Education and Retreat Center
The Louis G. Gregory Bahá’í Institute is training center owned by the Bahá’ís of the United States and managed by the Regional Baha’i Council for the Southeastern States. It has a long history of more than 50 years of dedication to building unity.
The South Carolina Bahá’í Winter School, Advancing Together Toward Unity, will take place December 27, 2024 – December 29, 2024 at the Louis Gregory Bahá’í Institute.
The Louis G. Gregory Bahá’í Institute has a large and peaceful grounds. The facilities include:
The Campus is tobacco, drug, and alcohol-free. We work hard to make it a safe, healthy, and welcoming place for all.
The Louis G. Gregory Institute was founded in 1972. It was named after a native to South Carolina and the first to bring the Bahá’í Faith to the state.
Paul and Marie Douglas, two pastors, were in the process of building a church when they heard about and declared their faith in Bahá’u’lláh. Their congregation divided and the Douglas’ were left with an unfinished building and a pile of debt. Annette and Jordan Young, two chiropractors who taught the Douglas’ the Faith reached out to the National Spiritual Assembly, who purchased the property and continued the construction to build a teaching institute in 1971.
The associated radio station, Radio Baha’i WLGI, started in 1984. It is a non-commercial educational radio station that serves Northeastern South Carolina and Southeastern North Carolina.
Over the years the Louis G. Gregory Institute has gathered together people from all walks of life, to study together, serve one another, and strive to bring about the oneness of mankind.
Louis George Gregory (1874 – 1951) was born in Charleston, South Carolina. Both of his parents were enslaved, freed by the Civil War. His maternal grandmother was enslaved on a Darlington County plantation.
He attended Simonton School and Avery Normal School. He went on to graduate from Fisk University and Howard University Law School, thereafter establishing a successful law practice in Washington D.C.
In 1909, Mr. Gregory became one of the first followers of the Baha’i Faith in the United States, attracted largely by its teachings on the oneness of humanity. He closed his law practice and devoted his life to promoting race amity, traveling for 15 years to 48 states. In 1912, he was elected to the nine member national administrative body, the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the United States. At the suggestion of ‘Abdul-Bahá (son of Bahá’u’lláh, Prophet-Founder of the Baha’i faith) Mr. Gregory married Louisa Matthew, a highly educated English woman. Together they shared a loving 40 year marriage, joined together in “one spirit, one purpose.”
Abdul-Bahá addressed Mr. Gregory writing, “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, that is the universal unity which is the oneness of the kingdom of the human race…”
There are many tributes to the works of this outstanding servant of humanity. His childhood home is now the Louis G. Gregory Museum in Charleston, South Carolina. There are also a number books and publications about his life, and numerous children around the world have been named after him.
We would love to hear from you!
Louis G. Gregory Bahá’í Institute
1272 Williams Hill Rd.
Hemingway, SC 29554
Email: programs@lgbi.org
Phone: 843-558-0948