Abdu’l - Baha, the greatest exemplar and central figure of The Baha’i Faith,  referred to Mr. Robert Turner, the first African American to declare his Faith in Baha’u’llah, Abdu’l Baha’s father and founder of The Baha’I Faith as “that sinless one… black in color, like unto the black pupil of the eye… a source of shining light.” 

The ‘pupil of the eye’ is a metaphor that has offered respect, dignity and purpose to African Americans who, by virtue of the wrongs they had suffered from slavery to the present day, were more alive to the need for equity and equality.

Comparing African Americans to the ‘pupil of the eye’ of the rest of humankind suggests that their unique historical experience of hardship and suffering has endowed them, collectively, with insights into the human condition that many whites themselves have failed to see.

- Baha’i Reference Library