nce of any lack of responsiveness on the part of a people who have
received, for so long a period, such grievous and slow-healing wounds. Let
the Negroes, through a corresponding effort on their part, show by every
means in their power the warmth of their response, their readiness to
forget the past, and their ability to wipe out every trace of suspicion
that may still linger in their hearts and minds. Let neither think that
the solution of so vast a problem is a matter that exclusively concerns
the other. Let neither think that such a problem can either easily or
immediately be resolved. Let neither think that they can wait confidently
for the solution of this problem until the initiative has been taken, and
the favorable circumstances created, by agencies that stand outside the
orbit of their Faith. Let neither think that anything short of genuine
love, extreme patience, true humility, consummate tact, sound initiative,
mature wisdom, and deliberate, persistent, and prayerful effort, can
succeed in blotting out the stain which this patent evil has left on the
fair name of their common country. Let them rather believe, and be firmly
convinced, that on their mutual understanding, their amity, and sustained
cooperation, must depend, more than on any other force or organization
operating outside the circle of their Faith, the deflection of that
dangerous course so greatly feared by 'Abdu'l-Baha, and the
materialization of the hopes He cherished for their joint contribution to
the fulfillment of that country's glorious destiny.

Dearly beloved friends! A rectitude of conduct which, in all its
manifestations, offers a striking contrast to the deceitfulness and
corruption that characterize the political life of the nation and of the
parties and factions that compose it; a holiness and chastity that are
diametrically opposed to the moral laxity and licentiousness which defile
the character of a not inconsiderable proportion of its citizens; an
interracial fellowship completely purged from the curse of racial
prejudice which stigmatizes the vast majority of its people--these are the
weapons which the American believers can and must wield in their double
crusade, first to regenerate the inward life of their own community, and
next to assail the long-standing evils that have entrenched themselves in
the life of their nation. The perfection of such weapons, the wise and
effective utilization of every one of them, more than the furt