Couple marriage

Couple’s marriage a witness to the oneness of humanity

October 12, 2011

by Tracy Simmons, Freelance Religion Reporter

For most people it wasn’t OK that Jack and Farzaneh Guillebeaux fell in love.

In the 1960s, in North Carolina, a romantic relationship between a white woman and a black man was impermissible. Forbidden.

But Baha’is have never seen it that way. Baha’u'llah once said that interracial marriages were a service to mankind, and those words were the driving force behind the couple’s decision to wed in 1965.

The pair met at a Baha’i Fireside (introductory talk) in Asheville, N.C. shortly after Farzaneh immigrated to the U.S. from Iran to go to college.

Jack and Farzaneh Guillebeaux on their wedding day in front of the Baha'i Temple, Wilmette IL, 1965

“My plan was to go to school for four years and then go back home,” she said. “But God had other plans.”

The Asheville Baha’i community supported and nurtured the young couple, giving them them the nest they needed to develop their relationship. At that time it was legal for interracial couples to live together in North Carolina, but not to marry. So they decided to drive 500 miles north to Wilmette, Ill. and wed in the Baha’i Temple.

“We were really poor. I was still a student,” Farzaneh said, “but what else do you do when you’re in love?”

Their family and friends couldn’t make the drive with them, so the Guillebeauxs held a reception at the Asheville YWCA when they returned home.

At the celebration they noticed several unfamiliar faces and Jack said they quickly realized that strangers from the community showed up to see this taboo ceremony for themselves.

“It became very clear that people had never seen this publicly,” Jack said. “For many people in the community this was a really significant event. Some people said that verbally, others waited to see if it was going to last.”

The Guillebeauxs later learned that there had been a bomb threat that night.

People gossiped about the newlyweds, they stared at them, some people even refused to rent them a home. The Guillebeauxs chuckle when they re-tell the stories.

“For us it was mostly funny. Walking down the street we could almost time when to turn around to see everyone else turn back around,” Farzaneh said, giggling.

They weren’t there to prove a point. The Guillebeauxs were there to fight prejudice.

“We could see first hand why Baha’u'llah said it [interracial marriage] was service to humanity, because prejudice is something learned and just by seeing an interracial couple it tends to start erasing that phobia,” Farzaneh said. “And we witnessed this in the changing of attitudes with the people we had contact with.”

Jack said prejudice is born out of ignorance and said all interracial couples, and interracial children (they had two), are helping the country move forward.

Jack and Farzaneh Guillebeaux back on the steps of the Baha'i Temple in 2011

A few years later they moved to Georgia, then to Alabama where they currently reside. For their silver anniversary, though, they decided to celebrate at the same Asheville YWCA they had danced at 25 years earlier. Local journalists covered their homecoming, causing the Guillebeauxs to once again be the talk of the town. But this time it was different. People weren’t sneering at them. They were shaking their hands, welcoming them home and assuring them that the community had changed.

People from the local licensing department even apologized for not having allowed them to marry in town.

This summer the couple celebrated their 46th wedding anniversary.

And although society has come a long way since 1965, Jack said interracial couples still don’t go unnoticed.

“People have to think about what they’re looking at and what it means. It’s helping people to understand what the new normal is,” he said.

And that, they added, is a crucial part of what being Baha’i is all about.

“It’s about striving to translate that which has been written into reality and action,” Farzaneh said.

They agreed that they wouldn’t have overcome the racial challenges they faced and wouldn’t have lasted more than four decades together if it wasn’t for their faith. Jack said it’s been their “North Star.”

“It’s helped us through all kinds of questions and positions,” he said. “We knew what the Teachings said, and we weren’t going to deviate.”

Cecilia King Blake

On 25 February 1911 a privileged soul, Cecilia King Blake, came into the world.  She embraced the Baha`i Faith on 20 October 1957 in Panama and almost immediately arose to serve as a pioneer in the Chitre zone where she gave her services with great dedication and efficiency.  In the closing years of the Ten Year Crusade there was an urgent appeal for pioneers to Nicaragua.  In the period between May 1960 and April 1961 a contingent of pioneers arrived, including Cecilia.  She had been on the front lines in the teaching field for more than a decade in Panama and on several occasions served as a member of the National Spiritual Assembly
     Her activities in Nicaragua were described in the Panama Baha`i Bulletin of July 1980:  `A Panamanian pioneer of great enthusiasm and joy, she arose to serve at fifty years of age, leaving Panama to offer her valuable services in Nicaragua and help in the formation of the first Local Spiritual Assembly of Bluefields, a very important factor in making possible the simultaneous election, in the memorable year 1961, of all the National Spiritual Assemblies of Latin America.  From the moment she arrived at her pioneer post, "Miss Cecilia", as she was affectionately called by the local people whose confidence, love and esteem she immediately won, began to work for the Cause of Baha'u'llah, opening up every type of activity, including children's classes, literacy classes and firesides.  She made long-distance, hazardous teaching trips to inhospitable places all along the Nicaraguan coast, carrying high the banner of the Most Great Name and proclaiming the healing message of the Baha`i Faith in mountainous and rural areas.' 
     It is difficult to describe the wonderful work she carried out in the Department of Zelaya, Nicaragua.  There she worked expanding the foundation of the Faith, deepening the believers and consolidating communities which were separated, in some instances, by distances of more than a day's journey over rivers, through jungles and along coastal beaches.  The task was difficult but her spirit was indomitable in the service of the Cause.  By great economic sacrifice she purchased in Rio Escondido a considerable piece of fertile land--a veritable paradise whose silence is broken only by the lapping of the sea waves--and donated it to the National Spiritual Assembly of Nicaragua with the hope that it would in future be the site of a permanent Baha`i Institute. 
     In spite of her health, which was weakened by the difficulties of climate and food and her exhausting work among the indigenous people whom she loved dearly, Cecilia was always ready not only to teach the Baha`i Faith but to defend it, even at the cost of her own life if circumstances should demand it.  Her hand was always extended to assist the sick, protect the helpless and share her meagre bread with the hungry.  She saw all the indigenous people as her children and at any moment would have given her life for them.  Her heart was so large and generous that it almost would not fit in her chest.  So exhausting were the conditions under which she laboured that her health broke down under the strain.  One day we received her at the airport in Managua in a very serious condition and practically unconscious.  It took two months for her to recover from that illness, and as soon as she regained a little strength, in spite of our pleas that she take a rest, she returned to her pioneer post because, she said, her indigenous friends needed her. 
 [Solomon Escalante E. The Baha'i World, World, vol. VIII, pp. 723-724.]

Mulla Sadiq-i-Khurisani:

Vignettes of Remarkable People in the Faith:  Mulla Sadiq-i-Khurisani:

`An eye-witness of this revolting episode, an unbeliever residing in Shiraz, related to me the following: "I was present when Mulla Sadiq was being scourged. I watched his persecutors each in turn apply the lash to his bleeding shoulders, and continue the strokes until he became exhausted. No one believed that Mulla Sadiq, so advanced in age and so frail in body, could possibly survive fifty such savage strokes. We marvelled at his fortitude when we found that, although the number of the strokes of the scourge he had received had already exceeded nine hundred, his face still retained its original serenity and calm. A smile was upon his face, as he held his hand before his mouth. He seemed utterly indifferent to the blows that were being showered upon him. When he was being expelled from the city, I succeeded in approaching him, and asked him why he held his hand before his mouth. I expressed surprise at the smile upon his countenance. He emphatically replied: `The first seven strokes were severely painful; to the rest I seemed to have grown indifferent. I was wondering whether the strokes that followed were being actually applied to my own body. A feeling of joyous exultation had invaded my soul. I was trying to repress my feelings and to restrain my laughter. I can now realise how the almighty Deliverer is able, in the twinkling of an eye, to turn pain into ease, and sorrow into gladness. Immensely exalted is His power above and beyond the idle fancy of His mortal creatures.'" Mulla Sadiq, whom I met years after, confirmed every detail of this moving episode.'
[Nabil, The Dawn-Breakers, pp. 147-148.] 

*Florence Elizabeth Altass

Meeting :Abdu'l-Baha:  

. . . `Abdu'l-Baha was invited to Edinburgh by the Whytes during the course of His visit to the West and remained in that city from 6 to 10 January 1913. During this sojourn Florences* had the bounty of meeting `Abdu'l-Baha at the Whyte's home, although she was not aware that He was to be present. In a recorded interview in later years she recalled, `Of course when I saw Him I knew who He was. Oh, you couldn't mistake Him. And that heavenly smile! It was a perpetual smile, and yet it wasn't, if you can imagine; it looked as though He smiled at everyone, and yet the smile seemed always to be there. And His eyes looked as if they were looking through you. He had the most gentle voice; I've never heard a voice like it. I would like to hear it again. He embraced a good many people; He didn't me. He just shook hands. Several of us He just shook hands with.' Florence wrote of that meeting:  `When `Abdu'l-Baha shook hands with me, He seemed to transmit something to me, and I've never been the same since . . .' <sup>1</sup> Asked if He spoke in English at all, Florence laughingly replied, `No. There was an interpreter--who spoilt the whole show! It wasn't that his voice didn't suit me, it was that although `Abdu'l-Baha spoke in Persian, you understood; you knew what He was saying, somehow. One was so enamoured of His voice that one sort of felt what He was saying. It was as though He delivered His address in English, although He spoke Persian.' So great was the throng seeking admittance to the presence of the Master that Florence refrained from attending subsequent meetings though she was strongly drawn to do so and regretted to the end of her days the loss occasioned by her extraordinary courtesy and consideration for others. Her one meeting with `Abdu'l-Baha formed the theme of many of her poems which she continued to write till the end of her life. ^{2 . . .}
    Ever after having met the Master, Florence felt His presence and inspiration.

^{*Florence Elizabeth Altass}

¹ See U.K. Baha`i Journal, February/March 1967, for a fuller account of this meeting.
<sup>2</sup> See The Baha`i World, vol. XVII, p. 650.

[Cecilia Smith, The Baha'i World, vol. XVIII, p. 789.]

Hand of the Cause of God Martha Root:

Vignettes of Remarkable People in the Faith:  Hand of the Cause of God Martha Root:

     On August 3rd, 1936 I wrote in my diary:

     "A very lovely thing happened this afternoon. Martha Root and Lucy Wilson drove over from Cambridge Springs and we had an hour to visit together. With Martha's dear sympathetic presence I felt expanded. I was simply on fire, happy beyond all belief, eloquent, loving, free of shyness. Oh, to be like that and to make others experience, if only for an hour, eternal life.
     "Something BIG happened.  Abdu'l-Baha had said that He saw His Father's face in the faces of those who came to Him and that was the reason they came forth from His presence radiant. Martha did that to me today and I know that she and Lucy carried away a picture of my true self that few see.
     "It was heavenly. Nothing must ever happen to make me forget."

     Nothing has made me forget that time, and I need to say more about it.
     On that afternoon I was sitting in the garden among the flowers. Except for the stimulation of my own thoughts and meditations, it was a rather typical Jamestown afternoon -rather boring. I looked up and saw two approaching figures, Lucy Wilson and Martha Root. I had known that Martha was coming sometime because of the letters Lucy had shared with us.
     Martha had prayed that her work wouldn't be incapacitated by ill health. That was the word she used, "incapacitated". Now, in the opinion of the Guardian, Martha was in capacitated. She was worn out by a long struggle against ill health combined with tireless exertion. The Guardian left it now, in the hands of a committee of the National Spiritual Assembly to decide when Martha, our most cherished teacher, was to be allowed to start on her trip to India. She was told to recuperate, to rest.
     On the day that they visited, Martha seemed elated to have had a legitimate reason to rest. I was pleased that she was so relaxed and

happy. Later I told Willard that she was like a little girl who needed pampering and I felt a need to do things for her. I discovered that many people were feeling this way. People who were arranging her meetings. People who were working for her. All wanted to spoil her. Our feeling for her was tenderness. With her I felt that the spiritual powers were playing with us as though she were a window through which poured the "all pervading influence". We experienced a different atmosphere., a different vibration. This was sheer magic. Everyone who had contact with her felt a rising spirit. We all seemed to be touched by her power. She looked at us with such love that we would have believed anything she said. She looked at everyone with a look that goes beyond acknowledgement. It was a look of recognition that made us know of ourselves better than normally we thought we were. Her look and love elevated us. This was the atmosphere of the vibrating influence of the Holy Spirit released by her faith and actions. It was very much out of this world and I only wish that I could express it more clearly and credibly.
     Martha and Lucy were like two schoolgirls on vacation, joking and laughing. on the start of a journey. They were looking for something to do that was fun and they invited me to come to Cambridge Springs. There, Martha could show me her life as it had been.
      stayed at Lucy's house but spent hours every day with Martha. In this little town in the Allegheny Hills were the roots of Martha's heart. She was devoted to the memories of her people and to her brother and his family. It had been a keen personal sacrifice to be away for years at a time from this environment and now she was exultant and happy at being home again, so much so that she wanted to share her happiness with Lucy and me.
     Early the first morning Martha came to take me to the Polish college where she used to teach English in her pre-Pittsburgh days. This was one of two Polish institutions in the United States designed tolo keep the culture of the `old-country' alive by educating young men in the language and traditions of Poland. The buildings were in a wooded hilly section and we approached them by a wooden bridge crossing over a ravine. Martha was welcomed by her friend, the bearded principal, who explained that because of the summer vacation, the students and teachers were away. It was an unlikely and dreamlike environment with portraits of Polish heroes staring at us from the walls of the long corridors.
     The next day we sat with Martha's brother and his wife in the Baptist
church where, many years ago, Martha hsd been denounced publicly by the minister of those days - the very place, probably the very pew, where this shattering experience came to Martha. How her heart must have broken when her towns people withdrew from her! 

     That night we went to upper at her home and the neighbours were invited to a meeting. Martha, the world traveller, was treated now with honour and respect, even if the people still held to their old ways and did not accept Baha`u'llah. A few gathered in the country sitting room, but Martha became ill and asked me to speak to the people.
     The next morning she started out, on foot, to show me more of the town. On the way to her brother's grocery store, again she became suddenly ill, had an attack, and had to lean, for a few minutes, against a tree until her strength came back. Then we went on - the same cheerful, enthusias tic Martha! The next day there was dinner at Lucy's with two Baha'is from New Castle, Pennsylvania.
     Twice during the fall and winter Martha came to Jamestown, a short train-ride from Cambridge Springs. She was with us about a month. That winter of 1936 may have been the most difficult test of her entire Baha'i life. She felt impelled to go to India and was slowly getting to feel that perhaps this was not to be. She was disturbed. The lack of physical activity transformed that disturbance into rather unpleasant states. She became more and more depressed and became increasingly restless as she waited to hear from the committee. The power of the spirit around her seemed to have relaxed a bit. She was not getting the rest she was supposed to have. Why was she not told to start, she wondered. Why had not Horace Holley and the others  cor responded? Why did not the Guardian tell her to go? He had always advised her before.
     On her visits to Jamestown, ever self-denying, Martha took the least expensive room in the hotel. She lived on buns and tea made with hot water from the bathroom tap. When I came to see her, I would bring some fruit and we would share the food lying on the bed talking about "the Beloved" and about the Guardian. I have heard that Martha's relationship to him was motherly. They, the two hard-driving workers, were concerned about each other's health. One day I found Martha shedding bitter tears. The hoped-for letter with the permission for her to be on her way, still had not arrived. Martha Root wept in my arms.

  [Doris McKay, Fires in Many Hearts, pp. 260, 261-263.]

Eve Nicklin:

 Eve Nicklin returned in September.  She had been with us for a few days in the spring and, while she was away from the orphan asylum, her supervisor had opened some of her Baha'i mail. Eve was in trouble because her job was with the Methodist Church and the woman who had opened the mail was not very warm about it. She had called in Eve's two assistants, Wreatha (a Baha'i) and Betty (about to become a Baha'i). Eve eventually lost her job with the Church, the job for which she had been trained. Now she was living in Rochester working as a housekeeper. She told us how she had been saving money from her paltry wages; how she had been preparing to offer herself as a pioneer to Peru. As she described her intentions, Willard and I exchanged a glance which needed no words. We gave Eve one of the two hairs of Baha`u'llah that Martha Root had given Willard after his southern tour with Louis Gregory. Eve was leaving Jamestown to consult with members of the National Assembly about pioneering. But this Eve, of the daring black beret and bright red earrings had left her lipstick at home. She fretted, "I'm sure they won't take me without my lipstick."I made a concoction from cinnamon candy which worked as a poor substitute.
     Eve was accepted and became the second pioneer to leave from Jamestown for South America (John Stearns, . . .was the first.) I saw Eve several years ago in the movie, Green Light Expedition. Hand of the Cause, Ruhiyyih Khanum, had called her the "Mother of Peru".
  [Doris McKay, Fires in Many Hearts, pp 263-264.\

Eve Nicklin was among the first American Bahá'í pioneers to South America.

Armed with an unreserved love for humanity, for five decades she spread the all-embracing teachings of the Bahá’í Faith with unswerving dedication and zeal, settling in twelve cities within six South American countries.

A gifted educator, Eve attracted people from all walks of life, from the university professor to the peasant and simple folk, whether a dignitary or a commoner, rich or poor, both the young and the old.

Whenever someone was required to settle in the southernmost and freezing tip of the continent or in the very heart of the Andes - Eve was always the first to joyfully accept the call.

KERMAN Iran (March 1996).

KERMAN  Iran (March 1996).

A young Baha'i had started mandatory military service;

he was approached by a mullah (priest) resident at Military Garrisons providing "spiritual guidance" to soldiers.
The mullah was referred to as Hajji, who had recognized the young man as a Baha'i.

 He instructed the boy to publicly announce at the next morning's prayer assembly he is a Bahá'í so that all would know.

The young Bahá'í obeyed &complied with this instruction.

 At the next morning prayers he announced that he has been instructed by Hadji to announce he is a Baha'i in case anyone would wish not to associate with him.  

Later Hajji in great anger said, "I told you to only say that you are a Baha'i.

I didn't ask you to give a lecture and tell them why, now you will be punished."

So the young Bahá'í was locked up for two weeks in a toilet.

 The young man dreamt of 'Abdu'l-Baha who addressed him with these words:   "You have passed your test very well."

That day soldiers came in great hurry & took our friend to Hajji, who was very shaken, upset and with trembling voice said:

"The reason I release you is: last night I had a very vivid dream, a turbaned siyyid (descendent of Prophet Muhammad)    

-The Master is a siyyid- questioned me asking: Why have you imprisoned my son?

You must release him and ask for his forgiveness."

So I am releasing you and begging for your forgiveness, I will not go until you forgive me." The young Bahá'í said he has forgiven him.
Three days later the Hajji died having told this history to his wife & children.Should we not follow the example of the steadfastness of the friends in Iran?

--

--FROM MY BROTHER MERDAD OF CHILLI