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"B" is for Baha'i

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"B" is for Baha'i. Founded in the nineteenth century, the Baha'i faith is one of the world's youngest religions.  Among its principles are the oneness of humankind; the common foundation of all religions; religion and science as integral parts of the truth; the equality of men and women; and the elimination of prejudice of all kinds. Louis G. Gregory, the son of a slave and a native of Charleston, introduced Baha'i teachings into South Carolina. 

In 1909, Gregory, graduate of Howard University Law School, became a confirmed believer and made mission trips across the South. Gregory became internationally renowned in Baha'i circles hence the William Louis Gregory Baha'i Institute and radio station WLGI in Hemingway. By the twenty-first century, there were 17,530 followers in South Carolina—one of the largest concentrations of Baha'is in the country.

 

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Dr. Walter Edgar has two programs on South Carolina Public Radio: Walter Edgar's Journal, and South Carolina from A to Z. Dr. Edgar received his B.A. degree from Davidson College in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1969. After two years in the army (including a tour of duty in Vietnam), he returned to USC as a post-doctoral fellow of the National Archives, assigned to the Papers of Henry Laurens.