in November, inspired by ʻAbdu'l-Bahá in Britain that month. He was elected to a Washington Baháʼí working committee. 1912 In April Gregor was elected to the national Baháʼí "executive board". He assisted during ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's visit to the United States, during which he repeatedly emphasized the Baháʼí Faith and the oneness of humanity; he used black-colored references for pictures of beauty and virtue. See ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's journeys to the West. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá thanked Gregory's efforts on several occasions. The first was on 23 April 1912 when ʻAbdu'l-Bahá attended several events; first he spoke at Howard University to over 1000 students, faculty, administrators and visitors — an event commemorated in 2009. He attended a reception by the Persian Charge-de-Affairs and the Turkish Ambassador. At the reception, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá moved the place-cards to seat Gregory, the only African American, at the head table next to him. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá spoke at Bethel Literary and Historical Society where Gregory had long been involved and served as president. Later in June ʻAbdu'l-Bahá addressed the NAACP national convention in Chicago, which was reported by W. E. B. Du Bois in The Crisis. Gregory and Louisa Mathew had deepened their relationship. They married on September 27, 1912, becoming the first known Baháʼí interracial couple. When Louisa accompanied Gregory during his travels in the United States, they encountered a range of different reactions. Interracial marriage was illegal or unrecognized in a majority of the states at that time. Succeeding years of service The Washington Baháʼí community struggled to conduct only integrated meetings and establish integrated institutions in Spring 1916. That summer they received ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's earliest Tablets of the Divine Plan. Joseph Hannen, with whom Gregory worked on a committee, received the Tablet for the South. Republicans had earlier established integrated facilities in the capital for the federal government, but the election of Woodrow Wilson had resulted in his directing segregation in numerous facilities, to satisfy Southerners in his cabinet. By December Gregory had traveled among 14 of the 16 southern states named, speaking mostly to student audiences, which were overwhelmingly segregated by law. He began a second round in 1917. The NAACP was founding chapters in South Carolina starting in 1918. But since 1915, there had been a revival of the KKK, and there was other social unrest associated with tensions over the Great War in Europe, which the US entered in 1917. Gregory knew many of the initial organizers of the NAACP.