January 1, 1913

The first record of the Bahá’í faith in Arkansas was included on a list of Bahá’ís in America. The Bahá’í faith movement originated in Persia (present-day Iran) during the 1800s. Bahá’í began within a minority sect of Islam, making its way to the U.S. in 1892. Central tenets of the Bahá’í faith include the oneness of God and religion, the oneness of humanity, freedom from prejudice, the inherent nobility of the human being, the progressive revelation of religious truth, and the fundamental equality of the sexes. By 2015, there were five Local Spiritual Assemblies in the state, concentrated in central and northwestern Arkansas.