1911 26 - 29 Jul
191- |
The First Universal Races Congress was held at the University of London. It was the first important conference in which the British Bahá'ís participated. It was an international symposium on the theme of the brotherhood of humankind and attracted leading politicians, theologians and scholars from the whole of the British Empire and from Europe as well as North America. During the Congress itself there were several presentations from Bahá'ís including the reading of a letter from 'Abdu'l-Bahá who was in Egypt at the time. [NBAD45]
See 'Abdu'l-Bahá's Letter and here.
See SoW Vol II No 9 for a report by Wellesley Tudor-Pole, an article by Thorton Chase as well as the letter from 'Abdu'l-Bahá to the conference. See as well Speech for the Universal Races Congress translation and comments by Senn McGlinn.
A translation was published in "The Christian Commonwealth" on August 2, 1911.
A bibliography of the presentations, papers and contributions and secondary literature by Ralph Dumain can be found here.
A paper by Dr W. E. B. DuBois entitled The Negro Race in the United States of America (pp348-364)was also presented at this conference.
Alain Locke attended. It may have been where he first heard of the Bahá'í faith. He credits this conference as his inspiration to begin the first of five historic lectures on race relation he delivered at Howard University in 1916. [Alain Locke: Faith & Philosophy p43 by Dr Chrisopher Buck]
See the website of the National Centre for Race Amity.
- The long term goal of the National Center for Race Amity is to have a resolution adopted by both the House and the Senate to have the second Sunday in June declared as an annual Day of Observance in the United States, with the President issuing a Proclamation supporting the passage of the Race Amity Day Resolution.
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* `Abdu'l-Bahá, Writings and talks of; Alain Locke; Conferences, Race Amity; Firsts, other; London, England; Race; Race amity; Race unity; Thornton Chase; United Kingdom; Wellesley Tudor Pole |
first important conference in which the British Bahá'ís participated. |
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