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Helen Elsie Austin Ica’S Involvement in World War I—At the Fort Des Moines, Iowa, Provision- JOHN S

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Helen Elsie Austin Ica’S Involvement in World War I—At the Fort Des Moines, Iowa, Provision- JOHN S 29 Alabama, in Texas, and—with Amer- Helen Elsie Austin ica’s involvement in World War I—at the Fort Des Moines, Iowa, Provision- JOHN S. HATCHER al Army Officer Training School. By January 1920, the family had set- tled in Cincinnati, Ohio, where Mary Louise worked at a school named aFter Harriet Beecher Stowe. It is told that on her First day oF high school, aFter the teacher had read From a textbook that the black race had contributed absolute- ly nothing to civilization but had been created to be subservient to the more Fortunate races, Elsie stood uP and said: “I was taught in a black school that Af- ricans worked iron beFore EuroPeans knew anything about it. I was taught that they knew how to cast bronze in making statues and that they worked in gold and ivory so beautiFully that the EuroPean nations came to their shores to buy their carvings and statues. That Helen Elsie Austin was born May is what I was taught in a black school.” 10, 1908, to Mary Louise Austin This is how early the character oF Elsie and George J. Austin, both of whom Austin maniFested itselF in what would worked at the Tuskegee Institute and prove to be a lifetime of daring, cour- were Friends with Booker T. and Mar- age, and autonomy. garet Washington at the same univer- AFter graduating From high school sity.1 The family moved several times in 1924, Austin and seven other Afri- because George Austin (a veteran of can-American women students were the Spanish-American War) served as admitted to the University of Cincin- “Commander of Men”2 at schools in nati. Historically, there was limited at- tendance of black students at the uni- 1 Booker T. Washington was an versity, and in the 1920s most of the American educator, writer, and noted African-American women were only speaker. In the latter part of the nine- allowed into the college of education. teenth century and the early part of the twentieth century, he was considered In addition, there were no black facul- by many to be the most prominent Afri- ty; black students could not live in the can-American leader and spokesperson. dormitories, had limited access to the 2 This was a position in the World university pool, and were cautioned by War I period equivalent to contempo- the college administrator to be incon- rary commandants of university ROTC spicuous and to have low expectations. programs. 30 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 29.1-2 2019 Not to be deterred, Austin and the Austin was interested, but she tem- other black female students decided pered her curiosity with caution. For they would go out For everything. two years or so, she carried Bahá’í They also made a solemn vow to finish literature with her, and she attended that first year with honors in some- meetings, impressed particularly by thing. Their success in doing just so prominent African-American lawyer motivated the same college official to Louis G. Gregory and by Dorothy apologize to them. Baker, whose wit, wisdom, and charis- Austin went on to be the first black matic openness helped Austin conquer woman to graduate from the Universi- her cynicism about religion. She final- ty of Cincinnati Law School. She also ly became a Bahá’í in 1934. passed the Indiana Bar as one of only It was also in 1934 that Austin rep- twenty-two black women lawyers ad- resented the National Association For mitted by 1930. In addition to this im- the Advancement of Colored People portant achievement, while working at a hearing regarding the inequity of on her law degree, Austin spent a year school allocations in Ohio. In addition, on the staff of the Rocky Mountain Austin was admitted to plead cases be- Law Review and later earned a place- Fore the Ohio Supreme Court, and she ment at the Cincinnati Law Review. In was named to the Board of Trustees 1931, Austin opened a law practice in of Wilberforce University, a histori- Indianapolis, Indiana, and in 1933, she cally black college. co-founded a law firm with Henry J. Over the next few years, she both Richardson, Jr., in Ohio. led private classes on the Bahá’í Faith Over time, Austin had become in- and served on an all-Cincinnati YWCA creasingly incensed about the role of committee. But 1937 was a major turn- religion in dealing with racism. She ing point in Austin’s life and career. approached her father to explain that She was appointed as an assistant at- she was leaning toward becoming an torney general For Ohio. She received agnostic or even an atheist because all an honorary Doctor of Laws degree the religions not only practiced seg- from Wilberforce University because regation but also seemed to be at war of this appointment. She also worked with one another. with the YMCA, and she was appoint- While her father listened with un- ed to a regional committee tasked with derstanding to her frustration, he overseeing the Bahá’í Faith in Ohio, told her that, before she abandoned Michigan, Indiana, and Kentucky. Fi- religion entirely, she might do well to nally, she was honored as an invited investigate the Bahá’í Faith. He knew speaker at a symposium in Cleveland. about the Faith because he had attend- In 1946, Austin was elected to the ed monthly public meetings held by National SPiritual Assembly oF the the long-established Cincinnati Bahá’í United States, and later she went on pil- community and had made contact with grimage to HaiFa. In 1953, uPon Shoghi some of its members. EFFendi’s instigation oF the Ten Year Helen Elsie Austin 31 World Crusade—the major emPhasis from the Foreign Service in 1970. oF which was to encourage Western In 1975, Austin chaired the Bahá’í Bahá’ís to Pioneer to other countries delegation to the International Wom- to establish the “pillars” For election of en’s Conference in Mexico City, and the Universal House oF Justice—the in 1982, she worked with the Phelps- inspired Elsie Austin decided to pio- Stokes Fund in China, inspecting neer to Morocco. At that time, Moroc- schools, businesses, and community co was still a “virgin territory” as Far services affecting education and op- as Bahá’í Presence was concerned, so portunities For minorities. In 2000, her relocation to that country earned the University of Cincinnati named a her the title of “Knight of Bahá’u’lláh.” scholarship in her honor. She died of While teaching at the American School congestive heart failure on October of Tangier in Morocco, she helped es- 26, 2004, whereupon the Universal tablish Bahá’í communities in northern House of Justice mandated that pubic and western AFrica. Austin was then memorial services For her be held at elected to the National Spiritual As- the Houses of Worship in the United sembly oF North West AFrica, and, as States and Uganda. a member oF that institution, she was a delegate to the international conven- SCHOLARSHIP ON ELSIE AUSTIN tion electing the First Universal House of Justice in 1963. The Bahá’í World, volume 33 (2004– In addition to pioneering interna- 2005), honored Austin’s passing with tionally and serving on national bod- a lengthy “In Memoriam.” Yet, so far ies, Austin served on Local Spiritual as we can determine, no extensive bi- Assemblies in five different countries: ography has been published, nor has the United States, Morocco, Nigeria, any major study of her contribution Kenya, and the Bahamas. She also to the advancement of racial equality served as one of the first members and her immense contribution to the of the Auxiliary Board—established spread of the Bahá’í Faith. One hopes in 1954 to assist Hands of the Cause that some capable writer will under- of God—aiding Hand of the Cause take a comprehensive study of her life Músá Banání. During this time, she and contributions. also wrote Above All Barriers: The Story An article by Austin, titled “Faith, of Louis G. Gregory (1955). Protest, and Progress,” was published In 1958, she was appointed exec- in volume 8, number 2, of The Jour- utive director of the United States nal of Bahá’í Studies and is available in National Women’s Council, and from electronic Format on the Association 1960 to 1970, she was a Foreign For Bahá’í Studies website. Service officer, serving as a cultural attaché with the United States Infor- mation Agency in Lagos, Nigeria, and later in Nairobi, Kenya. Austin retired .
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