The second Baha’i century began and World War II neared its end in 1944 — and the first second-century Baha’is were born. That generation made a major impact on the fortunes of the Baha’i Faith in the West.

Nineteen years later, in 1963, the first Universal House of Justice was elected by the world’s Baha’is, launching its initial plans for sharing the Baha’i teachings globally. During that period, the Baha’i Faith grew exponentially, fed by the fresh energy of a new and unique generation of youth. In its retrospective of the 20th century called “Century of Light,” the Universal House of Justice wrote:

No segment of the [Baha’i] community made a more energetic or significant contribution to this dramatic process of growth than did Baha’i youth … During the past hundred years our world underwent changes far more profound than any in its preceding history, changes that are, for the most part, little understood by the present generation. These same hundred years saw the Baha’i Cause emerge from obscurity, demonstrating on a global scale the unifying power with which its Divine origin has endowed it. As the century drew to its close, the convergence of these two developments became increasingly apparent.

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Babies born since 1944 began to come of age in the 1960s, deemed one of the top three decades of spiritual revival in history, because of its huge increase in the range of beliefs and worldviews. 

I wanted to preserve the feelings experienced by this generation who became Baha’is during their teens and early twenties — those “second century believers” — who, after their independent searches for truth, accepted the Baha’i Faith. I gathered responses about their feelings and experiences during those unique times, including what attracted them, why they became Baha’is, and why they’ve remained in the Faith. 

New trends emerged in the 1960s: environmentalism, second-wave feminism, all brought about by a youth counterculture that aimed to counteract materialism, racism, tradition, and war. In the United States, a youthful President Kennedy brought an energy that inspired the youth, challenging them to contribute to the public good by saying, “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.” The U.S. government created the Peace Corps, spurring young people to volunteer to altruistically serve in other countries. 

People of color increasingly asserted their rights. In 1963, the African American civil rights leader Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered to a quarter million pro-civil rights demonstrators a speech envisioning a world where citizens would all live in racial harmony. The American Indian Movement formed in 1968 to support Indigenous people seeking to gain tribal sovereignty. Movements dedicated to freedom, equality, and peace flourished throughout the world.

When I reached out to those who had become Baha’is during that turbulent period in history, the respondents shared these thoughts:

Together with our parents and teachers, we organized public talks and protests. We also lobbied the faculty to create a Black history course.  

In my area, the social atmosphere was mostly subtle racism … I was protesting the racism.

Our generation were social activists at a very young age …That was so important to my life. … I was working with the Black Panthers’ food programs before and after I became Baha’i.

Clergy seldom supported the noble protests of Black people about their treatment in America.

International crises arose, such as the United States naval blockade of Cuba because Soviets placed nuclear missiles there aimed at US targets. Future Baha’is were paying attention:

One of my defining moments was during the Cuban missile crisis — we would walk to school wondering where to build our bomb shelters. I wondered why we hated the Russians and decided I would someday go talk to them, so I started studying Russian — our school actually offered it in sixth through twelfth grade.

The decade spawned the war in Vietnam, which ravaged the lives of young American men who were drafted and sent on nebulous missions in chaotic jungle terrain. They returned home with stories of hellish anarchy and suicidal missions, along with a new commitment to oppose war:

… my generation realized we were being used. Americans had always wanted to believe we lived in the most perfect and just country in the history of the planet [which] is what we were constantly told, except by a few protestors popularly labeled fools …

I couldn’t even imagine the horror of anyone that was drafted. There was a very strong sense of dread when becoming draft age. They didn’t even know what they were fighting and dying for. The Vietnam war was a big part of our life.

Respondents lamented how their churches ignored the war and the racism that seemed to be devouring the country. They expressed dismay over clergy who voiced support for the war:

I was dismayed … by the political war support of Christian clergy who seemed not to care about the fate of the young men of my generation … my closest friends had come back deeply wounded mentally and physically.

Many intuited that there must be a pathway to world peace and love, and searched independently, prompted by a feeling that answers would be available:

From when I was around nine or ten years old, I used to walk to my hometown library to check out books attributed to Buddha and Krishna and also Zen thinking, because I felt moved to find out if those writings provided any clues, any wisdom, about life.

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Those who searched for answers often objected to the magical thinking they’d encountered in churches, and others felt deeply troubled by religious leaders who couldn’t answer their questions:

I loved Jesus and identified as a Christian, but at seven I was ‘excused’ from my Presbyterian Sunday School after suggesting that if the Magi who visited the infant Jesus were — as our teacher explained — priests of another religion, then God’s truth must have been given other Faiths.

Previously, the Baha’i Faith had been relatively unknown in the United States, and embracing it often seemed like a daring step. Some future Baha’is first heard of the Faith from classmates:

I was taking a World Religion course and it occurred to me that to solve the world’s problems, everyone should have the same religion. Making that statement to about the only person in the enormous cafeteria at the time, I got this reaction: ‘Are you a Baha’i?’ At first, I rejected it outright. When I realized what the implications were that Baha’u’llah was the return of the spirit of Christ, I went ballistic.

Other accounts focused on the mystical aspects of the Baha’i teachings, like this one which describes the effects on a visitor at a Baha’i fireside gathering:

The feeling in that room was powerfully uplifting like nothing I had experienced before. In fact, I experienced that same extraordinary feeling, which I am not certain was the Holy Spirit, over the next few months which convinced me, even more than the beautiful and very logical writings of the Faith, that Baha’u’llah  was indeed the Promised return of Jesus.

Many respondents reported experiencing dreams, coincidences, and premonitions that led them to the Baha’i Faith:

… one night, I was just talking to God and saying something like, ‘I wish there was a religion that taught that all of these religions had come from God.’ Literally within a few days of that ‘prayer’, I ran into a Baha’i who spent two or three hours talking to me about his religion.

After this girl learned about the Baha’i Faith at age 14, it changed her behavior so thoroughly that her mother was astonished — and also became a Baha’i:

I’d call [becoming a Baha’i] an awakening … I made drastic changes right away, but it was not pushed on me. I had sought it out … It was like being reborn. I put away pot, etc., became chaste, started listening to my parents. My mom even joined the  Faith, after seeing my turnaround.

This man could feel a spirit emanating from a house on the street where a Baha’i fireside was being held:

The Holy Spirit was so tangible that people walked off the street to ask what was going on there. There were 20+ people of all ages and types and colors — hippies, students, working people aged 18-40 — which for me was unusual enough, but the feeling in that room was powerfully uplifting like nothing I had experienced before.

Asked about the reasons for remaining in the Baha’i Faith, this respondent said:

… the Holy Spirit, which the [Baha’i] writings make easier to bring to mind, is the most convincing and powerful proof of the validity of faith in God, in this and in all of the inspired dispensations of His prophets.

When these children of the 1960s encountered the Baha’i teachings, the social upheaval going on around them compelled further investigation — and the Baha’i Faith expanded rapidly.

What does standing up for racial justice look like? What behaviors does it require? What actions does it necessitate?

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Learn from Sadie Oglesby, a historical Black Baha’i from Boston, who understood how urgent it was for everyone to make working for race unity a priority. She and her husband Mabry became Baha’is in 1914 and spoke about what standing up for racial justice and unity entails.

Standing Up for Racial Justice: Sadie and Mabry Oglesby’s Response to the Red Summer of 1919

In the early 20th century, hundreds of thousands of African Americans migrated from the South to the Northeast, Midwest, and West to flee from the racial violence and massacres and the return of the Ku Klux Klan. 

The central figures of the Baha’i Faith understood the urgent need to work for race unity and eradicate racism from society. Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Baha’i Faith, wrote:

No less serious is the stress and strain imposed on the fabric of American society through the fundamental and persistent neglect, by the governed and governors alike, of the supreme, the inescapable and urgent duty—so repeatedly and graphically represented and stressed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in His arraignment of the basic weaknesses in the social fabric of the nation—of remedying, while there is yet time, through a revolutionary change in the concept and attitude of the average white American toward his Negro fellow citizen, a situation which, if allowed to drift, will, in the words of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, cause the streets of American cities to run with blood, aggravating thereby the havoc which the fearful weapons of destruction, raining from the air, and amassed by a ruthless, a vigilant, a powerful and inveterate enemy, will wreak upon those same cities.

During this period, as stated by the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, “the political and legal gains won by African Americans during Reconstruction were dismantled, particularly by denying African Americans their voting rights and legalizing racial segregation, most notably in the 1896 U.S. Supreme Court decision Plessy v. Ferguson, which made racial segregation legal until 1954. In addition to those suffering these political and legal injustices, thousands of African Americans were hanged, burned to death, shot to death, tortured, mutilated, and castrated by white mobs who almost never were prosecuted for their crimes.”

The Red Summer was a pattern of violence that white Americans inflicted on African American individuals, veterans, homes, and communities after World War I during the summer of 1919. More than 24 cities had their own Red Summers, including but not limited to, Elaine, Arkansas, Charleston, Chicago, Houston, and Washington D.C. In Chicago, for example, white rioters burned down at least 1,000 Black homes, and they never faced any consequences.

“These hate campaigns are on in every group being fanned into flames so rapidly by the ignorant that it does not require one to be a prophet to see that society is sleeping on an active volcano which shows every sign of eruption at any moment,” wrote Sadie and Mabry Oglesby in their letter dated September 1, 1919, to a fellow Baha’i after the riots in Washington, D.C., and Chicago. 

“We believe that the Bahá’ís have a great opportunity as well as a great responsibility to bring this great life-giving information to the world. … To this end we suggest the following for your consideration: 1st. United prayers over a continued period. … 2nd. Conference initiated by Bahá’ís visiting together leaders of races, churches, groups. … We believe that the general unrest at this time properly handled can be used to stimulate great Bahá’í activities everywhere and will be the means of opening many doors for spreading the Cause never before opened. ‘To sit to talk, to listen—there is no virtue in that. To rise, to act, to help—that is a Baha’i life. Deeds are the standard.’”

As Baha’u’llah, the prophet and founder of the Baha’i Faith, wrote:

Let deeds, not words, be your adorning.

Between 1921 and 1936, Baha’is hosted race amity conventions in major cities across the country to bridge the racial divide during segregation.

What Sadie Oglesby Learned About the Importance of Working for Unity in Diversity After Meeting Shoghi Effendi

Sadie and her daughter Bertha made history by being the first African American women to go on a Baha’i pilgrimage and visit Acre and Haifa, Israel in 1927. Sadie was also the first African American to meet Shoghi Effendi during his time in Haifa as the Guardian of the Baha’i Faith.

In Sadie’s first conversation with Shoghi Effendi, he asked her how many Black Baha’is there were in the United States. It’s important to keep in mind that the two major racial demographics during this time in the United States were white and Black people. When Sadie told him that there were very few, he — using the respectful terminology to refer to Black people at the time — said that Abdu’l-Baha, one of the central figures of the Baha’i Faith, “loved the colored people very much and that the Cause needs the colored people and cannot be established without them.” 

Shoghi Effendi stressed how important diverse representation was in the Baha’i Faith. According to Sadie’s notes, he said, “a colored believer should be elected upon each committee even if it required that the same one be elected upon each committee.”

Before American scientists widely published data that all humans descend from a common ancestor in Africa, Sadie understood this truth about humanity’s origins. She said, “Shoghi Effendi, it presents itself to me thuswise: since the infancy of the human family, races and nations one after another have arisen and fallen in their long march around the cycles and to maturity and at this time, the oldest race represented upon the earth is the colored race, while the youngest or last to have attained a high civilization is the white race, and in order to close this cycle and save the civilization of this day, the oldest and youngest or first and last, that is the white and colored, or outer ends of the cycle must link together, then the inner, or intermediate races will automatically take their places in the circle.”

Shoghi Effendi said, “That is true, but if we fail to do this, we will be dispersed.”

Shoghi Effendi encouraged her to share the unifying messages of the Baha’i Faith in the South when she felt that she had done everything she could in the Northeast. He also emphasized how important it was for Baha’is to speak up about racism and be perfect examples of race unity. 

Sadie recorded her last conversation with Shoghi Effendi. He told her, “You must be earnest and constant in your effort to press to the understanding of the believers the vital need of a perfect unity between the white and colored people. Be eager, earnest and forceful in this matter, and be assured that the invisible concourse will assist you in your work and we will support you, I will pray for you, I will pray for you at the Holy Shrine. I will pray for you. Be confident.”

Sadie did as Shoghi Effendi asked her to when she returned to the U.S. At the 1927 National Baha’i Convention, she spoke extensively about her conversations with Shoghi Effendi about the urgency of working for race unity. She said, “We are not the same people we were before we went away. …So I know what my work is now, as I never knew it before.”

For the next ten years, Sadie worked tirelessly to bridge the racial divide at a time when it was dangerous to do so in the U.S. She regularly wrote to Shoghi Effendi and updated him about her efforts. And, he always answered her letters and prayed for her success.

In a letter Shoghi wrote to Mabry dated May 23, 1927, he wrote, “My dear co-worker: Just a word that I wish to add in person in order to express my pleasure and delight at having met our dear and devoted Baha’i sister Mrs. Oglesby, whose pure faith, tender devotion and ardent zeal I shall ever remember.”

In a letter written by Shoghi Effendi to the Bahá’ís of North America in 1938, he wrote:

As to racial prejudice, the corrosion of which, for well-nigh a century, has bitten into the fiber, and attacked the whole social structure of American society, it should be regarded as constituting the most vital and challenging issue.

…The ceaseless exertions which this issue of paramount importance calls for, the sacrifices it must impose, the care and vigilance it demands, the moral courage and fortitude it requires, the tact and sympathy it necessitates, invest this problem, which the American believers are still far from having satisfactorily resolved, with an urgency and importance that cannot be overestimated.

May we all heed the wise words of Shoghi Effendi and follow the fearless examples of the Oglesbys in our efforts to work for racial justice and unity today.

Often, when women of color are vocal about discrimination, they become the targets of hostile sexism and are tone policed or silenced.

And, if you were a Black woman during segregation, speaking up about racial injustice — regardless of how famous and talented you were — could cost you your career.

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That’s what happened to Hazel Dorothy Scott, a famous Black musician, jazz singer, and actress, after she stood up for what was right. She was blacklisted, and her legacy was almost forgotten, but the truth can’t be buried forever. Here is her story.

Hazel Scott was born on June 11, 1920 in Port of Spain, Trinidad to R. Thomas Scott, an academic scholar, and Alma Long Scott, a classical pianist, saxophonist, and music teacher. 

Musically gifted from a young age, Hazel was able to play the piano by ear at just three years old. Whenever her mother’s music students would hit a wrong note, she would even yelp with disapproval. No one realized that Hazel’s cries were a sign of her sensitive ear until she went to the piano one day and played “Gentle Jesus” — a church hymn that her grandmother sang to her during her nap times. 

Abdu’l-Baha, one of the central figures of the Baha’i Faith, said:

All art is a gift of the Holy Spirit. When this light shines through the mind of a musician, it manifests itself in beautiful harmonies. …These gifts are fulfilling their highest purpose, when showing forth the praise of God.

When Alma noticed her daughter’s natural talent, she set aside her own dreams of making it in the music industry and focused on developing Hazel’s gift. In 1924, Alma moved to Harlem, New York, with her daughter and mother. She played in several all-female bands and became friends with several famous African-American musicians, including Art Tatum, Lester Young, and Fats Waller, who helped guide Hazel with her music. In 1928, Hazel auditioned for enrollment in the Juilliard School of Music. Although students had to be at least 16 to enroll, eight-year-old Hazel was given the chance to audition with the help of her family friends.

Baha’u’llah, the prophet and founder of the Baha’i Faith, described “music as a ladder for [the] souls, a means whereby they may be lifted up unto the realm on high…” And Professor Oscar Wagner was definitely uplifted after he heard Hazel’s rendition of Rachmaninoff’s “Prelude in C-Sharp Minor.” He realized that she was a musical genius and offered her a scholarship, so he could teach her privately.

Not long after she graduated from high school, Hazel debuted in the Broadway musical revue, “Sing Out the News.” The next year, when singer Billie Holiday could no longer perform at Café Society, New York City’s first fully integrated night club, she insisted that Hazel replace her, and Hazel became the nightclub’s new headliner. She was both a talented pianist and singer, and her “Bach to Boogie” recordings broke sales records across the country. 

Hazel never let her rising fame prevent her from standing up for racial justice. She was one of the first Black performers to refuse to play before segregated audiences. She asked:

Why would anyone come to hear me, a Negro, and refuse to sit beside someone just like me?

As a promising actress, Hazel also spoke about racism in the film industry as well. She demanded pay equal to her white counterparts and refused to play subservient, stereotypical roles. She even advocated for other Black female actresses to be dressed in proper attire in films as well.

Before she became a Baha’i, she already understood, that “racial prejudice, the corrosion of which, for well-nigh a century, has bitten into the fiber, and attacked the whole social structure of American society” should “be regarded as constituting the most vital and challenging issue” in the United States. 

Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Baha’i Faith, described the “ceaseless exertions which this issue of paramount importance calls for, the sacrifices it must impose, the care and vigilance it demands, [and] the moral courage and fortitude it requires.”

After word spread about her efforts to bring about racial equality in Hollywood, she stopped receiving movie offers, and her concert dates became very limited. Even her television show, the Hazel Scott Show, came to an end after a few months despite the great ratings it received. She was the first African American to host a television show.

Hazel was brilliant — she spoke seven languages and could play two pianos simultaneously. She was an inspiring activist and artist to live up to, sacrificing her career to stand up for racial justice. She became a Baha’i on December 1, 1968, after she learned about the Baha’i Faith from Dizzy Gillespie. She passed away in 1981.

What cause would you give your life for? When we think about early African Baha’is who died as a result of their beliefs, the names of Enoch Olinga (Uganda, 1979) and Duarte Vieira (Guinea-Bissau, 1966) come to our minds. 

But there were other Baha’i martyrs in Africa — one of them was Joaquim Sampaio. Mr. Sampaio was born in Angola, near the city of Malanje, in 1922. In those days, Angola was an impoverished Portuguese colony, and it was forced to grow cotton as a commodity crop for Portugal.

From his early youth, Joaquim developed a deep interest in spiritual and religious subjects. He read and studied the Bible, and eventually, he claimed to have a spiritual gift, announcing that a great message from God was coming, which would unite all peoples. He also said that this message had not yet reached Malanje, but that he would recognize it when it appeared. By then, his radiant spirituality had made him known in the Malanje area as the “Revealed One.”

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In 1956, he received a letter from his uncle Francisco Ebo in Luanda, who told him that a new divine message had indeed appeared. Joaquim was very curious and answered his uncle with three straight questions: Where was the center of this new Faith? What nationality is this messenger? What is his mission? 

The answer from Mr. Ebo came a few weeks later: The center of the new Faith is in the Holy Land, in Haifa; the messenger, Baha’u’llah, came from the East, from Persia; his message is to unite all humanity. Having read this answer, Joaquim Sampaio said to his family and friends: “This is the Faith I have been waiting for!”

After a few weeks, Mr. Sampaio traveled to Luanda to meet his uncle Francisco and other Baha’is. They had long, deep, and significant conversations. The Baha’is of Luanda were impressed with Mr. Sampaio’s discourse, his conviction, and his enthusiasm. Back in Malanje, Mr. Sampaio claimed openly to be a Baha’i, stirring family and friends with the news of the new revelation. In the following weeks, they received a visit from the Baha’is of Luanda, several persons from the Malanje area accepted the Faith, and, in 1957, the first Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Malanje was elected.

Joaquim Sampaio was married and had five children. His life wasn’t easy. He worked as a foreman for Cotonang, a cotton plantation company. He earned 350 escudos a month when, at that time, a good pair of shoes cost 250 escudos. When John Robarts visited Angola in 1959 and met Mr. Sampaio in Luanda, he described him with these words: “Sampaio is thin, undernourished. I suspect he is at a starvation level and eating almost nothing so that his family can have more.”

In his spare time, Joaquim would ride his bicycle to go to various villages near Malanje to carry the Baha’i message to others. Mrs. Hilda Xavier Rodrigues, a Baha’i living in Luanda, described him this way: “He is the type who would love to go out and pioneer all over the country, such a spirit he has. I love the way he feels the [Baha’i] Cause and tells his friends to unite and be prudent, be silent, be observant.”

During his travels to Malanje’s neighboring villages, Mr. Sampaio no doubt witnessed the terrible conditions in which rural populations lived, forced to cultivate and produce large quantities of cotton, and often prevented from maintaining their traditional agricultural crops, which meant many went hungry.

Mr. Sampaio’s enthusiasm for the revelation of Baha’u’llah and for teaching the Baha’i Faith led, in 1957, several students from the Evangelical school in Quizanga to abandon the church and accept the Baha’i Faith. Joaquim’s activities as Baha’i became more and more visible. It didn’t take long for the colonial authorities to raise eyebrows at the man who they called “that propagandist of the Baha’i Faith.” Family and friends warned Joaquim to be careful and keep a low profile. After all, this new religion was not known to the authorities, and his teaching it to others could bring him bad consequences. But Joaquim ignored the warnings.

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The police of Malanje detained Mr. Sampaio on several occasions due to his Baha’i activities. In one of the statements recorded at the police station, Mr. Sampaio is described as “the main preacher of the Baha’i Faith in Malanje,” even though Baha’is have no clergy. The statement includes Joaquim’s narrative of his discovering the Baha’i Faith and his mystical dreams. As he told the police:

… he read Baha’i books and liked them a lot because they were not against his religion, nor against the government, there only one God and the Bible seems to be one of his bases. When he began to have doubts, he began recording them in a notebook. At night he began to have visions in which a figure he could not recognize appeared to him, and clarified his doubts about several passages of the Bible that until then were incomprehensible to him. He told these visions to several friends, and these friends later asked him to learn more about the new religion.

In early January 1960, Mr. Sampaio wrote a letter to a Baha’i committee. His words were almost a premonition: 

The people of Angola are afraid because they are slaves of another race and have always been dominated. We are told that if we accept the [Baha’i] Faith we will probably be arrested. It is a shame that this spirit of fear dominates the people of Angola, because if God freed them from their cage, they would still be afraid to fly. Only the revealed ones are not afraid because they are servants of Baha’u’llah. This is not due to a lack of willingness to convey the Glad Tidings, but because people are afraid unless the enemies of the Faith stop harassing them. But the people testify that this, in fact, is the Promised One that the people are waiting for. Let’s see if in 1960, Angola will become freer.

However, during that time, Angola became less and less free, and the activities of the Baha’is were being monitored by PIDE, the national political police. In June 1960, a document from PIDE stated that the Baha’i Faith could be a source of political unrest masquerading as a religion, and the Baha’is “are being used for the de-nationalization movement” with its “principles and teachings of development, peace and equal rights.” These allegations were not true, but in late 1960, a general strike broke out among the cotton farmers around Malanje. It was violently repressed throughout the province. In February of 1961, Angola’s War of Liberation began, and unprecedented violence and repression spread across the entire country. Any African considered suspicious by the colonial authorities would be arrested, detained, and imprisoned, his fate unknown. 

Soon, PIDE began to arrest prominent Baha’is in Malanje and Luanda. They were all sent to a prison camp at Baia dos Tigres in southern Angola. In the middle of the night, the PIDE detained Mr. Sampaio at his home, and he was never seen again. 

Angolan Baha’is understand that Joaquim Sampaio died in prison because of his firm belief in the Baha’i Faith. Most likely, he was the first Angolan Baha’i martyr. Abdu’l-Baha, in a speech he gave in North America in 1912, praised such martyrs and spelled out the reasons a person would give his life for his beliefs:

Through the teachings of Baha’u’llah the horizon of the East was made radiant and glorious. Souls who have hearkened to His words and accepted His message live together today in complete fellowship and love. They even offer their lives for each other. They forego and renounce worldly possessions for one another, each preferring the other to himself. This has been due to the declaration and foundation of the oneness of the world of humanity. Today in Persia there are meetings and assemblages wherein souls who have become illumined by the teachings of Baha’u’llah — representative Muslims, Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, Buddhists and of the various denominations of each — mingle and conjoin in perfect fellowship and absolute agreement. A wonderful brotherhood and love is established among them, and all are united in spirit and service for international peace. More than twenty thousand Baha’is have given their lives in martyrdom for the Cause of God. The governments of the East arose against them, bent upon their extermination. They were killed relentlessly, but day by day their numbers have increased, day by day they have multiplied in strength and become more eloquent. They have been strengthened through the efficacy of a wonderful spiritual power.

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Historian Moojan Momen recalls that the political unrest that plagued several African countries eager for independence “had a great impact on a growing Baha’i community.” Regarding the Baha’is of Angola, he adds: 

The Roman Catholic clergy decided to take advantage of the fears of the Portuguese authorities and accused the Baha’is of being terrorists. Many believers were detained and interrogated. Among the main victims was Joaquim Sampaio. He was taken away in the middle of the night and they never saw him again. It is believed that he was executed or died in a prison camp …

Many, many people have given their lives for their firm belief in the Baha’i teachings of peace, love, and unity. Their courageous acceptance of those spiritual teachings transcended even the fear of death.

In the mid-20th century, Colombia experienced a spiritual shift as the teachings of the Baha’i Faith began to spread throughout the country. 

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At the heart of this historic development was Aura María Bernal de Sánchez, the first Colombian to declare her belief in the Baha’i teachings, inspiring countless souls to follow in her footsteps. Learn about her life and legacy.

Aura María Bernal de Sánchez’s Upbringing, Family, and Introduction to the Baha’i Faith

Aura María Bernal was born on June 18, 1899, in Bogotá, Colombia. For 12 years, she received a strict religious education at a Catholic convent school. Alongside her sister Juanita Bernal, she studied nursing, preparing herself for her career as a nurse and midwife.

In 1930, Aura married Luis Augusto Sánchez Cuervo in 1930, and they had two kids — Luis and Gloria. Little did their children know how much their lives would be transformed by their parents’ spiritual search.

Aura’s husband was a freethinker who was open to exploring a variety of spiritual movements and philosophies, affiliated with Theosophy and the Rosicrucian school. Aura often accompanied her husband to the activities of the different associations he was involved in.

It was at a Theosophical meeting where Aura and Luis were introduced to the Baha’i Faith, a world religion centered around oneness — one God, one human race, and one progressive divine revelation. As Baha’u’llah, the prophet and founder of the Baha’i Faith, wrote:

The fundamental purpose animating the Faith of God and His Religion is to safeguard the interests and promote the unity of the human race, and to foster the spirit of love and fellowship amongst men.

In 1942, a Canadian Baha’i of German ancestry spoke about the Faith to the Theosophical group while visiting on one of his business trips, inspiring Luis and Aura to invite him to their home. From then on, they met every week to talk about the Baha’i teachings.

At one of these meetings, he gave the couple the book “Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era” — the sole Baha’i book available in Spanish at the time. Aura began to read this book and asked questions at the weekly talks.

Aura María Bernal de Sánchez’s Life as the First Colombian Baha’i

In 1942, Aura became the first Colombian Baha’i, and her husband, Luis, followed suit, declaring his belief months later.

Sadly, sometimes, people make fun of what seems different and unfamiliar to them. Aura was no exception and faced shock and ridicule from those around her for being the first Colombian Baha’i. However, she refused to let this mockery deter her, following the advice of Abdu’l-Baha, one of the central figures of the Baha’i Faith, who said in a 1912 talk in New York:

​Let not your heart be offended with anyone. If someone commits an error and wrong toward you, you must instantly forgive him.

So, she continued to share the revolutionary teachings of the Baha’i Faith with everyone around her, including the eradication of all forms of prejudice, the elimination of the extremes of wealth and poverty, the equality of women and men, the agreement of science and religion, the truth and oneness of all religions, the independent investigation of truth, and the importance of a universal language and education.

Several of her friends embraced the Baha’i Faith, and the number of Baha’is quickly grew, allowing them to elect the first Local Spiritual Assembly in Colombia.

Local Spiritual Assemblies are composed of nine elected members in a Baha’i community who, as Abdu’l-Baha described, focus their discussions on “spiritual matters that pertain to the training of souls, the instruction of children, the relief of the poor, the help of the feeble throughout all classes in the world, kindness to all peoples, the diffusion of the fragrances of God and the exaltation of His Holy Word.”

A 1954 letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Baha’i Faith, states:

When a person becomes a Bahá’í, actually what takes place is that the seed of the spirit starts to grow in the human soul. This seed must be watered by the outpourings of the Holy Spirit. These gifts of the spirit are received through prayer, meditation, study of the Holy Utterances and service to the Cause of God.

“From the first moment of her life as a Bahá’í, her orientation and guidance were the Sacred Teachings, her behaviour exemplified simplicity, humility, and determined collaboration, both within and outside the community,” wrote the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Colombia.

“Parallel to teaching the Faith, she devoted her best efforts to the education of her two children, giving them the responsibility of demonstrating ‘a model of Bahá’í life.’”

During the 1950s, Aura and her daughter Gloria traveled throughout Colombia, sharing the unifying message of the Baha’i Faith in regions like Santander and La Guajira. By 1960, she relocated to Manizales to establish a Local Spiritual Assembly there to help achieve the goal of electing Colombia’s first National Spiritual Assembly at Riḍván 1961. Her hard work paid off.

In her memoriam, the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Colombia wrote: 

She always had deep conviction in the truth of Baha’u’llah and His Teachings, and was surrounded with the feeling of service. The last 15 years of her life were devoted to the care of the Bahá’í Center, and whoever entered into that house received affection and attention from her, in one way or another.

Everyone who met her called her ‘Mamita.’ Until the last moment of her life, she counselled her family to be firm and constant, emphasising that the only real and enduring things are noble and pure acts in service to the Kingdom and to humanity.

She passed away peacefully on August 15, 1986, at her son’s home in Bogotá. Today, there are more than 30,000 Baha’is in Colombia. Let’s honor Aura María Bernal de Sánchez’s role in paving the way for generations to come.

I vividly remember all my trips to Green Acre: A Baha’i Center of Learning. 

I remember watching the peace flag flutter outside in the wind, and I remember praying each morning in the room where Abdu’l-Baha, one of the central figures of the Baha’i Faith, stayed when he visited. While there, I called to mind his wish for all of us that he expressed more than a century ago:

I want you to be happy in Green Acre, to laugh, smile and rejoice in order that others may be made happy by you. I will pray for you.

Early Baha’is Horace Holley and Louise Boyle described Green Acre as “a tract of some two hundred acres, situated along the banks of the Piscataqua River in Eliot, Maine, only four miles up from the sea, and opposite the historic city of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. On this tract, and also round about the countryside, are magnificent pine groves; the combination of river, sea, pines and sunswept rolling farm lands making an environment of unsurpassed charm and healthfulness.”

Every time I participated in a program at Green Acre, I met so many Baha’is from around the country. Then, I had not yet known about the sacrificial visionary who is the reason that the center existed. Her name is Sarah Jane Farmer.

Sarah Farmer’s Family and Early Life

Sarah Farmer was born on July 21, 1847, to parents Moses Gerrish Farmer and Hannah Tobey Shapleigh Farmer. 

Her father, Moses, was a manufacturer and inventor of over 130 inventions, including the first electric railway car and the first electric fire alarm system. Her mother, Hannah, was a prominent philanthropist, abolitionist, and feminist who founded Rosemary Cottage in 1888, a summer retreat in Eliot, Maine, for unwed and weary mothers and their children to regain their health and recover from the effects of inner-city pollution. 

Moses and Hannah set a great example for their daughter of being the change they wanted to see in the world. At a time when chattel slavery was legal in the U.S., they opened their home as a way station on the Underground Railroad. Sarah grew up knowing influential writers, abolitionists, and activists like Harriet Beecher Stowe, Sojourner Truth, and Harriet Tubman — connections that helped Sarah understand the importance of working for social justice and world peace.

The Beginning of Green Acre: A Center for Peace

In 1890, Sarah partnered with four businessmen to open an inn in Eliot. Their goal was to provide a quiet retreat for those seeking to escape the hustle and bustle of the city and relax in a serene environment. However, since Eliot was six miles from the sea, they failed to attract the tourists who visited York Beach nearby, and the enterprise failed. So, Sarah proposed that they use the inn for lectures and founded the “Green Acre Conferences.” 

“Green Acre was established for the purpose of bringing together all who were looking earnestly toward the New Day which seemed to be breaking over the entire world,” Sarah declared. “The motive was to find the Truth, the Reality, underlying all religious forms, and to make points of contact in order to promote the unity necessary for the ushering in of the coming Day of God.”

At the dedication of the conferences in 1894, Sarah raised the world’s first known peace flag, saying, “In looking for an emblem, we wanted something that would be a call to everybody and fit everybody and we felt that the Message that had been brought to the world by prophet after prophet was the message of ‘Peace.’ So we have put on a large banner over our heads: PEACE.”

Although they had many well-known speakers like Dr. George Washington Carver and Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois, and the conferences were well-attended with people from around the world of different cultural and religious backgrounds, Sarah insisted that the programs at Green Acre be free to all and assumed full financial responsibility for everything. Her business partners were not happy with her refusal to turn Green Acre into a corporation. 

She wrote, “The moment that a corporation gains possession, the Spirit of Green Acre is gone.” Her business partners planned to force her to sell the property at their meeting in December 1899 but were surprised to learn that Sarah had left to take a trip.

How Sarah Farmer Learned About the Baha’i Faith

In 1900, Sarah and her best friend sailed from New York to Egypt. They met two other friends on board who, they discovered, were secretly traveling from Egypt to meet Abdu’l-Baha, who was held as a prisoner of conscience in the Ottoman penal colony of ‘Akká, Palestine (now present-day Israel). Sarah asked to join them, and when she returned to the United States, she was excited to share that she was a member of the Baha’i Faith — a Faith centered around oneness — one God, one human race, and one unfolding revelation.

Years later, after Abdu’l-Baha was freed, he gave talks at Green Acre and said:

This is a delightful spot; the scenery is beautiful, and an atmosphere of spirituality haloes everything. In the future, God willing, Green Acre shall become a great center, the cause of the unity of the world of humanity, the cause of uniting hearts and binding together the East and the West. This is my hope.

He later shared that the purpose of the Green Acre Conferences “must be the furtherance of universal peace, investigation of reality, brotherhood, tolerance, sympathy to all mankind, the cultivation of a better understanding between the nations of the world, the elimination of dogmas and superficialities, the illumination of the hearts with the light of truth, mutual assistance and co-operation, social service, the study of the fundamental principles of all the religions and their comparative co-ordination.”

The Backlash Sarah Farmer Received

Sadly, some people were not happy that Sarah became a Baha’i and planned to build a university and a second Bahá’í House of Worship at Green Acre. Some relatives were reportedly upset that Sarah was leaving her property to the Baha’is in her will, and special interest groups feared that her new religion might restrict their freedom at Green Acre. 

The New England press turned against her, and The Portsmouth Herald made false and slanderous statements about the Baha’i Faith, referring to the world religion as “a Persian cult” that Sarah was “obsessed” with. During a time when women expressing strong emotions, like religious exultation, were often dismissed as “hysterical” and subjected to psychological scrutiny and testing, she was later imprisoned in a private sanitarium for many years based on the assumption that she had lost her sanity. 

She was under the control of Dr. Edward S. Cowles, who heavily drugged, isolated, and administered electroshock therapy to his patients, screened her correspondence, forbade her family visits, and kept her locked up behind bars as battles for control over Sarah and her property ensued. 

In 1912, Abdu’l-Baha managed to arrange a visit with Sarah and take her on a ride to Green Acre under the watchful eye of Dr. Cowles, who joined them in the car. Dr. Cowles sat in the front seat of the automobile on Tuesday, August 20, 1912, vigilantly guarding against any attempt by the Green Acre crowd to liberate Miss Farmer from his control. An eyewitness reported that Abdu’l-Baha told Sarah, “This is hallowed ground made so by your vision and sacrifice.”

The Baha’is were eventually able to obtain a warrant for Sarah’s release. According to another eyewitness account in the local newspaper, “officers wrapped Miss Farmer in blankets and carried her down the stairs. When Dr. Cowles again locked the door and pocketed the key, officers pinned him against the wall. Cowles then tried to prevent the officers from putting his patient in a car, but was again restrained by the police.”

After she was rescued from that traumatic experience and was able to return home, she collapsed four months later while walking through her family cemetery and passed away at age 69.

The Legacy of Green Acre

The inn that Sarah opened in 1890 is now called the Sarah Farmer Inn, one of the many buildings at Green Acre: A Baha’i Center of Learning. 

In “The Bahá’í World Volume II,” Horace Holley and Louise Boyle wrote:

Green Acre exists entirely to serve these awakening souls of the new day. Green Acre will serve them first of all by using their capacities at their best, kindled by the vision of what remains to be done in the spot blessed by Miss Farmer’s life and work. Green Acre will draw them out of themselves, teach them the laws and principles of unity and reveal hidden sources of conviction and joy. For a day, for a week, for a season, for a lifetime, Green Acre needs workers — but Green Acre will give more than she takes.

Several years ago in Akka, Israel, a woman taught me a lesson about how to walk.

A fellow Baha’i pilgrim—a dancer—took my arm as we strolled toward the sea. “Walking begins at the hip. Not the knee. Like this.” She swayed in front of me, supple and free. Her blue and white skirt brushed her ankles, like foam.

Akka is an ancient city, crusting the northern shore of the Mediterranean. The founder of the Baha’i faith, Baha’u’llah, was exiled here in 1868, a prisoner of the Ottoman Empire. He was banished from his native Persia for declaring a new religion. He taught that all people, of all faiths, have a common source; and that diversity is integral to human oneness. He also established the absolute equality of women and men.

In the lives of early Baha’i women, a powerful stance of love and service exists. These women were educators, journalists, mothers, and artists from both privileged and humble backgrounds. But a certain ardor—an eager flame—binds their stories together.

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May Maxwell

May Maxwell always knew. As a child in New Jersey, she had dreams of blinding light, dreams of a single word uniting the earth. But at 21 years old, she changed from a healthy and active young woman to a pale, bed-ridden invalid. For years, no doctor could diagnose the cause of her illness. Then, in 1898, a friend shared with her the peace-bringing message of the Baha’i faith. The next year, May boarded a ship bound for Palestine.

She visited Akka, welcomed by the family of Baha’u’llah. During this pilgrimage, May received deep kindness and clarity. When she departed, she felt that “all the cords of life were breaking”—an overwhelming sense of both loss and release. She had gained a new sense of her presence and purpose in the world. Could she keep her balance once she left the Holy Land? While her physical weakness remained, May’s burden transformed into joyful service. Many people were attracted by her tender heart. Her home became Montreal’s first Montessori school and the center of community activity. She died in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to the last sharing the belief that divine unity flows “through the inmost realities of all things.”

Dorothy Baker

Dorothy Beecher Baker was born in 1898, the year May Maxwell accepted the Baha’i faith. Related on her father’s side to the famous author Harriet Beecher Stowe, Dorothy was a bright and studious child. At age 22, she worked as a teacher in a Newark slum. She brought a vivid charisma to her classrooms. She “just burst upon us,” remembers a former pupil. “She was poetic, she was picturesque, she was graphic… We used to sit spellbound at her feet.”

Those feet covered a lot of ground—and withstood many tests—including the loss of a daughter and brushes with tuberculosis. To share the practical Baha’i teachings on justice and peace, Dorothy traveled through North America, the Caribbean, Mexico, Central and South America, Europe, Africa, and India. She too visited the Holy Land. But no matter how global her reach, Dorothy’s guiding rule was to “make a joyous thing of the little services, because you can never tell which is little and which is big in God’s sight…”

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Patricia Locke

Her Lakota name was Tawacin Waste Win, which means “compassionate woman.” Raised on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation in Idaho in the 1930s, Patricia Ann McGillis Locke was a leader and an educator. She had a deep love of family—her human family. She was often called Unchi, Grandmother. I could list Locke’s many accomplishments: preserving tribal languages, establishing Lakota colleges and language institutes, serving as a delegate to the 1995 Beijing Women’s Conference, being awarded a MacArthur Fellowship. But I am drawn to her story by a different thread.

In the Lakota spiritual tradition, White Buffalo Calf Woman is a prophet with the powers of salvation and insight into the human heart. She taught the Lakota their sacred ceremonies, promising she would return. Baha’u’llah, too, describes receiving his mission through a feminine embodiment of the Holy Spirit, explaining in physical terms the mystical experience of divine revelation:

While engulfed in tribulations I heard a most wondrous, a most sweet voice, calling above my head. Turning my face I beheld a Maiden — the embodiment of the ‘remembrance’ of the name of my Lord…

Patricia saw parallels between this heavenly Maiden and White Buffalo Calf Woman. As Indigenous peoples have long known, our world will be sick and unbalanced until women’s experiences and contributions are fully integrated. Patricia’s voice impacted policy, culture, and thought. Her activism helped lead to the passage of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act, while her educational programs brought values of global citizenship and spiritual empowerment to young people around the country.

In the lives of May Maxwell, Dorothy Beecher Baker, and Patricia Locke, I see a powerful integrity at work. Despite illness and injustice, they learned to channel the flame burning within. They flowed with, rather than fought against, faith’s electrifying current. These women walked with attention and strength, always ready to catch the light and magnify it.