A Black Rose Among the Boys

Howard Colby Ives tells of a Sunday afternoon in New York, towards the end of April 1912, when twenty or thirty boys came to the home of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá's hostess, who had invited them after they followed the Master's party on His way to the Bowery Mission:

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"Among the last to enter the room was a colored lad of about thirteen years. He was quite dark and, being the only boy of his race among them, he evidently feared that he might not be welcome. When ‘Abdu’l-Bahá saw him His face lighted up with a heavenly smile. He raised His hand with a gesture of princely welcome and exclaimed in a loud voice so that none could fail to hear; that here was a black rose.

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The room fell into instant silence. The black face became illumined with a happiness and love hardly of this world. The other boys looked at him with new eyes. I venture to say that he had been called a black — many things, but never before a black rose."

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