Biography

Well folks, 36 years ago today, I remember picking up my soon-to-be and going to the florist to pick up flowers to take to our soon-to-be wedding. We were standing there with a room full of last minute Mother’s Day Flower purchasers. I remember Nancy speaking up from the back of the line informing everyone that were were there to pick up the flowers we had reserved for our wedding. Like the red sea parting for Moses, all the guys separated so we could go to the counter pick up our flowers.

Once we were outside of Foundation Hall at the Bahá’í House of Worship I was amazed at all the people who were there to witness today’s event. I remember being in a daze throughout the ceremony but I do remember distinctly that I did not fumble my Bahá’í Wedding Vow “We will all, verily, abide by the Will of God” (which did concern me a great deal because I have never been comfortable speaking while the world was watching).

I am Adrian McKee, the Webmaster of the Northern Illinois Bahá’í Web Site. I became a Bahá’í in late August, 1971. It was the end of turbulent times, the end of the “Flower Power” movement, and the winding down of the “Black Power” movement. It was 3 years after the assassinations of Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King, and the summer of the Police Riots at the Democratic National Convention in the summer of 1968. Being a Black teen in the ‘burbs of Chicago was very troubling and very confusing. There was excitement of some of the gains that were being made in the Civil Rights movement, but the reality is that there is still a long way to go.