Race Unity Day was inaugurated in 1957 by the National Spiritual Assembly of

the Bahá'ís of the United States to promote racial harmony and understanding.

It is sponsored annually, on the second Sunday in June, by members of the

Bahá'í Faith throughout the nation.

Originally called Race Amity Day, the name was changed to Race Unity Day in

1965.

The purpose of this day is to focus attention on what Bahá'ís believe is the

most challenging moral issue facing this country - racial prejudice.

Bahá'u'lláh, the Prophet-Founder of the Bahá'í Faith, made the oneness of

humanity under God, and thus the elimination of all forms of prejudice the

central point of His teachings. Expounding on this theme, the Universal

House of Justice, the international governing body of the Bahá'ís, in its

1985 address to the peoples of the world, "The Promise of World Peace",

cites racism as one of the major obstacles to achieving world peace:

"Racism, one of the most baneful and persistent evils, is a major barrier to

peace. Its practice perpetrates too outrageous a violation of the dignity of

human beings to be countenanced under any pretext. Racism retards the

unfoldment of the boundless potentialities of its victims, corrupts its

perpetrators, and blights human progress. Recognition of the oneness of

mankind, implemented by appropriate legal measures, must be universally

upheld if this problem is to be overcome."