Bahá'í Faith in South Carolina

The Bahá'í Faith in South Carolina begins in the transition from Jim Crow to the Civil Rights movement but defines another approach to the problem, and proceeded according to its teachings. The first mention in relation to the history of the religion came in the 1860s in a newspaper article. Following this the first individual from South Carolina to find the religion was Louis Gregory in 1909, followed by individuals inside the state. Communities of Bahá'ís were soon operating in North Augusta, Columbia and Greenville struggled with segregation culture through the 1950s externally and internally. However, in the 1969-1973 period, a very remarkable and somewhat unsustainable period of conversions to the religion on the basis of a meeting of Christian and Bahá'í religious ideas established a basis of community across several counties - notably Marion, Williamsburg, and Dillon, served by the Louis Gregory Institute and its radio station WLGI but also across the wider area. That community continues and has gathered news coverage as part of the second largest religion in South Carolina.

The first mention related to the history of the Bahá'í Faith known in Massachusetts concerns news Bábism in Qajar Persia, which Bahá'ís hold as a direct precursor akin to the relationship between John the Baptist and Jesus. This was a newspaper article printed in the Southern Patriot out of Charleston, March 24, 1846, reporting on events from the previous June. It is an echo of the original published in the London Times Nov 1, 1845.

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