America’s Most Challenging Issue: From Sit-Ins to Spirituals – The Baha’i Activism of Van Gilmer

America’s Most Challenging Issue is a podcast produced by BahaiTeachings.org which features interviews with Baha’is in the United States who are actively building racial unity through building community. Hosted by Masud Olufani, this episode features choral director and soloist Van Gilmer, who has performed, arranged and conducted music for over sixty years. Born and raised in the Jim Crow south of Greensboro, North Carolina, Van’s early encounters with racism helped to shape his activism as a non-violent protestor during the student sit-in movement of the early 1960’s. 

You can find more podcasts, articles, panels, and videos produced by the team at Baha’i Teachings on their website: bahaiteachings.org

If you enjoy this podcast, you might also like the Baha’i Blogcast with Rainn Wilson. You can listen to them here on Baha’i Blog.

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Sonjel Vreeland

In her innermost heart, Sonjel is a stay-at-home parent and a bookworm with a maxed out library card but professionally she is a museologist with a background in English Literature. She currently lives on Prince Edward Island, an isle in the shape of a smile on the eastern Canadian coast. Sonjel is a writer who loves to listen to jazz when she's driving at night.