Gregory, Louis George
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Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Gayle Morrison, Gregory, Louis George, bahai-library.com.
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Gregory, Louis George (1874–1951)
African American lawyer who became a leading Bahá’í speaker, writer,
administrator, and proponent of race unity and equality; first person of sub-
Saharan African descent to be elected to the national governing body of the
Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada, and first to be appointed a Hand of the
Cause of God.

ARTICLE OUTLINE:                                     FAMILY AND EARLY LIFE
Family and Early Life                          Louis George was born in Charleston, South
Early Years as a Bahá’í                        Carolina, on 6 June 1874, less than a decade after
Teacher                                        his parents were freed from slavery. His mother,
Administrator                                  called Mary Elizabeth and generally known by her
Proponent of Race Unity                        middle name, was the daughter of Mariah ("wholly
Tributes                                       of African blood"), 1 a nurse on Elysian Fields
plantation in Darlington, South Carolina, and the
ARTICLE RESOURCES:
white plantation owner, George Washington
Notes                                          Dargan. A cotton farmer, lawyer, state senator,
Other Sources and Related Reading              and judge, Dargan died in 1859, at the age of
fifty-six, leaving an estate that included some 119
slaves on two plantations. Mariah and Elizabeth were not sold off and separated, as often occurred
when a planter’s estate was settled; they remained slaves on Elysian Fields until the end of the Civil
War (1861–65), when they were emancipated.

During the first, chaotic years of freedom, Mariah’s husband, a
blacksmith, prospered enough to buy a horse and a mule, but his
success attracted the anger of the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan.
One night, Klan members rode up to his house, called him outside, and
killed him. After debating whether to "Shoot into the house and kill that
woman too," they decided against it and rode away.2

Despite the unsettled postwar conditions in Darlington, Elizabeth was
able to obtain a rudimentary education. While still a teenager, she
married Ebenezer (E. F.) George. He is described in the 1870 census as
a blacksmith and a mulatto, and noted as literate, but little else about
him is known. The census indicates that the couple’s household in
Darlington included their first son, Theodore Augustus, born in 1869,
and Elizabeth’s mother, known in postwar records as Mary Bacot. In
the early 1870s, the family moved from Darlington to Charleston.
There the couple’s second son, Louis, was born.
Louis Gregory in his youth. National Bahá’í
Although the city offered opportunities for work and education, the       Archives, United States.

George family experienced hard times. Ebenezer fell ill with
tuberculosis, dying sometime before 1880.3 As an adult, Louis Gregory retained no memories of his
father, but he recalled the deep poverty into which the family soon plunged.

Two major influences during Louis’s childhood were his maternal grandmother and his mother. From
Mary Bacot, Louis learned to face challenges and hardships with courage, dignity, resourcefulness, and
a sense of humor. Louis recalled that she would tell stories of plantation life that made him helpless
with laughter. His mother, who worked as a tailor to support her family, conveyed to Louis her refined
sensibilities and a love of learning.

The third major figure in Louis’s childhood was George Gregory,
whom Elizabeth married on 14 July 1881. A freeborn native of
Charleston from a property-holding family, a Union army
veteran,4 a carpenter by trade, and a widower, Gregory rescued
the little family from destitution, raised and educated his two
stepsons, and gave them his surname. The respite from
suffering was brief, however. In 1890 Louis’s brother died of
typhopneumonia, 5 and Elizabeth died of spinal meningitis just a
year later. Yet George Gregory remained "a real father" to Louis6
and to stepchildren from a subsequent marriage, creating family
ties of affection that remained strong even after his death in
1929.

Louis Gregory belonged to the
first generation of African
Americans in the South to have
Mary Elizabeth Gregory, Louis Gregory's mother. a legal right to education. He
National Bahá’í Archives, United States.
attended state-run primary
schools and later studied at private institutions established by white
missionaries to educate the most promising young African Americans—
those who came to be known as the "talented tenth," to use the phrase
coined by W. E. B. DuBois. Gregory received his secondary education at
Avery Normal Institute, the first high school for African Americans in
Charleston to provide a college-preparatory curriculum. He graduated in
June 1891, shortly before his mother’s death, and then attended Fisk
University in Nashville, Tennessee, where he earned a bachelor’s degree
in 1896.

After teaching a few years at Avery, Gregory decided to become a
lawyer. His choice of career required leaving the South; the region
offered African Americans no opportunities to study law and, in the
post-Reconstruction period, virtually no possibility of employment in the
legal field. In 1899 he enrolled in the School of Law at Howard
University, an historically black university in Washington DC. One of
twenty graduates (all male) in 1902, he gave the commencement
address, entitled "The Growth of Peace Laws," in which he focused on
George Gregory, Louis Gregory's
disarmament and international peace initiatives. He was admitted to the          stepfather. National Bahá’í Archives, United
States.
bar of the District of Columbia in October 1902 and the bar of the
United States Supreme Court in March 1907.

For fifteen years, Gregory practiced law in Washington—for a time in partnership with another young
Howard graduate, James A. Cobb, who later became Assistant United States Attorney in Washington
and a judge of the District of Columbia Municipal Court. Both men were considered rising stars in
Washington’s black community. Beginning in 1904, Gregory worked for a decade as a clerk at the
United States Treasury Department; he was promoted several times before returning to full-time private
practice.

EARLY YEARS AS A BAHÁ’Í
Disillusioned by the mistreatment of African Americans in the post-Reconstruction period, Gregory felt
compelled to protest racial segregation and the infringement of civil rights. His ideas, as he later
described them, were "radical," and he was committed to a "program of fiery agitation."7 Although his
mother and grandmother had been deeply religious, religion was no longer of any interest to him; he
"had been seeking," he recalled many years later, "but not finding truth, had given up." 8 He first heard
about the Bahá’í Faith from a Treasury Department coworker—a white southerner who, although not
seriously interested in the religion for himself, thought Gregory would be. Gregory had no inclination to
attend a religious meeting, but finally, late in 1907, he acquiesced to his friend’s prodding. Pauline
Hannen, also a white southerner, welcomed him to the meeting with unusual warmth, telling him that
what he was about to hear would make possible "a work . . . that would bless humanity." The talk by
Lua Getsinger, one of the first Western Bahá’ís, provided a "brief but vivid" historical account of the
religions of the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh.9

Confounding his own expectations, Gregory was intrigued and
accepted Pauline Hannen’s invitation to study the religion. She
and her husband, Joseph, became his teachers and close friends.
For the next year and a half, he attended meetings in their
home, impressed by their freedom from racial prejudice,
attracted by their beliefs, yet held back by his agnosticism.
Finally, the Hannens pierced his "mental veils" by teaching him
"how to pray."10

Gregory became a Bahá’í in June 1909. "It comes to me," he
Pauline and Joseph Hannen with Pauline's sister Fanny wrote the Hannens a month later, "that I have never taken
Knobloch (right). National Bahá’í Archives, United    occasion to thank you specifically for all your kindness and
States.
patience, which finally culminated in my acceptance of the great
truths of the Bahai Revelation. It has given me an entirely new conception of Christianity and of all
religion, and with it my whole nature seems changed for the better. . . . It is a sane and practical
religion, which meets all the varying needs of life, and I hope I shall ever regard it as a priceless
possession." 11

Gregory believed that, in embracing the new faith, he neither set aside his commitment to racial
equality and social justice nor distanced himself from those working for change. Instead, he refocused
his undiminished concern for the welfare of his people by placing it within a universal context: the
establishment of a world order encompassing all peoples, founded on faith in a Supreme Being and an
ennobling vision of human destiny.

One of Louis Gregory’s first actions as a Bahá’í was to confront de facto segregation in the Washington
DC Bahá’í community. Rather than being disaffected by the disparity between the Bahá’ís’ professed
beliefs and their actions, which largely reflected customary social attitudes and practices, Gregory
became an agent of change. His mission was reinforced by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, who wrote in 1909 in reply to
Gregory’s first letter to Him, "I hope that thou mayest become . . . the means whereby the white and
colored people shall close their eyes to racial differences and behold the reality of humanity." 12
Gregory’s dedication to promoting the pivotal principle of the Bahá’í Faith, the oneness of humankind,
was thus rooted in his life experience and temperament and confirmed by his relationship with ‘Abdu’l-
Bahá.

In early 1911 Gregory became the first African American Bahá’í to have the privilege of pilgrimage at
‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s express invitation. 13 He traveled to Egypt, where ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was residing at the time,
and then visited the Bahá’í holy places in Ottoman Palestine (See: Bahá’í World Center). The pilgrimage
not only had a profoundly transformative spiritual impact on Gregory but provided opportunities for
‘Abdu’l-Bahá to stress the vital importance of bringing black and white Americans together. "‘Abdu’l-
Bahá said many wonderful things during my brief contact with him in Egypt, which lasted less than a
fortnight," Gregory later recalled. "But more than anything else his discourse was about the American
race problem." 14 When Gregory asked ‘Abdu’l-Bahá for His guidance, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá reiterated the wish
He had expressed in His first letter to Gregory, urging him to "Work for unity and harmony between
the races." 15

The close association between Gregory and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá continued during ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s visit to North
America, 11 April–5 December 1912. Gregory was instrumental in arranging for two major speaking
engagements for ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Washington DC on 23 April: at noon to an audience of more than a
thousand in Rankin Chapel at Howard University, and that evening to a large gathering of the Bethel
Literary and Historical Association at the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church. That same
day, Ali Kuli Khan, chargé d’affaires of the Persian Legation, and Madame Florence Breed Khan, both
Bahá’ís, held a luncheon and a reception in ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s honor. At the luncheon, to which about
fifteen socially prominent guests had been invited, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá defied both Washington protocol and
the conventions of racial segregation by insisting that Gregory join Him and by adding a place for
Gregory immediately to His right, in the seat of honor. Seven months later, during ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s
second visit to Washington, the Bahá’ís organized a banquet at Rauscher’s Hall that was attended by
some three hundred people. It was the first interracial social event ever held by the Bahá’ís in the
nation’s capital city.

In further defiance of convention, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá encouraged the
marriage of Gregory and a white English Bahá’í, Louisa (Louise)
A. M. Mathew, whose pilgrimage in 1911 had coincided with
Gregory’s and who had traveled to America with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá at
His invitation. Although ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had raised the topic of
intermarriage during their visit to Egypt, telling Gregory, "If you
have any influence to get the races to intermarry, it will be very
valuable," 16 at first they thought of each other only as friends.
When they met again in America, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá urged them to
consider their relationship in a new light. Only then did the
potential attachment He had sensed between them blossom into
love. They were married in a quiet ceremony in New York City
on 27 September 1912, becoming the first interracial Bahá’í
couple at a time when intermarriage in the United States defied
popular scientific theories about the baneful effects of "race
mixing," flouted the customary dictates of a divided society, and
was a criminal offense in much of the nation. 17

‘Abdu’l-Bahá described the Gregorys as "an introduction to the
Louis and Louise Gregory on the occasion of their  accomplishment" of fellowship between the races. 18 Although the
wedding, September 1912. National Bahá’í Archives, couple had no children of their own, they enriched the lives of
United States.
many young people and, over the years, became a particular
source of strength to a growing number of interracially married couples among the American Bahá’ís.

TEACHER
Besides setting an example of courage in his own personal life, Gregory worked in three separate but
interrelated fields to promote the oneness of humankind. First, he devoted himself to teaching the
Bahá’í Faith, particularly among African Americans. His efforts in Washington DC immediately attracted
the interest of a number of professionals and intellectuals. The need to accommodate them spurred the
Washington Bahá’ís to begin reconsidering practices based on racial prejudice and to commence the
long, spasmodic process of rooting out those prejudices. Although it would be many years before the
community overcame overt racial barriers, Louis Gregory’s activities as a new Bahá’í led to the holding
of some integrated meetings, paving the way for many interracial gatherings during ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s visit.

On teaching trips to the South in 1910 and 1915, Gregory found African Americans to be "deeply and
vitally interested" in the Bahá’í message. 19 As a southerner and a graduate of Avery, Fisk, and Howard,
a recognized member of the African American intelligentsia, and an eloquent speaker, he was welcomed
as a lecturer at numerous black schools and colleges, churches, and social organizations in the South.

In 1916, when the North American Bahá’ís received the first five letters of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Divine Plan ,
summoning them to disseminate the Bahá’í Faith throughout the continent and the world, Gregory
responded to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s call to establish the Faith in the southern states. Traveling extensively for
about six weeks in the fall of 1916, Gregory spoke to an estimated fifteen thousand people. He
returned to Washington determined to free himself for more travel. With Louise’s full agreement—even
though she was seldom able to travel with him because of the constraints of a racially divided society—
he closed his law practice and a real estate firm he had just established and turned down a position on
the law faculty at Howard University.

Gregory’s journeys continued for the next thirty years. Although he concentrated primarily on the
South, he visited forty-six states as well as parts of Canada. Gradually, a pattern evolved: he would
travel during the winter, sometimes interrupted by weeks or months devoted to administrative and
organizational activity in the North, and spend summers, if possible, with Louise. At first their home
base continued to be Washington DC. Later they lived in New England: in greater Boston; Portsmouth,
New Hampshire; and Eliot, Maine. They especially enjoyed participating in summer classes and
conferences at Green Acre Bahá’í School in Eliot, where their activities provided a respite from the
periods of "enforced separation" that Louis’s work entailed.20

After making the decision to give up his law practice, Louis and Louise Gregory paid for his travels with
their personal resources, including the proceeds from the sale of the home that served as their refuge
from discrimination. After their funds were depleted, he accepted financial assistance from friends and,
for more than a decade, a monthly subsidy from the Bahá’í fund, a necessity with which he was never
comfortable. The termination of that subsidy in January 1933, during the depths of the Great
Depression, tested him personally for a time but did not deter him from the work to which he had long
been completely committed.

For nearly three decades, from 1917 until 1946, he persevered as an itinerant
Bahá’í teacher despite meager means and difficult, degrading traveling
conditions. Particularly in the South, where transport was segregated and
public accommodations for African Americans were virtually nonexistent, Louis
Gregory spent countless hours sitting on hot, dirty trains and often, having
arrived in a new town, seeking a bed for the night.

Noteworthy among Gregory’s journeys was a 1921 coast-to-coast trip, the
longest he ever made, described by a Bahá’í administrator at the time as an
achievement unsurpassed in the history of the North American Bahá’í
community. In 1933 he participated in one of the first interracial teaching
trips to the South. In the mid-1930s he responded to a call by Shoghi Effendi
Louis Gregory speaking. National   for intensive teaching; Gregory stayed in Nashville, Tennessee, until there
Bahá’í Archives, United States.    were enough Bahá’ís to form its first local administrative body.

Beginning in 1922, rather than remaining at home while her husband traveled, Louise Gregory began
spending increasingly lengthy periods of time in Europe, where she supported herself by teaching music,
English, and Esperanto and helped form Bahá’í communities in a number of countries, including Bulgaria
and Yugoslavia. Shortly after Louise returned from the Balkans in 1936, the Gregorys responded to a
new call by Shoghi Effendi to establish the Bahá’í Faith in every country of the Americas. They sailed for
Haiti in January 1937, planning to spend at least three months, with the intention of returning or
remaining indefinitely. They were immediately successful in attracting the nucleus of a Bahá’í
community but then encountered government opposition. In April 1937 they sailed for New York,
hopeful that the official attitude would change and allow them to return.

That year marked the beginning of the Seven Year Plan, the first of several plans devised by Shoghi
Effendi for the expansion of the Bahá’í Faith within the framework of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Divine Plan. With
doors in Haiti having shut, Louis Gregory resumed speaking tours throughout the United States but also
focused on building Bahá’í communities in the six states in the South that had no resident Bahá’ís when
the plan was devised. During the winter of 1937–38, he spent several months at Tuskegee Institute, an
historically black institution of higher education in Tuskegee, Alabama. In January 1939 he went to Pine
Bluff, Arkansas, the location of another historically black college, and remained for a month of intensive
activity. Over the next several years, even though World War II made traveling difficult, he visited
numerous college campuses in the South, white and black alike, as well as in border states and the
Midwest.

The pace of Gregory’s journeys remained brisk until 1946, when his own brief illness combined with
Louise’s increasing frailty led him to curtail his travels as well as his administrative work. The couple
settled into quiet retirement in Eliot, near the Green Acre campus. There they enjoyed gardening and
the simple domestic pursuits that their life together had seldom allowed.

ADMINISTRATOR
Louis Gregory made signal contributions not only to
teaching the Bahá’í Faith but also to a second field of
activity: Bahá’í administration. He was first elected in
February 1911 to fill a vacancy on the Working
Committee, the embryonic Bahá’í administrative body in
Washington DC. In 1912, during the national Bahá’í
convention attended by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Gregory was
elected to the Executive Board of Bahai Temple Unity,
the governing body in North America at the time.

Gregory’s effectiveness as an administrator kept him in
the forefront of national administrative service for more
National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States
and Canada, early 1940s. Seated, l. to r.: Dorothy Baker, Louis
than three decades. In 1918 he was again elected to the
Gregory, Leroy Ioas, Amelia Collins. Standing, l. to r.: Siegfried Executive Board of Bahai Temple Unity and in 1922 to
Schopflocher, Roy Wilhelm, Horace Holley, Allen McDaniel,
George Latimer.                                                    the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the
United States and Canada, which superseded the
Executive Board. One of few African Americans elected to national leadership in any interracial
organization in the first half of the twentieth century, he served on the National Assembly for fourteen
years: 1922–24, 1927–32, and 1939–46.21 Several times he received the highest or second highest
number of votes cast. He filled a number of administrative roles on the Assembly, becoming its first
recording secretary, an office he held for six years, and helping to draft its bylaws, which became the
model for the charters of all National Spiritual Assemblies throughout the world. He also devoted energy
to the work of a national Bahá’í interracial committee, which he served as a member and an officer for
many years.

Gregory attended almost every national Bahá’í convention from 1911 until his retirement in 1946. Often
he was elected convention secretary, served as convention reporter, or addressed the gathering as a
featured speaker.
PROPONENT OF RACE UNITY
In addition to achieving distinction as a Bahá’í teacher and administrator, Louis Gregory served as a
standard-bearer in a third field: the promotion of race unity. Both ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi
repeatedly called the attention of the American Bahá’ís to the importance of confronting racial
prejudice, which Shoghi Effendi described as America’s "most vital and challenging issue."22 Gregory led
the community’s response. Guided by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s instruction to work for amity and harmony
between the races, Gregory learned many valuable lessons while tackling challenges in Washington DC.
Later, encouraged in his work by Shoghi Effendi, Gregory’s activities became national in scope; for
decades he was the preeminent Bahá’í writer, lecturer, and organizer on this theme.

In the North, conferences and other activities sponsored or cosponsored by the Bahá’ís resulted in a
significant public role for the religion in the fields of race relations and civil rights. These events
provided a platform for the exchange of views by outstanding leaders, white and black. Among them
were W. E. B. DuBois, A. Philip Randolph, William Stanley Braithwaite, Franz Boas, James Weldon
Johnson, Jane Addams, and Roy Wilkins, to name a few who were not Bahá’ís, and distinguished
Bahá’ís such as Alain Locke, Dorothy Baker, Matthew Bullock, Sarah Martin Pereira, and Horace Holley.
Gregory frequently served behind the scenes as organizer or publicist and sometimes took a more
visible role as chairperson or speaker.

In the South, Gregory often attempted to overcome racial barriers, directly and indirectly. He spoke to
racially mixed audiences on a number of occasions and at times to white groups, including the student
bodies of white colleges. He once shared a platform with a grand cyclops of the Ku Klux Klan. Simply
by associating with white Bahá’ís, especially women, he risked arrest or even lynching; yet he was
undeterred.

Once, while visiting Miami, he and two white women from the North arranged for twenty-one Bahá’í
meetings in a fortnight, attracting people of both races. At the end of his stay, the three took time off
for a little sightseeing and a picnic on a beach that happened to be in the white section of town.
Afterward, a friend asked him whether he realized that all the African Americans were praying for him
because, not being from the area, he obviously failed to realize how dangerous it was to be seen with
white women. Gregory replied that, having been born and reared in the South, he knew its customs
well ("about as well as "Brer Rabbit in the briar patch") but found his protection in God: "If He does not
hold me I am unsafe anywhere." 23

Under the difficult and dangerous conditions that
characterized a prejudiced and racially segregated
society, the American Bahá’í community in its first half
century struggled to exemplify its stated belief in
oneness. It experienced spurts of systematic progress,
aroused by stirring calls to action from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and
Shoghi Effendi, followed by periods of retrenchment and
apathy. Throughout, Gregory led the way, demonstrating
forbearance, dignity, and unshakable faith and vision.

In 1932, for example, as secretary of the National Bahá’í
Conference for interracial amity cosponsored by the Bahá’ís and
Committee for Racial Amity, Gregory responded to a
the Urban League, New York City, 8 Nov. 1930 (Louis Gregory,
Local Spiritual Assembly that had instructed one of the
standing, third row, center right). National Bahá’í Archives,
United States.
members of its community to channel her enthusiasm for
promoting racial amity into holding a study class "for colored people" in her home. He cautioned the
Assembly to reconsider an action that would be "fore-doomed to failure," bringing it "under fire" from
both blacks and liberal whites, who would perceive it as segregation. 24 Yet he declined to make racial
attitudes a litmus test of faith. "My observation," he wrote an African American Bahá’í friend in 1950, "is
that many whites are unconscious of their prejudices and many colored people reflect, consciously or
otherwise, the prejudices of the whites."25 He believed that overcoming prejudice requires effort,
patience, and acknowledgment of the sincerity of others, even if "their views may clash with ours," but
that the Bahá’í Faith "if adhered to will inevitably train people out of their prejudices and insularities of
thought."26

TRIBUTES
Louis Gregory holds, in the words of Shoghi Effendi, a "unique
position" in North American Bahá’í history. 27 Gregory’s lifetime of
effort cannot be considered separately from his attainment of
extraordinary personal attributes. From his youth, Gregory was
bright, multitalented, and idealistic, gifted with eloquence and a
sense of humor. After becoming a Bahá’í at the age of thirty-five,
he began working consciously toward personal spiritual
transformation and the achievement of deep faith, patience, and
humility.

A milestone in Gregory’s spiritual journey was his pilgrimage in
1911. "Verily, he has much advanced in this journey," ‘Abdu’l-
Bahá observed. "He received another life, and obtained another
power. When he returned, Gregory was, quite another Gregory.
He had become a new creation." 28 In 1920 ‘Abdu’l-Bahá paid him
this tribute: "That pure soul has a heart like unto transparent
water. He is like unto pure gold. This is why he is acceptable in
any market and is current in every country." 29
Louis G. Gregory. National Bahá’í Archives, United
States.
At a time when few Americans could see beyond color, many of
Louis Gregory's white contemporaries recognized him as a spiritual giant and a beacon of true humanity
—a source of "shimmering radiance," one recalled, "that was so remarkable, that seemed to be part of
him." 30 A Bahá’í with whom Gregory traveled as part of an interracial team in the South recalled, "I
never saw him show anger, impatience or resentment"; instead, when met by hostility, Gregory seemed
to search "his innermost being and beyond for a solution to a change in the relationship."31 Martha
Root, the outstanding international Bahá’í teacher in the Faith’s first century, observed, "I always feel
he is one of the greatest disciples of this new day." 32

Shoghi Effendi’s letters to Louis Gregory often touch on the theme of Gregory’s spiritual distinction. In
1933, at only the midpoint of Gregory’s long years of service, Shoghi Effendi observed:

I feel impelled to . . . reaffirm my deep sense of indebtedness to you for your
magnificent work in the service of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh. No words of mine can pay
adequate tribute to the spirit that glows within your breast or to the determination
that fires your soul in your unique & highly meritorious endeavors. . . . You have
attained spiritual heights that few indeed can claim to have scaled. You have
displayed a spirit that few, if any, can equal. 33

The news conveyed in Gregory’s letters was, in Shoghi Effendi’s words, a source of "inspiration" and
"comfort." 34 "I am always relieved by your letters from the burden of care & responsibility which often
oppresses me," Shoghi Effendi stated in a letter dated 29 January 1930.35 And again: "You hardly
realize what a help you are to me in my arduous work." 36

Alert and active until the end of his life, although for the last five years he no longer traveled
extensively, Gregory died suddenly at home on 30 July 1951. He was buried in Eliot.
Shoghi Effendi conferred on Gregory posthumously the rank of Hand of the Cause of God of God,
making him the eighth person and the fourth Westerner (following John Esslemont, Keith Ransom-
Kehler, and Martha Root) to be so named in the period 1925–52. "Profoundly deplore grievous loss of
dearly beloved, noble-minded, golden-hearted Louis Gregory," Shoghi Effendi cabled the Bahá’ís of the
United States. "Keenly feel loss of one so loved, admired and trusted by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Deserves rank of
first Hand of the Cause of his race." 37

In the United States and around the world, Louis Gregory has been recognized for his singular
achievements. His old friend and former law partner, Judge James Cobb, paid tribute to him as "one of
those who enriched the life of America."38 Bahá’ís have named institutions and activities in his honor—
among them, several schools in Africa; the Louis G. Gregory Bahá’í Institute in Hemingway, South
Carolina (1972); radio station WLGI, also in Hemingway (1985); and the Louis Gregory Cottage
(formerly the Arts and Crafts Building) at Green Acre. In February 2003 his boyhood home at 2
Desportes Court in Charleston was dedicated as the first museum in the city to honor a particular
individual and the first Bahá’í-owned museum in the United States.

Author: Gayle Morrison

© 2009 National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. Terms of Use.

.

Notes:
1. Louis G. Gregory, "Racial Unity," chap. 3: "Why Love the South," ts., Louis G. Gregory Papers, National
Bahá’í Archives, United States, Wilmette, IL [hereafter NBAUS], n. pag.
2. Louis Gregory recounts the story, heard from his grandmother when he was a child, in "Racial Unity,"
chap. 15: "Ku Klux Klan: Then and Now." He states that his grandmother "lived with her husband in a small
city of the South"--presumably, Darlington, as Charleston was one of the largest cities in the region and,
indeed, among the thirty most populous in the United States during the years after the Civil War. Louis
Gregory does not indicate when the couple married or provide the name of his grandmother’s husband, and
the man’s identity has not yet been discovered in public records.
3. No death record for Ebenezer George has been located. Elizabeth George was listed as a widow in the
1880 census; she, her two sons, and her mother were among eighteen African Americans (nine adults and
nine children) living at 3 Burns Lane (also known as Blackbird Alley) in Charleston.
4. On discharge in 1866, George Gregory was First Sergeant in Company C, 104th Regiment, United States
Colored Infantry. Later in life he was known as "Colonel," an honorary title unrelated to his military service.
5. The term typhopneumonia was used in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to describe a form
of typhoid that particularly affected the lungs or an unusually severe case of pneumonia.
6. Gregory, "Racial Unity," chap. 3: "Why Love the South."
7. Gregory, "Racial Unity," chap. 18: "Reminiscent."
8. Louis G. Gregory, "Some Recollections of the Early Days of the Bahá’í Faith in Washington, D.C.," ts.,
Louis G. Gregory Papers, 1.
9. Gregory, "Some Recollections," 2.
10. Gregory, "Some Recollections," 3.
11. Louis Gregory, letter to Joseph and Pauline Hannen, 23 July 1909, Hannen-Knobloch Family Papers,
NBAUS.
12. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Tablet to Louis Gregory, trans. 17 Nov. 1909, Translations of Original Tablets of ‘Abdu’l-
Bahá Collection, NBAUS.
13. The first African American pilgrim was Robert Turner, Phoebe Hearst’s butler, who traveled with her in
1898–99 on the first pilgrimage by Western Bahá’ís, which she organized.
14. Gregory, "Racial Unity," chap. 18: "Reminiscent."
15. Louis G. Gregory, A Heavenly Vista: The Pilgrimage of Louis G. Gregory (Washington: n.p., n.d.) 10.
[Reprinted as A Heavenly Vista, 1997 ed. (Fernale, MI, USA: Alpha, 1997) and available online at
http://bahai-library.com/pilgrims/louis.html  (accessed 23 Jan. 2009)].
16. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá quoted in Gregory, A Heavenly Vista, 15.
17. When the Gregorys married, antimiscegenation laws existed in well over half of the forty-eight states;
such laws persisted in sixteen states until 1967, when they were ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme
Court. For an overview on attitudes about race, see Thomas F. Gossett, Race: The History of An Idea in
America, new ed. (New York: Oxford UP, 1997). For information on intermarriage and "miscegenation" in
the United States, see Werner Sollors, ed., Interracialism: Black-White Intermarriage in American History,
Literature, and Law (New York: Oxford UP, 2000).
18. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Tablet to Louis and Louise Gregory, trans. 14 Mar. 1914, Translations of Tablets of
‘Abdu’l-Bahá Collection.
19. "News Notes," Bahai News 7 Feb. 1911: 9.
20. Louis Gregory, letter to Edith May Chapman, 27 Sept. 1933, Edith May Chapman Papers, NBAUS.
21. Louis Gregory was the first and only nonwhite member of Bahai Temple Unity and, until his retirement
in 1946, of the National Spiritual Assembly. Since that time, the National Spiritual Assembly of the United
States has had at least one African American member, and often two or three, in all but two years, 1956–
58; the percentage of African Americans on the body has thus been higher than the percentage in the
Bahá’í community or the general population. Other minorities (American Indian, Korean American) have
been represented as well. Although in the Bahá’í system individuals are not elected to represent any
specific demographic, voters bear in mind the desirability of their institutions’ representing the diversity
that exists within the community.
22. Shoghi Effendi, The Advent of Divine Justice, 1st pocket-size ed. (Wilmette, IL, USA: Bahá’í Publishing
Trust, 1990, 2006 printing) 51: 50.
23. Gregory, "Racial Unity," chap. 16: "Perils of Peace Promotion."
24. Louis Gregory, letter to Detroit Spiritual Assembly, 14 Dec. 1932, Office of the Secretary Records,
Correspondence with Individuals Files, NBAUS.
25. Louis Gregory, letter to Edith May Chapman, 16 July 1950, Chapman Papers.
26. Louis Gregory, letter to Edith May Chapman, 13 May 1950, Chapman Papers.
27. Shoghi Effendi, Citadel of Faith: Messages to America 1947–1957 (Wilmette, IL, USA: Bahá’í Publishing
Trust, 1965, 1999 printing) 163.
28. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Tablet to Margaret Döring, trans. 15 Aug. 1911, Translations of Tablets of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
Collection.
29. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Tablet to Anna Reinke, 16 Oct. 1920, Translations of Tablets of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Collection.
30. Elaine Snider Eilers, "Recollections of Hand of the Cause Mr. Louis Gregory," ts., part II, attachment to
Margaret Kunz Ruhe, letter to Gayle Morrison, 28 July 1979.
31. Charles Wragg, letter to World Order Editorial Board, Betty J. Fisher, assoc. ed., 9 Mar. 1973, File
"Morrison–Louis Gregory correspondence," To Move the World Editorial Correspondence, Bahá’í Publishing
Trust, Wilmette, IL, USA.
32. Martha Root, letter to Louise Gregory, 21 Aug. 1926, Louise M. Gregory Papers, NBAUS.
33. Shoghi Effendi, letter to Louis Gregory, 24 Oct. 1933, Shoghi Effendi Original Letters and Cables
Collection, NBAUS.
34. Shoghi Effendi, letter to Louis Gregory, 1 Dec. 1931, Shoghi Effendi Letters Collection.
35. Shoghi Effendi, letter to Louis Gregory, 29 Jan. 1930, Shoghi Effendi Letters Collection.
36. Shoghi Effendi, letter to Louis Gregory, 31 Oct. 1928, Shoghi Effendi Letters Collection.
37. Shoghi Effendi, Citadel of Faith 163.
38. James A. Cobb quoted in Harlan F. Ober, "Louis G. Gregory," The Bahá’í World, vol. 12: 1950–54
(Wilmette, IL, USA: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1956) 667.

Understanding the Citations
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Other Sources and Related Reading
For biographical information, see Gayle Morrison, To Move the World: Louis G. Gregory and the
Advancement of Racial Unity in America (Wilmette, IL, USA: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1982, 1999 printing);
Louis Gregory’s obituary by Harlan Ober in The Bahá’í World, vol. 12: 1950–54, 666–70, and of Louise
Gregory by Joy Earl Hill in The Bahá’í World, vol. 13: 1954–63 (Haifa: The Universal House of Justice,
1970) 876–78. See also Elsie Austin, Above All Barriers: the Story of Louis G. Gregory (Wilmette, IL, USA:
Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1976); Moojan Momen, "Gregory, Louis," Holy People of the World: A Cross-
Cultural Encyclopedia, ed. Phyllis Jestice, vol. 1 (Santa Barbara, CA, USA: ABC–CLIO, 2004) 323; "Gregory,
Louis George," Encyclopedia of African American Religions (New York: Garland, 1993) 313; Angelita D.
Reyes, "Gregory, Louis George (6 June 1874–30 July 1951)," The African American National Biography, ed.
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Evelyn Brooks-Higginbotham, vol. 3 (New York: Oxford UP, 2008) 634–35.
The following collections at the National Bahá’í Archives, United States, contain records cited in this article
and other relevant material: Translations of Original Tablets from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Collection; Shoghi Effendi
Original Letters and Cables Collection; Louis G. Gregory Papers, among which may be found Louis and
Louise Gregory, "A Teaching Campaign in Haiti," as well as other typescripts cited; and the Louise M.
Gregory Papers. Correspondence from Louis or Louise Gregory and other items may be found in over fifty
collections, including the Edith May Chapman Papers; Hannen-Knobloch Family Papers; Alfred E. Lunt
Papers (also National Teaching Committee’s Teaching Bulletin, 1921–22); Office of the Secretary Records,
Correspondence with Individuals Files; and Agnes Parsons Papers.
Archival sources on which this article is based include information compiled by Kathy Lee and Roy Jones and
by the Bahá’í Encyclopedia Project editorial staff.
Reports of Gregory’s activities are found in the Bahá’í periodicals of the time—Star of the West, Baha’i
News Letter, Bahá’í News—and in the The Bahá’í World.
Published works by Gregory include: "Bahá’í to Jew," World Order os 8 (1942): 119–22; "Centennial
Celebration of the Birth of Baha’o’llah," Star of the West 8 (1917): 191, 196–203; "Dr. Carver’s Tribute,"
World Order os 9 (1943): 202–05; "The Equality of Men and Women: Resume of Address by Mr. Louis G.
Gregory at Boston," Star of the West 8 (1917): 120; "Faith and the Man: The Remarkable Story of
Henderson Business College, a Bahá’í Enterprise," The Bahá’í World, vol. 8: 1938–40 (Wilmette, IL, USA:
Bahá’í Publishing Committee, 1942) 901–03; "Impressions of Abdul-Baha While at Ramleh," Star of the
West 2.10 (1911): 5–6; "Light on Basic Unity: Green Acre and the Bahá’í Ideal of International Amity," The
Bahá’í World, vol. 4: 1930–32 (New York: Bahá’í Publishing Committee, 1933) 486–89; "The Power of the
Holy Spirit," Star of the West 10 (1919): 84–87, 90–91; "Robert Turner," World Order os 12 (1946): 28–
29; "The Teaching Campaign—News from the South: 'Fifteen Thousand Were Reached Directly,'" Star of the
West 7 (1917): 170.
Articles by Louis Gregory on race include: "Racial Amity," Bahá’í Year Book [The Bahá’í World], vol. 1:
1925–26 (New York: Bahá’í Publishing Committee, 1926) 165–69; "Inter-racial Amity," The Bahá’í World,
vol. 2: 1926–28 (New York: Bahá’í Publishing Committee, 1928) 281–85; "Racial Amity at Green Acre," The
Bahá’í World, vol. 3: 1928–30 (New York: Bahá’í Publishing Committee, 1930) 179–83; "Racial Likenesses
and Differences: The Scientific Evidence and the Bahá’í Teachings," The Bahá’í World, vol. 6: 1934–36
(New York: Bahá’í Publishing Committee, 1937) 659–64; "Racial Amity in America: An Historical Review,"
The Bahá’í World, vol. 7: 1936–38 (New York: Bahá’í Publishing Committee, 1939) 652–66; "Accelerated
Progress in Race Relations," The Bahá’í World, vol. 9: 1940–44 (Wilmette, IL, USA: Bahá’í Publishing Trust,
1945) 876–80; "A Gift to Race Enlightenment" [review of W. E. B. DuBois’s Black Reconstruction], World
Order os 2 (1936): 36–39.
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-- Gregory, Louis George (Used by permission of the curator)