Bahai Community Building Being the change We saw that more of our African-American brothers and sisters engaged as we educated ourselves about race in America.
Racial Identity Mothers of black sons You have to be a warrior to raise black children in America today.
Segregation in America One life with many names Growing up was not easy. There wasn’t anyone to nurture or love you or to make you feel special.
Racism in America The only black family in the neighborhood We were the outsiders. My mother was very concerned about how we were perceived.
Bahai Religion Praying for a meaningful life I believed that if anybody could love me it would probably be Jesus Christ.
Racism in America Kennedy, Medgar Evers, Biafra, Vietnam, MLK and Kennedy again The difficulty for me was believing someone could hate someone else because of the color of their skin.
Racial Discrimination Like climbing Mount Everest, only harder I had to always fight against that feeling of I'm not good enough.
Racism in America Overqualified for Apartheid In Liberia my sons saw black men who were black men without the weight of of racism pulling them down.
Racism in America Dark forces in America When someone does a terrible thing like harming black people, that's a spiritual sickness.
Racism in America The kind of man that can live in this world I thought, oh my God, I’m going to have a black child. There was so much fear that filled my heart.
Racial Unity Teaching a mixed-race child how to be black God loves laughter – and I had to laugh because my first two children were easy compared to this one.
Racism in America Discovering prejudice at a young age Jack Guillebeaux: They burned a cross within a block of our house when I was five or six years old.
Racial Identity Deciding it’s good to be black Jack Guillebeaux: I thought I would try out hating white folk. And that felt like a lot of work.
Bahai Community The liberation of meeting the Baha’is Jack Guillebeaux: The separation was entrenched and it was violent.
Interracial Relationships Life as an interracial couple in 1960s North Carolina Jack Guillebeaux: The worst thing that could happen is for Fafar or I to show fear.
Racism in America Laughing at the insanity of racism Jack Guillebeaux: We have constructed a society that pretends to believe there is a religious, moral, social and ethical foundation to racism.
Interracial Relationships Changing hearts through grocery shopping Farzaneh Guillebeaux: We were looking for somewhere to live and I told landlords, I’m white, my husband is African-American, is that a problem? They would bang down the phone.
Racial Identity From Michael to Masud I changed my name after discovering my father's surname was derived from an English slave captain’s name.
Racism in America The n-word and other lessons in prejudice I remember being baffled by it and my parents telling me that's just the way of the world.
Racism in America The many forms of racism We refuse to deal with the systemic nature of racism in this country — to face honestly who we have been.
Bahai Community Choosing the Baha’i Faith over anger There was something in me that pushed me to search out answers for myself.
Racism in America The trauma of racism across generations Institutionalized lying has been used to justify evil behaviour. But Baha’u’llah said that “truthfulness is the foundation of all human virtues”.
Segregation in America Growing up at a golden moment Desegregation of school districts was remarkably successfully – especially in the South.
Racial Unity A mother’s eyes on the prize My first black teacher was in second-grade – and both my grandmothers tried to get me transferred out of that class. My mother told them to go to hell.
Civil Rights Movement An act of God Black people in the South never forgot the promise of Reconstruction. The Baha’i Faith arrived in the US just as it was being stamped out.
