Link to photo gallery: GREGG
John A. Gregg was born February 18, 1877 in Eureka, KS.. He graduated from Kansas University with a BA degree in 1902. He received his M.A. from Morris Brown College in 1916 and his D.D. in 1918 from Wilberforce University.
He married Celia A. Nelson in 1900. In 1903, he along with his wife, went to South Africa as a missionary teacher fulfilling a dream that he had as a child. He served as principal and teacher at Chatsworth Institute near Capetown, SA. His wife Celia also taught at this school.
In 1906 he returned to the U.S. and served pastorates in Leavenworth, KS and St. Joseph, MO.. In 1913, he was elected President of Edwards Waters College in Jacksonville, FL. He served as President until 1920. While at this institution he established a lifelong relationship with Ms. Mary McLeod Bethune who was President of Bethune Cookman College.
In 1920, he was elected president of Wilberforce University and served until 1924. While at Wilberforce, he was elected Bishop of the A.M.E Church. He returned to South Africa fulfilling a promise that he had made to the people of South Africa. He served in South Africa until 1928. In 1925, while serving in South Africa he was elected President of Howard University, the first African American to be elected to this position but he declined the offer despite the many telegrams and letters that he received from leaders across the country. His response was that “he had mad a commitment to the people of South Africa and he was going to honor his commitment”.
In 1930, he was the keynote speaker at the Eight World’s Christian Endeavor Conference in Berlin Germany. There were over 11,000 persons from around the world attending this conference. Bishop Gregg was one of the few persons of Color who was attending the conference. His speech was the only one broadcast on radio. The title of his address was “A Christian Call to Brotherhood.”
In 1898, he joined the 23rd Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry during the Spanish American War.. He served in Cuba from September 1898 to March 1899
In 1943. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt appointed him to be a representative to visit African American troops in the Pacific and Europe Theaters of War. He was the representative of all of the African American Churches of America. He wrote a book in 1925 detailing his travels entitled “Of Men and of Arms.”
In 1953, he was honored by Kansas University as the outstanding alumnus in the field of religion.
He served in many capacities among them are Secretary of the A.M.E Bishop Council, President of the Florida State Teachers Association, African Methodist Episcopal Church Association of Teachers in Colored Schools, Co-Chairman of the Interracial Commission of the Fraternal Council of Churches. He was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha and Sigma Pi Phi Fraternities.