# Faith, Protest, and Progress

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> Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: H. Elsie Austin, Faith, Protest, and Progress, bahai-library.com.
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> 2   THE J O U R N A L OF B A H Á ' Í S T U D I E S   8.2.1998
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> H. Elsie Austin
> Atlanta, November 10,1990
> Ninth Hasan M. Balyúzí Memorial Lecture
> 
> Faith, Protest, and Progress*
> H. Elsie Austin
> 
> Abstract
> Spirituality or faith requires individuals to embody the principles and values
> that promote the positive development of human beings and human society.
> Confronted with aspects o f human society that are inconsistent with those
> principles, individuals may be faced with the necessity of protest. Protest does
> not have to mean violence, but rather the courage to reject the false and unjust.
> Such protest based on faith can have a transforming effect on both the
> individual and society. In this essay, examples from the experience of African
> Americans are used to demonstrate the transforming effect on society of
> individual courageous acts.
> 
> Résumé
> La spiritualité ou la foi requiert que les individus manifestent les principes et
> les valeurs qui favorisent l ’épanouissement des êtres humains et de la société
> humaine. Lorsqu’ils sont confrontés à des aspects de la société humaine qui
> sont incompatibles avec ces principes, les individus peuvent devoir recourir à la
> protestation. La protestation ne signifie pas nécessairement de recourir à la
> violence, mais plutôt de rejeter courageusement ce qui est faux et injuste. Une
> telle protestation fondée sur la foi peut avoir un effet transformateur tant sur
> l ’individu que sur la société. Cet article démontre, par des exemples tirés de
> l ’expérience des Américains d ’origine africaine, comment des gestes courageux
> posés par des individus peuvent avoir un effet transformateur sur la société.
> 
> Resumen
> La espiritualidad o fe requiere que los individuos encarnen los principios y
> valores que promueven el desarrollo positivo de los seres humanos y de la
> sociedad humana. Al presentárseles aspectos de la sociedad no consistentes con
> aquellos principios, los individuos quizd se enfrenten con la necesidad de
> protestar. La protesta no necesariamente significa violencia, sino tener el valor
> de rechazar lofalso y lo injusto. Taies protestas basadas en fe pueden efectuar
> una transformación tanto en el individuo como en la sociedad. En esta
> disertaciôn, se busca demostrar ese efecto transformador sobre la sociedad de
> los actos individuales valerosos, usando ejemplos de lo experimentado por los
> americanos de origen africano.
> 
> * Presented as the Ninth Hasan M. Balyúzí Memorial Lecture, at the 15th Annual Conference of
> the Association for Bahà’i Studies, Atlanta, Georgia, November 10, 1990.
> 4          THE J O U R N A L OF B A H À ’ Î S T U D I E S              8.2.1998
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> recall a passage in one of the Bahà’i prayers, which says, “He whom the
> I    grace of Thy mercy aideth, though he be but a drop, shall become the
> boundless ocean . . . ” (Bahà’i Prayers 32). If there is anything of value in what
> you see before you, let us say it is from the grace of God. I am deeply grateful
> to the Association for Bahà’i Studies for the privilege of sharing in the
> consultations of this conference. It is my hope that the follow through of the
> conference, when we all return to our home communities, will motivate us to
> significant attitudes and activities for positive change. My invitation to this
> evening asked me to share with you some of my personal experiences. This I
> shall do in the perspective of three things: faith, protest, and progress.
> Every human being born into this world begins a lifelong adventure of
> becoming and of overcoming the challenges of human experience. In the
> process of belief in a higher power and a purpose for existence, we are led to
> faith, a spiritual experience that both guides and empowers us to choose the
> values which promote, through action and reaction, the development of human
> beings and human society.
> In dealing with human experience, one must accept or reject that which is
> inconsistent with the values and principles that one holds. In so doing, one may be
> faced with the necessity of protest. Protest is not necessarily violent or offensive
> action. To me, it is a consistent and abiding expression in attitude and action of an
> individual’s deep commitment to values and principles that lead to progress and
> noble development of the human being and human society. The courage and
> commitment to reject that which is false and unjust involves a transforming
> spiritual power, and it is in this sense that, as ‘Abdu'1-Bahá so beautifully
> expressed it, “Every child is potentially the light of the world—and at the same
> time its darkness . . . ” (Selectionsfrom the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahci 130).
> In the struggle to handle and make sense of various human experiences, a
> Bahà’i learns to view them with perspective and to see in the situations
> confronting her or him a part of the process of human development, both for the
> individual and society. This is, I believe, the beginning of wisdom and deeper
> understanding. Thus, I have striven to understand my life as a member of an
> ethnic minority experiencing so many unpredictable, challenging, and abrasive
> encounters, and I have tried to relate them, in experiencing them, to a world
> perspective on the slow and often painful progress of human beings in all areas
> of this world.
> This is to say that I, as an African American in the United States, understand
> that I could just as well be speaking as an Irish person brought up in England.
> Or, I could be a Jew in Poland, an Armenian in Turkey, a Chinese person who is
> not a member of the prevailing Han group in China, a Korean who must
> encounter the Japanese, a member of the untouchable caste in India, a Bahà’i in
> Iran, and an Ibo in Northern Nigeria. The need to meet—and overcome—
> experiences of injustice, oppression, and animosity is part of the human
> environment. It is that perspective in understanding what goes on in life which
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> has helped me to meet the challenges of human experiences more successfully
> and has counteracted the feelings of revenge and the susceptibility to hatred that
> come so easily.
> In analyzing the challenges of my life as an African American in these United
> States, I see three periods, and experiences from them, which have had great
> influence on me. First, the pre-civil rights period of survival; next, the period of
> focus on civil rights; and last, the period of focus on human rights. This is the
> atmosphere in which I grew up and in which you are growing up also.
> In the period of pre-civil rights, which I call “the period of survival,” there
> were no laws to protect the individual or a community of minority status. For an
> African American, there was a daily encounter with rejection, danger, and
> persecution based on prejudice and hostility. African-American survived in this
> period by using the defenses they had developed during the period of slavery.
> They learned to pool their strength in their segregated schools and churches, and
> other improvement organizations, where they were able to develop and promote
> the spirit of self-help, and to devise educational measures that stimulated
> motivation, a sense of self-worth and dignity, and action to persevere in
> overcoming obstacles and to achieve excellence. This was a period of great
> education for me. In this atmosphere I grew up protected by my family and
> community, motivated to overcome and achieve against great odds, and even to
> expect the abrasive challenges that were to come. The stories of my family
> prepared me for conflict. The religious teachings I was taught stressed faith and
> efforts to overcome adversity. Looking back, it is extremely interesting to me
> that the African Americans, brought to this country in slavery and taught
> Christianity, never accepted Christianity as a religion that would make them
> accept slavery and injustice. The Bible verses they studied, the spiritual songs
> they invented and sang, emphasized hope for a better time. And in accepting the
> belief in one God and in humanity as God’s children, they, too, chose to believe
> that even as the children of Israel were delivered from slavery and degradation
> in Egypt, their time would come and that some day they would achieve
> freedom, dignity, and recognition in the family of humankind.
> My parents and their relatives told me two particular stories that have had a
> great influence on my life. The first was told to me by my mother about my
> maternal great-grandmother, Louisa Dodson, who married Mentor Dodson, a
> preacher. Both were born in slavery, but when slavery was ended. Mentor
> Dodson was elected to the House of Representatives of Alabama. Mentor’s
> election made him a target for the Ku Klux Klan, and there were few nights
> when he could get to his home and be with his family. As the story goes, one
> night, my great-grandmother Louisa was lying in bed with labor pains, for she
> was expecting the birth of her last child. The Klan came to her house, broke in
> the door, and came to her bedroom. She was alone with just her children.
> Pointing guns at her, they demanded that she tell them where her husband was.
> She looked them straight in the eye and said, “I won’t tell you where he is.” At
> 6          TH E J O U R N A L OF B A H A ’ I S T U D I E S            8.2.1998
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> this, they fired bullets into the headstand of her bed and insisted that she tell
> them where to find him, or they would kill her. She said, “Just go ahead and kill
> me, because I will never tell you where he is.” After more curses and threats
> and shots, they decided not to kill her and left. I was awed and inspired by that
> story, by her courage—a lone woman in a hostile, dangerous environment, and
> her determination not to give in to injustice and oppression, even at the risk of
> death. I have in certain incidents of my own life been reminded of and relied
> upon the memory of her courage and her strength.
> The second story is about my paternal great-grandfather, McCracken, who
> was forced to leave his family when he was a young boy. As this story goes,
> McCracken’s family were in slavery, but when their slave-master died, he left a
> will granting freedom to the slave family and giving them money to get them
> passage on one of the “freedom ships,” which would take them to Liberia, then
> being resettled with freed slaves. The State of Kentucky, where they lived, gave
> the freedom and the money to the family, but refused to give it to little
> McCracken, a minor son. They said he would have to remain a ward of the State
> until he became of age and that his family could not be paid the money for him.
> Thus, that family was forced to the painful decision of deciding whether to give
> up the possibility of going away from a slave state and settling in a free area and
> leaving behind a minor child, or staying in Kentucky and keeping their son with
> the family. Can you imagine how they must have prayed and consulted about
> such a decision? They decided to take the money and the freedom and go to
> Liberia, because they knew the risks of being a freed slave in slave territory, but
> before they went, they urged young McCracken to go up into the Kentucky
> mountains and attach himself to a family of mountaineers. Now, you must
> understand that the mountaineers of Kentucky and Tennessee were the “po’
> white trash” who could not even afford the economic system of slavery, so they
> kept no slaves. This little boy went up into the mountains alone, found a family
> with the grace of God, took their name, and stayed with that family. He
> eventually married a mountaineer girl and raised a family of his own. His birth
> family went on to Liberia, where I was never able to find any trace of them.
> They may have died, or how they may have survived, 1 do not know. In any
> event, young McCracken, grown up and with a family of his own, was needled
> by the desire to improve his lot in life. So he quietly moved back from the
> mountains to a Kentucky city, obtaining work as a janitor in a bank, and there
> he managed to save and to buy a home.
> One day, when he and his family were together, there was a knock at the
> door. He answered, and there stood a white visitor, who introduced himself as
> the son of their former master, who had dropped by “to see how they were
> doing.” While the visitor was there, he saw McCracken’s young daughter Jane,
> who was a very beautiful girl. He told McCracken that he would like to take
> Jane, bring her up, and educate her. McCracken did not take kindly to this idea.
> He said that he did not want to separate his children—he wanted to bring up and
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> educate his own children. The visitor did not seem to like this very much, and
> said, “Now, don’t give me any trouble! I am going to take that girl and educate
> her, and you just have her ready for me when I return in a few days.” With that,
> he left. Now, here is McCracken, still in a slave state, though he is emancipated,
> working as a janitor. He’s managed to have a family and to establish himself,
> and here is trouble, looming large as life.
> The next day, he went to his employer and with great resolution said, “Sir,
> I’m going to be in trouble, and I want you to know why.” He then told him of
> the visitor and his demand, and with great resolution said to his employer, “If
> this man comes back, and attempts to take my child, I am going to kill him.”
> The employer said, “Oh! Think about that! You know that if you do that, there
> will be a lynching in this city, and there will be great trouble. Consider this,
> McCracken, if you will just be quiet about the whole thing, go back to your
> family this evening, just take only what you can carry with you, and meet me at
> the boat dock. I will get passage for you on one of those boats going to
> Cincinnati, Ohio, which is free territory, and you can go there and reestablish
> your life.” And that is what McCracken did. That is how McCracken, and his
> family, including Jane, who was my grandmother, came to Cincinnati as
> refugees. Jane was safely hidden with friends in the Underground Railway. In
> fact, she stayed a while in the family of Levi Coffin, one of its most
> distinguished directors. Slave runners did come over into Ohio from Kentucky,
> and there was word that they were looking for Jane, though she was not a slave.
> But what could she do? There was no law, in either Ohio or Kentucky, to
> protect her. Fortunately, she was able to avoid capture, to grow up, to marry a
> young coachman named Robert Austin, and to have four children, one of whom
> was my father, George Austin.
> These are the kinds of stories that were shared by most African-American
> families with their children, teaching them the wisdom to make the sacrifices
> which had to be made, to learn to protest as they passed through the
> unpredictable experiences of their days, working for and believing in a better
> future.
> In the second period of civil rights, the protests and the faith grew stronger.
> To bring progress, people sought justice through demonstrations, which often
> brought upon them violence and death. Rosa Parks stands out in this period. We
> can remember her quiet, simple protest, her refusal to give up her seat on a bus
> because she was an African American, and how that led to a groundswell of
> protest and the evolution of challenging leadership and effort for change, which
> brought laws protecting minorities from injustice and discrimination. Even in
> that period, there was the senseless martyrdom of the great leader Martin Luther
> King, Jr., which led to upheaval in this nation. This period is filled with
> countless stories of dramatic protest, of courage, of amazing sacrifice on the
> part of both whites and blacks who gave up their careers, and even in some
> cases their lives, for positive change.
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> At this point, I am moved to reflect upon the wisdom and courage of ‘Abdu’l-
> Bahá, the magnificent teacher of the Bahá’1 Faith who visited the United States
> near the end of the pre-civil rights period. It seems to me that his visit should be
> studied for its impact on the period and on the nation. ‘AbduT-Bahá was indeed
> a role model for those who seek positive change. He took a firm stand. He
> spoke openly and forthrightly before the opinion-making institutions of the
> period: the churches, the universities, the community-improvement
> organizations. He shunned segregation and discrimination, even though it would
> have made things comfortable. He advocated human unity. He challenged
> racism and prejudice before black and white audiences. He advocated women’s
> rights. He urged human beings to understand the unity of God, to abandon
> religious prejudice, and emphasized the necessity for the coming together of
> peoples. He took the Bahá’1 principles to some of the most orthodox and
> conservative organizations of this country, without fear, without compromise.
> There is a most interesting story of how he shocked official, diplomatic, and
> class-conscious Washington, DC. There was a most prestigious dinner party
> given for ‘AbduT-Bahá by his hostess, who wanted him to impress the movers
> and shakers of Washington’s diplomatic and political society. What did
> ‘AbduT-Bahá do on the day of that dinner? He invited Louis G. Gregory, a
> young African-American lawyer, to come to see him near the time of the dinner.
> He talked with Louis Gregory, and when Louis Gregory, realizing that it was
> near the time of the dinner, sought to leave, ‘AbduT-Bahá prevented him from
> leaving. When the time came for the guests to go into the dining room, ‘AbduT-
> Bahá strode into the dining room, reorganized the table settings, creating a place
> next to his place, the guest of honor, for Louis Gregory, that young African-
> American lawyer, who was not at all well known or accepted among the
> distinguished invited guests.
> What an object lesson that was! Today, Bahà’is strive in many ways to
> follow that pattern set by ‘AbduT-Bahá. They are demonstrating the courage to
> uphold their standards, to speak out against the falsities of tradition and
> custom, and to demonstrate what they believe. Although I was not a Bahá’1 at
> that time and very young, after I became a BaháT I read that story and other
> stories about ‘AbduT-Bahá. It did a lot for me. It made me see that there was
> hope for humanity, and that, with effort and leadership, we can move out of
> darkness, ignorance, and hostility.
> Briefly, I will touch on the civil rights period, because by that time, the laws
> permitted me to go to school. I had not gone to school until I was 8 or 9 (in the
> South, there was no school for young children—there was a school for overage
> children) when my parents sent me to Cincinnati to stay with my father’s
> relatives. There, I entered an all-black elementary school and stayed at that
> school until I graduated from the eighth grade. Then I went to Walnut Hills
> Classical High School, where my father had pioneered as the first black student,
> and took my seat with another little black girl in the history class on my first day.
> F ai th , P r o t e s t , a n d P r o g r e s s               9
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> On the desk of each student was a copy of Meyers’ History, the official,
> approved textbook for the public schools. Now, most of you do not even know
> about Mr. Meyers, but Mr. Meyers, in his textbook, discussed the contributions
> of the races of humankind, with pictures, of course. And he talked about the
> gifts of the white race, the gifts of the red race, the gifts of the brown race.
> When he came to the gifts of the black race, his words, and I quote, were: “The
> black race has made no contribution to civilization. It seems that it must remain
> forever a hewer of wood and a drawer of water for the more fortunate races.”
> Can you imagine? Two little black girls, in a school full of white children, in a
> classroom full of white children, and with the candor and the cruelty of the
> young, the entire class looked at us, and there were, of course, a few snickers
> and grins.
> It was then that I remembered my great-grandmother. I felt as if the Klan
> were standing there with the guns turned on me. With great resentment and
> resolve, I stood up and said, “I was taught in a black school that Africans
> worked iron before Europeans knew anything about it. 1 was taught that they
> knew how to cast bronze in making statues and that they worked in gold and in
> ivory so beautifully that the European nations came to their shores to buy their
> carvings and statues. That’s what I was taught, in a black school.” There was an
> electric silence. The teacher of that history class. Miss Purvis, a stalwart New
> Englander, bless her soul, spoke out. She said, “She’s absolutely correct. This is
> not a true statement.” She went on to outline some other contributions of
> African Americans, and that saved the day for us. But, friends, you can imagine,
> if there had been no protest, what ingrained prejudice and hostility would have
> been implanted in the minds of those children and what humiliation and
> degradation would have been stamped upon us?
> The memory of that incident has made me always feel passionate about the
> absence of knowledge which people have about other people who are different.
> Even though they live with them and work with them, they do not know
> anything about their history, their aspirations, and their culture. In these days,
> when we have movements for programming African-American history and
> emphasis upon it, I pray that the interest in diversity will broaden. And 1 also
> pray that Bahà’is, wherever they are, will seek to know more about African
> history, African-American history, American Indian history. Oriental history,
> and to make the study of history a cause for understanding the things that unite
> human beings—their survival from oppression, their efforts to overcome, their
> aspirations, and their achievements. Pioneers we can be, as Bahà’is, in
> demonstrating the values in our belief about the oneness of humankind, and in
> being able to inform and give information which brings respect and dignity to
> all these delightful colors that make up the human race.
> Let me tell you another story, of my freshman year at the University of
> Cincinnati, when as a member of its first integrated undergraduate class, I
> entered that institution. There had not been any blacks before my class. There
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> were, that year, four girls and four boys. The ground had been broken for us by
> a black principal of one of the black schools. Dr. Jennie D. Porter, who sought
> to get a PhD degree. The University of Cincinnati had informed her that it did
> not think that any African American could earn a PhD degree. They were not
> able to do this. She persisted and made them accept her, because it was a city
> university, and she worked like a dog for her degree, earning it with distinction.
> She was the groundbreaker, the pioneer, the protester, and we followed in her
> footsteps.
> During the first week of our enrolment, an official from the university
> summoned us for a conference. When we arrived in her office, she took only
> the girls. She said, “Now, young ladies, I hope you will be as inconspicuous as
> possible on this campus. You belong to a subject race. We didn’t want to take
> you, but we are a city university, and we had to take you. I hope you will go
> out and give us no trouble at all.” We were young, sensitive, full of hope and
> aspiration for a university education—that speech traumatized us. We
> somehow got out of that office, and because in the communities from which
> we came, we were taught to have faith, to protest, and to take concerted action
> for progress, we called the boys. We sat down and discussed the situation, and
> then all eight of us decided we were going out for everything in the university.
> We almost took an oath in blood that we were all to finish that first year with
> honors in something, and, we decided to disseminate some information on the
> campus. So we took our nickels (because we did not have much more than that
> in those days), bought some paper, and duplicated a newsletter, which we
> called The New Era.
> We did not burn down any buildings, we did not beat up anybody, but we
> published articles, as many as we could get, from university professors at the
> University of Cincinnati and at surrounding universities, about the importance
> of abolishing prejudice and abandoning discrimination, and we invited students
> from any university to send us creative writing and poetry. The magazine was a
> sellout at two cents a copy. Somehow, we made a difference. We worked
> harder, I am sure, than any other freshman students in that university. By the
> end of the year, each one of us did take an honor, and at the beginning of the
> next year, that same official who had called us in and insulted us, apologized for
> her remarks. I give her credit for it. She said she would welcome the incoming
> class of black students.
> The current period in which we are all working has brought into focus human
> rights, within which there is focus not only upon minorities but also upon
> women’s rights, and abandoning prejudice and bigotry. That is a wonderful
> step. I remember at this point, how I became a Bahà’i. As a young, angry,
> incensed, and hostile university student, I went to my father and said, “I’m
> going to become an agnostic or an atheist: I just don’t believe anymore in these
> religions that are all separate, all fighting with each other, all enforcing
> prejudice against some group, and yet they say, ‘God is the father of all
> Fa ith , P r o t e s t , a n d P r o g r e s s
> 
> humankind’.” My father heard me out and then said, “Well, before you do it,
> why don't you go and talk to these Cincinnati people who are talking about the
> Bahà’i Faith?” He was not a Bahà’i, but he said, “They have some very
> interesting views, and maybe that will interest you.” So I went and talked to the
> Bahà’is. I took their literature around for two years to find things to argue
> about, and in the process, I began to believe. Such is the power of the Word. My
> confirming experiences were the activities and the attitudes of so many
> wonderful Bahà’is who helped me overcome my bitterness. There was Mr.
> Louis G. Gregory, who taught classes about the Bahà’i Faith with culture, with
> gentility and forcefulness that impressed everybody. There was Dorothy Baker
> in Lima, Ohio, which had an atmosphere that was like a setting for the Ku Klux
> Klan, it was so rigid, and so mean. But Dorothy Baker opened her home for
> Bahà’i Firesides, to which came black and white inquirers from surrounding
> areas, who listened and became attracted to the teachings. So much was her
> home a center, that the ministry in her town attacked her, but she used it as an
> opportunity to teach the Bahà’i Faith, for she went to the radio station and asked
> if she could tell them what the Bahà’f Faith was about.
> All of these people were confirming experiences for me—anxious, and
> sensitive, and tense as I was because of my bitter experiences. There are so
> many other people I could name, and perhaps someday I will write their stories
> so that they can inspire Bahà’is. I have shortened this talk, lest it become like the
> mercy of God, in that it endures forever and passes all understanding. Suffice it
> to say that the confirming power of the BaháT Faith lies in the teachings
> themselves and the way we can encourage people to read, discuss, and
> understand them, and also the impact which we as individual Bàhà’fs can make
> upon people when our attitudes and our actions are influenced by the principles
> of the Bahà’i Faith. I believe that we must think of the Bahà’i Faith as
> constituting a unique world community. We are operating in every theater of
> this world where there is tension and violence and hatred. We are a part of the
> whole. We are making a serious effort to pry human beings away from their
> alienating traditions, their comfortable ignorance, and their prejudice. But, we
> must try harder. We must try harder. Bahà’is should understand that there are
> many people working for a better world today, but Bahà’is have something
> special, which will reinforce us in the battles going on to change hearts, to
> transform lives, and to provide more than a token representation of our ability to
> take in minorities.
> There are many amusing attitudes in the world today, and I think I ought to
> tell you about the black church to which, to its consternation, was assigned a
> white minister. The church congregation was in a tizzy about it. Some of the
> members would not attend church because they did not think it was time yet for
> that. (Where have you heard that before?) So we as Bahà’is are working not
> only on the outside world but also on ourselves, because we, too, have a lot of
> baggage that needs to be cast overboard. But if we go about it with faith, with
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> intelligent protest, standing up and demonstrating what the right attitude and
> motivation is for human progress, we can cause progress. After all, the battle
> we face is essentially a spiritual battle to transform the souls and spirits of
> human beings, to empower them to express love and justice, and to develop a
> unity of conscience.
> This makes me remember that marvelous letter of ‘AbduT-Babá to the
> Committee for Durable Peace, at the Hague, where he spoke about ending war
> and the causes of war. He said the essential for universal peace is “unity of
> conscience” (Selections 297) Why? Because unity of conscience makes us
> willing to be just, to “give others their due.” 1 hope we will continue to work to
> overcome all the inward and outward obstacles to developing that unity of
> conscience in ourselves and in all we can touch.
> The time for transformation is now. It cannot be put off, because hate and
> injustice are alive and well and attempting to thrive. Ethnic conflicts are
> growing, isolation and insularity are growing, people are choosing self­
> destructive ways to deal with the pressures, the pain, and the turmoil all around
> them. The BaháTs must have a faith that can demonstrate the great factors in
> Bahá’1 history: courage and persistence, the ability to survive persecution, to go
> into inhospitable areas, to stay there, and to raise up communities that can
> withstand the pressures of ignorance, hostility, and prejudice. There is a Bahá’1
> prayer that can offer us guidance, strength, and determination. It is a prayer
> which talks about protest. It talks about faith, and it talks about progress:
> O my God, aid Thou Thy servant to raise up the Word, and to refute what is vain
> and false, to establish the truth, to spread the sacred verses abroad, reveal the
> splendours, and make the morning’s light to dawn in the hearts o f the righteous.
> Thou art verily the Generous, the Forgiving. (‘Abdu’l-Bahà, Selections 250)
> 
> Works Cited
> 
> ‘AbduT-Bahá. Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahà. Trans. Marzieh
> Gail et al. Comp. Research Dept, of the Universal House of Justice. Haifa:
> BaháT World Centre, 1978.
> Bahâ’i Prayers: A Selection of Prayers Revealed by Bahd’u ’lldh, the Báb, and
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahd. 4th ed. Wilmette, 111.: BaháT Publishing Trust, 1991.
>
> — *Faith, Protest, and Progress (Used by permission of the curator)*