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A Spiritual Path to Unity & Social Justice

We are living in a time of both turbulence and great promise. Bahá'u'lláh said, "This is the Day in which God's most excellent favors have been poured out upon men, the Day in which His most mighty grace hath been infused into all created things. It is incumbent upon all the peoples of the world to reconcile their differences, and, with perfect unity and peace, abide beneath the shadow of the Tree of His care and loving-kindness."


By first recognizing the truth that we are one humanity and that we now have the capacity to come together, we can arise and create a better world for all.

RESOURCES ON RESEGREGATION FOR AUG. 31 > 

HEALING RACIAL DIVISIONS IN AMERICA

“We cherish the hope that the light of justice may shine upon the world and sanctify it from tyranny..."

The pursuit of racial justice and unity have been defining aspirations of the Bahá’í community of the United States since the earliest days of its establishment in the country. Indeed, for well over a century, it has dedicated itself to racial unity.


Because religion has historically shown an unrivaled capacity both to  unite disparate peoples in a shared sense of identity and purpose and  also to divide them against one another with disastrous consequences, the role of faith communities in society is critical. We also explore distinctive insights and resources the faith-based voice may have to offer for overcoming the gridlock of a national conversation on race that is increasingly defined by mistrust, entrenchment, and talking past  one another.


Article: The Pursuit of Social Justice



RESOURCES

The Capacity to Hear

No two people have the same lived experience. Learning that your experience and understanding of the world is vastly different than someone else's and is shaped by the social construct, forces & messages around you is a first steps towards overcoming racism. Because racism continues to work its evil upon this nation, an essential element 

No two people have the same lived experience. Learning that your experience and understanding of the world is vastly different than someone else's and is shaped by the social construct, forces & messages around you is a first steps towards overcoming racism. Because racism continues to work its evil upon this nation, an essential element of the process will work to learn about current conditions and their causes, and understanding, in particular, the deeply entrenched notions of anti-Blackness that pervade our society. 

Insights

Articles, movies and books are one source of information to build the capacity to truly hear and acknowledge the voices of those who have directly suffered from the effects of racism. 


 It is not acceptable to expect those people so weighed down by injustice to also educate us on their experience or what needs to be done by white people . 

Articles, movies and books are one source of information to build the capacity to truly hear and acknowledge the voices of those who have directly suffered from the effects of racism. 


 It is not acceptable to expect those people so weighed down by injustice to also educate us on their experience or what needs to be done by white people . There is plenty of available information to begin doing the work required. We invite you to consider the following to begin:

Article: Both Black and White, and Neither 

Book: 'White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide'

Book: 'The Invention of the White Race'

Documentary: I Am Not Your Negro

Documentary: Black America Since MLK: And Still I Rise


What We're Reading

What We're Reading

A world without prisons? Ridiculous. Schools that foster the genius of every child? Impossible. A society where everyone has food, shelter, love? In your dreams. EXACTLY. 

Imagination: A Manifesto is a proclamation of the power of the imagination. It is an invitation to rid our mental and social structures from the tyranny of dominant imag

A world without prisons? Ridiculous. Schools that foster the genius of every child? Impossible. A society where everyone has food, shelter, love? In your dreams. EXACTLY. 

Imagination: A Manifesto is a proclamation of the power of the imagination. It is an invitation to rid our mental and social structures from the tyranny of dominant imaginaries, and a field guide for seeding an imagination grounded in solidarity, in which our underlying interdependence as a species and planet is reflected back at us in our institutions and social relationships.

LEARN MORE ABOUT RESEGREGATION

Resources on Segregation and Integration

Data from the Othering & Belonging Institute

Most Segregated Cities in the US


Podcasts are a way to get inside a topic:

This American Life episodes on resegregation in schools (from 2015)

Episode 562: The Problem We All Live With Part 1

Episode 563: The Problem We All Live With Part 2


CREED has its own podcast series called Deep Rooted

Deep Rooted (podcast Ep. 4) that looks at school desegregation / resegregation in NC [first 12 minutes are where the reading takes place]


Charlotte's Wedge & Crescent

The Arc & The Wedge evolved from the Wedge and the Crescent, a term originally used to describe Charlotte’s voting patterns.  Since then, Wedge and Crescent has been used to describe everything from income, schooling, race, food deserts, and even the COVID infection rate.
Wedge and Crescent identifies two geographic Charlotte regions that have dissimilar demographics.

Learn More: The Harvest - Integrating Mississippi's Schools

After the Supreme Court’s landmark 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education found that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional, little more than token efforts were made to desegregate schools in the South. That changed dramatically on October 29, 1969, when the high court ordered Mississippi schools to fully — and immediately — desegregate. As a result, a group of children, including six-year-old Doug Blackmon, entered school in the fall of 1970 as part of the first class of Black and white students to attend all 12 grades together in rural Leland, Mississippi.   

Set against vast historic and demographic changes unfolding across America, THE HARVEST: INTEGRATING MISSISSIPPI'S SCHOOLS steps back in time to explore Mississippi’s brutal history of racial intolerance and segregation — a world in which schools for Black children were not only separate but deeply underfunded, often inaccessible, and sometimes nonexistent.

presenters

This is our CREED

This is our CREED

This is our CREED

In 2018, former NC Teacher of the Year James E. Ford began devising a vision for a standalone nonprofit that deals explicitly with race and education issues in North Carolina. From this vision, the Center for Racial Equity in Education (CREED) was born, a North Carolina-based nonprofit actively pursuing racial justice by closing the knowi

In 2018, former NC Teacher of the Year James E. Ford began devising a vision for a standalone nonprofit that deals explicitly with race and education issues in North Carolina. From this vision, the Center for Racial Equity in Education (CREED) was born, a North Carolina-based nonprofit actively pursuing racial justice by closing the knowing-doing gap in the field and filling an organizational void in the state. CREED launched publicly in 2019, releasing two research documents exposing the role of systemic racism in education.

Since then, CREED has grown to a small but mighty team of dynamic individuals, with varied skill sets and backgrounds, committed to transforming the educational experiences of Black, Latinx, Native American, and Asian students in North Carolina.

Down Home NC

This is our CREED

This is our CREED

Down Home North Carolina is building power with poor and working-class people in North Carolina’s small towns and rural communities. ALL ARE WELCOME AT DOWN HOME. Together, we are taking action to increase democracy, grow the good in our communities, and pass a healthy and just home down to our grandbabies. 


We are poor and working class a

Down Home North Carolina is building power with poor and working-class people in North Carolina’s small towns and rural communities. ALL ARE WELCOME AT DOWN HOME. Together, we are taking action to increase democracy, grow the good in our communities, and pass a healthy and just home down to our grandbabies. 


We are poor and working class and we know that building multiracial power is essential to change.

By weaving together our  different experiences, we can shape a democracy that serves working people, where our labor is valued, and our food, water, and land is healthy. 

Overcoming Racism Series - CHARLOTTE

Since June 2023, the Bahá'í community of Charlotte hosts monthly conversations on Overcoming Racism aimed at education, connection, collaboration and ACTION. Every month we gather together to learn about America's most vital and challenging issue by addressing an element of society impacted by racism - and how to play our part to eradicate it. 


For nearly two years, the series, held in the historic Grier Heights neighborhood, an area with deep roots in Charlotte's Black history, offers participants an opportunity to engage meaningfully with important social issues.  The participants, diverse in faith and race, have delved into a wide range of aspects of society impacted by racism such as Power, Shared Narrative, Education, the Legal System, and the lack of an Anti-Hate Law in South Carolina. 


This on-going series, grounded in the foundational principle of the oneness of humankind, and dedicated to including the arts in its explorations, encourages participants to confront their biases, develop meaningful friendships with those of different lived experiences, and take action toward creating a more unified and just community. Additional topics have included the role of religious communities and the moral obligation of individuals to confront and address racism. Focusing locally, presentations included a Charlotte couple experiencing a cross-burning and a student's protest against book censorship.


OVERCOMING RACISM DISCUSSION SERIES

July 2025

September 21, 2025

August 31, 2025

As we embark on our third year of creating space for meaningful, transformative conversations about race, you are invited to see the documentary "Power". In Power, Ford examines the history of American policing in order to see what its future may hold. The slave patrols created in the 1700s to track down enslaved persons; the often violen

As we embark on our third year of creating space for meaningful, transformative conversations about race, you are invited to see the documentary "Power". In Power, Ford examines the history of American policing in order to see what its future may hold. The slave patrols created in the 1700s to track down enslaved persons; the often violent police suppression of the Civil Rights movement; and more recent wrongful deaths rhyme in ways that are difficult to ignore within a deeply entrenched framework of violent racial inequity. Yet in many communities throughout the country, the police are seen as a necessary bulwark against the threat of crime and disorder. The documentary allows this contradiction to drive the narrative forward, with insights from scholars and critics of the police alongside those of law enforcement officers and civilians whose lives have been negatively affected by policing.

August 31, 2025

September 21, 2025

August 31, 2025

Every month we gather... An essential element of the process will be honest and truthful discourse about current conditions of racism and their causes, and understanding, in particular, the deeply entrenched notions of anti-Blackness that pervade our society. 


Two organizations that are addressing and working to overcoming racism in educat

Every month we gather... An essential element of the process will be honest and truthful discourse about current conditions of racism and their causes, and understanding, in particular, the deeply entrenched notions of anti-Blackness that pervade our society. 


Two organizations that are addressing and working to overcoming racism in education are CREED and Down Home North Carolina. We will hear from each of these groups on the last Sunday in August at the Charlotte Bahá’í Center, 3415 Marvin Rd.


"Justice is a capacity of the human soul. It enables each of us to see the world through our own eyes and not through the eyes of others... "

September 21, 2025

September 21, 2025

September 21, 2025

Justice is a capacity of the human soul. It enables each of us to see the world through our own eyes and not through the eyes of others. It protects us from the blind imitation of tradition, from religious prejudice, and intolerance. Our capacity to be just enables us to treat others fairly and equitably rather than being concerned solely

Justice is a capacity of the human soul. It enables each of us to see the world through our own eyes and not through the eyes of others. It protects us from the blind imitation of tradition, from religious prejudice, and intolerance. Our capacity to be just enables us to treat others fairly and equitably rather than being concerned solely with our own self-interest.


A film directed by Stephanie Welch that examines the history of the eugenics movement in the United States and its perceived resurgence through contemporary genetics. The film argues that the belief in biological determinism—the idea that some groups, races, and individuals are inherently superior and more deserving of rights—has threatened the American Dream since its inception, being used to justify the disenfranchisement of women, Black people, and Native Americans. It claims that modern genetics represents a new form of eugenics, where the concept of the "gene" is misused to justify social inequality and resist progress in racial and gender equality.

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O Son of Spirit! The best beloved of all things in My sight is Justice; turn not away therefrom if thou desirest Me, and neglect it not that I may confide in thee. By its aid thou shalt see with thine own eyes and not through the eyes of others...


Bahá'u'lláh

OVERCOMING RACISM DISCUSSION SERIES

April 2025

April 2025

April 2025

If race doesn't exist biologically, what is it? And why should it matter? Our final episode, "The House We Live In”, is the first film about race to focus not on individual attitudes and behavior but on the ways our institutions and policies advantage some groups at the expense of others. Its subject is the "unmarked" race: white people. 

If race doesn't exist biologically, what is it? And why should it matter? Our final episode, "The House We Live In”, is the first film about race to focus not on individual attitudes and behavior but on the ways our institutions and policies advantage some groups at the expense of others. Its subject is the "unmarked" race: white people. We see how benefits quietly and often invisibly accrue to white people, not necessarily because of merit or hard work, but because of the racialized nature of our laws, courts, customs, and perhaps most pertinently, housing. Join us for Part 3, engage in compelling small group discussion and identify lines of action you can take to make a difference.

May 2025

April 2025

April 2025

Join us for our May Discussion - The American Coup: Wilmington 1898

Fear, loathing, and the only successful coup d’état in American history

This is the story of the only successful overthrow of a domestic government in American history. Once generally referred to as a “riot,” the events of 1898 in Wilmington, North Carolina are now more wid

Join us for our May Discussion - The American Coup: Wilmington 1898

Fear, loathing, and the only successful coup d’état in American history

This is the story of the only successful overthrow of a domestic government in American history. Once generally referred to as a “riot,” the events of 1898 in Wilmington, North Carolina are now more widely understood to have been a massacre of its African American citizens, and the overthrow of an elected government.

June 2025

April 2025

June 2025

The Bahá’í Community of Charlotte invites the public to attend Race Unity Day: Toward Oneness, a free and uplifting celebration dedicated to unity, justice, and collective healing. Taking place on Sunday, June 8, 2025, from 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM at the Charlotte Bahá’í Center, the event marks two years of ongoing, monthly community dialogue

The Bahá’í Community of Charlotte invites the public to attend Race Unity Day: Toward Oneness, a free and uplifting celebration dedicated to unity, justice, and collective healing. Taking place on Sunday, June 8, 2025, from 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM at the Charlotte Bahá’í Center, the event marks two years of ongoing, monthly community dialogue and action addressing anti-Black racism and promoting oneness.

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