Baha'is of Howard County, Maryland

 Albert and Ruth James History

Albert James was the first Baha’i youth in Nashville, Tennessee. He was a teenager when he met Dr. Louis Gregory, who traveled to Nashville and extensively throughout the United States as a Baha’i lecturer and teacher. Albert James and Ruth Stuart met as students at Tennessee A & I College (Now Tennessee State University) in Nashville in the 1930s. Albert grew up in Nashville. Ruth’s home was in Northern Alabama.

After college, Albert and Ruth were married. Albert served in the Army during World War II. He was assigned to the Army base at Tuskegee, Alabama, with non-combatant status. He and Ruth lived there until his discharge when the war ended in 1945. His assignment at Tuskegee was to teach semi-literate soldiers. That was the beginning of Albert’s experience in the field of education. After the war, with their 2-year old daughter Anita, they settled in Baltimore, where Albert’s uncle had been working in the shipyard. Eventually they purchased their little tract of woods in Howard County, Maryland. The Jameses were the first Baha’is to live in Howard County.

A small house on the property (without electricity or water in the beginning) was their home for several years. Then with help from neighbors, especially a local home builder, plans were made to build a brick ranch-style house on the property. Their home became a favorite gathering place for neighbors and friends, as well as Black educators and county dignitaries. Sunday afternoon Baha’i “firesides” were popular and attracted Baha’is and their friends from all over the region. By 1966, five of their neighbors had declared as Baha’is. A Baha’i Couple, Fred and Terrisita Myers, moved from Baltimore to the county, raising the number of adult Baha’is to nine, including Albert and Ruth. And thus the first Baha’i Spiritual Assembly was formed that year.

Albert studied at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore for his Masters degree in education. He taught High School English in Baltimore for more than 20 years. Albert simultaneously served as president of the Howard County Parent-Teacher Association for the county’s Black schools, of which Ruth also was a member. They were instrumental in efforts to accomplish the desegregation of Howard County’s schools and setting the example for racial consolidation in the greater Howard County community. They worked closely with legendary Black leaders, including school principals Silas Craft, Morris Woodson and Elhart Flurry. After his retirement from teaching, in 1976, Albert worked with the Howard County Local Advisory Council for Vocational-Technical Education for several years. In appreciation for that service, in December 1983, he was awarded a Certificate of Appreciation signed by M. Thomas Goedeke, Superintendent of Schools, and Dwight A. Burrill, President of Howard Community College.

Albert was a dedicated Baha’i teacher while also serving in Baha’i administrative positions. He was a member of the Baha’i Africa Teaching Committee and later was appointed to the Baha’i Auxiliary Board of the Hands of the Cause, where his territory covered several states in the mid-Atlantic area. After retirement from the Auxiliary Board, he served on the Dayspring Baha’i Summer School committee for several years. Serving his fellow community members was Albert’s passion for more than forty years.

Ruth James, from the beginning of their new life in Howard County, became involved in community organizations (Girl Scouts, League of Women Voters), and both she and Albert dedicated themselves to civil rights work. For many years, Ruth was a substitute teacher in the County’s black schools, first at Guilford elementary and later at the all-black Harriet Tubman High School, where their older daughter, Anita, graduated in 1961. Tubman High School closed in 1965, ten years after the Supreme Court’s Brown vs. Board of Education ruling of 1954. (The repurposed school building was dedicated in 2022 as the Harriet Tubman Cultural Center.) Albert and Ruth’s younger daughter, Madelaine James (Lamb), became, in 1961, the first Black student to integrate the Waterloo Jr. High School and one of the first Black students to enter the formerly all-white Howard County, Maryland, school system. In 1967, Madelaine graduated from the fully-integrated Howard High School. (Details about the marriage between Madelaine James and William “Mickey” Lamb, the first interracial marriage in Howard County, can be found here.)

Recognition of Ruth’s extraordinary work earned her the nomination for a position on the Howard County Board of Education for a five-year term from 1966 to 1971. She was appointed to the Board by then Governor Millard G. Tawes, and thus she became the first Black person and only the second woman to hold that office. During Ruth’s tenure, the County Board of Education also served as the Board of Directors of the County’s new Howard Community College. In 1971, Ruth was honored with a framed certificate from the Governor commemorating her historic service on the Board of Education. Over the years both she and Albert received numerous certificates of merit from organizations where they had earned recognition for their dedicated service.

In January 1982, Albert and Ruth were honored by the Baha’i Community for their services in the Faith and for their extraordinary dedication to civil rights and education in Howard County. County Executive J. Hugh Nichols and many county dignitaries joined a host of friends at a community gathering to recognize and celebrate their years of service, where each was presented with a Distinguished Citizen’s Citation by the County Executive.

On the occasion of Ruth and Albert’s 50th wedding anniversary in 1992, Mrs. Mary Hovet, who had served with Ruth on the Board of Education, spoke passionately about her recollection of Ruth’s ability to achieve unity and justice in board discussions as well as negotiations with County officials. Mrs. Hovet said, “Ruth James’ service on the board made a great deal of difference. There were many challenges and critical decisions by the board during that time of transition to full racial integration of Howard County’s schools. During the board’s discussions, Ruth always made her point clearly and convincingly. And she usually won. I believe Ruth had more of an effect on the Board of Education than anyone before, or since. She really set a path, and people should remember that.”

Ruth’s health had deteriorated significantly after her School Board years, and she passed away in June 1995. Albert’s health also had deteriorated for several years before Ruth’s passing. In 1996 he entered Sunrise Assisted Living in Columbia and lived happily there until he passed away in November 2000. The Jameses were the embodiment of community building, a process that cultivates love and translates it into action. To quote the Hidden Words of Baha’u’llah: “Say: O brethren, let deeds, not words be your adorning.”