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VALERIE M. WILSON
1919—1993
Feel moved to appeal to gallant, great—hearted American Bahá’í Community to arise on the eve of launching the far—reaching, historic campaign by sister Community of the British Isles to lend valued assistance to the meritorious enterprise undertaken primarily for the illumination of the tribes of East and \West Africa, envisaged in the Tablets of
4" Btz/Mi’u'lld/J and the New Em, 5th rev. ed. (Wilmette: Bahá’í Publishing, 2006, 2008 printing), p. 81.
the Center of the Covenant revealed in the darkest hour oins ministry. I appeal particularly to its dearly beloved members belonging to the Negro race to participate in the contemplated project marking a significant milestone in the worldunfoldment of the Faith. . .
Shoghi Effendi, August 5, 195045
alerie Merriell Wilson was born September 7, 1919, in Oakland, California. Little is known of her early life other than that she graduated from the School of Physical Therapy at the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles and worked for the Agnew State Hospital in San Jose. Her discovery of the Faith has been described by Adrienne Reeves:
One afternoon Sadie [Ellis] received a call from a young man who was visiting in Los Angeles from Palo Alto, California. He said his mother, who was a Bahá’í, had instructed him to be sure to look up the Bahá’ís. Sadie invited him to her fireside that evening. When he came, he had with him a young woman and explained they would not stay long, as they were going out, but he wanted to carry out his mother’s wishes. Sadie welcomed them, and when they left a little later, she invited the young lady to come again as she was living and working in Los Angeles. The young lady, Valerie Wilson, came back the very next week, said she was greatly attracted to the Faith and wanted to study it seriously. The young man never became a Bahá’í, but Valerie . . . became
45 Citadgl oszzz't/a: Mm-age: to America, 1947—19j7 (Wilmette: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1965, 1999 printing), p. 87.
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a member of the Ellis extended family and soon a declared believer.“
While in her earlier thirties she became one of the first African—American pioneers. Responding to the call of the Guardian for the Africa Campaign, she settled in Monrovia, Liberia, in 1952, being formally introduced to the Bahá’í group there in late November. She reported that on December I she started working for the government. “I’m working in the isolation ward with TB. patients, not physical therapy in its full sense, but I will be selfsupporting.” All the doors seemed to open for Valerie. Bill Foster,47 the first pioneer, arrived in Monrovia several months earlier and had written, “I'm a very popular guy now because the Germans, Dutch, French, English, Portuguese, Lebanese, Arabs, Americo—Lib., Natives 8C Staters men all want introductions & recommendations to Val, especially since they all know I’m married . . . she won’t have a dull moment for a long time.” Bill’s statement was prophetic but not in the way he intended.
Ten days later Valerie found herself in trouble; a letter was addressed to the Director of Public Health and Sanitation:
Mr. Director:
There is a Miss Wilson who I understand is employed in the Liberian Government Medical Service living at Ducor House.
You will notify her immediately that her service in the Medical Service is
46
Reeves. Adrienne, 7.006. “Sadie Rebecca Johnson Ellis." Lights Of the Spirit: Historical Portraits of Blade Ba/ui’z’: in North Amerim, 1898—2000, Gwendolyn Etter—Lewis and Richard Thomas, editors. pp. 274—75. Valerie was enrolled as a Bahá’í February 6, 1949, by the Local Assembly of. Los Angelesi
See William R. Foster. pp. 224—29.
immediately terminated and she [is] requested to depart the Country, failing which I shall issue the necessary directive to the Department ofjustice to institute Deportation proceedings against her.
It was signed by the president of the country, William V.S. Tubman. She met him and offered an apology, and through the prayers of the Guardian and the US Africa Teaching Committee and the intervention of a physician, she was reinstated. The situation was further eased when the American pioneer and later Knight of Baha’u’llah Matthew Bullock met with President Tubman and the American ambassador in March. Valerie had met Matthew and members of the Africa Teaching Committee when she attended the Intercontinental Teaching Conference in Kampala, the first of the Ten Year World Crusade.
Valerie later introduced programs of physical therapy and organized Classes in nutrition for women and girls. It is said that she counted among her private clients President Tubman and his wife.
A year later the Local Spiritual Assembly ofMonrovia was one of“no less than sixteen new spiritual assemblies in the African continentn announced by the Guardian48 and the first in West Africa. Valerie served that Assembly as its secretary and assisted it to deepen in its understanding of administrative principles and procedures.
In 1952 the Guardian appointed Mt'isa Banani as a Hand of the Cause in Africa, and Valerie served as an Auxiliary Board member under his guidance beginning in 1954. In 1956 the National Spiritual Assembly of North West Africa was
48 Message: t0 the Bn/Jri'z' Wor/d. Iy50—1957 (Wilmette: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1971, 1999 printing), p. 141.
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IN MEMORIAM 1992—1997 87
formed. With a secretarial seat in Tunisia, it embraced twenty-five territories including Liberia. Valerie attended the first Bahá’í Convention in Tunis in April of that year and participated in the National Assembly’s formation. Elected to that body she was serving it at the time of the International Convention in 1963. She joined other Assembly members in attending the Convention and in the election of the first Universal House ofjustice.
Deeply devoted to the Faith she traveled extensively throughout West Africa, often under conditions of physical hardship and risk of health‘ She made a nine—week trip in early 1955 visiting communities in Ghana, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Togo, and Nigeria. She wrote to Mt'isa Banani, “Upon returning to Monrovia, in the wee hours of the morning of February 28th, after having made a round trip of 7,557 miles, I found myselfin a very happy frame of mind but very very tired . . . Well it never rains but what it pours,” she wrote. Having worked for the government for almost two years, she returned from her vacation to discover that she was without a job. The government had not included her position in its new budget. Later that year her energies were greatly diminished by bouts of malaria and jaundice.
Valerie was also tested by family responsibilities. She wrote:
Since coming to Africa, my mother has become a Bahá’í. Before leaving for Africa, I was asked to give at least two years of service here. Of course I’m ready to stay in Africa for the rest of the 10 Year Crusade, but my mother is beginning to ask why I don’t return home, since I have served the period requested. She is now nearing 70 years of age; her health for the past 10 years has been poor. But she is not one to
give up. Her last letter to me is one which tears at my heart. She’s home all alone, managing to live off Social Security, which includes maintenance of the home. She feels that she has come to the end of her rope; she is tired and can’t keep struggling any longer.
Valerie returned to the US in 1957 and took three postgraduate courses to keep abreast of changes in the physical therapy profession before going back to Liberia in March 1958. She continued to be concerned for her mother and tried unsuccessfully to convince her to move to Africa. In late 1959 she wrote, “I think my mother’s need for me is one ofloneliness and being tired of trying to maintain the house without help. Maybe Bahá’u’lláh will bless me with a job.”
As the Faith developed in West Africa, and particularly in Liberia, so did the workloads placed upon the shoulders of the pioneers and the nascent Assemblies. The need for additional pioneers intensifieda situation that was further exacerbated when some were forced to leave their posts before the end of the Crusade—a need that was difficult to meet because of visa restrictions, diminishing funds, and limited prospects for overseas employment. Once again Valerie found her limits tested: “We’re all still putting forth much time and effort, but I must confess I don’t have the energy I once had; we’re all suffering various degrees of weariness. Serving on local, national, and international levels has added much burden of responsibilitiesit’s too much for me now. I will have to ask to be relieved on one of these levels—just not able.” Valerie endured until she was compelled to make a restorative visit home in 1961.
She served in West Africa for nearly twelve years. The Ten Year Crusade came
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to an end in April 1963. Valerie stayed on. In October the Universal House of Justice announced, “the formation next Riḍván of nineteen National Spiritual Assemblies, resulting in the dissolution of six of the existing regional National Spiritual Assemblies.” One of the new Assemblies would be the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of West Africa, with its seat in Monrovia. After attending an emergency meeting of the existing National Assembly in Tunis in November, Valerie left Liberia to stay with her mother in Palo Alto, California.
After a long illness Miss Valerie Wilson passed away there on October 1, 1993.
From information and documents
praw'ded 5}} H. Elsie Austin and Roger Da/Jl, US National Archives
