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Bahā'ī

Baha'i Temple, 1971
The Chicago Bahā’ī community began in the 1890s as a small group of American converts and Iranian immigrants. There were perhaps two to three hundred Bahā’īs in Chicago before 1910. After 1903 the project of building a major temple in Chicago served as the focal point for organizing and evangelizing throughout the United States and internationally. Abdul Baha, the son of the religion's founder, Bahā’u’llāh, dedicated the Wilmette temple site in 1912 on a visit to the United States, during which he spoke against racial discrimination at Hull House and before the fourth annual convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Dedicated in 1953, the Bahā’ī Temple remains a renowned architectural landmark and the headquarters of the Bahā’ī faith in the United States.

Douglas Knox

Bibliography
Whitmore, Bruce W. The Dawning Place: The Building of a Temple, the Forging of the North American Baha'i Community. 1984.

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