Have Book, Will Travel!

The History Press released my new book, A History of the Baha'i Faith in South Carolina, at the end of February, and I'm excited about being on the road to share it!

Weighing in at a slim 190 pages, in softcover, with more than 70 beautiful historic photographs, maps, and other images, this new work is meant to appeal to a broad audience. Those interested in South Carolina and African American history, the civil rights movement, and the roles of religion in society will all find something compelling in this story of one faith community's century-long odyssey to build interracial fellowship and promote social transformation in South Carolina--becoming in the process the second-largest religion in the state.

It builds on the success of my previous work, No Jim Crow Church: The Origins of South Carolina's Baha'i Community, published in 2015 by the University Press of Florida, which uncovered the earliest history of the Baha'is' interracial efforts during the era of disfranchisement and segregation.

During the spring semester just concluded I was able to do several events in connection with the new book--at a public library, a university, a community college, and a Baha'i Center and in a Facebook Live group--and I'm ready for more this summer and fall. My calendar is starting to fill up, with trips to Beaufort, SC, Charlotte, Kansas City, Phoenix, and Washington, DC all in the works. So if you're looking for a guest for your radio show or podcast or your community or religious organization, school, university, museum, or cultural agency would like me to visit, let's talk! I'm looking for opportunities to engage with diverse audiences in settings large and small, formal and informal. I just need to have my costs covered, and I'd be happy to accept an honorarium depending on the setting.

At a time when urgent questions about how to create a just and prosperous multiracial society--or even whether such a goal is attainable at all--press from every side, the promises of Reconstruction in South Carolina and the experience of the Baha'i community from the early 20th century to the early 21st need to be a part of the conversation.

Augusta, Atlanta, Columbia, Raleigh, New York, Chicago, Florida, California...where y'all at?

I look forward to talking with you soon!