A Drop of Water into Rivers and Seas by BahaiBookstore.com

DArop of Water Rivers and Seas into

The Bahá’í Faith in Nashville, 1915-1970

Joyce M. Jackson Carney-Miller Publishers

ISBN: 978-0-9653019-0-9

Published by Carney-Miller Publishers, Smyrna, TN

Book and cover design by Tamian Wood, www.BeyondDesignBooks.com

Prologue

The steam engine pulled the long train slowly into Union Station in the heart of downtown Nashville on a crisp autumn afternoon. The year was 1915, only fifty years after the Civil War, and Nashville was a thriving bustling town, a leader in commerce and in education in the Southern states. Nashville had rebounded well from the Civil War and sat at a crossroads of east to west and north-south travel, making it a prime spot for those who sought to build businesses that served the southeast.

However one of the intended results of the war – the end to slavery –did not automatically result in full citizenship rights for the formerly enslaved as many had hoped. Separation of the races was the mode of the day, indeed it was the law in the South. So this train was segregated between the White and the African-American passengers as were all trains in 1915 that snaked through the Southern States. The train cars reserved for the White passengers provided comfortable seating and a dining car with sumptuous food and drink. At the end of the train, positioned before the baggage cars and the caboose, the car reserved for the African-American passengers was hardly equal to what the White passengers sitting in the front of the train enjoyed.

None of this seemed to concern one passenger seated in the Negro, or “colored” car, as he readied himself for disembarking the train in Nashville. All too used to being treated as though he was less than human, this passenger knew he could only tolerate this treatment until

conditions changed, and he intended to help effect that change. He took out a clothing brush as the train moved the last mile or two through Nashville and into the station, and carefully began brushing away the train’s coal dust that had settled on his heavy wool suit. A handkerchief was sufficient to wipe his tired face. And when the train finally came to a stop and the doors were opened, Louis G. Gregory stepped from the train onto the station platform, and began making his way to Broadway, the main road through downtown Nashville, where he would look for a trolley to take him to his ultimate destination.

That autumn day, the exact date of which is lost to us, was likely an ordinary day for the average person living in Nashville, Tennessee – the transition between the hot, humid days of summer and the cold of winter. But for Louis Gregory, this was no ordinary day. None of his days were ordinary, for he was on a mission and had a specific purpose in mind for this trip to Nashville. His arrival that day, and for his many trips to Nashville in years to come, would be Louis Gregory’s personal response to the call of a new Revelation from God, and as a response to his beloved ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s encouragement to share the healing message of Bahá’u’lláh to the poor and disenfranchised throughout the United States, and in particular, the Southern States.

This visit from Louis Gregory would mark the beginning of when the name Bahá’u’lláh was proclaimed in Nashville, Tennessee.

1 Nashville Tennessee –A City of Contradictions

December 25, 17791

The band of weary and cold travelers likely looked in dismay across the vast expanse of frozen water in front of them. They had been traveling since October from the Watauga settlement in North Carolina, struggling across the mountains of what would later become east Tennessee, looking to settle a new area in the “west” and searching for the best route. This group, all men and boys numbering around 200, and led by General James Robertson, chose a land route, while Robertson’s friend, John Donelson, was bringing another group of settlers, additional family members of the land group, along a river route. The overland travelers arrived at the frozen river that Christmas Day and determined what they should do next.

As he looked across the river, Robertson noted the higher bluffs and decided that the settlers would be safer on that far side of the river. They likely gave no thought to the fact that they were encroaching on the land of the Chickamauga, who were among the native inhabitants of the area. In consultation with other leaders in the group, Robertson directed the settlers to prepare for a slow, careful walk across the river, sending some of the braver souls ahead to test out the ice and determine the safest passage.

1 Author’s note: During my elementary school years in Nashville, there were annual field trips to Fort Nashborough where we would hear the stories of the settlers crossing the frozen Cumberland River to build the first settlement. That always fired my imagination, and as a result, the scenario presented here is a bit of creative license. However, the basic facts of when the settlers arrived and the resulting building of Nashville are correct and taken from online resources such as Wikipedia.com and Nashville.gov.

2 | A Drop of Water into Rivers and Seas

The cattle that had come with the group to provide food, were also driven across the river, likely herded by the younger boys in the group.

Finally arriving on the other side of the river, the careworn group set about creating a permanent settlement on the banks of the Cumberland River. Over time they raised a wooden stockade called Fort Nashborough, named for General Francis Nash, a hero of the Revolutionary War. Thus, the future capital of the future state of Tennessee was born.

Four months after these first settlers arrived, the river group, led by John Donelson, arrived on April 23, 1780 and joined with them. James Robertson and John Donelson are considered the founders of Nashville, and the Nashville descendants of James Robertson would include one of the early believers in the Nashville Bahá’í community.

Due to its prime location in the bend of the Cumberland River, the tiny stockade of Fort Nashborough quickly began growing. The settlement became a normal stop for hunters, trappers and pioneers headed to the new frontier and gradually settlers spread out beyond the fort; some to homestead, others to develop businesses catering to the homesteaders and travelers needing to restock for their continuing journey west. Still part of the state of North Carolina, the settlement acquired “town” status in 1784 and changed its name to Nashville. Tennessee became the 16th state of the Union in 1796, and Nashville received its first city charter in 1806. Thirty years later Nashville became the permanent capital of Tennessee.

This prime location also allowed plantation owners to easily ship tobacco and hemp to all points north and south and Nashville became a major crossroads for travelers coming from the North and going to the Deep South, as well as an east-west conduit from the Carolinas to the Wild West. So little wonder that it developed into a city of consequence and would later figure prominently in the Civil War, in the development of education, and in the development of religious communities.

“Athens of the South”

Throughout the 19th century, Nashville continued to grow, developing commercial ventures that would make it one of the leading cities in the South. By the 1850s Nashville was known as a city of culture, wealth, and

3

The Beginning - George W. Henderson

when Louis GreGory Took on the responsibility of spreading the teachings of the Bahá’í Faith throughout the South, and in particular to African-Americans, it was only natural that one of the places he would start would be in Nashville at his alma mater, Fisk University. He had no doubt maintained connections with professors and administrative staff at the school, and with his law degree from Howard University, likely was welcomed back to the campus as an example to the students there of what they, too, could achieve.

Fisk University had been founded in 1865 by the American Missionary Association as the Fisk Free Colored School. In its early years, it had an open enrollment with students as young as seven years old to as old as 70 years old. With the establishment of public schools in Tennessee, in 1867 Fisk was incorporated as a normal school, providing college level teacher training. The University has been growing ever since and has long been a leader in education for African-Americans. Fisk boasts a number of notable alumni, from its earliest beginnings with students such as civil rights activist and suffragette Ida B. Wells, as well as historian, author and civil rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois. Over the years there have been students who ended up leaders in all areas of society. From the arts, poets James Weldon Johnson and Nikki Giovanni, authors Frank Yerby, Julius Lester, and Pulitzer Prize Winner David Levering Lewis. From politics and civil service, Congressman John Lewis; former Secretary of Energy, Hazel O’Leary; the first African-American woman elected to a state senate, Cora Brown; the first African-American woman attorney in the State of Alabama, Mahala Ashley Dickerson. The historian John

Hope Franklin, and educator Margaret Murray Washington (married to Booker T. Washington) also are among Fisk alumni and too many others to recount completely here.10

Louis Gregory would have reached out to his friends at Fisk to not only share the Bahá’í teachings with them, but to also have a platform from which he could reach a wider audience. In the early 20th century, the technology that would lead to movies, television, radio, and other forms of media entertainment was still in its infancy. Just about the only entertainment available in 1915 would have been vaudeville or theater, perhaps some live music venues or concerts. However, the universities in Nashville would also sponsor lectures on a variety of subjects that were open to the public. Without the distractions of constant media as is prevalent in 21st century life, citizens often chose to attend these lectures as both a form of entertainment and as part of their ongoing education. Louis Gregory likely prevailed upon his friends at Fisk to allow him the opportunity to give lectures on the Bahá’í Faith.

It is possible that Louis Gregory may have traveled back to Nashville to share the Faith as early as 1911, but there is no evidence to prove that. He was already traveling in the South at that time, a scant two years after his own declaration. We do know that it was in the fall of 1915, again, no exact date is known, that Gregory came to Nashville, and it was at this time that he met George W. Henderson.

George W. Henderson

“He Profits Most Who Serves Best.”

– George W. Henderson, the motto for the Henderson Business College

George W. Henderson was an educator, and at the time of his first meeting with Louis Gregory, he was living in Nashville and was the head of the Business Department at Roger Williams University. Roger Williams University was another school founded in Nashville after the Civil War

10 Fisk University website: https://www.fisk.edu/about/history/

Notable Nashville Bahá’ís in the 1940s and 1950s

when one Looks aT The phoToGraph of the 1954 Nashville Spiritual Assembly, taken when the Assembly was incorporated, there is Maude Barnes, Nellie Roche, and Winston Evans, some of the earliest believers from the beginning of the Faith in Nashville. But there are others in the photo that bear mentioning. These dear souls were integral to building the Bahá’í community in Nashville.

Robert and Erma Hayden

Nashville was blessed to have Robert Hayden, his wife Erma, and their daughter Maia, among its community members for over 20 years, beginning in 1946. Hayden, a literary luminary born of the Harlem Renaissance, has maintained a well-respected position as a major poet who received numerous poetry awards, and in 1976 was named as the first African-American Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress.103 Robert Hayden was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan and was primarily educated there. Although raised with few economic advantages, he was nonetheless able to receive a full scholarship to Wayne State University for his undergraduate work and got his master’s degree at the University of Michigan. He was already starting to win literary awards for his poetry.

103 The Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, commonly referred to as the United States Poet Laureate, serves as the official poet of the United States. During their term, the poet laureate seeks to raise the national consciousness to a greater appreciation of the reading and writing of poetry. Begun in 1937, and formerly known as the Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, the present title was devised and authorized by an Act of Congress in 1985. Source: Wikipedia.com

In 1940, he married Erma Morris and in 1942 their daughter Maia was born. Although not a “joiner” of religions as his wife put it, the Haydens encountered the Bahá’í Faith in 1943 through the tutelage of Dorothy Baker, a long-time teacher of the Bahá’í Faith who would later be named a Hand of the Cause. The Haydens embraced Bahá’u’lláh’s message. In 1946 Robert Hayden accepted a faculty position at Fisk University in Nashville and would remain at that post for 22 years. While in Nashville he was occasionally elected to the Nashville Assembly and officiated at the first Bahá’í marriage held in Nashville. However, in general, it was his wife Erma who was primarily active in the Bahá’í community while he focused on his academic responsibilities and promoting the Faith his own way through his poetry. In his 2019 editorial for the Journal of Baha’i Studies, titled “The Amazing Nashville Baha’i Community in the 1960s,” Dr. John Hatcher wrote that:

… as I note in my own study of his life and art, his wife Erma was seen by the Bahá’í community as intimately involved in the Faith on the local and national level, while Hayden seemed isolated, laboring at home in his austere profession as poet. And yet, as I also point out, he has doubtless attracted more people to study the Bahá’í Faith than he would have had he dedicated his days to the usual activities meant to teach the Faith, rather than laboring away at searching out precisely the best, the most exact words to fashion the verses he left behind.104

In her “In Memoriam” tribute to her husband in the Bahá’í World, Erma supported Dr. Hatcher’s assessment writing that:

Robert was often asked to give talks on the Faith. After a few such addresses he steadfastly refused these requests, firmly convinced that he could serve the Faith better as a poet. In this role he always strove for excellence. He received many

104 John S. Hatcher, Ph.D. “The Amazing Nashville Bahá’í Community in the 1960s” The Journal of Bahá’í Studies. 29.4.2019.