A Blessing for the Springfield Convention

*A retelling based on Roy Williams's report "Convention for Amity Between the White and Colored Races" in **Star of the West**, vol. 13, no. 3 (28 April 1922), with background from Louis G. Gregory's report in vol. 12, no. 6 (24 June 1921). Words in quotation marks are quoted from those reports.*

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In May 1921 the American Bahá'ís held a Convention for Amity between the Colored and White Races at the First Congregational Church in Washington, D.C. Louis G. Gregory reported in *Star of the West* that "Instructions for this great event were given by Abdul-Baha to Mrs. A. S. Parsons during her pilgrimage of last year to the Holy City."

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Early in November 1921 the Bahá'ís of Springfield, Massachusetts, decided to hold a second such gathering. "After due thought and consultation," Roy Williams wrote, "a cable was sent to His Holiness Abdul-Baha, asking His approval and confirmation. Three days later the answer arrived, 'Approved; God confirms. ABBAS.'" Williams added: "This cable was, we believe, his last words affirming a public service by the Bahais of America." 'Abdu'l-Bahá passed away in Haifa in the early hours of 28 November 1921.

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People of good will in Springfield joined the Bahá'ís in the work. Among them were three ministers: the Rev. A. L. Bouldin of the Loring Street Methodist Church and the Rev. H. D. Denson, both African American Methodist ministers, and the Rev. G. R. Waller of the Third Baptist Church. Two Bahá'ís, Mrs. Olive E. Kretz and Mrs. Grace Decker, took the foremost part in organizing the convention.

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It opened on Monday evening, 5 December 1921, in the auditorium of the Central High School, and continued the next day. The hall seated 1,200. Williams reported that nearly every seat was filled and that the audience was made up of "almost of equal number of both races." The evening began with 125 voices singing spirituals without accompaniment from the balcony. The Rev. Mr. Bouldin chaired, and the Mayor of Springfield, E. F. Leonard, spoke first.

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"We are all members of one great family," he said, "and there are no superior races." Rabbi Price told the audience, "There is no justification for race prejudice." The Rev. W. N. DeBerry, who had learned of the Faith from Louis G. Gregory many years before, spoke on the need for better understanding and on patience and sympathy as the way to it, and named 'Abdu'l-Bahá as one who saw the problem as a whole.

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*This is a retelling. For the full report, see **Star of the West**, vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 51–55.*

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