Billy Roberts was born in 1951 in Boston, Massachusetts in the tight-knit Roxbury neighborhood before moving to Los Angeles after the death of his mother. He attended the University of Massachusetts, where he became a Baha'i, and later trained as a therapist. Billy also started the celebrated Baha'i "Black Men's Gatherings" in 1987 to encourage Baha'i men of African descent in their spiritual lives and in their services to humanity.
1.A loving community surrounded by danger
Growing up in Boston, you didn’t go into Irish or Italian neighbourhoods. You’d be taking your life into your hands.
2.Hard times and harder questions
Thirty of us were among the first American-Americans to go to Massachusetts University – they called us the “Dirty Thirty”.
3.Mr Gregory’s legacy
My grandmother was a mother of her church – and she was very happy for me to investigate the Baha’i faith.
4.Support on one side, dismissal on the other
My teachers put me into a box – I had an aptitude for language but they said I couldn’t take Latin and that I wasn’t college material.
5.Racism and constructive resilience
African-Americans have always understood that it’s very hard to simply become racist in response to acts of hatred.
6.Creating the Black Men’s Gathering
I didn’t see enough African-American men active in the Baha’i community and I began to ask why.
7.Homelands of the ancestors
People of African descent were asked to be a source of encouragement to Baha’i communities in Africa – so we went.
8.A Liberian reunion in Ghana
We walked in and there was an uproar at the back – a group of young men said “We know him!”
9.Overcoming injustice through service not contention
The Baha’i writings forbid conflict – we must oppose oppression by falling in love with people of other backgrounds.