The Accident of Color
'Abdu'l-Bahá, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, (1922), Bahá'í Publishing Trust · Read original
When in Bahá'í history
Chicago (today: Chicago, Illinois, USA)
On April 30, 1912, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá spoke at Handel Hall in Chicago before the Fourth Annual Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He had arrived in America less than three weeks earlier. Earlier the same day He had spoken at Hull House.
The talk, taken down by Joseph H. Hannen, is short. He began with the verse of Genesis, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness,” which, He said, means that
the perfections of God, the divine virtues, are reflected or revealed in the human reality.
What, then, is the standard by which a human being is measured? He asked whether it could be wealth, or honor and fame, or the color of a person’s skin, and answered that color is of no importance, for color is accidental in nature. The spirit and intelligence of man, He said, are what is essential. Whoever is the image and likeness of God is acceptable at the threshold of God, whether his color be white, black or brown; it matters not. The standard of divine measure is intelligence and spirit.
He continued:
A man’s heart may be pure and white though his outer skin be black; or his heart be dark and sinful though his racial color is white. The character and purity of the heart is of all importance.
The heart illumined by the light of God, He concluded, is nearest and dearest to God, and man’s station as the image of God is not to be sacrificed by the mere accident of color.
A retelling based on The Promulgation of Universal Peace (talk of 30 April 1912 at the Fourth Annual Conference of the NAACP, Handel Hall, Chicago). For the fuller account, see the original.
Cite this story
'Abdu'l-Bahá. (1922). *The Promulgation of Universal Peace*. Bahá'í Publishing Trust. https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/abdul-baha/promulgation-universal-peace/
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