Louis G. Gregory

In *A Heavenly Vista* Louis G. Gregory describes the afternoon in April 1911 when, having travelled from Egypt, he was rowed across the bay to 'Akká for the first time — and the small wooden landing-stair at the foot of the prison walls that received the first African American Bahá'í pilgrim.

On April 10, 1911, in Alexandria, Egypt, Louis G. Gregory — the African American lawyer from Washington who would later be named a Hand of the Cause — entered 'Abdu'l-Bahá's reception room for the first time. His pilgrimage notes preserve the kiss on the head, the question about his health, and the silence into which a long journey suddenly settled.

In *A Heavenly Vista* Louis Gregory describes the morning he ascended the slope of Mount Carmel with a small party of believers to the Shrine of the Báb — the small low building the Master had completed only two years before — and the silence in which he stood, an African American lawyer from Washington, in the presence of the remains of the Persian Herald of the Bahá'í Cause.

In June 1911 the Star of the West reported, in its News of the Cause in London column, the visit of Louis G. Gregory — the African American lawyer who had recently completed his pilgrimage to 'Akká. The English friends recorded their impression in a single phrase: *a great soul, aflame with God's Word.*