However, sudden growth also had its negative effects. The vast majority of the new Bahá’ís knew little about the teachings of their new religion; hence many of the newly formed local spiritual assemblies had difficulty functioning. Withdrawal rates also jumped; perhaps one-third to one-half of the new believers did not remain Bahá’ís. Since the withdrawals occurred over many years, subsequent Bahá’í membership growth appeared to be less than it really was; for example, by 1979 the American Bahá’í membership had grown to seventy-five thousand, only fifteen thousand more than in 1974, but the increase reflected a much stronger enrollment rate than the net growth suggested. To complicate matters, some new Bahá’ís did not remain active but never notified the National Spiritual Assembly that they no longer considered themselves Bahá’ís. As a result, the percentage of the American Bahá’í membership with known addresses decreased. Nevertheless, the American Bahá’í community had grown significantly in size.
Not all of the expansion of the membership was caused by conversions from the youth culture. The Nine Year Plan was also the time when the American Bahá’í community first used techniques of teaching the Bahá’í Faith to large numbers of people. In the rural south, particularly in South Carolina, the African-American population proved particularly receptive and enrolled in the Faith by the thousands. Consolidation of the new Bahá’ís proved more difficult and occurred at a slower pace. In South Carolina, the Louis G. Gregory Institute was established in 1972 to educate the local Bahá’ís. Hispanic and native American populations also were attracted to the Bahá’í Faith, particularly in the Southwest.
The Five Year Plan, which spanned the years between 1974 and 1979, saw a significant expansion in the number of local spiritual assemblies in the United States—from 822 to 1,489, 89 more than called for in the plan. Diversification of the community also continued. The number of Bahá’í communities on Indian reservations with local spiritual assemblies exceeded twenty-five. After 1975, Southeast Asian refugees became part of the American Bahá’í community. Some had been Bahá’ís in Vietnam and Cambodia, more had converted in Asian refugee camps around the world, and others became Bahá’ís in the United States. After the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1978, Iranian Bahá’í refugees also began to enter the United States; eventually about ten thousand settled.
One goal of the Five Year Plan—expanding the use of radio and television for Bahá’í broadcasts aimed at the proclamation of the Faith to greater numbers of listeners, as well as deepening the faith of Bahá’ís, especially in rural areas—proved of great importance when the persecution of the Iranian Bahá’í community began in 1978. The American Bahá’ís had developed contacts with the media and, to some extent, with government officials. That experience proved useful in creating awareness of the plight of the Bahá’ís in Iran. Throughout the Seven Year Plan (1979-86) and the Six Year Plan (1986-92), press coverage of the Iranian Bahá’ís was considerable, articles about the American Bahá’í community steadily increased, and the consequent awareness of the existence of the Bahá’í religion in the mind of the public steadily improved. In 1984 the Universal House of Justice declared that the Bahá’í Faith was emerging from obscurity, a long-sought goal of the Bahá’ís.
(World Order, Series 2, Volume 25 - Issue 3)
https://bahai.works/World_Order/Series2/Volume_25/Issue_3/Text