Louis Venters's No Jim Crow Church: The Origins of South Carolina's Bahá'í PDF

"A richly specified examine of the increase of the Bahá’í religion in South Carolina. There isn’t one other examine available in the market even remotely like this one."--Paul Harvey, coauthor of The colour of Christ: The Son of God and the Saga of Race in America

"A pioneering learn of ways and why the Bahá’í religion turned the second one biggest spiritual neighborhood in South Carolina. conscientiously researched, the tale advised the following fills an important hole in our wisdom of South Carolina's wealthy and various spiritual history."--Charles H. Lippy, coauthor of Religion in modern America

The emergence of a cohesive interracial fellowship in Jim Crow-era South Carolina was once not likely and unsafe. notwithstanding, contributors of the Bahá’í religion within the Palmetto nation rejected segregation, broke clear of non secular orthodoxy, and defied the chances, finally turning into the state’s greatest non secular minority.

The faith, which emphasizes the religious solidarity of all humankind, arrived within the usa from the center East on the finish of the 19th century through city parts within the Northeast and Midwest. Expatriate South Carolinians switched over and after they lower back domestic, they introduced their newfound faith with them. regardless of often being the goals of intimidation, or even violence, by way of pals, the Ku Klux Klan, legislations enforcement organisations, executive officers, and conservative priests, the Bahá’ís remained resolute of their religion and their dedication to an interracial non secular democracy. within the latter half the 20 th century, their numbers persisted to develop, from numerous hundred to over twenty thousand.

In No Jim Crow Church, Louis Venters strains the heritage of South Carolina’s Bahá’í group from its early origins during the civil rights period and offers an organizational, social, and highbrow background of the circulate. He relates advancements in the group to adjustments in society at huge, with specific cognizance to race family and the civil rights fight. Venters argues that the Bahá’ís in South Carolina represented an important, sustained, spiritually-based problem to the ideology and constructions of white male Protestant supremacy, whereas exploring how the emergence of the Bahá’í religion within the Deep South performed a task within the cultural and structural evolution of the religion.