Louis Venters, Ph.D.
Historian &
Public History Consultant
A History of
the Baha'i Faith
in South Carolina
My second book, A History of the Baha'i Faith in South Carolina (2019), is the first concise history of the first century of the new religion in a state with one of its strongest followings.
A slim volume at under 200 pages and intended for a general audience, it chronicles the arrival, growth, and development of a distinctively interracial religious movement from the dark days of Jim Crow segregation to the early 21st century.
With 70+ maps and historic images, including many that have never before been published, it provides the first opportunity for a new generation to see the faces of the remarkable Baha'i movement in South Carolina, as well as entirely new scholarship about the "Carolinian Pentecost" of the 1970s and 1980s.
The book is available in softcover for $21.99 directly from the History Press or from other online and brick-and-mortar retailers. For a list of upcoming author events, please see the events page. Here's a link to a publicity sheet for the book. To schedule a talk for your organization, institution, or community, please get in touch via the contact form. Thank you!
Media
"The Baha'i Faith in South Carolina and America's Unfinished Business of Reconstruction," series of three programs (arranged as five videos) for oneness.chat, December 2020, January and March, 2021
"Baha'i Blogcast with Rainn Wilson," episode 58, November 2020
"Louis Venters's Book about the History of the Baha'i Faith in South Carolina," bahaiblog.net, May 2019
From the back cover:
The Baha'i Faith is increasingly acknowledged as South Carolina's second-largest religion, part of the social fabric of the state. The earliest mentions of the distinctively interracial, theologically innovative faith community in the state date back to the Civil War. Black, white, and indigenous South Carolinians defied racial and religious prejudices to join the religion during the tumultuous civil rights era. From the visit of the first Baha'i teacher in 1910 to the "Carolinian Pentecost" of the 1970s and beyond, the faith has deep roots in the Palmetto State. Author and Baha'i historian Louis Venters provides, for the first time, an overview of the first century of the Baha'i Faith in a state with one of its strongest followings.