritual Assemblies in South America, Central America, and Canada; and the reestablishment of the Bahá'í Faith in war-torn Europe. Cowart's son Robert graduated from high school and would enter college in New York in the fall.^p.68 Cowart observed the second Seven Year Plan in 1946 begin to shift the national emphasis from the South to the North so between that and her son she moved back to Binghamton.

Cowart reflected on her gradual evolving consciousness as a Bahá'í in her autobiography framed in the period of living in the South and before the death of Shoghi Effendi in 1957. She says:

But if you are a young, white pioneer in a region where racism is the accepted norm of society you soon realize that your efforts in promoting the new standards of living are expanding your consciousness, enriching your daily experience and endowing you with new courage. …"The Word of God is the storehouse of all good, all power and all Wisdom." On my first reading of this statement a sense of wonder and awe gripped me. I longed for personal confirmation regarding at least one of its aspects. My approach was through prayer. I've no idea how long it took for the gradual change in perception and attitude. I came to know things in a new way. Doubts were increasingly dissolved through a growing confidence. The suggestion of likening the Revelation to an ocean and envisioning myself immersed in it was invaluable. "This fathomless and surging Ocean is near … unto you… swift as the twinkling of an eye ye can, if ye but wish it, reach and partake of this… most potent and unspeakably glorious bounty." Soon all my faculties were quickened and there was a growing awareness that total reliance on the higher power was essential.^p.88–9

Binghamton

Later 1940s

Terah (center) with Matthew Bullock and William deForge at 35th Annual Souvenir of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá , 1947.

In 1946-7 Cowart was chair of the New York state RTC. Through luck and the aid of her ex-father-in-law she acquired a home quickly.^p.69 Some land in Binghamton was sold to her in July, 1946. Cowart presided at a meeting where Dorothy Arnold Kent gave a talk reviewing a book, and gave a talk at the Bahá'í Center. As Cowart recalled it, the goals for the incoming committee were new assemblies in Penn Yan, Seneca, and Waterloo, and revitalization of Jamestown, Buffalo, Geneva, Rochester, Niagara Falls and Syracuse.^p.68 Cowart also gave a talk for the League of Women Voters.^p.70 In September Cowart chaired a meeting at Center in Binghamton where Ida Baum, Helen Inderlied, Mrs. Ramie York were on a panel. After some months, Cowart made Jamestown a base of operation for a few months.^p.70 In October a regional conference for the religion was held at Rochester and included speakers Raphael Pumpelly and Cowart. November 10, 1946, had Matthew Bullock speaker at a meeting chaired by Cowart with coverage by newspapers, the managers of radio stations WNBF, and WINR. There were multiple broadcasts of radio programs from the National Radio Committee and interviews of Bullock. 175 attended and only 40 were Bahá'ís from western NY. One third were black, and a week later the Bahá'í Center hosted a talk by Mrs. Harry Ford, Joseph Noyes, and Cowart.

Cowart returned to the Binghamton Bahá'í Center opening January, 1947. She also started offering a class at the Center on Fridays, as well as giving the occasional talks about every two weeks into the Spring. Cowart also was a guest of the Shakespeare club in February. In 1947 the NY state Baha'i convention was held at the Center with some attendees mentioned: Mrs. Harry Ford, Mrs. Ralph Emery, Herbert Hearn, Robert and Mrs. Loughlin, Mrs. Ruth Hart, Harriet Pettibone, Joseph Noyes, and Cowart.

Cowart's series of talks concluded at the Center approaching mid-March, however she then gave a talk at a Baptist church in town. She was elected delegate to the national convention and set off on a tour of states and the national convention. At the convention Cowart commented on fund contributions. On her return she lead a devotional at the Binghamton Center. In July Cowart attended the 35th Englewood (need to say what this is) commemoration.

Cowart was again on the Regional teaching committee for New York and Connecticut 1947-8. A meeting of the committee and public presentation followed in August with a talk by George Goodman. In early October Cowart was a guest of in several homes of Bahá'ís in Hamburg - Eugene and Mrs. Thorpe, then Mrs. John McLaren and then Edward Spears. The next week there was a regional conference in Niagara Falls with Cowart among speakers and then she went to Youngstown. By early November Cowart was back in Binghamton and giving a talk at the Center. Cowart and others met in various committees in later November. Stuart Kittredge was secretary of assembly.

As Cowart recalls it, in 1947 the United Nation's Department of Public Information established the Speakers Research Committee to inform the general public become better informed about the organization and was open only to professionals - friend Horace Holley made a resume of Cowart's experience and she qualified.^p.72 By December Cowart became accredited with the UN speaker bureau after having spent the summer in Green Acre. Her first talk was in later January in Rochester. A basic requirement of being a member of the committee was attendance at the official monthly briefing sessions and was in charge of making their own bookings for talks through an agent.^p.72 In February 1948 Cowart and Joseph Noyes would be going to an international conference in the Spring, while a conference was held in mid-February in Syracuse with Helen Inderlied, Robert Richard, and Charles Kilmer among the attendees. After that she gave a 4 week series of meetings in Hamburg. One of the presentations was in the home of Herman and Mrs. Seelbach. Another was a week later at the home of Edward and Mrs. Spear. Lastly she stayed at the home of Herman Seelbachs. Cowart was then a delegate to the national convention with Joseph Noyes; Mrs. Noyes, Mrs. Rami York, Helen Inderlied, went along. Afterwards Cowart was off to visit her mother in Georgia and then touring in the South. Cowart was returned to Binghamton and gave a talk approaching mid-June. Later in November Cowart returned to Hamburg as the guest of Mrs. John McLaren. A week later she was at a gathering in Syracuse, among the talks were those of Ida Noyes, Helen Inderlied, Mrs. L. J. Kaley, Betty Lombardi, Mrs. J. K. Noyes, Joseph Noyes, and Cowart.

In January 1949 Cowart gave her first known talk at the Greensboro, NC, Bahá'í Center in mid-January 1949. A month later Cowart returned to Hamburg as guest of Mrs. James McCloskey and then Mrs. Edith McLaren. A couple weeks later Cowart was back at the Binghamton Center, after a southern tour, with a World Day of Prayer observance upcoming. Another Cowart talk in Binghamton came in another week. A week plus more and there was another talk - about the UN. Cowart then offered Devotions for the Feast of Ridvan at the Center. Several weeks later Cowart gave talks on the UN as part of a tour of eastern Canada. A month later Cowart was part of the program at Green Acre along with Glenn Shook, Stanwood Cobb, Edmund Ross, Henry Austin, and Dudley Blakely, and then she attended the Louhelen Bahá'í School teaching "effective speech" for youth and adult sessions.

Early 1950s

That spring Cowart attended and offered a talk for the 20th Binghamton anniversary, which was held as a conference including speakers: W. Kenneth Christian noting that there had been 29 local communities (local assemblies) in the West in 1929 grown to just 173 in US in 1949 plus others in other countries.) Marie Christian was chair of the Binghamton Assembly. In October she was in Jamestown NY for its first regional conference and gave several public talks such as at the Unitarian Church, for the NAACP, and the Rotary Club, and she was interviewed on radio which resulted in several phone calls interested in the religion. In the Fall Cowart gave a talk at Hotel Seneca Rochester introduced by assembly chair Herbert Tarbell. She was back the next January for World Religion Day. Following the regional convention six delegates to Baha'i national convention: P R Heinhard, Robert Wilkin, Edith McLaren, E. Lowell Johnson, Silas Cummings and Cowart.Then Cowart went to Hamburg for a week of meetings at Pringle and Spear homes as guest of James McCluskey. A couple weeks later she gave talk at a meeting at the Syracuse Museum of Fine Arts and another at the home of E. Lowell Johnson, chair of the Syracuse Assembly. On return to Binghamton she gave a talk for UN at a PTA meeting.

Cowart attended the national convention also attended by Ramie York and Helen Inderlied. In later April Cowart was among the speakers in Lansing, MI, at which William Sears talked. She was still there a week later giving a talk at the YWCA and then stayed on until early May. Back in the NY area Cowart when on a tour starting with a talk at Wellington Hotel in Albany. then in Troy, Waterloo where she and Lowell Johnson gave reports on the national convention at the home of M. and Mrs. Firoozi.

In mid-July Cowart was visible again in Binghamton giving a talk at the Center. That Fall, guest of the Bahá'ís, she spoke to the Hungry Club of the Butler St YMCA in Atlanta for UN Day on "Foundation for lasting peace" - the speech being commended by Senator Hubert H. Humphrey, and others.

In January 1951 Cowart began a series of monthly events. First she gave a talk at the Hotel Seneca in Rochester for World Religion Day. While there she was a guest of Mr. and Mrs. P. R. Meinhard. The regional Bahá'í convention was held in Syracuse and elected Cowart the delegate. A month later Cowart was in Baltimore, a month later in Hamburg for UN Day talking on collective security and Korea, and in another month Ruth Hart and Cowart left for the national convention. On return Cowart gave a talk at the Center in Binghamton. A few days later Cowart was part of the faculty for Green Acre, followed by a class "Prayers and Meditations" at Louhelen. She was scheduled for the general session 4 Aug 5-10 working with African-American Ellsworth Blackwell. Immediately after that Cowart gave a talk at House of Worship (Temple), and then she was at Green Acre where she ran the prayers and meditations and gave a review of "Modern Man's Conflicts" by Dane Rhudyar. For UN Day in October sponsored by Bahá'í's Cowart spoke and there were films show, Later in October Cowart gave another talk and showing the same films.

The first Baha'i wedding Syracuse on Oct 1951, for Edith Segen and E. Lowell Johnson hosted by Rev. Glenn O Canfield as university chaplain, and Cowart contributing readings. Witnessed by Charles Kilmer, Verne Tuttle.

Cowart arranged for and gave a talk at a film showing promoting the UN, and then repeated the showing at the Binghamton Center. A couple weeks later she was noted a member of the League of Women Voters, where she also showed the movie on the UN, which resulted in a picture of her in the newspaper and headlined coverage of her talk as "'Barriers' prevent peace."

That December Cowart was one of several Binghamton Bahá'ís noted attending the upper NY station convention along with Verne and Mrs. Tuttle, Marie Christian, Mary Georgia, Mrs. Ramie York, Helen Inderlied, Mrs. Leon Palmer, Mrs. Charles Kilmer, and Robert and Mrs. Richard. She was one of six delegates to national convention. As published in the Geneva newspaper they were Cowart, Mrs. P. Robert Meinhard, E. Lowell Johnson, Herbert H Tarbell, Mary Magdalene Wilkin, and Ruth Hart.

In January 1952 Cowart was honored at a reception tea in Binghamton, and the following week she was profiled while visiting Jamestown, NY, where she was to speak to League of Women Voters of the town, and be a guest of Mrs. T. F. Holmlund,(and recalled her visit in 1950.) A talk a week later was part of series Cowart presented by Mrs. F. H. Nichols and summarized with a quote, and she was a guest of Herbet and Mrs. Hern at another reception as her send-off. In March Cowart gave a talk at the Center in Greensboro, NC. In April Cowart gave a talk at the YWCA in Louisville, Kentucky, and was pictured in the Hamburg, NY, press while as a guest of Mr. and Mrs. James B. McCloakey, during a conference held in town at which Cowart gave many talks. A couple days later Cowart gave a talk at the Hotel Seneca as cochair of UN committee of Binghamton League of Women Voters at a conference in Rochester, NY. A week later Alfred Reed, Rochester Assembly Chair, was introduced at the Binghamton Center by Smith. In mid-June Cowart was a guest of Rowland and Mrs. Hughey in Waterloo, NY, for a luncheon and the article noted she had spoken the previous year at an international picnic. A couple days later Smith gave a talk at the Washington DC Bahá'í Center. In August there is note of Cowart, a sister, and some friends vacationing, and days later an article noted Cowart and Ida Noyes lectured at Green Acre with Verne and Mrs. Tuttle and daughters Brenda and Nancy attending too. Upon return to Binghamton a few days later Cowart gave a talk for the League of Women Voters assisting in "UN Week" of festivities, and assisting with radio and television coverage as well. In October Cowart attended a UN session and it was noted in the newspaper, and then gave a talk at the Lions Club for the UN with movie that had been shown during UN Week, It was also noted Smith aided in some adult night school classes in nearby Endicott, NY, about the UN. Cowart joined Ned Blackmer and Beverly Hopkins at the Museum of Fine Arts in Syracuse for the observance of the Birth of Bahá'u'lláh, and then was the master of ceremony at a meeting at the Library in Endicott with Robert E. Richard chair of the Binghamton Assembly and James E, Parsons assisting. In December Ethel Brant Mantour and Cowart lead a talk for Human Rights Day introduced by Tom L. Davis in Rochester. Mantour was voted into an Haudenosaunee Indian Hall of Fame at C.N.E., Toronto in 1969.

Sometime before 1953, probably, Cowart was among the influences on Lowell Johnson, later a pioneer to South Africa, in his growing connection with the Baha’i Faith. In 1953 Cowart and Johnson shared the stage for World Religion Day in Rochester. A week later Cowart spoke for the Woman's Club for their World Religion Day observance in Geneva. Later in March Cowart was picture in the Hamburg The Sun and the Erie County and credited as being of the Rochester University faculty while in town for a couple of talks she gave at their Center and the home of Edward and Mrs. Speak. In April Cowart was a delegate and among those attending the national Bahá'í convention, and heard of the launch of the Ten-Year Crusade and the dedication of the Temple. She recalled the dedication service at the Wilmette House of Worship including a chance to see a photograph of a portrait of the Báb.^p.75

Cowart's mother, Dora Virginia Roundtree, died late July, in Metter, Candler County, GA, and was buried in Twin City, GA. In October Cowart lead a Bahá'í institute in the home of Mr. and Mrs. J. McCloakey in Blasdell, NY.

The Western NY Baha'i convention was held in December. The newspaper coverage reported that 75 attend and voted in person, 72 voted absentee, and the elected delegates were Cowart, Mary Wilkins, Edith McLaren, P. Robert Meinhard, Alfred B. Reed, Mehdi Firoozi; others mentioned were Joseph Noyes, Katheryn Potter, Herbert Hern pioneers were Alice Hathorn, Lillian Middlemast, Esther Evans, Chirstine McKay, Elton and Mrs. Smith, Margaret Mills, John Leonard, which they attended next April.

In January 1954 came that news that Cowart's daughter Virginia Smith was betrothed to William Landmesser Jr. They were wed in late May. In mid-May Cowart was among those aiding in the arrangements for a regional Bahá'í conference held at the YWCA in Rochester. In mid-June the Bahá'ís of Erie County held a picnic with guests - Alice Tyler was guest of Edith McLauren, Ruth Buchanan and O. D. and Mrs. Heist were guests of Frances and Mrs. Czerniejewski, Cowart and Marie Grant were guests of James and Mrs. McCloskey, George Peng and Irving and Mrs. Silas guests of Harry and Mrs. Pringle. That September was Cowart's next known appearance - she was the featured speaker in the Madison, Wisconsin, World Peace Day observance in Sep 1954 at which a mix of Bahá'ís and non-Bahá'í totaling 63 people attended. In October Cowart spoke at a Bahá'í observance of UN Week in Blasdell, NY, with Buffalo and Hamburg communities.

Cowart is next mentioned as part of the Rochester Spiritual Assembly and giving a talk at the Hotel Seneca in February, 1955. Cowart was again among the six delegates elected in Western NY in 1955 that went to the national convention. In May Cowart was a guest of the Vestal area for Feast. In June Cowart officiated at the funeral of Delphia Culver Kent of Binghamton, and wrote a letter to the editor in Rochester about persecution in Iran, and was a week in later June in Hamburg, NY. At the time she was earning an income reselling an energy bar. In September Bahá'ís held a regional conference with a talk by Cowart. In October Cowart spoke of a revision proposal for the UN at Baha'i sponsored UN Day event. In November Cowart was a guest of George and Mrs. Hipp in Hamburg, NY and gave a talk in their home, and a week later was elected one of five delegates elected at the regional convention held in Buffalo.

Cowart recalled she moved to Dundas, Ontario, in January of 1956 where she lived for three months and aided in setting up study circles and seminars, and it was where she was when she received the last letter from Shoghi Effendi.^p.81–3 That Fall the Canadian Baha'i News had a mention of Cowart have worked in the Hamilton-Dundas area with firesides, and "Group Prayer Therapy". Belinda Reid Forsee Ericsson refers to meeting Cowart in an autobiographical article. She recalled Cowart was a speaker in the small town of Dundas following a large ad for a gathering, then saw her giving a seminar, and accompanied her on local trip for the religion. Cowart introduced her to Gibran’s The Prophet and Bahá'u'lláh's Hidden Words.

Greensboro, NC

Cowart recalled that the following Fall of 1956 she moved to Greensboro, NC.^p.83 Cowart appeared in the local newspaper giving a talk sponsored by the Bahá'ís of Greensboro, in September. The following October Terah and sister Elah bought a home on Gregory St, Greensboro. Terah recalled that her sister had admired the support of the religion for Terah and decided to investigate the religion in the about 1950 and attended Green Acre the following summer and then joined the religion, 15 years after herself (so about the summer of 1951,) and that despite a general unsupportive environment in the family.^p.83 Bahá'ís held a regional conference that would grow into a seasonal Bahá'í school in the nearby mountains and Cowart taught one of the classes. Cowart was profiled in a local newspaper in mid-December. She and her sister Elah had moved to Greensboro. Elah was a teacher and Terah worked in ocular “education” having been trained by a Dr./Mrs. Bates of NY, she said in the interview. She was noted having worked for the speakers research committee of the UN, and a college speakers bureau with a pet topic of “Women in the New Age”, Baha’i institutions, and fund raising for kid's needs. She mentioned she was born in Georgia near Augusta, went to a state teacher’s college and then went to NY teacher’s college and studied psychology through her husband. She was active in the League of Women Voters and on YWCA health committees. Her son Robert Smith worked in clinical psychology at the University of Pennsylvania interning at a veteran's hospital. Daughter Ginny (Virginia) was a mother and married to a Cornell graduate working in labor relations in Pittsburgh. An advert for Cowart's Sight Improvement Studio appeared a few days later.

In February 1957 it was announced a Bahá'í panel on Negro History Week would be held at the Guilford County Courthouse - the panel members would be professors Richard Bardolph, John Withers, and Cowart, with Jack Davis chairing the panel. In later March it was announced that Cowart was elected first VP of League of Women Voters of Greensboro. In the June the Greensboro Bahá'ís held Race Unity Day and Cowart was one of the speakers at the integrated meeting at the O'Henry Hotel following a Greensboro World Youth Day event in March. Cowart recalled an experience while listening at a regular daily devotional in June when she "got the jolt of recognizing my attitude regarding making the pilgrimage was wrong. Although it was in the wee hours of the morning, I got up and immediately made my written request." However, the first response was that postponement was necessary and on November 4 came the news that Shoghi Effendi had died following a case of Asiatic flu. "This is the greatest disappointment of my Bahá'í life and the acute realization that it was due to my own wrong thinking makes it particularly painful."^p.89

The next mention of Cowart in the newspaper earlier in August in the form of a controversy of if Terah's sister Elah Cowart was fired (not re-selected) as a 4th grade teacher from Rankin school for 1957-8 for being a Baha’i - the complaint was lodged by J. M. Davis Jr for the local assembly to the school board - it was reported in the coverage 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 but not for Catholics”(adding to the confusion.) The article noted the Bahá'í community was 16 people. Elah acquired a job in Lisbon, MD.

January 1958 opened with a League of Women Voters meeting conducted by Cowart, and then she went to be part of a panel as part of World Religion Day in Baltimore, MD. The Greensboro Spiritual Assembly incorporated that April and Cowart was among the Bahá'ís going to international meeting - Kathryn Potter, Terah Cowart-Smith, Jack Davis, and Kimball Kinney. In early May Cowart led a world affairs forum about the UN. In June Cowart presided at a meeting in Greensboro at which Thelma Allison (back from pilgrimage) and W. T. Bidwell (back from a tour of the Caribbean) were the speakers for Race Amity Day. This was also mentioned in the African-American Greensboro newspaper, The Future Outlook.

In August Cowart was listed as attending a luncheon of the Shakespeare Club of the Binghamton, NY, in August. In October Cowart gave a talk to the David Jones School PTA as part of series on UN by various organizations, not explicitly mentioning the Faith.

Cowart recalls in her autobiography arriving in Tel-Aviv on Bahá'í pilgrimage April 4, 1959, arriving about 2am after some 44 hrs of traveling.^p.90–1 The next morning she took the taxi (sherut) to Haifa in a 2.5 hrs drive and was welcomed by Jessie Revell and Marjorie Haney at the Bahá'í meeting house, and then by Paul Haney, Mason Remey, Leroy and Sylvia Ioas.^p.91,3 She was accompanied by four Persian (each 3rd generation Bahá'ís) five Westerner (2 of them from Hamburg) pilgrims.^p.94 She recalled visiting the three Shrines and the newly opened Archives building and then staying at the Mansion of Bahjí for two nights including a dawn visit to the Shrine of Bahá'u'lláh.^p.94–9 Seven of the pilgrims including her then hired a car for a tour of Christian sacred sites in the area.^p.100-1 On the return trip to America she stayed two weeks in England to support Bahá'í activities, was able to visit the gravesite of Shoghi Effendi, and attend the national convention of the UK Bahá'ís.^p.100-2 Commenting on it she recalled a quip "about our penchant for organization. When two or three Americans are gathered together, the first is made president, the second secretary, and the third treasurer. There is not the slightest likelihood of this being said of our British coworkers."^p.102 The following May Cowart was noted as a member of the speakers research committee for the UN and recorded for a talk of the World Affairs Forum. Coverage of her return from pilgrimage and a tour of European capitals, and more in England, visiting Baha’i communities was mentioned in the Greensboro Daily News in early May. In the Fall of 1959 Cowart recalled being asked to return to Canada beginning in Nova Scotia in October and made it all the way to British Colombia in December.^p.102–3 From there she was asked for a few more weeks of service and traveled down to Roswell, NM, where two friends from Rochester NY were living, and then over to El Paso, TX.^p.103

In January 1960, Cowart was noted one of the teachers for an adult reading class in Greensboro associated with a TV training program - hers held at the Glenwood Presbyterian Church. In February Cowart was advertised giving a talk in Odessa, Texas, as part of a ten-day circuit of talks. In March Bahá'ís of Augusta, GA, met for a Cowart talk on observing Naw Ruz. Meanwhile Cowart wrote notes of her pilgrimage and submitted them for publication. In mid-April there was an article on the marriage of Frank Kimball Kenney and Ingeborg Wirth (pictured, potentially the first Bahá'ís to personally appear in the Daily News) held at the home of Terah Cowart-Smith and Elah Cowart - the wedding was officiated by David Jurney. In July Bahá'ís observed the Martyrdom of the Báb with a talk by Cowart, music by A. Josephine Thompson, and readings by Edward Schlesinger, in Burlington, Vermont, followed in a few days by a talk by Cowart at the Rockingham Hotel in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Then Cowart was a guest of Alta Wheeler in Portsmouth, and spoke during the Feast meeting held at Emma Flynn's home about her recent travels in Canada. A week later World Peace Day was observed in Greensboro with the film “The Answer is Now” from the UN and “A time for greatness” lead by Cowart, which was also picked up by The Future Outlook. In October Cowart gave a talk at the Methodist Men’s supper. In November Cowart talked at a meeting of a chapter of the Beta Sigma Phi sorority as a UN speaker, and at a World Peace Day observance in a Greensboro home along with films.

In February 1961 Cowart toured SC and was guest of Grace von der Heydt in Greenville, and visited Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Gelardi in Gaffney. That summer Cowart gave a talk hosted by Hamilton Niss in Syracuse, NY, and then at home of Raymond and Mrs. Kurweg in Geneva. In August Cowart hosted at fireside reception by Charles and Mrs. Kilmer.

The Greensboro Mayor designated UN Day festivities a week later and Cowart and her sister were on the general committee, and in a few days Cowart gave a talk on the UN for the Guilford Count Home Economics Club. Cowart was in Augusta, GA, in mid-to-late December. She was in a cosponsored interfaith panel for the Bahá'ís of Augusta for Human Rights Day, and then was the closing speaker at a Human Rights Day observance in Baltimore, MD.

In 1962 the Bahá'ís of Greensboro, NC, held World Religion Day in January with three college youth were on a panel with Cowart as moderator. In March the Greensboro Bahá'í sponsored a series - second of which was at the home of F. Kimball Kinney with talk by Cowart.

1963 was centered on the Bahá'í World Congress as the "Most Great Jubilee" for Cowart.^p.104–5 She recalled a call-out among Bahá'ís "See you in, Baghdad in '63" though it hadn't worked out that way.^p.105 A group of Bahá'ís in Greensboro including Cowart were profiled in the newspaper with a picture. The article names several Bahá'ís from Greensboro who were going - 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. Cowart recalled she did a tour for several days before the congress accompanied by Sarah Jeffries out as far as seeing Stonehenge.^p.105 She reacted to the news of the election of the Universal House of Justice as a deep confirmation of her sense that the guidance of God was still in the world.^p.107 The next mention of Cowart was in October when she gave a talk and was profiled in the newspaper of White Plain, NY. A couple weeks later Cowart gave a talk at UNCG for a meeting on UN Day of all the clubs involved with the previous year’s tours of the UN, and then Cowart and William Maxwell Jr talked at Green Acre for 3 day conference in late December.

In April 1964 Cowart gave a talk in Milwaukee, WI. In August Cowart conducted a 3 day institute chaired by Shinji Yamamoto and hosted by Arden Lee in Appleton, WI in August, in La Crosse, WI, YWCA for World Peace Day held in mid-September, back to Appleton a couple days later, and back to La Crosse in another couple days.

Terah (second from left) with members of Jack and Jill of America Inc. at Florida A&M University, 1965.

1964-5 Winter project in Broward County Florida had Cowart among its week long deepening class teachers. In April Cowart was pictured in the newspaper covering a talk of hers in Fort Myers, Florida. A couple weeks later Cowart gave a talk at the Tallahassee chapter of Jack and Jill of America at Florida A&M U. That summer Cowart taught "Guidance in the conduct of life" at the Bahá'í Summer School for the southeast, and in September she gave a talk for World Peace Day in Greensboro.

Bahá'ís held the World Religion Day in mid-January, 1966, with a panel moderated by Cowart and panelists Charles Bullock Jr, Evander Gilmer Jr, Adrienne Gordan, and Charles George, and the panel was sponsored by the Bahá'í A&T College Club. A followup article was a profile of the religion following the World Religion Day event which included the panel at which five spoke, a choir, and noted the proceedings were recorded but only 12 people were in the audience. Chair of the Assembly was Fereydoun Jalali and “the most articulate spokesman” according to the article was Cowart herself. A followup letter to editor co-written by Charles George and Cowart appeared in mid-March. The letter explained it was a weekend of bad weather including the canceling of other meetings, that they were pleased 40 people attended and wanted to offer a few corrections: “not a new religion but religion renewed”, the oneness of religious founders and paraphrased quotes about this, a statement that “The world has never been ready for God’s new messenger.”, and the struggle for peace in a history of war and called on the example of the disciplines of Jesus as the basis of the expansion of the religion around the world.

In April, Cowart's son, Robert S. Smith, died. She took it very hard that he had planned with the family to hide his degenerating leukemia for eleven years and even six months previous when she last saw him.^p.108–9 Cowart informed her family and friends of the memorial. In her autobiography she tells several anecdotes - one of them was while Stanwood Cobb was visiting … "Robert went to the piano and began to improvise. Suddenly Stanwood taped my arm and indicated silence saying, "Listen." He grew very excited and when Robert stopped, he jumped up sewing, "Robert, you weren't playing that!" He replied, "I know." Stanwood: "Well, who was playing it?" Shyly Robert answered, "Bahá'u'lláh."^p.111

In the Fall news of a “peace grove” being planted by Charles George and Cowart, respectively chair and vice chair of the Assembly. In October a Baha'i conference had a talks by Cowart, Ethelinda Merson, Mr. and Mrs. David Thomas (slides), Ruth Moffett, Wayne Hoover, Dorothy Cress, Helen Cantebury, Emma Rice, and Emmanuel Reimer in Portsmouth, NH. In November Cowart wrote a letter to the editor in Greensboro, NC, about peace, power thinking, partisan politics and the upcoming Bahá'í state convention.

January 1967 opens with Cowart giving a talk at home of Nine Matthisen in Fort Myers, FL. Cowart was also visiting her sister Elah and attending an alumni Tea and reception by Beatrice Parker.

That summer Cowart was among those attending the Bahá'í summer school from the Greensboro community. She was the adult discussion group coordinator. In October Cowart gave a talk at the observance of the centenary of Baha'u'llah's proclamation in Greenville, SC.

In February 1968 Cowart was pictured and gave a talk at a UU meeting in Fort Myers, Florida, as well as at the home of Nina Matthisen, while being a guest of her sister Elah and William Lau. She also gave a talk "The psychology of spiritual growth" noted in the Florida State Flambeau.

A year and some months later Cowart was among the speakers at a humanity service award by the Augusta, GA and Richmond County Baha'is. In September Cowart gave talks at the home of Donald and Mrs. Field in Oswego for Oswego and Mexico towns in NY State and then at the College at Oswego for the Baha’i College Club. A few days later Cowart gave a talk at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Kraus in Geneva, NY, having come from recently from Green Acre perhaps in the summer before going to Oswego.

There is no known mention of Cowart in 1970 in the newspapers. Her autobiography refers to her moving into a senior public housing facility and recalled it being the first integrated housing unit of the city.^p.112 Despite the integrated situation she observed "My hope was that more opportunities for proclaiming the significance of the New Age would develop. I underestimated the depth of the strange sleep of heedlesness into which people have sunk. Teaching by word has been negligible so I resorted to example." She served as president of the residents' council for the next five years.^p.112 In 1971 Cowart was among the Bahá'ís of Greensboro going on the shipboard Caribbean Conference with Avvie Gordon, and Kimball Kinney. Cowart mentions it in her autobiography.^p.112 She thought she knew about 80 of the more than 600 people on board. That Fall Cowart wrote a letter to editor about racism and integration. In 1974 Cowart mentions taking some classes learning Transcendental Meditation and in 1975 embarked on the journaling technique advanced by Ira Progoff.^p.112–3

Then it would be four years before Cowart was mentioned in the newspapers again. She spoke at a meeting in High Point, NC. That August Cowart was the keynote speaker for a National Organization for Women "NOW" meeting on “First Martyr for Women’s Rights” (perhaps about Tahirih.) The following year Cowart gave a course at Green Acre on history, and lead the devotional plans.

Her sister Ela Cowart Lau died in 1978. The obituary noted Elah had graduated from Milledgeville College and gained a master's degree at Columbia University in NY and at the time of her death counted two living brothers and three sisters when she died in Fort Myers, FL.

Circa 1980-1, Cowart published her autobiography “Terah” and some pages were published in the Baha'i News.

Cowart's ex-husband died in 1985. He was Unitarian Universalist, active in Planned Parenthood, Rotaries, and a teacher.

Cowart ends her autobiography "At age eighty-two instead of putting a cap on fulfillment, the work of the journal when coupled with the joyous privilege of intoning the verses of God, extends the daily vista along the destined path to the Open Door. And I look forward to the time when it will swing wide for my entrance into the All-Highest Paradise of deathless splendor."^p.114 Cowart died in November 1989 in Greensboro.

References

Bahai.media has a related page: Category:Terah Cowart Smith