John Andrew Gregg

Background

Gregg was born on February 18, 1877, in Eureka, Kansas, the second child of Alexander and Eliza Frances Allen Gregg. Gregg grew up during a particularly unsettling period for black Americans.

Education

Gregg was unsure about what kind of work he wanted to pursue, and at that time teaching and preaching were virtually the only career options open to blacks who had economic and social aspirations. He received various awards from his Sunday school and from the Epworth League (the Methodist youth fellowship), and these encouraged him to earn his high school diploma, prior to the turn of the century.

Career

At this critical time in Gregg's life the Spanish-American War broke out. He served six months with the Twenty-third Kansas Volunteers in Cuba, and it represented a pivotal experience for him. He first realized his inclination toward foreign service and proved his capacity for leadership by his promotion from sergeant to second lieutenant. Having gained confidence and sufficient economic means from his military service, Gregg began to prepare himself for formal participation in the dual fields of religion and education. Gregg requested and was granted in 1898 a license to preach by the Kansas Annual Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1902 Gregg graduated with the B. A. degree, was admitted to the Kansas Annual Conference, and began to teach in a public school in Oskaloosa, Kansas. In 1903 he was ordained a deacon and appointed pastor of the Mount Olive Church in Emporia, Kansas. Gregg believed that foreign missions represented a frontier for the church and considered missionary work the area in which resourcefulness and need were joined in sharpest battle. He conceived of himself personally as possessing preceptorial skills but being somewhat limited in oratorical powers. He therefore decided to volunteer as a missionary to Cape Colony, South Africa, and served there from 1903 to 1906. Upon completion of this tour, Gregg returned to be ordained an elder. Gregg was an especially competent, practical clergyman who rose through the ranks. He served the Bethel congregation in Leavenworth, Kansas, from 1906 to 1908 and the Ebenezer parish in St. Joseph, Missouri, from 1908 to 1913. It was in this last assignment that he was elected to the General Conference, which, together with his outstanding local-parish record, provided him with the power base necessary for election to higher office. Gregg's educational background and experience, his zeal for an educated laity and clergy, and his keen ability and limitless energy made him an almost unmatched candidate for national leadership. In 1913 he was elected president of Edward Waters College in Jacksonville, Florida. He remained in that capacity until 1920, when he became president of Wilberforce University, serving there for four years. Although Gregg had been a successful soldier, teacher, missionary, and college president, he was first and foremost a traditional churchman. He was entirely dedicated to the church established by Richard Allen and held its offices in high esteem. Thus he sought and coveted most of all his election in 1924 as the forty-ninth African Methodist Episcopal bishop. His initial episcopal diocese was that of South Africa, where he served from 1924 to 1928. In 1926 he was elected as the first black president of Howard University, but he declined the offer even though the guiding hand behind it was his friend John D. Rockefeller, with whom he frequently visited in his college fund-raising years. Gregg's leadership received national recognition when the Fraternal Council of Negro Churches (Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, African Methodist Episcopal Church and the National Baptist Convention) chose to recommend him, on behalf of all black churches, to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who selected Gregg to be his personal representative in 1943-1944 to the black troops in every World War II theater except Alaska. Gregg also worked for interracial goodwill as cochairman of the National Council of Churches' Race Relations Commission. In 1948, while senior bishop, he was elected president, or general superintendent, of the Bishops' Council. Gregg was beginning his second term as president of the Council at the time of his own death, in Jacksonville, Florida, on February. 17, 1953.

Achievements

• Gregg is chiefly remembered as president of Edward Waters College and Howard University.

Membership

President of Edward Waters College (1913-1920), president of Howard University (1926)

Personality

Gregg did not distinguish himself as a scholar, writer, or orator. His special genius lay in his uncontroversial personality and his infectious spirit. He was essentially the good shepherd who practiced the precepts of pride in race and church, good humor, loyalty, honesty, courtesy, reliability, charity, and good works.

Connections

Gregg married Celia Ann Nelson on August 20, 1900, and later the couple adopted one child. Four years after the death of his first wife in 1941, Gregg married Melberta McFarland, a widow.

Father:

Alexander Gregg

Mother:

Eliza Frances Allen Gregg

Spouse:

Celia Ann Nelson

Spouse:

Melberta McFarland

Friend:

John Davison Rockefeller Sr.

He was an American oil industry business magnate, industrialist, and philanthropist.

References

• Of Men and of Arms: Chronological Travel Record of Bishop John A. Gregg with Messages of Cheer and Good Will to Negro Soldiers on All War Fronts