Louis Gregory's Four Days in London

In Volume 2, No. 5 of the *Star of the West,* dated 5 June 1911, the editors in Chicago printed a short item headed "News of the Cause in London." Signed by Arthur Cuthbert and dated 27 May, it reported that Miss Alice Buckton had just returned from her second visit to 'Abdu'l-Bahá, and it mentioned another recent visitor, Louis G. Gregory.

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Gregory, a lawyer from Washington, D.C., had gone to Egypt in the spring of 1911 to meet the Master. He found Him at Ramleh, near Alexandria, and also made the pilgrimage to Haifa and 'Akká. On the way home he visited the Bahá'í assemblies at Stuttgart, Paris and London.

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The London friends who met him wrote:

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> Those few of the Bahais here who had the good fortune to meet > Mr. Louis G. Gregory, during his four days in London on his way > home to Washington, D. C., from visiting Abdul-Baha at Ramleh, > were exceedingly interested and edified.

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To meet such a great > soul, so filled with the true Bahai spirit in any man is an > inspiration; but when this man is a negro, and wise enough to > be proud of his colour, then it is a revelation impressive with > great significance as one contemplates the difficult problems > existing between the white and black populations. How these > problems can be changed by a few such men aflame with God's > Word!

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The wording is that of 1911. The London believers saw in a Black American Bahá'í, just back from the Master's presence, a sign of how the Faith could heal the divide between the races.

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Gregory returned to Washington early in June 1911, and the *Star* soon reported that he had given several public lectures. Work for unity between the races would occupy him for the rest of his life, until his death in 1951.

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*A retelling based on **Star of the West**, Volume 2, No. 5 (June 5, 1911), "News of the Cause in London," with details from Volume 2, No. 7, and Louis G. Gregory, A Heavenly Vista. For the fuller account, see the original.*

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