COMMUNITY HISTORIES
STUDIES IN THE BABI AND BAHA'I RELIGIONS
VOLUME SIX

Edited by Richard Hollinger

Kalimat Press Los Angeles

INTRODUCTION:
BAHA'I COMMUNITIES IN THE WEST, 1897-1992

by Richard Hollinger

NOTE: This is an uncorrected scan; see
bahai-library.com/hollinger_community_histories

In his ground-breaking work on slavery in South Carolina, Charles Joyner notes: "All history is local history, somewhere. And yet how little this obvious fact is reflected in the scholarship . . ."l A similar observation could be made about the scholarship on Baha'i history. There is a significant body of literature on the history of the Baha'i Faith in the West, for example, but very little has been published on the history of local Baha'i communities.2 Historians describe the Baha'i community without having examined in depth any particular Baha'i community.
This volume is intended as a first effort to fill this gap in the literature. The essays by Duane Herrmann and Phillip Smith document the history of the Baha'i Faith in Kansas and Great Britain, respectively. The articles by Deborah Clark, Roger Dahl, Peggy Caton, and Will C. van den Hoonaard focus on specific local communities in the United States and Canada: Baltimore, Maryland; Kenosha, Wisconsin; Sacramento, California; and St. John, New Brunswick.

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These local communities were, of course, affected by national and international trends in the Baha'i Movement and their histories should be viewed in that wider context. Three of the Baha'i communities discussed in this volume—Baltimore, Kenosha, and Enterprise (Kansas)—date back to 1897-1898. During this period the Baha'i Faith was being spread in the West almost exclusively by means of a course of lectures developed by Ibrahim Kheiralla (a Lebanese convert) which began with metaphysical teachings and ended with instruction on the Baha'i religion.3 When students had completed the lessons, they were asked to write a letter to 'Abdu'1-Baha, the head of the Faith in Palestine, declaring their belief. If they did so, they were invited to join the Baha'i community. Beyond this, there appear to have been meetings, in the Chicago Baha'i community at least, that were intended for Baha'is only.4
The communities that developed during this period, as a result, seem to have had a fairly clear definition of membership, which probably contributed to the development of Baha'i identities among the members. Kheiralla's message, which interpreted biblical prophecies as having been fulfilled by the Bab, Baha'u'llah, and 'Abdu'1-Baha, also provided a powerful basis of a new identity for at least some members of the new Baha'i communities. Nevertheless, it is not clear that all the Baha'is of this period viewed the Baha'i Faith as an independent religion. The presentation Kheiralla offered was centered on interpretation of the Bible and could have given the impression that the Faith was a movement within Christianity.
Many of Kheiralla's students were highly individualistic in their approach to religion and had already been involved in other alternative religious groups.5 The Baha'i teachings (however they were understood) were on the fringes of American religious belief, and most active church members would

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not have been willing to attend Baha'i classes. Kheiralla himself observed that most of his students were persons who had left their churches and were "true seekers . . . always looking about for some new religion."6 These individuals were not subject to the same social constraints as active churchgoers. Such persons may have been attracted by some aspects of the Baha'i teachings without accepting the Baha'i scriptures as a primary source of their religious beliefs.
Even for those who accepted the Baha'i teachings with fewer reservations, it took some time to develop personal identities in which the Baha'i Faith was a central element. During the years 1900 to 1904, this process was facilitated in the larger Western communities by visits from several Iranian Baha'i teachers, including Mirza Abu'1-Fadl Gulpaygani and Mirza Asadu'llah Isfahan! These teachers, especially the former, taught that the Baha'i Faith was an independent religion and emphasized its unique laws and rituals.7 The publication and distribution of Baha'i scriptures and of some introductory literature also contributed to an independent conception of the Faith. Some Baha'is who found this difficult to accept left the community during this time.8 However, an active core of believers seems to have adopted this understanding.
While this process of consolidation was taking place in some of the oldest Western communities, the Baha'i Faith was also spreading fairly rapidly in new localities elsewhere in North America and Europe. Consequently, while a small group of active believers with strong Baha'i identities emerged within a few years of the founding of the first Baha'i communities, a significant number of Baha'is at any given time were new to the community and probably had weak Baha'i identities.
In 1899, according to a list compiled about the end of that year, approximately 84% of the Baha'is in the West resided

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in four cities: New York City; Chicago; Kenosha; and Cincinnati, Ohio. These ranged in size from 69 in Cincinnati to 712 members in Chicago. Another 7% resided in seven communities in the midwestern and eastern regions of the United States (including Baltimore and Enterprise) ranging in size from 6 to 23 persons; and a roughly equal number of Baha'is were isolated or lived in localities with only one or two Baha'is. There was only one Baha'i group on the West Coast: San Francisco, with 14 members (1%).9 While most of the Baha'i communities were relatively small (the median size was 19), the larger communities may be regarded as more representative of the Baha'i experience in 1899. (The average community size was 113.)
The Baha'i population at the turn of the century was centered in the midwestern and northeastern regions of the United States, almost exclusively in urban areas. There were Baha'is from various social classes, but there were few blacks, Jews, or Catholics in the Baha'i population then.10 Few Baha'is lived in rural areas. The movement had not spread significantly outside of the networks of Protestants, in urban industrial centers of the United States, where it had first taken hold. It was some time before it transcended these networks and penetrated the social barriers imposed by religion, ethnicity, and geography.
On the other hand, the geographic dispersion of the Baha'i population to other urban centers in the West began rather quickly. According to figures collected by the United States Census in 1906, there were 24 Baha'i communities in the United States at that time.11 The average community had a membership of 53, but the average attendance at Baha'i community meetings was probably less than 20.12 Most of the new communities were in the Midwest and Northeast. However, between 1906 and 1908 several new communities were established in the Pacific Northwest.13 Between 1900 and

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1907, Baha'i groups were also formed in Honolulu, Hawaii; Stuttgart, Germany; London and Manchester, England; Paris, France; and Montreal, Canada.14 Hence, there was a trend toward geographic diffusion as well as a trend toward the development of smaller communities.
This pattern of geographic diffusion without a substantial growth in the Baha'i population appears to have continued until the 1930s. According to the 1916 census of religions, there were 2,884 Baha'is in 57 communities in the United States; thus the average community had 50 members.15 The number of persons who signed a petition to 'Abdu'l-Baha circulated in 1918 suggests that the average attendance at Baha'i meetings was about 29 and that as many as 30% of the active Baha'is in North America may have then resided on the West Coast.16 By 1921, there were at least six times as many Baha'i communities as there were in 1899.17 However, a careful analysis by Robert Stockman suggests that the number of active Baha'is in the United States had not increased significantly.18 We can deduce from this that there was great deal of flux in the membership of the Baha'i community; a significant number of persons must have drifted in and out of local communities during this period.
This pattern was particularly distinct in newly formed Baha'i communities, which tended to exhibit the characteristics of "voluntary associations" popular with the urban middle class. This essay follows Baha'i usage in referring to these groups as "communities," but such social configurations fit this description only in the broadest sense of the term; they might more accurately be likened to social clubs or religious study classes. New communities were usually begun when one person (or a family) in a locality opened a home for Baha'i meetings; often these would begin as study classes conducted by outside teachers. Eventually, one or more local Baha'is might take responsibility for conducting the meetings. Often

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when such key individuals left a community, the other members did not identify strongly enough with the Baha'i Faith to take on a leadership role. In such instances, Baha'i communities might become temporarily inactive or disappear altogether. An example of the latter is provided in Will C. van den Hoonaard's essay on the St. John community in this volume.
The rapid fluctuation in Baha'i membership necessarily retarded the development of Baha'i community life. This was exacerbated, for a time, by the lack of a generally accepted body of Baha'i beliefs and the absence of clear boundaries to Baha'i community membership. During the 1890s, individuals had been obliged to write letters declaring their faith in Baha'u'llah and 'Abdu'1-Baha before they could become members of Baha'i communities. However after 1900, there was no such requirement in most places. Baha'i meetings, therefore, were generally open to anyone.
The major gatherings in most Baha'i communities were weekly meetings that were usually held on Sundays. In many communities these were the only Baha'i gatherings. These meetings typically included prayers, readings from the Baha'i sacred writings and from the Bible, a prepared talk on some aspect of Baha'i history or the Baha'i teachings, the reading of letters from Baha'is in other localities, a discussion of community business, and sometimes the singing of hymns.19 If someone unfamiliar with the Baha'i teachings attended, an introductory talk would be given. The Nineteen-Day Feasts, social and devotional meetings called for in Baha'i scriptures, were held in many communities beginning about 1906. But these, too, were often open meetings. In 1909 (by which time Feasts were held in most of the larger communities), Charles Mason Remey, a widely traveled Baha'i, complained that there were almost no meetings being held just for believers.20
In many communities, anyone who attended Baha'i meet-

Introduction xiii

ings was regarded as a member of the Baha'i community, and would have been counted in the census statistics cited above. However, many of those who attended Baha'i meetings had not accepted Baha'u'llah as a prophet, had little commitment to the community, and held beliefs that were in conflict with the Baha'i teachings. For example, between 1904 and 1912 Anna Monroe, who is not known to have ever expressed a belief in the Baha'u'llah, attended Baha'i meetings in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Washington, D.C.— and even held Baha'i meetings in her home in Berkeley.21 Her correspondence shows that she held 'Abdu'1-Baha in high esteem, but that there were other spiritual teachers, such as Emmanuel Swedenborg, from whose writings she also drew inspiration and whom she may have regarded as equals of 'Abdu'1-Baha. Near the end of her life, for reasons that are not clear, she stopped attending Baha'i meetings. Marion Yazdi, reflecting the standards of membership that developed later, recalled that Monroe "never became a Baha'i."22 But Monroe was considered a member of the Baha'i community while she was attending Baha'i meetings. M
The lack of clear community boundaries impeded the development of Baha'i identities, especially in the smaller, newly established communities. However, in the cities with the greatest number of Baha'is, such as Chicago and New York, communities appear to have evolved into social configurations that were significantly different from those of smaller communities. These large communities were characterized by a wide variety of meetings and activities that drew families and individuals into interlocking social networks similar to those of a small town (or parish) church.24 In some specific ways, such as the organization of choirs and the development of philanthropic endeavors, they emulated church activities. As in many of the small communities, large communities held Sunday meetings to which non-Baha'is were allowed (or

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even encouraged) to attend. But their presence probably did not have the same impact on the proceedings that it would have had in a small community. On the other hand, if some persons regularly attended a number of different Baha'i functions, they might develop Baha'i identities, and be assimilated into the Baha'i community.
In Chicago, at least, there are indications that the development of social networks within the community led to strong bonds of reciprocal obligation between the members. One example of this sense of mutual obligation is related by Roger Dahl in his essay on Kenosha in this volume. He notes that the Baha'is of Chicago arranged for the housing of a destitute and elderly Baha'i from Kenosha. Their sense of obligation does not seem to have stemmed from a personal relationship with this woman; rather, they felt obliged to care for her because she was part of the community.
These large communities became centers of Baha'i activity upon which many smaller communities depended for intellectual, moral, and material support. Even before 1900, members of the New York and Chicago communities had begun to support smaller communities in a number of ways. They conducted classes and meetings in small communities; corresponded with Baha'is in these places; published Baha'i literature; and circulated copies of unpublished materials that illuminated various aspects of the Baha'i teachings. In 1908, New York Baha'is launched the first English-language Baha'i newsletter, The Bahai Bulletin, noting in the first issue its importance to small Baha'i communities: "We in the large cities have no idea what this would mean to more isolated believers in small towns and villages ... To them a paper coming regularly with news of the Cause would mean life itself."25 The function of The Bahai Bulletin was later assumed by Star of the West, which was published by the Chicago Baha'is. In 1909, the Baha'is of Chicago organized

Introduction xv

the first annual Bahai Temple Unity convention, attended by delegates from various Baha'i communities, to facilitate the construction of a Baha'i House of Worship in North America. All of these activities tied the Baha'is of small communities to a larger movement and, in the process, strengthened the Baha'i identities of the members.
These activities, because they provided forums for discussing the Baha'i teachings, also contributed to the emergence of a normative body of belief among the most active North American Baha'is. Even before 'Abdu'l-Baha's visit in 1912, most of the leading Baha'is, though possibly a minority of those who attended local Baha'i meetings, appear to have accepted the Baha'i scriptures as their primary source of spiritual truth. Other religious teachings might be studied, but they would be interpreted and judged in the light of the Baha'i teachings. Dreams, visions, and other forms of inspiration were also important in the culture of the community and were sometimes understood to validate certain forms of artistic expressions. For example, the design for the Baha'i House of Worship in Wilmette, Illinois, was legitimized, in part, by the architect's assertion that it was "an inspiration of the creator ... a copy of a Temple that exist[s] in the spirit world."26 Personal inspiration could also provide proof of the truth of Baha'i teachings, evidence for beliefs that were not known to have been addressed in Baha'i scriptures and, to a more limited extent, esoteric meanings of the Baha'i teachings. However, it was not acceptable for such inspiration to replace Baha'i scripture as the primary source of doctrine for the community.27
Although there was a degree of agreement among leading Baha'is concerning these matters, and this consensus was reflected in most of the published literature and much of the public discourse of the community, individualism remained at the heart of the American Baha'i ethos. Because of this,

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some Baha'is could defy the norms of the accepted Baha'i epistemology by, for example, circulating documents that they claimed were letters received from 'Abdu'1-Baha through "spiritual telepathy."28 Views that were at variance with the general understanding of the Baha'i teachings continued to be presented in Baha'i meetings, and such opinions were occasionally found in Baha'i publications. While Baha'is might express their personal disagreement with such ideas, they were reluctant to impose their views on others, even when there was a widespread consensus on a particular subject. Thus Marie Watson prefaced her criticism of a Baha'i publication with the following disclaimer: "No one can dictate to another . . . but I must insist for myself, to sanction only the Principles of the Revelation as set forth by Baha'o'llah and Abdul Baha." (Emphasis added.)29
One Baha'i, Charles Mason Remey, for years conducted a campaign to purge Baha'i literature, and presentations at Baha'i meetings, of ideas that could not be supported by Baha'i scriptures. These efforts did achieve results, but they are significant primarily because they were so unusual. Although other Baha'is may have sympathized with Remey, few were willing to take such initiatives.
However, attitudes began to change in 1917 and 1918 as a result of a watershed event that has become known as the Chicago Reading Room Affair.30 This controversy centered around the activities held at a Baha'i Reading Room that had been established in Chicago, apparently as a way of reaching non-Baha'is with the Baha'i message. This was supported by a number of the leading Baha'is of Chicago, and for a short time it seems to have been the center of Baha'i activity in the city. However by 1917, there was a serious division in the community between those who supported the Reading Room and those who opposed the activities there. Separate meetings were held by the two rival factions, each of which

Introduction xvii

claimed to be the "Chicago Bahai Assembly" (i.e., community). Under normal circumstances, the matter would have been referred to 'Abdu'1-Baha for resolution, but World War I had cut off communication with Palestine, making this impossible. Therefore, a committee was appointed, by persons who had gathered in Chicago to commemorate the one-hundredth anniversary of Baha'u'llah's birth, to investigate this division in the Chicago community. The Committee of Investigation concluded that the activities at the Reading Room constituted Covenant-breaking and that the participants, therefore, should be expelled from the Baha'i community and shunned by the believers. This ruling was ratified by the delegates at the Bahai Temple Unity Convention of 1918.
Although there were a variety of accusations made against the Reading Room group and a number of unusual circumstances that led to this radical action, the primary argument for this decision was that the Reading Room group had split off from the Chicago Baha'i community to form a separate and rival community, an act expressly forbidden by 'Abdu'l-Baha.31 Behind this legalistic argument, however, lay worlds of meaning.
The dominant view of the relationship of the Bahd'i Faith to other religious teachings, which centered on the concept of "progressive revelation," allowed Baha'is at once to validate and transcend the teachings of the major world religions. Baha'is could also embrace the teachings of new religious movements, with some reservations, on the basis that they were (unknowingly) inspired by the spirit of the new age. However, the teachings of a few groups, such as Theoso-phists and Freemasons, were difficult for Baha'is to encompass. Theosophists asserted that their teachings were the distillation of truths found in all religions, and therefore the true essence of all religion—a claim that was difficult to fit into the Baha'i paradigm without ceding the primacy of Baha'i

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scripture as the basis for spiritual truth. Beyond this, The-osophy, because it claimed to have captured the esoteric truth found in every religion, presented a paradigm into which the Baha'i Faith could potentially be incorporated.
This potential was realized in the writings of W. W. Harmon, a Theosophist from the Boston area. He published books and circulated lessons within the Baha'i community that offered esoteric interpretations of Baha'i scriptures and explanations of the stations of Baha'u'llah and 'Abdu'1-Baha that were influenced by the teachings of Theosophy. He was careful to note in his writing that the "Bahai Movement" was not responsible for his conclusions and that he was not "entering into the field of interpretation of the teachings of Baha'o'llah." This itself is evidence that explanations that contradicted or significantly exceeded the obvious meaning of the scriptures were regarded with some suspicion in certain Baha'i circles.32 Harmon's teachings had been a source of controversy as early as 1912, and they faced increasing criticism as they became more influential.33 The crux of the dispute in Chicago was that the Harmon lessons and other Theo-sophical teachings were being used in classes given at the Reading Room.
Many of the other accusations levelled against the Reading Room group—that they spread negative rumors about prominent Baha'is and sought to take over the leadership of the Bahai Temple Unity, for example—could have been directed at other contemporary Baha'is, including some of their most outspoken opponents. It was the theological challenge to the dominant Baha'i paradigm that imbued these accusations with special meaning. If there was the possibility that Theosophy could absorb the Baha'i Faith theologically, there was a fear that the Baha'i community could be dominated by persons sympathetic to Theosophy. In this context, the "Harmonites" came to be seen as conspirators who sought to

Introduction xix

usurp or infiltrate the legitimate leadership of the Baha'i community so that they could contaminate the Baha'i movement with Theosophical doctrines.
The Reading Room Affair, which affected a number of local Baha'i communities in North America, continued to have repercussions throughout the 1920s. The incident marked a significant step towards defining the boundaries of the Baha'i community. Although they were far from defeated as a force within the Baha'i community, Baha'is who espoused The-osophy or other metaphysical teachings were put on the defensive. After 1918, Baha'i leaders exhibited a greater willingness to exercise control over Baha'i publications and presentations.
On the other hand, some prominent Baha'is, such as Roy Wilhelm and Agnes Parsons, felt that the conduct of the investigation had been inappropriate and sought to cultivate a more tolerant attitude in the community.34 While the Reading Room Affair served to discredit metaphysical teachings, it did not challenge the participation of Baha'is in churches, other religious groups or movements for social change, which had also contributed to the ambiguity of community boundaries.
In fact, the involvement of Baha'is with other groups that promoted teachings similar to those of the Baha'i Faith, appears to have been increasing at the very time when metaphysical teachings were coming under attack. About the time of'Abdu'l-Baha's visit to the West (1911-1913), Baha'is began to place increasing emphasis on the Baha'i social teachings in their public presentations of the Faith. Individuals might be attracted to specific Baha'i teachings and could on that basis be considered Baha'is. This view seemed to be supported by some of 'Abdu'l-Baha's public statements. For example, he was reported to have said: "To be a Baha'i simply means to love all the world; to love humanity and try to serve it; to work for universal peace and universal brother-

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hood."35 Responding to such exhortations, Baha'is became active in movements promoting peace, an international language, racial equality, and feminism.36 At about this time, a view developed among some Western Baha'is that the purpose of the Baha'i Faith was to spiritualize and broaden the perspective of existing organizations and movements. One such Baha'i argued: "The Bahai Revelation is not to be organized. It remains an ideal, a force, a principle. Since organizations must be, let the old organizations remain, as many of them as prove useful. Infused with the Bahai Spirit, they can no longer conflict, duplicate or contend."37 Some asserted that the Baha'i Faith was the "esperanto of religions," whose purpose was to "coordinate the existing sects and religions but not attempt to replace them."38 A number of prominent Baha'is felt that Baha'is could (and should) be active members of non-Baha'i religious organizations. In 1911, for example, Tudor Pole encouraged the Baha'is of London not to leave their churches to form another sect.39
During the 1910s and 1920s, many Baha'is, especially in the New York and Boston areas, affiliated with churches that had adopted progressive social programs, and they hired liberal clergymen to make public presentations on the Baha'i Faith.40 As early as 1908, Dr. Oliver M. Fisher, an Episcopalian minister, was active in the New York Baha'i Community, where he lectured on the Seven Valleys; in 1910 he offered lectures on the Baha'i Faith in London and held Baha'i meetings his home there.41 Subsequently, Christian ministers were associated with a number of American Baha'i communities, and as Phillip Smith observes in his essay on Great Britain, a Unitarian minister was elected to the National Spiritual Assembly there in 1927. The close association of Christian ministers with the Baha'i community suggests that at least some Baha'is attended their churches. Jackson Armstrong-Ingram has argued that the affiliation of leading

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American Baha'is with churches impeded the development of distinctive community devotional life in the United States.42 This might also account for the slow development of a distinct Baha'i identity and practice in Great Britain.
The lack of a clear consensus on the meaning of Baha'i identity and on the definition of membership in Baha'i communities was partly rooted in the absence of local and national institutions whose authority was fully accepted by all Baha'is.43 The Executive Board of the Bahai Temple Unity, was the first ongoing Western Baha'i institution with more than a local scope of responsibility. Initially focusing on the task of establishing a Baha'i Temple (mashriqu'l-adhkdr), the body gradually took on broader responsibilities, but it generally functioned as a board of directors answerable to the delegates who elected it. The delegates themselves might achieve a consensus in a crisis such as the Reading Room Affair, but there was no regular forum at which they could consult and vote on the complex web of issues relating to Baha'i identity.
Boards of Counsel (the precursors to Local Spiritual Assemblies), seem to have exercised more authority at a local level, but they did not always function with clear mandates to make decisions on all matters for the community. Sometimes their decisions were ratified by a general vote of the believers. In any case, most communities did not have elected consultative bodies; instead they had community officers who were elected or chosen in an informal manner by the community. As Mariam Haney, a Baha'i since 1900, explained: "... the affairs of the Cause were administered by individuals who seemed naturally to have the necessary ability to function."44 Thus, at both a national and local level, Baha'i organization at this time could be described as a participatory democracy.
However, in the early 1920s this began to change. Shoghi Effendi, the grandson and appointed successor to 'Abdu'l-

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Baha, drawing on the principles outlined in the Will and Testament of 'Abdu'1-Baha and in other Baha'i scriptures, began to alter the existing Baha'i community practices in significant ways. Local Spiritual Assemblies of nine adult members were to be elected in every community that was large enough, and they were to have the authority to govern the affairs of the community. National Spiritual Assemblies were to have authority independent of the delegates who elected them. Only persons who had declared their belief, in Baha'u'llah were to attend Nineteen-Day Feasts or vote in Baha'i elections.45 The dissemination and implementation of these principles in the North American Baha'i communities took until about the mid-1980s, and these efforts were not without opposition.
Baha'is who did not believe that the Baha'i Faith should be organized, who felt that excluding non-Baha'is from some Baha'i meetings contradicted the spirit of the Baha'i teachings, or who opposed what they perceived as the dictatorial tendencies of Baha'i administrators, coalesced around Reality magazine (published from 1919-1929) and the New History Society (founded in 1929). These organizations promoted the idea of an inclusive Baha'i movement rather than an organized Baha'i religion. However, neither of them appear to have had widespread support among Western Baha'is; both were able to continue their activities primarily because of the financial support of wealthy individuals.46
After 'Abdu'l-Baha's Will and Testament began to be circulated in 1923, it became more difficult to advocate an anti-organization position, because this document included an outline for the development of Baha'i organization. Nevertheless, many Baha'is continued to be troubled by what they viewed as intrusive aspects of the new Baha'i administrative practices. When the Local Spiritual Assembly of Los Angeles sought to control the Baha'i meetings held by Ed-

Introduction xxiii

ward Getsinger, for example, he questioned their right to intervene in his personal activities and decried the "drift in the Cause toward sectarianization."*1
Such tension between older Baha'is and the newly established Baha'i institutions was common, but the broader trend was toward acceptance of institutional authority. By 1925, support for the concept of a Baha'i movement was so weak that Reality magazine sought a rapprochement with the National Spiritual Assembly.48 Ultimately, however, neither Reality nor the New History Society was willing to submit to the authority of Baha'i administrative institutions. Those who continued to be involved with these groups either distanced themselves from the Baha'i community or were excommunicated, which effectively ended their influence among Baha'is.
This outcome, which became evident by the end of the 1920s, illustrates the changes that had occurred in the Baha'i community by this time. Fifteen years earlier, the activities of Reality magazine and the New History Society probably would have continued within the community. As there was then no mechanism for resolving the differing concepts of Baha'i community and Baha'i identity, it is likely that most Baha'is would have viewed them not as opposition groups, but as representatives of different schools of thought within the Baha'i Faith.
Although they did, in fact, have a profound effect on the New York Baha'i community, the activities of the New History Society and Reality magazine were intended to influence the direction of the Baha'i Faith at a national and international level. But the authority of both the Guardian and of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States and Canada, the legitimacy of which they attempted to challenge, had been firmly established within the Baha'i community by the late 1920s. There were still minor disagreements about the jurisdiction of the National Assembly

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in local affairs and its relationship to National Convention delegates until the mid-1980s.49 But by 1930, the National Spiritual Assembly was able to focus its attention on the implementation of administrative changes in local communities.
In 1931, for example, for the first time the National Assembly directed that local communities should be confined to the legal metropolitan boundaries of the town or city; those who lived outside these boundaries were to form separate communities.50 The impact of this policy is noted in several of the essays in this volume.51 The implementation of this new rule obviously had important consequences for persons who were cut off from the communities to which they had belonged, but the loss of members was also sometimes traumatic for the rest of the community. For example, when the Berkeley Baha'i community broke off from the San Francisco Baha'i community, which then included all Baha'is in the San Francisco Bay Area, it was the San Francisco Baha'is who were upset by the change.52
The National Spiritual Assembly also began to coordinate teaching activities in various parts of the country. During the late 1920s and early 1930s, many new local communities were established by teachers whose presentations had been approved by the National Assembly. As a result of the activities of these teachers, there was also a substantial change in membership in some of the established communities. Extended Baha'i study classes were held in many local communities to insure that community members had a thorough understanding of the Baha'i teachings and the principles of Baha'i Administration.
As we can see from the articles on Kansas and Baltimore, this process of reeducation may have also functioned as a way of identifying and removing from the membership lists those individuals who were not Baha'is according to the new

Introduction xxv

standards. In the 1930s, it became customary in most local communities in North America for persons to be required to attend study classes for as long as a year before being allowed to enroll in the Baha'i community.53 This prevented the development of the ambiguous boundaries of membership that had existed during earlier years and resulted in much greater consistency in Baha'i beliefs.
As the Kansas essay illustrates, some persons left Baha'i communities when the membership requirements changed, but they were probably outnumbered by new converts. According to the 1936 census of religions, there were then 2,584 Baha'is in the United States in 88 Baha'i communities.54 Although this estimate may be slightly high, and there is some question about whether the Baha'i population grew significantly in the previous decade, there can be little doubt that were many new converts during this time and that their presence and involvement in Baha'i activities changed the nature of Baha'i communities.55
A survey of local communities conducted in 1937 illustrates some of the changes that had taken place in Baha'i community life. The majority of the Baha'is in these communities were reported to have been enrolled after the "establishment of the administrative order."56 Hence the majority of Baha'is, and the total membership of some communities, had by then been socialized into a Baha'i culture that placed great stress on organization. This did not simply entail an acceptance of the authority of Baha'i institutions. New Baha'is understood that when they had accepted the Baha'i Faith they had also joined a community in which they were obliged to be active workers. In 1937, there was an average of 6.3 committees per community, or one committee for every 4.8 persons.57 Many tasks that had previously been handled by individuals, such as the planning of the Nineteen-Day Feast or the maintenance of a Baha'i Library, were now handled

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by committees. This came to be viewed as the proper way to accomplish most tasks; and, as the example of Edward Getsinger suggests, activities that were not under the control of an institution were seen as improper. Mariam Haney, writing in the mid-1940s, observed that in the period prior to the establishment Local Spiritual Assemblies, "even the committees did not preclude the friends from serving and teaching in accordance with their own guidance. Those were the days when the 'rugged individualism' of Americans was greatly in evidence."58 We can infer from this statement that such individual activities were no longer the norm when she wrote this. Although, as Deborah Clark observes with regard to Baltimore, some local committees may have been quite small, it seems probable that most active Baha'is were on a committee.
This suggests that, in comparison to earlier periods, there was a high level of commitment among the membership. The level of participation in Baha'i meetings also seems to have grown from earlier decades. Attendance at Feast in 1937, for example, was estimated to be, on average, 56%; in 1918, it was probably about 38%.59 Further evidence of this commitment can be seen in the high number of Baha'is who "pioneered" to new localities to establish new communities in the following decade. Between 1937 and 1944, 241 Baha'is—5% to 10% of the North American Baha'i population—became Baha'i pioneers.60
Of course, this is evidence not just of high levels of commitment, but also of changing priorities in Baha'i communities. By the end of the 1930s, North American Baha'i communities had been transformed into an organizational type that one sociologist has termed a "mission," an organization in which a high proportion of resources is directed towards evangelical activities.61 Beginning in 1937 in North America, and in 1940 in Great Britain, plans were developed to focus

Introduction xxvii

the resources of Baha'is almost exclusively on the recruitment of new members. After World War II, North American Baha'is began systematically to spread the Baha'i Faith in Western Europe, establishing a number of new communities.62 After 1937, the Baha'i population of the United States doubled roughly every thirteen years until the 1960s, when growth became more rapid.63 The Baha'i population of Canada seems to have grown at a faster rate—doubling every five or six years—but the membership was not measured in the thousands until the 1960s.64 Baha'i evangelical activities in North America, some of which were attempts to attract specific minorities, began to change the demographic composition of the Baha'i population. By 1937, about 6% of the North American Baha'is were former Catholics and about 2% were former Jews.65 Both groups were underrepresented in the Baha'i community in comparison with the larger population. This is probably because both groups had developed cohesive social networks that were difficult to penetrate; Catholics and Jews were less like to convert to any other religion than were Protestants.66 However, several surveys suggest that Catholic and Jewish representation in Baha'i communities did increase. In 1953, for example, 15.6% of the Baha'is of New York City were from a Jewish background, an increase of 10.7% from 1937.67 In a 1968 survey of new Baha'i converts in the United States, 15% were former Catholics and 4% were formerly Jewish.68 Finally, a 1979 study of the membership of the Los Angeles Baha'i community found that 7.6% of the members were former Catholics and 9.3% had been Jewish.69
There were significant numbers of African-Americans in one community—Washington, D.C.—even before 'Abdu'l-Baha's visit there in 1912. In the later 1910s and 1920s, blacks became members of at least 19 other Baha'i communities. By 1937, they comprised about 5% of the North Ameri-

xxviii Richard Hollinger

can Baha'i population and were found in 34 communities, with the largest number in Chicago.70 Their representation within the Baha'i community was not equal to their percentage of the U.S. population. However, if a comparison is made just of the populations of the states in which there were Baha'i communities, African-Americans were overrepresented in the community.71 By 1950, blacks were estimated by one observer to comprise 15% of some local communities.72 In the 1968 survey cited above, 13% of the new Baha'is were found to be black.73 These percentages reflect the composition of Baha'i communities before a surge of black conversions in 1970 and 1971.
This cultural diversity affected the development of communities in a variety of ways. In some localities, there was opposition to interracial meetings from groups such as the Ku Klux Klan,74 and some communities were investigated by government agencies such as the FBI, presumably because organizations that sponsored integrated meetings were suspected of being influenced by Communism.75 Such interference, when it was overt, may have contributed to a sense of community solidarity. On the other hand, cultural differences may have contributed to a diminished intimacy in the social relationships within communities. In several instances, individual members of Baha'i communities openly opposed the integration of Baha'i meetings. Although such positions were almost unheard of after the 1950s, subtle forms of cultural tensions remained in some Baha'i communities, and Baha'is may have developed more formal social relationships within communities because this insured a certain distance from persons with whom they felt uncomfortable.76
In any case, a trend towards greater formality seems to have been encouraged by the direction focus of Baha'i activities for several decades. Although this has yet to be adequately studied, it appears that Baha'i communities in the 1940s and

Introduction xxix

1950s were characterized by high levels of membership commitment to the Baha'i Cause, but rather minimal bonds of reciprocal obligation between the Baha'is themselves. Baha'is might provide financial or other forms of assistance to each other, but this seems usually to have stemmed from an understanding that the assistance would aid someone in his or her service to the Faith. In most communities, there was little development of communal devotional activity, which might have enhanced community solidarity, and most communities were too small to offer the types of services to believers that churches could. Because of the changes in the physical boundaries of communities and the emphasis on "pioneering," Baha'i communities tended to be smaller than in earlier decades. While the number of Baha'i communities roughly quadrupled between 1936 and 1947, the average size of local Baha'i communities in North America went from 30 to 15 during this period.77 Fifteen believers came to be seen as the ideal size of a Baha'i community; when communities exceeded this size, Baha'is were encouraged to move elsewhere to form new communities. In these small communities, the basic Baha'i activities of the time—Feasts, commemorations of Baha'i holy days, firesides, Local Spiritual Assembly meetings, and committee meetings—occupied the active Baha'is to such an extent that little consideration could be given to other matters.
However, in the 1960s and the 1970s the Western Baha'i population experienced a series of significant demographic changes which changed the composition and focus of many local communities. For one, there was a relatively rapid process of suburbanization in the post-war period in North America, as middle-class families moved out of urban centers. This migration was reflected in the loss of members in urban Baha'i communities and contributed to the growth of new communities in suburban areas, a process that is ob-

xxx Richard Hollinger

served in the essays on Sacramento and Baltimore. However, a study of the Baha'i population in 1976 shows that the number of Baha'is living in suburbs was disproportionately low. It appears that many Baha'is left large cities to establish new communities in small towns (under 45,000), where the Baha'i population was disproportionately high.78
The major event that affected Baha'i communities, however, was the rapid spread of the Baha'i Faith, especially among youth, which occurred in a number of Western countries in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The Baha'i population of the continental United States during this period increased from about 11,000 in 1963 to about 75,000 in 1976; it had reached 110,000 by 1991.79 The rate of growth appears to have been higher in Canada, where the Baha'i population went from 554 in 1953 to 17,724 in 1986.80 Similar growth took place in other Western countries.81
This process received impetus from the growth of the counterculture, which removed social constraints from youth that might have otherwise impeded their investigation of the Baha'i Faith and which simultaneously encouraged the study of nontraditional religious teachings. However, few of the Baha'i converts seem to have been deeply involved in the counterculture. In the continental United States, many of the youth conversions resulted from activities on college campuses82; while in Hawaii, the vast majority of the converts were U.S. military servicemen who were stationed in Honolulu.83 These persons may have been influenced by the pervasive youth subculture, but they had not dropped out of society to pursue alternative lifestyles. Like the youth described in the Sacramento article, many of the new Baha'is expressed their identities using the symbols and trappings of counterculture, and they seem to have developed an oral teaching that mediated those elements of the Baha'i Faith that were most incongru-ent with that culture. But the message these young Baha'is conveyed within that subculture may have been far closer to

Introduction xxxi

mainstream Baha'i thought than other Bah&'is realized. Most of the new Baha'is were able to make a transition to a middle-class lifestyle with little difficulty. Those who did were probably more likely to remain active in Baha'i communities.
A series of surveys conducted in the 1970s and 1980s illustrates this point. A 1979 study of Baha'is in Rhode Island found only one Baha'i—a former Hare Krishna member—who had been part of any group identified with the counterculture.84 Surveys of Baha'is in Los Angeles and in the United Kingdom conducted in the same year found that 5% and 12.1% respectively had been members of non-traditional religious groups. But most of these persons had been Christian Scientists, Mormons, or Spiritualists, groups that were not associated with the 1960s counterculture.85 A 1985 survey of Baha'is who had experiences with non-traditional religious groups found persons who had been members of groups that were associated with the counterculture, such as a Kundalini Yoga Ashram and the Children of God, but they were outnumbered by former Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons.86 Although no reliable statistics are available, it is highly unlikely that persons who had been members of nontraditional religious groups ever comprised more than 10% of the Baha'i population.87 Nevertheless, anecdotes that circulate among Baha'is suggest that in the early 1970s a significant minority of new Baha'is had been involved in nontraditional religious movements. The surveys seem to indicate that those who were deeply identified with this religious subculture were less likely than others to remain active in the Baha'i community.88 A significant percentage of all new Baha'is, perhaps one-third of those in North America, became inactive or withdrew from the Baha'i community by the late 1970s, but the Baha'i population continues to be dominated by babyboomers, most of whom converted during this period.89
The growth of the Baha'i population in the 1960s and

xxxii Richard Hollinger

1970s increased the ethnic diversity of Baha'i communities. In the United States, a significant percentage of the new Baha'is were African-Americans. This was true in urban areas, but the Baha'i Faith also began to spread among blacks in rural areas of the American South, especially in South Carolina. About 20,000 persons converted there in 1970 and 1971, but the absence of established communities in these areas made it difficult to reinforce and sustain the Baha'i identities of new converts.90 In urban areas, new Baha'is were gradually socialized into a new identity through association with a community, both before and after conversion. In some parts of the South this was not possible, and many Baha'is there seem to have continued to regard themselves as Christians. Nevertheless, well-established communities have emerged in the "mass teaching areas," and this represents the first major penetration of the Baha'i Faith into the rural population of North America.
In the 1960s, the Baha'i Faith also began to spread in another sector of the rural population: Amerindians in the United States and Canada. As with rural conversions in the South and in some other parts of the world, many of these Baha'is seem to have developed dual religious identities; and many still practice their traditional religions.91 There have also been some conversions of Hispanics in rural areas, primarily in the American Southwest. Because many of these Baha'is are migrant farmworkers, their integration into existing communities and the development of new communities among them has been problematic.
Rural conversions have changed the social base of the Baha'i population, but, because the new converts are geographically segregated from the majority of the other Baha'is, this has had a very limited impact on the majority of local communities. Other demographic changes had a greater impact, especially in the larger urban communities. For example,

Introduction xxxiii

although their numbers have been relatively small, the conversion of Hispanics in urban areas of the United States and of French-speaking persons in Canada has added to the diversity of a number of communities. The influx into the American Baha'i population of Southeast Asian refugees—some of whom converted before they arrived and some after—has dramatically changed the demographic composition of a few Baha'i communities, primarily on the West Coast.
The most dramatic demographic change to affect Western Baha'i communities, however, has been the influx of Persian refugees following the Iranian Revolution of 1978-79. They spread throughout North America and Europe, and although no reliable statistics are available, it seems probable that they comprise 15% or more of the Baha'i population in these areas.92 Both the Iranian and Southeast Asian emigres tend to be disproportionately represented in certain large metropolitan areas, where they sometimes comprise the majority of Baha'is in a community.
The frequency of certain Baha'i activities in these communities—race unity deepenings, cross-cultural workshops, language and culture classes, and the like—suggests that there have been some difficulties dealing with cultural differences among Baha'is. At the same time, such activities also underscore the commitment of these communities to full integration. Serious cultural tensions have emerged between Iranian and local Baha'is, but this phenomenon appears to have been specific to a few large urban communities. In general, Iranian Baha'is seem to have assimilated more easily into Western societies than non-Baha'i Iranian immigrants,93 and their presence, as Peter Smith and Moojan Momen have observed, has contributed to "an increased sense of international Baha'i solidarity and cohesion."94
The growth of the Baha'i Faith since the 1960s has changed the size and character of many local communities.

xxxiv Richard Hollinger

Although it is not possible to determine with accuracy the current average community size, we can observe that in the United States the average number of Baha'is in a locality went from 5.1 in 1947 to 14.2 in 1991.95 If Baha'i communities experienced a similar growth, the average community would have 41 members. Some of the communities in major urban centers now number several hundred, while the Baha'i population of Los Angeles has exceeded one thousand for more than two decades. The increasing size of communities has allowed for the development of more diverse and specialized Baha'i activities, a trend that became very visible in the 1980s.96 A number of activities that fostered a stronger sense of community were sponsored by Local Spiritual Assemblies, including counseling services, women's support groups, Alcoholics Anonymous groups, Baha'is in Recovery Programs (which has chapters in many communities), ESL classes, dance and drama workshops, programs for single Baha'is (including at least one matchmaking service), and Youth for One World (a youth organization with chapters sponsored by local communities). These changes seem to have been more pronounced in the large metropolitan communities.
The 1980s also saw the emergence of activities that drew together Baha'is from various local communities around a special interest or profession. For example, the Association for Baha'is Studies now has a number of special interest sections that have facilitated the development of networks of Baha'is with particular areas of expertise, and there are now organizations or informal networks of Baha'i lawyers, physicians, publishers, computer users, short-wave radio operators, and academicians. There have also been a number of new Baha'i journals—mostly short-lived—focusing on specialized subjects, such as literature, social issues, parenting, women's issues, and the academic study of the Baha'i Faith.97 It is significant that a number of these endeavors were initi-

Introduction xxxv

ated not by Baha'i institutions but by individual Baha'is. Corporations owned by individual Baha'is have also been formed to publish and distribute Baha'i books, audio recordings, and other materials; and to initiate philanthropic projects. This is a marked departure from the Baha'i practice considered normative for several decades.
Many of these activities, whether begun by individuals or Baha'i institutions, amount to the formation of voluntary associations within the Baha'i community. Their impact on local communities is not yet clear, but presumably they draw some resources away from local activities. On the other hand, although they only involve a minority of Baha'is, they appear to have fostered greater social cohesion in the Baha'i population at an international level.
The way communities were affected by and responded to the trends described above has varied greatly and has usually been dependent on the local conditions within and outside Baha'i communities. Some of the diversity of the Baha'i experience in the West is documented in this volume. However, significant areas of Western Baha'i history, are not represented here. It is hoped that future volumes in this series will include articles that, for example, document the experiences of African-Americans in communities in South Carolina and Amerindians on reservations and reserves in the United States and Canada. It is especially important that histories be written for Baha'i communities in continental Europe. The focus of this introduction on North America is no reflection on the significance of European Baha'i history; it is a reflection of the state of the existing literature. It is equally important that histories of communities outside the West be written and published.
As the study of the Baha'i Faith develops as an academic field, such detailed histories will become essential. There is a huge mass of primary source material relating to the history

xxxvi Richard Hollinger

of the Baha'i Faith, including community records, personal papers, newsletters, and memoirs. These materials, especially voluminous for recent decades, are scattered around the world. No single historian can hope to make use of all of these sources. Therefore, the development of a secondary literature, including well-researched local, regional, and national histories is necessary before reliable broader studies can be written. This volume is intended as a small contribution to such a literature.
Richard Hollinger North Bergen, New Jersey July 1992

NOTES

Charles Joyner, Down by the Riverside: A South Carolina Slave Community (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1984) p. xvi.
The few exceptions to this tend to focus on the very early years of a community, which does not allow for an examination of continuity and change over time. See, for example, William P. Collins, "Kenosha, 1893-1912: History of an Early Baha'i Community in the United States," in Moojan Momen, ed., Studies in Bdbi and Baha'i History (Los Angeles: Kalimat Press, 1982) pp. 225-254, and the treatment of several early American communities in Robert Stockman, The Bahd'i Faith in America: Origins, 1892-1900 (Wilmette, 111.: Baha'i Publishing Trust, 1985).
For a full description of these classes, see Robert Stockman, The Bahd'i Faith, pp. 60-84.
The Friday night meetings in Chicago appear to have been intended for, and primarily attended by Baha'is. It was at these meetings that Baha'is were introduced to the "Higher Teachings"— those based on Baha'i scriptures. These meetings are mentioned in: Attie Dealy to Maude Lamson (n.d.) and G. S. Dixon to Maude Lamson July 31, 1899. Maude Lamson Papers. National Baha'i Archives. Wilmette, Illinois. Maude Lamson to Ibrahim Kheiralla, July 9, 1899,

Introduction xxxvii

July 15, 1899, and July 29, 1899. Kheiralla/Saleeby Family Papers (In private hands); and Fannie Lesch to "Brother in Faith," August 23, 1899. Portland Baha'i Archives. There is no direct evidence that non-Baha'is were kept out of these meetings. But on at least one occasion persons were prevented from attending a meeting in which the final lesson (on the Greatest Name) was to be given, because they had not attended the earlier classes. (See "Only Believers were Permitted to Hear Address of Dr. Kheiralla Last Night," Cincinnati Enquirer, September 22, 1899, p. 2.) It seems unlikely that Kheiralla would have knowingly permitted non-Baha'is to attend meetings where the "Higher Teachings" were presented. The appointment of "watchmen" for the Kenosha Baha'i meetings suggests that they had similar concerns. (Kenosha Baha'i Community minutes, entry for June 22, 1899. Kenosha Baha'i Community Records.)
See Peter Smith, "The American Baha'i Community, 1894-1917: A Preliminary Survey," in Moojan Momen, Studies in Bdbt and Bahd'i History, p. 121; and Stockman, The Baha'i Faith, pp. 101-103.
"Kheiralla is Here," The Commercial Tribune (Cincinnati) September 21, 1899, p.5.
See Mirza Abu'1-Fadl, The Bahd'i Proofs (Wilmette, 111.: Baha'i Publishing Trust, 1983) pp. 71-78.
Thornton Chase, "A Brief History of the American Development of the Bahai Movement," Star of the West, vol. V, no. 17 (January 19, 1915) p. 263.
Computed from Baha'i Membership Lists, United States, 1894-1900 (Microfilm). National Baha'i Archives. Wilmette, Illinois. It should be noted that this list does not include the names of all of the Baha'is enrolled during the years covered. More importantly, it is an enrollment list—not a membership list—so it may include the names of many persons who were never active in a Baha'i community.

Robert Stockman, "The Baha'i Faith and American Protestantism, 1894-1921," (Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, 1985) p. 48. Stockman, The Bahd'i Faith, p. 110.
U.S. Bureau of the Census, Religious Bodies: 1936—Separate Religious Denominations (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office) Part I, Vol. II, p. 75.
Ibid. In 1905, a petition was circulated in Baha'i communities that was sent to 'Abdul-Baha. The petition was probably signed by the vast majority of persons who attended the meetings where it

xxxviii Richard Hollinger

was circulated; thus it can be used as a rough indicator of attendance at Baha'i meetings. The names of those who signed the petition, totalling 422 persons, were listed on the tablet (letter) 'Abdu'1-Baha wrote in response, which was printed in 1906. This is an average of eighteen persons per community. Although it is probable that the petition was not circulated in every community, it is also likely that the attendance at the meetings where it was circulated was higher than average.
Minutes of the Portland Bahd'i community, entry for November 25, 1906. Portland Baha'i Archives. Membership list of the Seattle Baha'i Assembly, April 15, 1907; minutes for the meeting of April 15, 1907; "Members of the Spokane Assembly," August 1908. Seattle Baha'i Archives.
Peter Smith, The Bdbi and Baha'i Religions: From Messianic Shi'ism to a World Religion (London: Cambridge University Press, 1987) pp. 106-107. More detailed accounts of the establishment of these communities can be found in the following sources: Agnes Alexander, Forty Years of the Bahd'i Cause in Hawaii, 1902-1942 (Honolulu: National Spiritual Assembly, 1974); Duane Troxel, "A Survey of the Origin and Development of the Baha'i Faith in the Hawaiian Islands, 1900-1915" (unpublished paper); Charles Mason Remey, The First Meetings in Paris" in "Baha'i Reminiscences, diary, letters, and other documents by Charles Mason Remey" (New York Public Library) folio 1; "In Memoriam: May Ellis Maxwell," Bahd'i World, Volume VIII (Wilmette, 111.: Baha'i Publishing Trust, 1942); Rainer Flasche, "Der Religion der Einheit Selbstverwirklung der Menscheit: Geschichte und der Baha'i in Deutschland," Zeitschrift fuer Missionswissenschaft und Religionswisrenschaft, vol. 61, no. 3 (1977) pp. 188-213; the memoirs of Alma Knobloch, Washington, D.C., Bahd'i Archives; and E. T. Hall, The Beginning of the Bahd'i Cause in Manchester (Manchester: Baha'i Assembly, 1925).
Bureau of the Census, Religious Bodies: 1936, p. 75.
Star of the West, vol 10, no 8 (August 1, 1919) pp. 156-164. The number of persons on the list (1,136) has been divided by the number of localities with two or more Baha'is (57), resulting in an average of 19.9 per community.
"List of Bahais of the United States and Canada. Made at the Request of Shoghi Rabbani, March 1922," Alfred Lunt Papers. National Baha'i Archives.

Introduction xxxix

Stockman, "American Protestantism," pp. 33-34.
The time and frequency of Bahd'i meetings has been gleaned from notices and articles about local communities that appeared in The Bahai Bulletin (New York) and Star of the West between 1908 and 1910 (inclusive). Of 25 communities, 13 met on Sundays; the remainder either had meetings on weekday evenings or did not specify the time of their meetings.
The description of the meetings is based largely on instructions for the conduct of meetings that were given by Isabella Brittingham to the Portland BaM'fs, and which she said were "widely observed in America." These are found in the minutes of the Portland Baha'i community between the entries for March 30, 1907 and April 7, 1907. (Portland Bahd'i Archives.) As Brittingham was one of the most widely traveled American Bahd'i teachers, her observations carry considerable weight.
Circular letter from Charles Mason Remey in Star of the West vol. 1, no. 9 (August 20, 1910) pp. 2-3.
Ramona Allen Brown, Memories of 'Abdu'l-Bahd: Recollections of the Early Days of the Bahd'i Faith in California (Wilmette: Baha'i Publishing Trust, 1980) pp. 5, 45. Marion Carpenter Yazdi, Youth in the Vanguard: Memoirs and Letters Collected by the First Bahd'i Student at Berkeley and at Stanford University (Wilmette: Baha'i Publishing Trust, 1982) p. 6. Anna Monroe to Phoebe Hearst, November 9, 1911 and n.d., Phoebe Hearst Papers. Bancroft Library.
Yazdi, Youth in the Vanguard, p. 6.

Excerpts from letters of Helen Goodall (TS), June 20, 1904 and January 8, 1905, in private hands.
The involvement of entire families in communities, intra-community marriages, business partnerships between Baha'is, and Baha'is hiring personal and business employees from within the community can be seen as indicators that these communities transcended the norms of voluntary associations. This issue has not yet been systematically studied, and there is only anecdotal evidence to support this observation. However, it is possible to obtain some crude statistical evidence on family participation by examining several Baha'i lists.
In Kenosha, the names of 86% of those who signed a petition to 'Abdu'1-Baha in 1901 (Thornton Chase Papers. National Baha'i Archives. Wilmette, Illinois.) appear with the name of at least one other

xl Richard Hollinger

family member, indicating that they were active as a family. For those who signed a petition to 'Abdul-Baha in 1918 the figure is 94%. (Star of the West, vol 10., no. 8, p. 161.)
The names of 34.5% of the Chicago Baha'is in 1897 were listed with another family member. (Baha'i Membership Book, Chicago House of Spirituality Records. National Baha'i Archives.) For the 1918 petition, the figure is 48% for Chicago, and 37% for New York. (Star of the West vol. 10, no. 8, pp. 157-160.)
The dramatic difference between Kenosha and the other communities can be explained by the fact that this community emerged from a working-class population. It was therefore modeled after working-class social organizations which tended to have more intense social relationships, while the membership in Chicago and New York was more middle-class.
Nevertheless, the fact that there were classes for children in Chicago (Part of the Bahd'i History of the Family of Charles and Maria loas—Epilogue [n.p., n.d] [not paginated]) and a Baha'i youth club in New York (Bahai Bulletin, November 1908 [not paginated]) does suggest a significant degree of family orientation. Moreover, there were well-known Baha'i families who provided stability and cohesion to these communities: the Dodge, Harris, MacNutt, and Kinney families, in New York; the loas, Greenleaf, Lesch, Agnew, and Bartlett families, in Chicago.
[Arthur P. Dodge?], "Editorial Department," The Bahai Bulletin vol. 1, no. 1 (September 1908) [not paginated].
Jackson Armstrong-Ingram, Studies in Bdbi and Bahd'i History, Volume Four: Music, Devotions, and Mashriqu'l-Adhkdr (Los Angeles: Kalimat Press, 1987) pp. 197.
Charles Mason Remey, Reminiscences of The Summer School: Green Acre—Eliot, Maine (n.p., 1949) pp. 70-71, 73-75. Armstrong-Ingram, Music, Devotions and Mashriqu'l-Adhkar. pp. 198-202.
Remey, Reminiscences, pp. 70-71. Star of the West, vol. 9, no. 5 (June 5, 1918) p. 58.
29.	Marie Watson to Mrs. Aseyeh Allen (copy), July 20, 1920, Aseyeh Allen-Dyar Collection. Washington, D.C., Baha'i Archives. It is interesting to note that in this same letter, Watson cited personal inspiration in defence of a Catholic doctrine: "The Immaculate Con ception is a spiritually scientific fact proved to my soul and I know also the process . . . Beware how you handle these matters. These are 'holy mysteries' not known to the merely intellectual aspect."

Introduction xli

For a description of this incident, see Peter Smith, "The American Baha'i Community, 1894-1917," pp. 189-94. Except where otherwise noted, this is the source for the information on this incident.
Untitled notes on the meetings of the Committee of Investigation (TS), Ella Cooper Papers. San Francisco Baha'i Archives. Report of the Bahai Committee of Investigation 1917-1918 (Washington D.C.: n.p., n.d.) p. 4. It is not clear, from the historical evidence, that the Reading Room group did, in fact, split off from the Chicago community. They claimed that it was their accusers (Zia Bagdadi and Conine True) who had created the division in the community.
W. W. Harmon, The Seven Principles of the Microcosm and the Macrocosm Applied to the disclosures of Baha'o'llah in the Book of the Seven Valleys (Boston: n.p., 1915) pp. 11-12.
Notes on a meeting with 'Abdu'1-Baha in San Francisco, Ella Cooper Papers. San Francisco Baha'i Archives.
Smith, "American Baha'i Community," p. 190. Interview with Walter Blakely, conducted by the author on October 25, 1985.
John E. Esslemont, Bahd'u'lldh and the New Era (New York: Baha'i Publishing Committee, 1931) p. 86.
For a summary of involvement of Baha'is in the peace movements, see Richard Hollinger, "Baha'is and American Peace Movements," in Anthony Lee, ed., Circle of Peace: Reflections on the Bahd'i Teachings (Los Angeles: Kalimat Press, 1985) pp. 3-20. On Baha'is and racial issues, see Gayle Morrison, "To Move the World: Promoting Racial Amity, 1920-1927," World Order (Winter 1980) pp. 9-31; and Mark Perry, "Pioneering Race Unity: The Chicago Baha'is, 1919-1939," World Order, vol. 20, no. 2 (Winter 1985-1986) pp. 41-60. On Baha'i involvement with the Esperanto movement, see Wendy Heller, Lidia: The Life ofLidia Zammenhof Daughter of Esperanto (Oxford: George Ronald, 1985). No research has yet been published on Baha'i involvement in the feminist movement, however, there were feminist Baha'is. Laura Dreyfus-Barney, for example, was a founding member of the International Council of Women. I am indebted to Jean L. Kling, curator of the Alice Pike Barney papers, for this information.
Aseyeh Allen Dyar, Short Talks on the Practical Application of the Bahai Revelation (Washington D.C., 1922) p. 55.
Remey, Reminiscences, p. 27-28.
Arthur Cuthbert, "London, England, News Notes," Star of the West, vol. 2, no. 2 (April 9, 1911) p. 2.

xlii Richard Hollinger

Armstrong-Ingram, Music, Devotions and Mashriqu'l-Adhkdr pp. 261-273. Interview with Walter Blakely, October 25, 1985. Remey, Bahd'i Reminiscences, p. 28.
Thornton Chase to Ella Cooper, November 14, 1908, Ella Cooper Papers. San Francisco Bahd'i Archives. "New York," Bahai Bulletin (November 1908). Star of the West (June 24, 1910) p. 12; and (July 13, 1910) p. 16. Fisher's pilgrimage is reported in the January 1909 issue of the Bahai Bulletin.
Armstrong-Ingram, Music, Devotions and Mashriqu'l-Adhkdr pp. 267-73.
For a discussion of this, see Mark Perry, The Chicago Baha'i Community, 1921-1939," (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Chicago, 1986) pp. 11-15.
Mariam Haney, The American Pioneer Period," World Order vol. 11, no. 3 (1945) p. 92.
Shoghi Effendi, Bahd'i Administration: Selected Messages, 1922-1932 (Wilmette, 111.: Baha'i Publishing Trust, 1974) pp. 20, 37, 79-80, 90.
Reality began as an effort to attract non-Baha'is to the Baha'i Faith. (Pilgrim's Notes of Agnes Parsons, Ella Cooper Papers. San Francisco Baha'i Archives.) As such it seems to have been supported by a number of Baha'is for the first few years. (See Peter Smith, "Reality Magazine: Editorship and Ownership of An American Baha'i Periodical," in Juan Cole and Moojan Momen, eds. From Iran East and West: Studies in Bdbi and Bahd'i History, Vol. 2 (Los Angeles: Kalimat Press, 1984) pp. 135-144. The founders, Eugene and Wandeyne Deuth, also started a "Bahd'i Library," with which a number of New York Baha'is were associated. (Wandeyne Deuth to Governor Sulzer, January 6, 1920, William Sulzer Papers. Bailey/Howe Library, University of Vermont.)
Harrison Gray Dyar, who took over the editorship in 1922, took the magazine in a more radical direction than the original editors. He was critical of Baha'i administration, especially of the Guardianship. (See "A Brief History of the Bahai Movement," Reality, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 3-4; "Unjustified Bahai Organization," Reality, vol. 6, no. 7, pp. 35-37; and The Will of Abdul Baha," Reality, vol. 6, no. 7, pp. 16-20.) Dyar must have had an independent source of income, because he worked much his adult life as an unpaid curator at the Smithsonian Institution. (Biographical Note in the Inventory of the Harrison Gray

xliv Richard Hollinger

"Local Baha'i History and Record" questionnaires. Of the communities who identified their period of most rapid growth, 71% indicated that it was after 1926.
"Local Baha'i History and Record" questionnaires. The questionnaires usually give a percentage in answer to this question. I converted these to numbers using the total membership of the local community, added the figures from all of the communities together, and computed the percentage (61%) from the total membership included in this survey (1,497).
Ibid.
Haney, "The American Pioneer Period," p. 92. "Committees" here refers to Boards of Counsel and the Chicago House of Spirituality, precursors to Local Spiritual Assemblies.
The "Local Baha'i History and Record" questionnaires, included a question about attendance at Feast, which was usually answered with a percentage. I converted these to numbers; added up the total number who were estimated to attend Feast regularly; and divided by the total number of Bahd'is listed in these communities, to arrive at the 56% estimate.
I have used the list of Baha'is on a petition sent to 'Abdu'1-Baha in 1918 to arrive at the second estimate. The petition circulated in local Baha'i communities for a number of weeks (Carl Scheffler, "Outline of how Supplication was drafted," Star of the West, vol. 10, no. 8, p. 168) and would therefore have been circulated at one or more Feasts. If anything, this number (1,124 for the United States) would be a high estimate of Feast attendance, as some could have signed at other meetings.
Much of the change between 1918 and 1936 may have resulted from changes in the definition of membership. Many of those counted on the 1916 census would probably not have been counted in 1936.
60.	The Baha'i Centenary 1844-1944 (Wilmette: Bahd'i Publish ing Committee, 1944) p. 175. The number of Baha'is in North America in 1943 was 4,578 (Bahd'i News, no. 161, p. 3.). The pioneers would constitute 5.2% of this number and 9.4% of the figure given by the 1936 census (2,584). Another, possibly more accurate, gauge of the size of the Baha'i population in 1936 is the Bah&'i Historical Record Cards (in the Baha'i National Archives, Wilmette, Illinois), which were filled out by North American Baha'is in 1935-1936. There are 1,813 of these, and the Baha'i pioneers would comprise 13.2% of this population.

Introduction xlv

Ross P. Scherer, "A New Typology for Organizations: Market, Bureaucracy, Clan, and Mission, with Application to American Denominations," Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, vol. 27, no. 4 (December 1988) pp. 475-498. Scherer notes that "missions" can also focus their resources on social action, but few can balance both social action and evangelical activities. The decline in social activism in the Baha'i community during this period fits this pattern.
Arthur Hampson, "Growth and Spread of the Baha'i Faith," (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Hawaii, 1980) pp. 378-82; Warburg, "Baha'i in Denmark"; Karel Dobbelaere and Michel Voisin, "Sekten en nieuwe religieuze bewegingen in Belgie," Tijdschrift voor Sociologie vol. 7, nos 1-2 (1986) pp. 395-437; Flasche, "Baha'i in Deutschland." A useful primary source that documents the activities of Baha'i "pioneers" in Europe during this period is Charles Mason Remey, Journal-Diary of Baha'i Travels in Europe, 2 volumes (n.p., 1947 and 1949). See also Will C. van den Hoonaard, comp., "An Annotated Index of the United States European Teaching Committee Minutes. Sources for the Study of European Baha'i History" (unpublished ms.).
Hampson, "Growth and Spread," pp. 222, 229. I have used the figure 11,047 as the number of Baha'is in 1963 ("Proposed Budget for the First Year of the Nine Year Plan," copy in my possession) and the 1936 Census figure of 2,584, to arrive at this estimate.
Will C. van den Hoonaard, "Canada," (draft of article for the Short Encyclopedia of the Bahd'i Faith). Bahd'i News (March 1947) p. 8.
According to these sources, the Baha'i population of Canada went from 270 in 1947 to 554 in 1953.
Stockman, "The Bahd'i Faith and American Protestantism," p. 48-49.
Frank Newport, "The Religious Switcher in the United States," American Sociological Review, vol. 44 (1984) p. 533. Wade C. Roof and Christopher K Hadaway, "Denominational Switching in the Seventies: Going Beyond Stark and Glock," Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, vol. 18 (1979) pp. 366-67. Rodney Stark and Charles Glock, American Piety: The Nature of Religious Commitment (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1968) p. 195.
Peter Berger, "From Sect to Church: A Sociological Interpretation of the Baha'i Movement" (Ph.D. dissertation, New School for Social Research, 1954) p. 133. The Berger survey suggests that the

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number of Baha'is from a Catholic background in New York went down slightly from 9.7% (14) in 1937 to 7.8% (7) in 1953. However, the Berger survey was conducted at a single Nineteen-Day Feast and therefore was not a survey of the entire community. The percentages for 1937 have been computed from figures in Stockman, The Baha'i Faith and American Protestantism," pp. 48-49.
Hampson, "Growth and Spread," p. 357. The percentage of Catholic converts was still below their representation in the wider population, which was then 26%. It should be noted that this survey only included persons who converted in December 1968.
Peter Smith, "A Sociological Study of the B£bi and BaM'i Religions" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Lancaster, 1982) p. 438.
Morrison, To Move the World, pp. 32-34, 204-205. Robert Stockman, "The Bah&'i Faith and Protestantism," pp. 45-46.
Hampson, "The Growth and Spread of the Baha'i Faith," p. 340.
T. Lane Skelton, "A Sociological Analysis of the Baha'i Movement" (M.A. Thesis, University of California at Berkeley, 1955) p. 68.
Hampson, "Growth and Spread," p. 347.
Morrison, To Move the World, p. 283. Sandra Kahn, "Encounter of Two Myths: Baha'i and Christian in Rural American South—A Study in Transmythicization," (Ph.D. dissertation, University of California at Santa Barbara, 1977) pp. 261-262. Lucille Buffin, "Fifty-Three Years with Miami, Florida Baha'is, 1933-1966," (unpublished paper, an earlier version of which is in the National Baha'i Archives. Wilmette, Illinois) p. 5.
Mary Elizabeth Archer, "Global Community: Case Study of the Houston Baha'is," (M.A. Thesis, University of Houston, 1980) p. 180. Interview with Lois Willows conducted by the writer on January 2, 1985. According to Willows, the FBI agent charged with investigating Baha'is in Long Beach, California eventually became a Baha'i. The writer was informed by former employees of the U.S. Baha'i National Center that this institution was infiltrated by an intelligence unit of the Chicago Police Department in the late 1960s or early 1970s.
This possibility was raised by a series of conversations I had with Baha'is who were active in one U.S. community in the 1950s. Although these were not formal interviews, I did ask questions that were intended to uncover what types of relationships Baha'is had

xlvi Richard Hollinger

number of Baha'is from a Catholic background in New York went down slightly from 9.7% (14) in 1937 to 7.8% (7) in 1953. However, the Berger survey was conducted at a single Nineteen-Day Feast and therefore was not a survey of the entire community. The percentages for 1937 have been computed from figures in Stockman, "The Baha'i Faith and American Protestantism," pp. 48-49.
Hampson, "Growth and Spread," p. 357. The percentage of Catholic converts was still below their representation in the wider population, which was then 26%. It should be noted that this survey only included persons who converted in December 1968.
Peter Smith, "A Sociological Study of the Babi and Baha'i Religions" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Lancaster, 1982) p. 438.
Morrison, To Move the World, pp. 32-34, 204-205. Robert Stockman, The Baha'i Faith and Protestantism," pp. 45-46.
Hampson, "The Growth and Spread of the Baha'i Faith," p. 340.
T. Lane Skelton, "A Sociological Analysis of the Baha'i Movement" (M.A. Thesis, University of California at Berkeley, 1955) p. 68.
Hampson, "Growth and Spread," p. 347.
Morrison, To Move the World, p. 283. Sandra Kahn, "Encounter of Two Myths: Baha'i and Christian in Rural American South—A Study in Transmythicization," (Ph.D. dissertation, University of California at Santa Barbara, 1977) pp. 261-262. Lucille Buffin, "Fifty-Three Years with Miami, Florida Baha'is, 1933-1966," (unpublished paper, an earlier version of which is in the National Baha'i Archives. Wilmette, Illinois) p. 5.
Mary Elizabeth Archer, "Global Community: Case Study of the Houston Baha'is," (M.A. Thesis, University of Houston, 1980) p. 180. Interview with Lois Willows conducted by the writer on January 2, 1985. According to Willows, the FBI agent charged with investigating Baha'is in Long Beach, California eventually became a Baha'i. The writer was informed by former employees of the U.S. Baha'i National Center that this institution was infiltrated by an intelligence unit of the Chicago Police Department in the late 1960s or early 1970s.
This possibility was raised by a series of conversations I had with Baha'is who were active in one U.S. community in the 1950s. Although these were not formal interviews, I did ask questions that were intended to uncover what types of relationships Baha'is had

Introduction xlvii

with each other during this period. Several patterns emerged from these queries. It appears that the conduct of Baha'i meetings was rather formal and impersonal and did not lead to the development of friendships among the members. Individual Baha'is did develop close relationships, over time, as a result of personal contact outside Baha'i meetings. However, because blacks and whites in the community rarely met together socially they rarely developed close friendships. This pattern of relationships may be specific to one community, however.
In 1949, there were 372 Bahd'i communities in North America (Bahd'i World, Volume XI, pp. 525-531); there were, in 1947, 5,720 Baha'is (Bahd'i News, March 1947, p. 8). Hence the average community size was approximately 15. The Baha'i population probably grew between 1947 and 1949, and therefore this estimate may be slightly low. According to the figures in the 1936 census, the average Baha'i community would have had 29.3 members; the average community size according to the "Local Baha'i History and Record" questionnaires was 30.5
Hampson, "Growth and Spread," pp. 308-309.
Ibid., p. 229. The "Proposed Budget for the First Year of the Nine Year Plan," gives the figure 11,047 for 1963. The 1991 figure comes from a statistics sheet provided by the U.S. Baha'i Office of Public Information, dated September 1991.
Will C. van den Hoonaard, "Canada."
See Warburg, "Baha'i in Denmark," and Margaret J. Ross, "Some Aspects of the Bahd'i Faith in New Zealand," (M.A. Thesis, University of Auckland, 1985) pp. 116-124.
This conclusion is based on conversations with Robert Phillips, Anthony Lee, and Jesse Villagomez, each of whom was a member of the U.S. Baha'i National Youth Office during the period of youth conversions.
Interview with Lois Willows, January 2, 1985.
Robert Stockman, "A History of the Rhode Island Baha'i Community, 1866-1979." National Baha'i Archives. Wilmette, Illinois.
Smith, "A Sociological Study," p. 438.
Unpublished (and untitled) survey of selected Baha'is in the United States conducted by Janet Tanaka in 1985.
The Tanaka survey was not a random sample, and therefore cannot be used to gauge the percentage of Bahd'is who had been

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involved in non-traditional religions. However, a 1968 survey (Hampson, "Growth and Spread," p. 357) indicates that 90% of new converts stated that they were either Christians, Jews, or had been raised as Bahd'is.
One exception to this might be Baha'is involved with Transcendental Meditation (TM), some of whom have been able to reconcile continued involvement in this movement with their Bahd'i identities. For example, at a Baha'i conference in St. Louis in 1974,1 met Baha'is from a community the total membership of which was active in this group. As of the late 1980s, there was a Baha'i community in Iowa composed entirely of individuals who were studying these teachings at a TM college.
Hampson, "Growth and Spread," pp. 228-230. Hampson notes that, in 1976, 31% of the persons on the U.S. Bahd'i membership lists were "mail returns," —their addresses were unknown and they were not known to be active in any Bahd'i community. A similar pattern can be seen in Canada where the Bahd'i population exceeded 17,000 in 1986, but the number with known addresses was 11,500 {Bahd'i Canada, April 1988, p.3.)—a mail return rate of 32%.
Kahn, "Encounter of Two Myths," pp. 15-16.
A Bahd'i pioneer on a Navajo reservation in Arizona, for example, informed the author that all of the Bahd'is there continue to participate in Navajo religious ceremonies.
It is estimated that 25,000 Bahd'is fled Iran after the revolution ("NSA of US Presents Peace Statement to President Reagan," Alaska Bahd'i News, March 1986, p. 3.) Not all of them settled in the West, but it would appear that most of them did. In the mid-1980s, the writer was given an unofficial estimate by an employee of the U.S. Baha'i National Center that there were 12,000-14,000 Iranian Bahd'is in the U.S., which would be slightly more than 10%. Resident Bahd'is in Canada have informed me that the percentage is higher in that country. Peter Smith's survey of the British Bahd'i community in 1979 found that 31.8% were Iranian. ("A Sociological Study" p. 439.) As of 1981, Iranians comprised 17% of the Danish Bahd'i Community. (Warburg, "Bahd'i in Denmark.")
Chantal Saint-Blanat, "Nation et religion chez les immigres iranien en Italie," Archives de sciences sociales des religions (July-September 1988) pp. 27-37.
Peter Smith and Moojan Momen, "The Bahd'i Faith 1957-

Introduction xlix

1988: A Survey of Contemporary Developments," Religion, vol. 19 (1989) p. 85.
Computed from information in Bahd'i World, Volume XI, pp. 525-541; Bahd'i News (March 1947) p. 8; and a statistics sheet provided by the U.S. Bahd'i Office of Public Information, dated September 1991. These figures include localities in which there is only one Bahd'i; the figures given above for the average community size included only localities with two or more Bahd'is.
Most of the information discussed below has been gleaned from a review of bulletins from twenty U.S. Bahd'i District Teaching Committees and local Bahd'i newsletters from the following communities: Boston, Chicago, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, New York Portland, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto. I reviewed publications dating from 1985 to 1990, although it was not possible to locate copies of every publication for this entire time period.
Among the journals are: Spiritual Mothering, dialogue, Wherefore, The Green Door, I Read the News Today, The Journal of Bahd'i Studies, Soundings, and The Bahd'i Studies Bulletin.