July 30, 2025

Things to avoid and virtues to incorporate in striving to bring about “the union of the white and the black” races in America

Let neither think that the solution of so vast a problem is a matter that exclusively concerns the other.

  • Let neither think that such a problem can either easily or immediately be resolved.
  • Let neither think that they can wait confidently for the solution of this problem until the initiative has been taken, and the favorable circumstances created, by agencies that stand outside the orbit of their Faith.
  • Let neither think that anything short of
    • genuine love,
    • extreme patience,
    • true humility,
    • consummate tact,
    • sound initiative,
    • mature wisdom, and
    • deliberate, persistent, and prayerful effort,

can succeed in blotting out the stain which this patent evil has left on the fair name of their common country.

Let them rather believe, and be firmly convinced, that on their mutual understanding, their amity, and sustained cooperation, must depend, more than on any other force or organization operating outside the circle of their Faith, the deflection of that dangerous course so greatly feared by ‘Abdu’l Bahá, and the materialization of the hopes He cherished for their joint contribution to the fulfillment of that country’s glorious destiny.

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘The Advent of Divine Justice’)