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.
