Hand of the Cause of God Louis Gregory

From the Baha'i Encyclopedia:

Louis Gregory belonged to the first generation of African Americans in the South to have a legal right to education. He 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 disarmament and international peace initiatives. He was admitted to the 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.

From the Baha'i Encyclopedia:

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 accomplishment" of fellowship between the races.18 Although the couple had no children of their own, they enriched the lives of 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.

Louis and Louisa Gregory are the central graves of several in this cemetery that is very near Green Acre Baha'i School. Many Baha'is had cabins or built small homes to be near Green Acre and to serve there.

Louis Gregory and other National Spiritual Assembly members, c. 1931-32

Souvenir Picnic, 1927, Louis Gregory seated next to the Greatest Name plaque

US Baha'i National Spiritual Assembly, 1929 with Louis Gregory

Title page - Life of Louis Gregory by Gayle Morrison