Louis George Gregory (born June 6, 1874, in Charleston, South Carolina; died July 30, 1951, in Eliot, Maine) was a prominent American member of the Baháʼí Faith who was devoted to its expansion in the United States and elsewhere. He traveled especially in the South to spread the word about it. In 1922 he was the first African American elected to the nine-member National Spiritual Assembly of the United States and Canada. He was repeatedly re-elected to that position, leading a generation and more of followers. He also worked to prosyletize the faith to Central and South America. Gregory was posthumously appointed by Shoghi Effendi in 1951 as a Hand of the Cause, the highest appointed rank in the Baháʼí Faith. Early years Louis George was born in Charleston on June 6, 1874, the second son of Ebenezer F. and Mary Elizabeth George, enslaved African Americans who were freed during the Civil War. His mother Mary Elizabeth was of mixed race, the daughter of Mary Bacot, an enslaved African, and her white master, [George Washington Dargan]] of the Rough Fork plantation in Darlington, South Carolina. When Louis was four years old, his father Ebenezer died. He and his mother went to live with his paternal grandfather, a successful blacksmith. When Louis was seven, he witnessed the lynching of his grandfather by whites jealous of his success. In 1881, Louis's mother remarried to George Gregory, who was the only freeman of African descent to join the Union Army from the 3000 in Charleston at the time. George Gregory rose to 1st Sgt. in the 104th United States Colored Troops (USCT) after being recruited by Major Delaney, of African descent. After the war, he was honorifically called Colonel Gregory and his family received a Civil War pension. At this point Louis George Gregory took the name of his stepfather. Due to his military service, his stepson Louis George Gregory was introduced in family situations to make friends with the European descent children of Army officers who would visit the home. George Gregory was also a leader in the community, playing a significant role in the inter-racial United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America; upon his death in 1929, the Union put out an advertisement in the Charleston Newspaper asking all Union members to attend, 1000 of both races did make it to Monrovia Union Cemetery, where headstones to George and Mary