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Robert Durr’s life traces a notable arc through early‑20th‑century Black America—one shaped by education, ministry, journalism, civic activism, and ultimately the Bahá’í Faith. Born in rural Mississippi at the turn of the century, Durr’s earliest documented appearance is his 1918 World War I draft registration, which places him as a student at the Piney Woods Institute, a school founded on Booker T. Washington’s model of Black self‑help, and which attracted white contributions. His youth was marked by family hardship, agricultural labor, and a deep commitment to education—so deep that he later recalled his mother’s pledge to fund his schooling as one of the defining moments of his life. “It was the most important thrilling moment,” he said, reflecting on her sacrifice.

By 1920, Durr had already begun a career that blended ministry, writing, and community leadership. He taught school in Mississippi, then emerged as a young editor and columnist for the Des Moines Bystander, where he also served as a practicing minister and civic organizer. His early career was ambitious but not without setbacks: in 1925, he and his wife were jailed in Mississippi after a failed business venture, a difficult episode that barely preceded the birth of their first son.

The 1930s and early 1940s saw Durr become a major figure in Birmingham’s Black press and civic life. He edited The Christian Reformer, wrote for national Black newspapers, led social‑service initiatives, organized interracial programs, and became a visible advocate for economic uplift, anti‑lynching reform, and community self‑improvement. His editorials were reprinted across the country, and he moved from Lutheran church community, to AME, Independent ME, a nondenominational church, Baptists, and then Congregational church circles—evidence of both his ecumenical spirit and his search for a religious worldview adequate to the crises of the Depression, World War II, and the Black community experiences through those times. A keystone moment was the presentation of a Bahá'í exhibition at the American Negro Exposition in Chicago, including a model of the Bahá'í House of Worship.

Beginning in late 1942, Durr’s newspaper, The Birmingham Weekly Review, growing to be the largest Black newspaper of Alabama, began publishing articles on Bahá’í teachings, especially on race unity. In early 1943, he openly endorsed the ideas of Bahá’í writer Alice Simmons Cox, writing that "common suffering, common service, common hopes, will bring us all together." Over the year, his editorials increasingly explicitly echoed Bahá’í principles, and in early 1944, he was accepted as a member and then was elected to the Birmingham Bahá’í Spiritual Assembly. His wife was noted as a new member of the Bahá'í community as well, and in just a few years, a daughter was publicly debuted as a young lady and a Bahá'í herself. His activity in initiatives and published editorials led to his emergence as one of the most active African‑American Bahá’í public voices in and beyond the South. His editorials linked Christian ethics with Bahá’í universalism, arguing that humanity faced a spiritual crisis requiring a new vision of unity. One wartime editorial, later highlighted by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, insisted that defeating fascism was not enough—“the whole world must go through a spiritual renewal.”

By the late 1940s, Durr had become a regional Bahá’í speaker, a nationally syndicated columnist whose work had earned congratulations from President Harry S. Truman twice, including an honorary Wilkie Award in Black journalism. His life stands as a vivid example of how African‑American religious, intellectual, and civic traditions intersected with the Bahá’í message of racial unity and global peace during a transformative era in American history.

Born and raised

The earliest available record of Robert Durr presently is when he registered for the military draft for world War I on September 9, 1918. It noted his birth as July 14, 1899, however his 1942 draft registration places his birth July 14, 1898. The 1918 mention notes he was a student at Piney Woods Institute as it was known in early days, in Braxton, Mississippi, along with his mother, Maggie Durr, at the same address as his permanent address. The school had been founded in 1909, following the Booker T. Washington approach to Black education, led here by Laurence C. Jones, a graduate of the University of Iowa. Piney Woods Institute expanded in 1912, when Durr was 13, with the donations of a White lumberer. The town itself dates back just to 1889. In his young years, Durr is mentioned aiding his father farming. In 1921, Durr referred to the pledge his mother made of funding his education after his father had refused to do so as his most important thrilling moment. A later booklet includes pictures of the Institute, and people visiting, from before 1914 to 1917. Early and distinguished African American Bahá'í, Louis Gregory, is visible with Dr. Jones standing in front of the second boys dormitory, of the period, though perhaps Durr didn't note it - there are no mentions of this in Durr's history yet found. It is known Gregory was on his second visit at HBCU Tuskegee Institute amid a tour of 14 states in 1916, at the invitation of Booker T. Washington. Circa 1930, it was reported that the institute was strongly associated with the Missouri Synod of Lutherans, and not welcoming of Bahá'í activities, though contacts were made. Gregory returned there in 1936.

The February 3, 1920, US Census reports Durr was living amidst his extended family in Simpson County, Mississippi, as son of Wilson and Maggie Durr. Durr was then a teacher at the Common School.

Beginning Editor

In May 1920, Durr was on the staff of, and wrote an article for, the Des Moines Bystander, in Iowa, and was noted as a practicing minister, (note the Bystander archive is 1894–1921 only.) With the increasing visibility, interest in his background rose, and there was mention of his background with the Piney Woods School. In September, he gave a talk for the AME church. In October, Durr was at a conference, and continued to author columns closing out the year.

February, 1921, it was announced that Durr was a founding officer of the Des Moines Business Men's League. From January Durr was planning a trip to Buxton, MS. It was part of a tour of Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, to the south in Mississippi, Tennessee, all across the first half of 1921. Coverage in Dallas, Texas, noted his activity organizing activities in Des Moines, including reporting on a writing contest for students.

The available collection of The Bystander ends in 1921. There remains no coverage yet found of Durr across 1922 to early 1925.

Tests and Truth

1925 came with some challenges. Durr was no longer with the Bystander and he and his pregnant wife were jailed in August 1925. He had attempted to found a groceries business, a beauty college, and the Southern Register newspaper in Jackson, Mississippi, a town not far from his birth and youth. He had delayed on shipping groceries in the business until there was a larger group of customers, and there was a complaint that led to the warrant for him. While he was away, his wife turned herself in, was arrested, and then eventually he turned himself in as well. They had been in jail some months when newspaper coverage began. Son Robert Jr was born December 23, 1925, in Birmingham, Alabama.

In September, 1929, Durr was reported as the new editor of The Christian Reformer of the Independent Methodist Episcopal Churches of Missouri in Birmingham. In November, an editorial of Durr's was first published in the Chicago Defender, a Black newspaper with a national reputation. By this time, he served as general secretary of the Independent Methodist Episcopal Church of America based in Birmingham.

With the beginning of the Great Depression, the April 1930 US Census placed Durr and his family renting a home on 1^st St in Birmingham, Alabama, for $12 a month, ($233 in 2025 dollars.) It noted him employed as a porter in a department store, and the family hosted a lodger. In newspapers, Durr was reported as president of the General Cooperative Society of Birmingham, working on all kinds of business entrepreneurship for African Americans. In October, he initiated a program helping to feed the public for Thanksgiving. Come Christmas time, Durr was a Black Santa. Closing out 1930, Durr founded a nondenominational Truth Church on Eighth Ave N, "fulfilling human needs physically, politically, and educationally as well as spiritually,” and associated with the Social Service Institute also on that street. By May, 1931, the Truth Church was providing legal aid centers in cooperation with Good Will Industrial Relief Center. In June, Durr helped lead an interacial interdenominational Bible school, and in August was promoting Church assistance for the unemployed, and was personally supporting a local women's initiative.

In July, 1932, Durr was visible promoting recreational activities to the Black community.

Editor of The Birmingham World and then the Weekly Review newspapers

1933-35

In the depths of the Great Depression, Durr was visible with The Birmingham World by May 1933, and the beautification focus in Birmingham began with gardens. The circulation for the Birmingham World was 8,800, at the time the largest Black newspaper of the state. In June, Durr's editorial on the beautification project in the World was echoed in the Birmingham News. Through the summer, Durr was still advancing the cleanup campaign in general, and the gardening campaign specifically.

In the fall and into the winter approaching 1934, Durr joined whites and blacks in signing a petition over lynchings that had happpened in early August in neighboring Tuscalooosa aimed specifically at the county Judge and Sheriff and staff, and broader reforms to be sent to President Roosevelt, supporting sending a delegation to meet with the governor, while Durr played a roll not among the sides of the conflict of vested interests that carried on the rest of the year.

By April, 1934, Durr was editorializing at the Weekly Review, mentioned via other newspapers - at first the Atlanta Daily World, though the Weekly Review collection available at Newspapers.com and other places dates only from 1940. The circulation of the Weekly Review grew to 11,900 - the largest African American newspaper of the state in the period. In October, the Durrs circulated socially in the area.

By September 1935, Durr was mentioned in The Chicago Defender coverage when he spoke to Dallas County teachers in Alabama. In November, he was mentioned among speakers at the National Negro Achievement Week events held by the Omega Psi Phi association in Birmingham. In December, Durr initiated a drive for Black businesses in Alabama (and this was covered in the New Pittsburgh Courier, another newspaper with a national reputation.)

1936-38

Durr was mentioned among speakers at the New Year's Emancipation Day program in Birmingham. In February, he presented the silver cup of appreciation of Birmingham ministers to Rev. J. C. Cunningham of Macedonia Baptist Church. He did the same thing in Prat, Iowa, for Rev. J. T. Shirley of First Baptist Church there in April. The New York Age, another Black newspaper with a national reputation, published an article by Durr in May. In July, he donated to the Dave Evans White Negros Boys Home, run by the Boys Club, and in September the Durrs hosted a wedding shower at their new home in Titusville, a neighborhood of middle-class African American families in Birmingham. In December, Durr was visible with the Pythian Knights. He was appointed an assistant to the director of the Community Chest, a predecessor of United Way. He joined in a Baptist church choir opening January 1937, and the Durrs hosted guests from Tuskegee. In February he was a speaker at the YWCA conference in Birmingham. In September, Durr aided a Baptist Convention in Birmingham, and he closed out the year helping to found the Civic League in Troy.

In June 1938 he was among many visitors of the Chicago Defender branch office in Birmingham. In July, Durr was a sponsor of the Birmingham Diamond Jubilee. In November, he was among the speakers at the First Congregational Church for an open period to speak on human problems.

1939-1942

Durr was again a speaker for Emancipation Day in Birmingham in January 1939. In May, Durr, as reverend of the AME Greater Mixon Tabernacle Church, suggested a plan of reforming the AME's infrastructure - to consolidate all AME colleges into two, make one newspaper from the three they ran, reduce the number of elders to circulate among four churches per quarter and have time to initiatives without taking on debt, kick out politicians and detach from lukewarm associations, and to stop being an employment agency for ministers to have their means provided and seek independent means. Aside from coverage in the Defender, attention circulated other newspapers too. In July, he led the Black community Community Chest, and in August gave a talk for the dedication of the integrated workforce behind a employees cottage of the American Cast Iron and Pipe Co (ACIPCO). In October, Durr was mentioned on the organizing committee for the local NAACP meeting. In rare visibility, Mrs Durr was seen assisting the PTA of Tuggle School in November. A week later Durr also spoke at a PTA, and then preached at Mixon Temple memorial for Malachi Wilkerson, a teacher at Parker HS. In December, Durr was still noted as an AME minister, and coordinating social agencies in Birmingham. Durr was also the secretary of the Better Business Builders and presented the Miss Birmingham Queen for 1939.

Opening 1940, Durr was among a committee that dedicated the Sixth Ave Baptist Church to Mary E. Strong businesswoman. Daughter Carldine was born 23 January 1940, (noted in the upcoming Census as son Carl Dean) In February, he was the guest speaker at the town Weatley Society meeting, and wrote on issues of public policy on Anti-Lynching motivations. Still in February, Durr was noted joining a Tuskegee committee to arrange a Negro Boy Camp. In March, he joined in the Tuggle School program and gave a talk for a medical group. The April 1940 US Census has Durr, owner of a home noted worth $2500, ($58000 in 2025 dollars,) the same address he and his family had lived in 1935, on 12th Ave N, Birmingham. His family consisted of his wife, Olivia, (born circa 1908) and 6 children: Robert Jr (14, born circa 1926), Gloria (10, born circa 1930), Joyce (7, born circa 1933,) Delight (5, born circa 1935,) Carver (2, born circa 1938), "Carl Dean" (2 months old,) and they were living with Durr's sister, Elloverture, (20 yrs younger than Robert, born circa 1920). Durr was an usher at a society wedding in June.

Durr later mentions that the first he heard of the Bahá'í Faith was from an exhibition in Chicago "several" years before 1944, certainly the American Negro Exposition of the summer of 1940, featuring a model of the Bahá'í House of Worship. There were estimates some 200,000 would have access to the Exposition, celebrating the 75th anniversary of Emancipation (known at Juneteenth.) A "Bahá'í Night" was arranged, with publicity for August 22, featuring paired speakers, white and black, at which some 600 attended, organized through the national Race Unity Committee. Such a model was made for the 1920 National Bahá'í Convention, and such models were circulated to exhibits in the late 1930s and early 1940s, though no other external mention of this exhibit in Chicago has yet been found. By 1942 (see below) Durr's newspaper was printing articles on the Faith.

Back in the South, in October, Minister Durr gave a talk at Tuskegee on the “Religion of Tomorrow", and was among attendees of the Community Chest reception. News quickly spread that Durr was leading a Negro Exposition in Birminham echoing the national Exposition, at which Mary McLeod Bethune spoke; he chaired the executive board to bring it, at which some 5000 attended. It is unknown if this included the Bahá'í exhibition.

In January 1941, Durr wrote an article on Bethune, and the national Baptists convention commended Durr's work. In May, Durr spoke to the idea of a racially integrated localchoir on the radio, and in June he also commented on social division and unity challenges. That same month, Durr was noted among speakers at a youth work project in Birmingham. Come September, the Durrs were among a group trip to Atlanta.

Minding the Attack on Pearl Harbor, and the subsequent declaration of war in December 1941, on February 14, 1942, Durr registered for the military draft, marking his permanent address as in Magee, MS, in the same county as Braxton. He then lived on 12th Ave N, and his point of contact was Carl W. Durr, self-employed, at 1622 4th Ave N, Birmingham. Later in February, Durr was one of 28 newspaper editors advising the National Negro Newspaper Week commemorating the 115th anniversary of Black newspapers. In March Mrs. Durr was visible at a club meeting, and Durr was part of a Tuskegee chapter fair in Birmingham. The month, the Durrs took a trip to Anniston, Alabama. In April the Durrs were also part of a reception for the USO, a non-profit that provides live entertainment to members of the United States Armed Forces and their families. In July, Mrs. Durr and children were back from attending to her mother. In September, Durr was part of a regional church election, and named editor of the Religious Freedom Journal of the Council of Community Church of America. Meanwhile, there is a fragment of a mention of a Bahá'í made in the Weekly Review when Elizabeth Baker from Ohio was mentioned having given a talk on September 10, 1942, at a home. As yet, there are no mentions of Elizabeth Baker found.

In December, a letter and resolution from the Citizens Committee on Jobs and Training in Birmingham, Alabama, was sent to Governor-elect Chauncey Sparks in Montgomery, Alabama, which included Durr. Almost closing out the year, Durr was noted visiting Washington DC and Durham, NC.

The Bahá'ís

1942-1943

Minding that Durr had been associated with Lutherans, AME, Independent ME, a nondenominational church, Baptists, and Congregational denominations, on December 19, 1942, Durr's newspaper published a profile of Bahá'ís written by Alice Simmons Cox. Cox, a Bahá'í since around 1934, had begun publishing the first mass-produced Bahá'í compilation on the issue of race in the World Order magazine published by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States in the late 1930s and was published as a book Race and Man in 1942, along with newspaper articles like this in various newspapers. This Weekly Review publication was followed on January 9, 1943, when Durr wrote an editorial including comments on the Cox article, after eulogizing Washington Carver: "I agree with Alice S. Cox of the Race Unity Committee of the National Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States and Canada who says: 'We feel that the rapid course of events thoughout the world at the present time will weld and fuse the races of mankind. Common suffering, common service, common hopes, will bring us all together….' It is our feeling that even though some men are not able to keep pace with time, that certain things are ordained to happen at certain times and that no matter what we do those things will just happen and by and large because of the diversity of people in the United States we will in the long run be able to somehow stand the storm of life, because we will not only conceive of the importance of loving our brothers as ourselves, but that our survival depends on our ability to love our brothers more than ourselves.…" A more general profile of Baha’is in early February by Durr is published included comments of hearing a talk on the Faith, mention of the well-known introductory text on the religion, Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era, again mentioning the Cox's article. The same edition of the newspaper included another article by Cox, which was followed by another in later February.

In April, Durr was part of a conference on Black journalism in Birmingham. A week later, a third article on the Faith is published as a summary of the Bahá'í view of race unity, (although the available clipping is just a fragment.) A letter to the editor of the Review comments on the Bahá'ís by Gordon Handcock was published in May. In August, Durr was named a director of the Board of Alabama State Federation of Colored Civic Leagues. Durr responded to sessions of the Biennial Council of Community Churches conference in Chicago, and Durr returned to the principles of the Bahá'í Faith, saying: "This to my mind is at least an ideal toward which the best should strive - an ideal toward which the best MUST strive or die. I use the word MUST because the move toward that which is better can not be permanently arrested, when the time comes for a change for the better to be made it is like the sun shining on a seed in the Spring - the seed must SPROUT or ROT.…” and then quotes from the Guardian: "'The unity of the human race, as envisaged by Baha'u'llah, implies the establishment of a world commonwealth in which all nations, races, creeds and classes are closely and permenently united, and in which the autonomy of its state members and the personal freedom and initiative of the individuals that compose them are definitely and completely safeguarded.…'" Come August, Durr was among those present at the Community Church national meeting in Chicago, and returned in September.

Durr was part of a War Bonds dedication of a bomber in October. and a noted editorial by Durr was published, speaking of the money spent on war instead of "an appreciation of the Fatherhood of God, but also the Brotherhood of man", looked at the world's situation rising to a civilizational crisis affecting each person, not just at large. He goes on to decry materialism, selfishism, and a lack of appreciation of God. "In [a] society which Jesus posits where we love our neighbor, as we love ourselves, we could get along with our neighbor and ourselves, for we would no longer be at conflict with our neighbor or ourselves. Our natures would be fulfilled." That society has been seeking a "new social order"; "It is the kind of society struggling to be born. In the meantime society is showing the symptoms of what is struggling to be born by what it is bringing forth- the mishapen, born-out-of due time children - Fascis[sic], Nazism, and Communism.… […We] move away from selfish materialism to a new center…. Hence the ideological war.… The Christians has[sic] the answer, and it is the only one, as far as I can see who does have it. He is the one man who, outside the Bahai's who views humanity as a whole, the one man who loks[sic] on man as a man, 'a man for whom Christ died.' Jesus said, 'One is your Father, and all ye are brethren' - God as Father and the world a family." This editorial has also been pointed to by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, in Washington DC, saying, though Durr had been a Christian minister for years, the newspaper was not affiliated with a church, and that "Durr’s editorial argues that it was not enough to defeat Nazi Germany—the whole world must go through a spiritual renewal." Durr's editorial stances have been described in part of a PhD covering 1933 to 1946, ie mostly before identifying as a Bahá'í. Durr is described as disfavoring the CIO workers union, which at the time included communists, Durr being against the communist inclinations, instead favoring black and white business owners, praising Booker T. Washington and the Tuskegee Institute, albeit sometimes more "militant" in his editorials, and sometimes chastising the poor and lauding personal advancement. He equated fascism with white supremacy and argued in this sense that the war deserved support. He spoke out against lynching as being against a "Greater Law" than man-made ones of all kinds. There is no mention of his identifying as a Bahá'í.

It is unsettled when Durr identified as a Bahá'í and was recognized as a member. Archival records begin with mention of Durr being elected to the Bahá'í Local Spiritual Assembly of Birmingham in 1944, adding his wife as a recognized member of the religion, and noting they had lapsed in informing the national Bahá'í membership rolls of them already. But late 1943 seems likely for when he identified as a Bahá'í, and was locally accepted into the community.

Bahá'í Elizabeth Cheney wrote a letter to the editor published in the Review on race issues in December. Also, that month, Durr was in a plea for funding for rec center opportunity serving the Black community.

1944

Opening 1944, Durr was among speakers at a high school graduation service in February. Also in February, records indicate Durr was elected to the Birmingham assembly in a by-election, with jurisdiction over activties in the region for community activities like public talks, holy day observances, classes for children, and the like, and that his wife was recognized a a Bahá'í in March. There was also a small comment in the Review commending seeing the Bahá'í House of Worship in Chicago. In May, Durr reviewed and extensively quotes 'Abdu'l-Bahá on "the reality of man is his thought…" The Birminham Post and the Birmingham News noted the Bahá'ís going to the national convention for the Centennial of the Declaration of the Báb, included 9 Bahá'ís with Durr and the delegate, Gertrude Gerwertz. While in Chicago, Durr visited his son. Amid this coverage, an article in the Review emphasizing the anniversary of the birth of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, (instead of the Declaration of the Báb,) and that was followed by mentions through June remembering 'Abdu'l-Bahá's journey in the US.

In July, the Bahá'í Assembly of Birmingham was noted donating to the YWCA. In August, Bahá'í Charles Mason Remey visited the city, and gave a talk about the Faith. In September, Durr was visible amid Community Chest fundraising. In November, Ruth Taylor, a national columnist associated with the Weekly Review, addressed the Bahá'ís. A couple of weeks later, Durr mentioned the Bahá'ís in an editorial on the importance of employment, linking it with Booker T. Washington's emphasis: "…there is a war going on. It is a total war and idleness or just being busy instead of working is sabotage. Peace will not come to the world until all men [make] work a part of their religious worship." The following Sunday, homefront pioneer Nina Howard, (previously visible in the group going to the National Bahá'í Convention,) was to give a talk at the Bahá'í Center, located at in the building at 1828 3rd Ave N, (in 1946 she returned to the San Francisco area.) A week later, Durr himself was scheduled to give talks for the Faith as part of a tour in Georgia, Tennessee and Mississippi in December. In December, Durr was visible as secretary of the Alabama state Bahá'í convention committee for 1945. The same month, David Ruhe came to Birmingham and gave a talk at the Center. Meanwhile Bahá'í Nellie Roche in Nashville is published in the Review as a contact for published material such as the Bahá'í hopes and the new United Nations. A week later, Durr gave a talk in Atlanta, and was personally profiled, including him as a Bahá'í. He gave a talk at the Atlanta Bahá'í Center. Closing out the year, Bahá'í Edris Rice-Wray came to Birmingham and gave a talk at the Center as well.

1945

From then the Weekly Review began to regularly include the Bahá'í or Bahá'í subjects in columns. January 1945 opens with a summary/review of God Passes By by Shoghi Effendi, though the article lacks explicit authorship. The same edition included an obituary for Memphis African-American Bahá'í George W. Henderson. A weekly later Durr again reviews world issues of ideology with Nazism, Fascism, and Communism, limiting who they serve, the need to be universal in our raising up humanity and said: "The society posited by Christ and the Bahai[sic] teachings of this day is the answer - for the right future." In February, Durr contacted the US Bahá'í National Assembly with the idea of founding a mainstream Bahá'í inspired newspaper devoted to audiences across racial lines, "a newspaper whose features and editorials would reflect the thinking of folk of all races and nations with an international outlook.…" requesting that "…each real Bahai in the West were advised of my desire in this connection coupled with an expression from the National Spiritual Assembly suggesting that each adult Bahai give me a one or two year subscription for the Weekly Review." The National Assembly, through its secretary, responded in March that it, with "utmost respect for and sympathy", "We share with you the thought that the great cause of race unity can well be served at this time by the development of a newspaper along such lines.… However,… the National Assembly has refrained from calling upon the body of the believers to contribute to any activity of an individual believer.… that any other expenses [an individual believer] may incur in connection with the Cause are of his own voluntary choices." They also pointed out the nature of the service of the Baha'i News periodical, then in publication along these lines. However, the National Spiritual Assembly offered to subscribe to Durr's newspaper. Meanwhile, Myrtle Barnes was noted visiting from Jackson, Mississippi, and gave a talk at the Birmingham Bahá'í Center. A few days later, the Durrs were visible at a regional conference of newspaper publishers in New Orleans. In March, Bahá'í John Inglis gave a talk at the Birmingham Center, officiated by Mrs. Durr, and Martha Fetting was the reporter. In April, Durr and the whole local assembly filled out paperwork to be incorporated. A thank-you letter from Durr in May indicates he had been to Chicago, and while there he had met with members of the National Assembly, and mentions he had received a letter from Shoghi Effendi to contact the national Bahá'í Publishing Committee about some ideas he had from experience in Black newspaper publishing though it might take time to advance into a concrete proposal. In return, he received a thank-you from the National Assembly, and that "…we want you to feel that all possible encouragement and cooperation will always be extended," and gave him a copy of the Baha'i Centenary book produced for the 1944 anniversary of the Faith.

In September, the Bahá'ís were among a multifaith review of brotherhood published in the Review. Meanwhile, Durr was among presentations on peace in Nashville. In October, Bahá'í Jean Chandler gave a talk at the Birmingham Center, with Rose Terry Brown presiding at the meeting. Chandler was soon a professor at HBCU Miles College in nearby Fairfield, and Brown was a local director of health public, and they were both Delta Sigma Theta members.

In November, Bahá'í Margaret Ruhe came to Birmingham and gave a talk at the Bahá'í Center as well.

1946

Announced back in December, there was a forum by both Bahá'ís John Inglis and Robert Durr in a 'debate' on the issue of "The Negroes Future in America is Brighter today than Thirty Years Ago". In March, Bahá'í Harlan Ober gave a talk that was also summarized briefly in the Review while Inglis gave a talk on radio WTNB. This was soon followed by Durr being among the speakers at a service for African-American veterans of World War II, and then a week later at an Atlanta public meeting for the Bahá'ís on January 13. In February, Durr gave a talk at Huntsville's A&M College, and African-American Joy Hill Earl gave firesides in Birmingham. That month, Durr helped form a Negro Newspaper Week in Birmingham. and spoke at a conference of Baptist ministers.

In March, Durr attended the National Negro Publishers Association, founded by then Defender publisher John H. Sengstacke, realizing a dream of his uncle, and Bahá'í, Robert Sengstacke Abbott(1870-1940), meeting with President Truman at the White House. That month, Durr wrote an article published in Minneapolis, and in St. Paul. He was also in a regional Negro Publishers Association conference in Memphis. While in Jackson, Mississippi, closing March, Durr spoke at HBCU Jackson College with Joy Hill Earl for the Bahá'ís, and then went on to Tougalo College to give a similar presentation "with equal fire and brilliance". The tour continued to New Orleans, and back to Jackson, Mississippi. Meanwhile, in Birmingham, Gertrude Gewer gave a talk at the Bahá'í Center. Durr editorials began being published through the National Negro Press Association in the Cleveland Call and Post and carried on through the year. Meanwhile, the Durrs were guests in New York city for the 'Negro Newspaper Publishers Association' (likely the National Negro Publishers Association), and, in July, Mrs. Durr was among 11 wives of newspaper publishers at a NAACP reception in Chicago. A couple of weeks later, Durr gave a talk in Atlanta for the Bahá'ís, and sent a letter to the editor of the Atlanta newspaper suggesting raising money for a reward for information on a lynching at 10 times what the governor had proposed. In August, Durr was in communication with the governor of Mississippi with public statements, met with governor, and released comments afterwards. There was commentary of the significance of Durr's views and activity carried in Jackson. In September, a quoted article presents a quote of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Jackson. Durr was among Alabama newspaper editors and publishers who took a position against the Boswell Amendment. The rest of the year, Durr editorials were published in the Jackson Advocate again through the National Negro Publishers Association. In December, Durr was secretary of the Alabama state Bahá'í convention committee for the 1947 delegate to the national convention. An editorial of Durr's was published in the Chicago Defender closing out the year, highlighting a "moral watchdog" service to provide materials to politicians of the needs and concerns of the Black community in the "Deep South".

1947

Opening the year, Durr's article upon visiting Lillian Smith was partially quoted in World Order, and a remaining editorial was published in the Jackson Advocate. Personally, Durr gave a talk at the YMCA in Knoxville and noting the NNPA reached 67 newspapers. In Birmingham, the Baha'is commemorated the anniversary of the reading of the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá naming Shoghi Effendi head of the Faith. Shortly, Durr and The Weekly Review hosted an Alabama Press Association meeting to produce a memorandum on the needs of African Americans “as human beings” for governor-elect James E. Folsom, open to allowing white members to join, while the governor was seeking a Commission on Minority Affairs, and they also proposed making the KKK illegal and raising a fair employment commission. Durr also appeared at Alabama Extension Workers Conference in Bessemer. Closing out January, Philip Marangella and Durr gave a talk at New Orleans YWCA on Gravier St. and then later at the St. Charles Hotel. The talk in New Orleans was also briefly summarized with quotes in The Times-Picayune.

In February, Durr wrote of speaking before an integrated audience, an evening in Atlanta, hearing of negative legislation initiatives on race, and apologized for the election of Gene Talmadge for governor and his initiatives. Durr's editorial continued to be published in Cleveland Call and Post and went on into 1948. Meanwhile, Durr co-represented Governor James Folsom of Alabama along with Mrs. Gaillard at the National Freedom Day commemoration of the adoption of the 13th Amendment, and reported on the name. In an editorial published in The Chicago Defender, Durr estimated he may have lost the opportunity of earning some $100,000 over 15 yrs in his efforts to sustain minority development and emancipation. Overall, he gives examples of the progress of a people who rally in support of people who fight such oppressions and the lists notables who have died in this effort - Lincoln, Jesus, "Bahauallah"[sic], and Monroe Trotter. Closing February, Durr was in testimonial dinner in Jackson, and unfortunately the home of his parents burned down, while, at the same time, Durr received an honorary mention in the Wendell Willkie National Award, for individual writing in Negro Journalism, from President Truman. Durr published a general review of comments from the dinner reception entitled The Negro Press: Its Character, Development and Function. It stars with comments of P. B. Young, Sr., publisher of the Norfolk Journal and Guide, a winner of the Wilkie Award, including "We make no claims to perfection. The Negro press is made up of human beings, whose emotional reactions are similar to those of people whose skins are of different pigmentation. Among us are Republicans, Democrats, Protestants and Catholics, Baha’is, conservatives and radicals. Different members of our press hold different views on methods and techniques for extricating the race from the network of discriminatory devices designed to keep us in a permanent status of second-class citizenship. But there is no difference of opinion on the part of any of the members of the Negro press as to the necessity for rising above second-class citizenship, and the determination to do so.” Later in the booklet, Durr adds some comments including: "The Negro press looks out upon the world as one country and mankind its citizens. It strives to remind us that as men everywhere seek freedom, there must be a growing realization that as long as men are not free everywhere, men are not free anywhere; therefore it seeks to impress upon the Negro people the importance of wanting and seeking integration and participation in the making and administration of the laws under which they must live on all levels. And that without such integration and participation, they are not free." The booklet also includes comments of President Truman such as: "Our press in general has outgrown the provincialism, the narrow isolationism, of another era. It has accepted as its province Wendell Willkie’s 'One World.’ The more than sixty Negro newspapers show an understandable concern with the problems of relationship between the races. From the columns of the Negro press example after example can be cited of reporting and editorial writing which deal with these problems in the courageous and constructive manner that we expect of the best of our journalism."

Since February, above, Durr's editorials were published in the Defender, which had previously occurred sporadically, but now were to appear about weekly from April. Opening March, Durr wrote of dropping race from names of organizations to avoid making a virtue a vice. He came upon this idea while hearing speakers in Philadelphia, Birmingham, and New Orleans which were “Negro speeches for Negroes” verses what he experienced at the Freedom Day Celebration in Philadelphia which contrasted talks by elders, as above, whereas those by youth that didn’t. He then praised the cause of “making ourselves finer human beings - not finer Negroes nor Caucasians”. In Birmingham, Harlan Ober returned and was pictured in the Review about giving a talk, which was summarized along with noting John Inglis giving a talk on radio WTNB. Durr wrote about winning the honorary Willkie Award, published in the Defender, followed by another entitled "Economic and Political Slaver". Ending March, Durr was coming back to Jackson,

In April, in Birmingham, Durr was a judge at Beauty contest, and chaired the Negro Advisory Council for Community Chest. In the Defender Durr also introduced new editor Lucius C Harper. In May, the court case in Mississippi in which Durr had commented on was reversed. Durr was a speaker among a forum for the Jefferson County Negro Teachers Association meeting.

In July Durr sent a personal letter to Harlan Ober, former member of the National Assembly, suggesting a loan to him, in the pattern of white's helping blacks, would be taken care of even in the event of Durr's death, and outlines his local position as a leader of cross-racial activities - being chair of the Negro Advisory Council to the Community Chest, asked by the governor to form a commision on Negro welfare and represent him to the national conference in Philadelphia, won a Wendell Willkie Awards for Negro Journalism in 1946.

Editorials continued to be published through the end of the years in the Cleveland Call and Post, and in The Chicago Defender.

In October, Durr gave a talk among the Mississippi Division of the Southern Regional Council conference. In November, comments on his book Black Journalism were published in the Call and Post.

One of Durr's editorials for the Defender in November on the Oneness of humanity garnered some responses even in other newspapers in a few states. Closing out the year, there were mentions of the Baha'is for talks on radio WBRC, in Birmingham, a comment that Durr was checking the accessibility of the Chamber of Commerce amid attention to race integration, and an editorial by Durr in the Omaha Star reporting on the requirement of Black jurors that briefly mentions Baha'is among religions.

1948

Durr's editorials continued to be published in the Cleveland Call and Post to the summer of 1948, and in The Chicago Defender.

In a February editorial, Durr addresses the beginning of the decay of the separate-but-equal segregated educational system at the Supreme Court, that it is bad for whites as well as blacks, as well as the actual positive benefits of being educated together but that problems also exist in the training of teachers. Durr makes a passing remark of the unfortunate results of the segregated system that tends to raise atheists who then are a danger to the entire system of civilization. A letter to the editor of the Defender commented on Durr’s editorial, extracting points including some atheists have done better than religious leaders, a point not made in Durr’s letter. The case being addressed by the Supreme Court was Sipuel v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma, from January 1948. This was followed two years later in Sweatt v. Painter and was one of various cases seeking to end the unjust practice.

A late February editorial in The Defender, also garned a comment.

Durr’s column in early March in the Defender looked at land development covenants that force segregation and the revolution that would be though it extends to the banking industry and access to capital, but then gives an example of a successful development bank and then another. The prospects of a lot more bank business if the court rules in favor of access is mentioned. The case being addressed by the Supreme Court was Shelley v. Kraemer from January into May 1948. His next editorial addressed the Southern practices that deaden life, a kind of lynching of black humanity, while on the other hand a federal anti-lynching law is being worked on and being supported by a rejuvenated black church and that there is a broader South that supports such reforms. There are many “Souths” but, “And there is a great body of enlightened whites and blacks in the South who have lost their fear of benighted bigots and who without speech making are going forward to get done what ought be done, and at the same time, making preparation to live together as human beings and American when the day of racists aer over and we shall see emerging in the South a truly New South inhabited by a people - white and black - freed from the shackles of political gangsters, fear of things which don’t convince the world that progress can be made exist, and the spectacle of a region trying to by standing still or marching backward.” And he equates the Soviet threat to be equal to the racist threat. Then “Posited in the teachings of one Baha’u’llah of Persia who founded the Babai’s(sic) Faith about 104 years ago, one will find the answer to the problems which perplex mankind today." Then Durr addresses Britain and its racists systems leaving India to its independence. He then recognizes the UN and its Security Council being limited by its membership and vetoing and lack of police force. Then he observes the Palestinian question and the problem of exploitation, the generalized version of this being one that could plunge the world into the next world war, and the need for us to live with each other. “In the family, the nation(s-ed) of the world, there can be no just security unless unity can be established on the basis of all involved, yielding sufficient sovereignty for an over-all government which it is ever recognized that mankind is one, and that to deal with world problems otherwise makes for division, war and decay." Meanwhile Durr was a speaker in Birmingham at a regional newspapers publisher's conference. and then in May he was in an Urban League meeting.

In May, Durr was named to the World Order editorial board, a publicatin of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States. This news was echoed around. He served through March 1949. Durr's June editorial in the Review was a republication of a World Order article.

Durr's editorials in the Defender continued. An additional editorial was published in the Detroit Tribune in Michigan. Durr personally appeared for an NNPA meeting in Clevelandin later June, and was on the radio there. In July Durr was in a Birmingham Urban League meeting and followups - it turns out Durr was secretery. Meanwhile, another editorial in the Detroit Tribune appeared, this time reviewing the presence of the religion in Haifa, Shoghi Effendi, and offered quotes from "A Pattern for Future Society", And another was published a month later.

In September, the Durrs attended the summer session of the Louhelen Bahá'í School. This was the year of the founding of the local assembly in nearby Davison, who helped work the registration, housing and meals. and tax-exemption for the school was obtained. Among the teachers that summer were Margaret Yeutter, Michael Jamir, Paul Becker, and Firuz Kazemzadeh. Dorothy Baker spoke at the last session of the summer. People attended from nearby Lansing, and farther off Florida. The coordinating committee for 1948-9 was Marguerite True, chair, Helen Eggleston, corresponding secretary, Robert Gaines recording secretary, Bertha Hyde Kirkpatrick, Mrs Clinton Wideman, Arnold Ketels, Paul Pettit, Mrs. Addie Miller, and Phyllis Hall.

Durr's article on AME laymen's movement was published in Jackson, Mississippi, and come October, Elsie Austin was featured in the Weekly Review for being elected to the US National Assembly. After a summer break, Durr's editorials also appeared in the fall in the Cleveland Call and Post. In Birmingham, Glenn Shook gave a talk at the Center in October, and another Durr editorial was quoted in The Baha'i News in November. Daughter Gloria Durr was presented in a debutante reception, listed as a Bahá'í closing out the year.

Despite of all the activity, this was the end of publishing editorials in The Defender, Call and Post, his editorialship service at World Order soon ended, and the occasional editorial in other newspapers, and even in The Weekly Review.

1949 - 1951

Generally there was a great draw-down of editorial activity from 1949. In January, 1949, Durr, representing Alabama, and Elsie Austin, on the national program, were on the programming for national Freedom Day. The obiturary of Bahá'í John Beihart was published in Weekly Review. In May, Durr was among the attendees of the Urban League conference in Atlanta. The Review again featured Elsie Austin, for being re-elected to the national assembly of the Bahá'ís. A brief report details the improvements underway at the Bahá'í Temple now that the superstructure is complete. In November, Mrs Inglis gave a talk, which was also summmarized in the Review, at the Birmingham Bahá'í Center while Mrs Chambliss presided. In December, the Bahá'ís held a World Religion Day observance, while a couple of editorials of Durr's were picked up in the Arckansas State Press in Little Rock.

The April 1950 US Census places the Durrs still on 12th Ave, in apartment 30, Birmingham, with nine children. Only the father was noted as employed - self-employed - at the Weekly Digest. Durr was noted with 4 years of college education. The relatives have earned $264 the previous year through employment and $825 from pensions/rents/interest/etc. Durr was still active with an Urban League initiative, and in the Piney Woods 40th Anniversary publication in 1950. The Arkansas State Press published Durr's last known editorial in September, though an article with Durr's by-line on crime reports & names was published in Jackson. Durr was a member of the Alabama Bahá'í Area Teaching Committee for 1951-1952.

There was an early 1951 notice that Bahá'í Myra Bryant gave a talk on radio WEDR, along with the beginning of a new initiative of Durr's on radio WBCO (later WZGX).

1952

In 1952 Durr carried forward a weekly series of talks on radio WJLN, or WJLD, or both through the year. Amid that presence on the radio, Durr was also visible at Piney Woods, at dedication, and a letter to editor by Durr in The Birmingham News appeared. Later Durr was at a New York Global News Syndicate conference, in late June, and was soon back.

THe series of Durr on the radio then continued.

In August, a Durr editorial appeared in The Omaha Star, and he was visible with the Alabama ninth district campaign, and then a letter to editor of the Jackson Advocate. In September, Durr gave a talk at a Peace Conference, an event covered in many places, and then an editorial by him was published in The Omaha Star.

In September, Durr joined in the founding of an "American Party" (albeit the name has been used many times for political parties,) and innactive, write-in, campaign for president one of who's policy was the full legal equality of the races. It was Durr's comment that included it in the party.

In October, Durr co-lead a book group in Montgomery, and his brief comments on race and politics were also published in The Kansas City Call. Durr made an appearance at a hospital founding fundraiser. Come December, Durr was urged to go to the Kampala Bahá'í Conference, (held across February 11-18, 1953.) in Africa, though it seems he didnt make it, (also see below - one broadcast on the radio was February 13.)

1953

Durr continued his weekly series of appearances now on radio WLBS, later known as WATV, through April, thereafter he was more sporadically listed approaching the fall. Meanwhile, an editorial of his was published/summarized in February, he gave a talk in March entitled "What it means to be a Citizen of the World's Greatest Republic" for a joint a civic and business meeting, and in Fairfield, Alabama, for the NAACP. In April, Durr was listed in the United Negro College Fund fundraising campaign, and an editorial was published in The Miami Times. He also supported a mental health campaign.

A few editorials appeared in various newspapers across August about Africa. In September, Durr was visible at a reception for a speaker from Tuskegee. A few more articles and editorials appeared in a couple of places. In October, Durr gave a talk for "Men's Day" mentioned as "Rev".

In November, a Durr editorial appeared in The Omaha Star, while Durr went to attend an (presumably a gubernatorial) inauguration.

1954

Opening January, 1954, Durr was a guest at a reception in Birmingham, and was on radio WJLD. Mid-January, the Baha'is held World Religion Day, mentioning John Inglis and Durr giving the main talk, and was in a guest at a program on Christman caroling. Durr was again on radio WJLD the end of January.

In early February, Durr was at a business meeting for a civic inter-racial group, the Alabama Southern Regional Council, seeking the integration of public schools. Late in February, there was brief comment of Durr's Birmingham Weekly Review in a local history of journalism. In March, Durr gave talks returning to Jackson College and going beyond to Tougaloo for the Bahá'í Faith. It was his last known public appearance.

Died

Durr died March 13, 1954. He had been in the hospital eight days "critically ill from a reported paralysis attack in the throat,"and buried in a Bahá'í ceremony, along with Baptist minister Rev. Luke Beard doing the eulogy. He was survived by his wife, Mrs. Olivia Durr, three sons Robert D. Durr, Jr., of Albany, New York, Carver Bethune Durr, 17. Eric Durr, 10; six daughters, Mrs. Gloria Durr Samuels, Miss Joyce Durr, Delight Durr, Carl Dean Durr, 14, Rita Durr, 8, Paula Durr, 6, and one grandchild, his parents, four brothers, and two sisters.

Memorials

Various memorials and obituaries were published. The gravesite is listed on Findagrave with a picture of the gravestone.

Daughter Mary E. Attended Piney School

See also

• Durr's entry at BhamWiki
• The Weekly Review (Birmingham, Ala.) 193?-19?? at LOC
• Kolins, Steven (Dec 8, 2024). R. Stockman(Curator) (ed.). "African American Bahá'í newspaper publishers and chief editors, featuring Thelma Thurston Gorham". Webinars. Corinne True Center of Bahá'í History.