Two Black History Month events at the Wilmette Bahá’í House of Worship brought artists, civic leaders, and neighbors together to reflect on racial harmony and belonging.
WILMETTE, United States — The bonds of genuine friendship, forged not in spite of difference but through it, may be among the most powerful forces available to communities seeking to heal the wounds of prejudice.
This conviction animated two gatherings held this February at the Bahá’í House of Worship in Wilmette, near Chicago, during a year that marks the centennial of the first national commemoration of Black History in the United States. Since 2023, the House of Worship has hosted an annual Black History Month program, drawing on the visual arts, poetry, and discussion fora to explore questions of societal harmony.
Fostering racial harmony
This year’s program featured an exhibit titled “The Legacy Continues,” showcasing work by local Black artists. As part of the exhibit, some 100 people attended a panel discussion exploring the themes behind the works on display. An interactive project titled “Better Together” invited visitors to imagine the world they hope to see a century from now.
Another event, organized by the Director of Music at the House of Worship, Van Gilmer, brought together approximately 50 people for a community conversation titled “Blessed is the Spot.”
A panel at that gathering included the mayors of two neighboring municipalities, a high school educator, a chaplain from Chicago’s South Side, and other social actors. Together they reflected on what genuine progress toward racial harmony looks like.
“[We have] some of our friends here in the North Shore who have been doing significant work in the area of equity, inclusion, diversity, and becoming one human family,” Mr. Gilmer said at the gathering. “All that is hard. The words are easy to say, but it’s all very hard.”
George Davis, the Temple Director, placed the evening within the context of the Bahá’í community’s long engagement with the question of racial unity—described in the Bahá’í writings as “the most vital and challenging issue” facing American society.
Friendship in overcoming barriers
“There are so many like-minded people who increasingly recognize that this issue is one we have to tackle as a country, but it can only be done effectively at the level of community and friendship and connection,” Mr. Davis said.
The issue of overcoming racial prejudice, he added, “is not one that can be addressed or solved through policies or passing laws alone, as important as they may be.”
It requires something deeper, continued Mr. Davis, the recognition “not only of our common humanity, but of the strength that comes from unity in diversity, and the notion that everyone, regardless of, and maybe even because of, their background, has a part to play and a contribution to make to peace in society and to the betterment of the world.”
“These are the values that the Bahá’í Faith is dedicated to,” Mr. Davis said. “And the purpose of this House of Worship is really, ultimately, to bring together those who are striving to create a better world for all.”
The program opened with spoken word performances by a young poet from Chicago. In a piece titled “Matumaini na Amani” (“Hope and Peace” in Swahili), she called on attendees to see hope not as something distant, but as something already within reach:
“The closest steps to hope are the ones you are taking. All the strongest efforts for peace are the ones you are making.”
Panelists then shared personal reflections on their journeys toward contributing to racial justice, including Senta Plunkett, President of the Wilmette Village Board, who spoke about efforts to foster inclusion in her community, and Daniel Biss, Mayor of neighboring Evanston, who described his city’s efforts to confront a long history of racial inequity.
“It is that fundamental, deep abiding faith that all people are of equal sacred value,” Mr. Biss said, “and that all of us are stronger and happier and wiser and safer when we live amongst each other in solidarity.”
One of the evening’s most resonant reflections came from panelist Bruce Bondy, a local resident, who spoke about the friendship he had built with Mr. Gilmer since the two met on a 2019 group visit to civil rights sites in the American South, a trip for which the planning began at the House of Worship itself.
“I believe that there is nothing more powerful, and there is nothing that will help us overcome racism than true friendship between people of different races,” Mr. Bondy said.
“It’s not the same as having an acquaintance. It’s not the same as just going to lunch with somebody that you work with every once in a while.” Having a real friendship, one where both people feel safe enough to speak openly, “is what makes the difference.”
Historical resonance
The gathering, which included people of Bahá’í, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Faiths, and people of no religious affiliation, also carried particular historical resonance.
In December, the House of Worship hosted a centenary commemoration of “The New Negro”, the landmark 1925 anthology compiled by Alain Locke who was among the most eminent thinkers of the time. Locke—a member of the early Bahá’í community in the United States—was the first African American Rhodes Scholar and he is often remembered as the “Dean” of the Harlem Renaissance.
Since its 1912 groundbreaking ceremony, when ‘Abdu'l-Bahá laid the building’s cornerstone, the House of Worship in Wilmette has served neighboring communities as a place for both prayer and service.
Bahá’í Houses of Worship reflect a principle central to Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings: that worship and service to humanity are inseparable.
More than a century after ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s call to overcome the prejudices that divide humanity and to recognize its essential oneness, gatherings like these suggest that the spirit animating that call continues to draw people together.
