Africans enslaved by the Dutch during the early
17th century. In 1713, the area was named
Grin’wich, and by the 1780s, the area known as
Washington Square Park functioned as a potter’s
field, or cemetery for indigents, and as an area in
which public hangings were conducted. The Uni-
versity of the City of New York, renamed NEW
YORKUNIVERSITYin 1896, was established there
in April 1831, and its campus encircles the scenic
Washington Square Park that also is known for its
distinctive arch. Artists and writers congregated in
Greenwich Village, and the area became synony-
mous with avant-garde art and cutting-edge jour-
nals and magazines. During the Prohibition era,
Greenwich Village was home to numerous
speakeasies. Known during the 1920s and 1930s
for its bohemian communities, Greenwich Village
also was known as a sexually liberated area in
which homosexual, lesbian, and bisexual men and
women could socialize. During the 1930s the Vil-
lage also became an enclave for art galleries.
Greenwich Village, HARLEM, and Broadway
were among the most vibrant areas of New York
City during the 1920s and 1930s. It was in Green-
wich Village that CLAUDEMCKAYimmersed him-
self in friendships with MAXEASTMANand others.
The phenomenally talented sculptor RICHMOND
BARTHÉhad his studios on West 14th Street in
Greenwich Village. It was there that RALPHELLI-
SON, new to New York City, began studying with
the artist who was hailed then as the most accom-
plished African-American sculptor in history. Elli-
son moved into the Village shortly after arriving in
New York City to raise funds for his senior year at
TUSKEGEEINSTITUTE.
Gregory, Thomas Montgomery
(1887–1971)
A teacher, activist, World War I veteran, writer,
and one of the first judges for the first literary con-
test organized by OPPORTUNITY,the literary jour-
nal affiliated with the NATIONALURBANLEAGUE.
Gregory was born in WASHINGTON, D.C., on 31
August 1887. His father, James Monroe Gregory, was
the first student to enroll in the College Department
of HOWARDUNIVERSITY. In 1872 he was the vale-
dictorian and one of the three men who graduated in
the school’s first class. He joined the university fac-
ulty as a Latin and mathematics instructor. He even-
tually became a full professor of Latin and served as
dean of the school. James Gregory earned a master’s
degree from HARVARDUNIVERSITYin 1885, two
years before the birth of his son. James Gregory met
Frederick Douglass at the family home in New Bed-
ford, the community in which the newly emanci-
pated Douglass had settled with his wife and family.
T. Montgomery Gregory’s mother, Fannie
Emma Hagan, was a Howard University alumna
and devoted much time to students during her
husband’s tenure on the faculty at Howard. Fan-
nie Hagan met her husband when she enrolled in
one of his classes at Howard; they were married
one year later in December 1873. Born on July 4,
1856, in Frederick, Maryland, she was a descen-
dant of Robert Brook Taney, the white Supreme
Court Chief Justice who ruled in favor of slavery
and against enslaved people in the 1859 Dred
Scott decision. Fannie Hagan’s mother, Margaret,
was purchased from the Taney family by a Mada-
gascar native and member of the island country’s
ruling elite who encountered her during a sojourn
in the South.
In 1897, when Gregory was 10, his father
James was appointed director of the Bordentown
Industrial and Manual Training School, and the
family relocated to Bordentown, New Jersey. Gre-
gory continued his education at the prestigious
Williston Seminary in Easthampton, Massachu-
setts, from 1902 through 1906.
Gregory graduated from Harvard University in
1910, a member of the class that also included
writer T. S. Eliot. While in Cambridge, he excelled
in debate and became captain of the varsity debat-
ing team. He accepted a faculty position in the En-
glish Department at Howard, his parents’ alma
mater. He was forced to resign in 1912 following a
controversial social incident but was reinstated
one year later. When World War I began, he was
instrumental in overcoming segregationalist army
policies. His efforts to establish an Officer’s Train-
ing Corp program for African Americans was suc-
cessful, and the program opened at Fort Des
Moines, Iowa. He was assigned to the Military In-
telligence division during the war and served at the
rank of first lieutenant.
In 1918 Gregory married Hugh Ella Hancock.
The couple had six children, who advanced furtherGregory, Thomas Montgomery 201