Sue St. Clair, born in 1947 in South Bend, Indiana, was raised under difficult conditions before moving to Chicago and becoming a Baha'i as an adult. She later trained as a nurse, lived in Liberia, and had four sons; today, Sue lives in Nashville, Tennessee, and is active in Baha'i activities and race unity work.
1.One life with many names
Growing up was not easy. There wasn’t anyone to nurture or love you or to make you feel special.
2.The only black family in the neighborhood
We were the outsiders. My mother was very concerned about how we were perceived.
3.Praying for a meaningful life
I believed that if anybody could love me it would probably be Jesus Christ.
4.Visiting the Baha’i House of Worship
The first thing I saw was a white man hugging a black woman. And something was let loose inside me.
5.South and North
Even though I avoided lunch with some white Baha’is, my family was my Baha'i community.
6.Kennedy, Medgar Evers, Biafra, Vietnam, MLK and Kennedy again
The difficulty for me was believing someone could hate someone else because of the color of their skin.
7.Like climbing Mount Everest, only harder
I had to always fight against that feeling of I'm not good enough.
8.Overqualified for Apartheid
In Liberia my sons saw black men who were black men without the weight of of racism pulling them down.
9.Relying on Baha’u’llah
I thought I would probably marry an African when I lived in Liberia. So I married a white man.
10.Culture shock – in America
My mother-in-law held up her arms and said 'my daughter' and I just broke down in tears.
11.Dark forces in America
When someone does a terrible thing like harming black people, that's a spiritual sickness.
12.The kind of man that can live in this world
I thought, oh my God, I’m going to have a black child. There was so much fear that filled my heart.
13.Teaching a mixed-race child how to be black
God loves laughter – and I had to laugh because my first two children were easy compared to this one.