Alain Locke Faith and Philosophy
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STUDIES IN THE BÁBÍ AND BAHÁ’Í RELIGIONS Volume Eighteen Alain Locke Faith and Philosophy Studies in the Bábí and Bahá’í Religions (formerly Studies in Bábí and Bahá’í History) ANTHONY A. LEE, General Editor Studies in Bábí and Bahá’í History, Volume One, edited by Moojan Momen (1982). From Iran East and West, Volume Two, edited by Juan R. Cole and Moojan Momen (1984). In Iran, Volume Three, edited by Peter Smith (1986). Music, Devotions and Mashriqu’l-Adhkár, Volume Four, by R. Jackson Armstrong-Ingram (1987). Studies in Honor of the Late H. M. Balyuzi, Volume Five, edited by Moojan Momen (1989). Community Histories, Volume Six, edited by Richard Hollinger (1992). Symbol and Secret: Qur’an Commentary in Bahá’u’lláh’s Kitáb-i Íqán, Volume Seven, by Christopher Buck (1995). Revisioning the Sacred: New Perspectives on a Bahá’í Theology, Volume Eight, edited by Jack McLean (1997). Modernity and the Millennium: The Genesis of the Baha’i Faith in the Nineteenth-Century Middle East, distributed as Volume Nine, by Juan R. I. Cole, Columbia University Press (1999). Paradise and Paradigm: Key Symbols in Persian Christianity and the Bahá’í Faith, distributed as Volume Ten, by Christopher Buck, State University of New York Press (1999). Religion in Iran: From Zoroaster to Bahau’llah, distributed as Volume Eleven, by Alessandro Bausani, Bibliotheca Persica Press (2000). Evolution and Bahá’í Belief: ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Response to Nineteenth-Century Darwinism, Volume Twelve, edited by Keven Brown (2001). Reason and Revelation, Volume Thirteen, edited by Seena Fazel and John Danesh (2002). Bahá’ís in the West, Volume Fourteen, edited by Peter Smith (2004). Search for Values: Ethics in Bahá’í Thought, Volume Fifteen, edited by John Danesh and Seena Fazel (2004). Táhirih in History: Perspectives on Qurratu’l-‘Ayn from East and West, Volume Sixteen, edited by Sabir Afaqi (2004). Táhirih: A Portrait in Poetry, Volume Seventeen, edited by Amin Banani, with Joshua Kessler and Anthony A. Lee (2004). Courtesy of Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Beinecke Library Photonegatives Collection. Library Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Beinecke American Literature, Collectionof Yale Courtesy of ALAIN LOCKE Inscribed “To James Weldon Johnson, in esteem and cordial regard, June 20, 1926. Alain Leroy Locke.” STUDIES IN THE BÁBÍ AND BAHÁ’Í RELIGIONS Volume Eighteen Anthony A. Lee General Editor Alain Locke Faith and Philosophy by Christopher Buck, PH.D. Kalimát Press Los Angeles Copyright © 2005 by Kalimát Press All Rights Reserved Manufactured in the United States of America First Edition Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Buck, Christopher, 1950- Alain Locke : faith and philosophy / by Christopher Buck.-- 1st ed. p. cm. -- (Studies in the Bábí and Bahá’í religions ; v. 18) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-890688-38-X (pbk.) 1. Locke, Alain LeRoy, 1886-1954--Religion. 2. Locke, Alain LeRoy, 1886-1954--Philosophy. 3. Bahai Faith-- United States. 4. African American intellectuals--Biography. 5. African American philosophers--Biography. I. Title. II. Series. E185.97.L79B83 2005 191--dc22 2004029582 Kalimát Press 1600 Sawtelle Blvd., Suite 310 Los Angeles, California 90025 www.kalimat.com [email protected] [email protected] Contents Acknowledgments ix Foreword by Leonard Harris, Ph.D. xiii Chapter One: Introduction 1 Chapter Two: Self-Portrait 11 Chapter Three: The Early Washington, D.C. Bahá’í Community 31 Chapter Four: Conversion 59 Chapter Five: Race Amity 69 Chapter Six: Pilgrimage 93 Chapter Seven: Harlem Renaissance and Bahá’í Service 107 Chapter Eight Estrangement and Rededication 161 vii Chapter Nine: Bahá’í Essays 223 Chapter Ten: Philosophy of Democracy: America, Race, and World Peace 241 Chapter Eleven: Concluding Observations 267 Appendix: Letters of Shoghi Effendi to Alain Locke 283 Bibliography 286 viii Acknowledgements Archival sources cited in this book were obtained primarily from the Alain Locke Papers, Manuscript Division, Moorland-Spingarn Research Center (MSRC), Howard University, provided courtesy of Joellen ElBashir (Curator of Manuscripts), Dr. Ida Jones (Manuscript Librarian) whose assistance is gratefully acknowledged; from the National Bahá’í Archives (NBA), U.S. Bahá’í National Center, pro- vided courtesy of Roger M. Dahl, archivist, whose assistance is also gratefully acknowledged; from the Bahá’í Archives of Washington, D.C., access provided courtesy of Ms. Anita Chapman, on behalf of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of that city, whose kind assistance is deeply appreciated; and from the International Bahá’í Archives at the Bahá’í World Centre in Haifa, Israel, provided courtesy of the Research Department on behalf of the Universal House of Justice, which has given invaluable assistance not only for this project, but for the research in my previous books, Symbol and Secret (1995) and Paradise and Paradigm (1999), as well as for some of my other publications. Funding for my research visit to Howard University in August 2001 was provided in large part by Anthony A. Lee on behalf of Kalimát Press, which has also underwritten most of the research costs incurred in requesting various documents from other archival collections. The Michigan State University Library interlibrary-loan staff have enabled me to access some relatively rare publications. I am also indebted to Gayle Morrison, editor-in-chief of the Bahá’í Encyclopedia Project, for her careful reading and critical comments on a previous version of this manuscript, as well as to Dr. Robert Stockman, Research Director at the Bahá’í National Center, for the detailed feedback that he has provided. ix x ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Any and all errors remain my own. I owe a particular debt of gratitude to Dr. Seena Fazel, former co-editor of the Bahá’í Studies Review (the premier academic Bahá’í studies journal), for inviting me to contribute an original article on Alain Locke for publication (2002). This was the genesis of my research on Locke. Dr. Fazel later reprinted a slightly abridged revision of that article in the multi-author volume that he and John Danesh co- edited, Search for Values (2004). I also wish to thank Jay Parini, editor of the American Writers series, for soliciting my biographical and lit- erary essay, “Alain Locke” (2004) which presented, for the first time in scholarship, a coherent view of Locke’s philosophy of democracy and of his vision of America. Noteworthy for his interest as well, Dr. Richard W. Thomas, professor of history at Michigan State University, will anthologize the earlier Locke article in a volume on illustrious African American Bahá’ís (forthcoming). All this professional interest in Locke and the resulting publications have given this book project an immense impetus in crystallizing my thinking on Locke and sharpening my thesis. Dr. Michael Rochester, former member of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Canada and Professor Emeritus of Mathematical Physics at Memorial University of Newfoundland, sent me invaluable, hitherto-unknown information on Locke’s Bahá’í “fireside” in Toronto in 1952—new data that attested Locke’s Bahá’í commitment in the twilight of his life. And I owe a further debt of gratitude to Dr. Leonard Harris, professor of philosophy at Purdue University, and the leading authority on Alain Locke, for contributing the Foreword to this book. For all her support and encouragement, I am deeply grateful to my loyal wife, Nahzy Abadi Buck who, among many other things, is cur- rently my study partner in law school, in the adventure of our earning “Juris Doctor” degrees together. (I hope to teach constitutional law and to publish in the area of law and religion in the near future.) I thank my two excellent sons, Takur and Taraz, for their taking pride in my work and for reminding me that it is, in some ways, significant, even to today’s youth. As my weight lifting partner, Takur has reinforced the moral strength I have needed in completing this project—whenever it was at its ebb and not moving forward—in addition to helping me finally bench press 225 lbs. Taraz, from time to time, has helped trou- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xi bleshoot the stressful, technical difficulties I have encountered while computing, and he continues to radiate much of the goodwill that keeps me going in moments of discouragement. Among the many other individuals who provided moral support, I would like to recognize Mr. Kiser Barnes (member of the Universal House of Justice), who referred to Alain Locke as “my personal hero” at a private luncheon during my family’s Bahá’í pilgrimage to Israel in January 2003; and to Dr. Robert Henderson, Secretary-General of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States, for his encouragement. Thanks also to my friend and colleague, Dr. Vibert White, Director of Public History, University of Central Florida; to my brother, Carter Buck, who is always there for me; and to all those in cyberspace and elsewhere who have provided virtual, moral support for this project at a close distance. I also thank Anthony A. Lee of Kalimát Press for editing this book. I might add that scholars have universally acclaimed Studies in the Bábí and Bahá’í Religions—of which Alain Locke: Faith and Philosophy is the eighteenth volume—as the premier monograph series in academic Bahá’í studies. This is an enduring legacy of Kalimát Press. And to all my readers—especially those who see Alain Locke as one of our greatest Americans—I want to personally thank each and every one of you for reading this book, as each of us takes the moral opportunity to help bridge the racial divide that continues to abridge the quality of our American democracy. This book is dedicated to all those who agree with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s delight at the racial harmony he observed at a Bahá’í gathering in the home of Andrew J.