The áʼíBaháʼí Faith in South Carolina begins in the transition from Jim Crow to the Civil Rights Movement but defines another approach to the problem, and proceeded according to its teachings. The first mention in relation to the history of the religion came in the 1860s in a newspaper article. Following this the first individual from South Carolina to find the religion was Louis Gregory in 1909, followed by individuals inside the state. Communities of Baháʼís were soon operating in North Augusta, Columbia and Greenville struggled with segregation culture through the 1950s externally and internally. However, in the 1969-1973 period, a very remarkable and somewhat unsustainable period of conversions to the religion on the basis of a meeting of Christian and Baháʼí religious ideas established a basis of community across several counties - notably Marion, Williamsburg, and Dillon, served by the Louis Gregory Institute and its radio station WLGI but also across the wider area. That community continues and has gathered news coverage as part of the second largest religion in South Carolina.
Early history
Firsts
The first connections of South Carolina with the Baháʼí Faith occur in the presence of the first Baháʼí to join the religion in the West with his service in the American Civil War in South Carolina 30 years before he would join the religion, followed by re-publication of the first paper to mention events related to the history of the Baháʼí Faith.
1864-5
After seeking out training to be an officer black infantry units, by May, 1864, Thornton Chase, later recognized as the first occidental Baháʼí, was second in charge of one hundred men, Company K of the 26th Regiment Infantry U.S. Colored Troops which fought two battles south of Charleston, S.C. and was wounded. He then sought out a second opportunity to serve and in 1865 was promoted to captain and commanded Company D of the 104th United States Colored Infantry. That unit was organized at Beaufort, S. C., April–June, 1865, and did guard duty at various points in South Carolina till February, 1866. Chase' resignation was accepted November 7, 1865, in Beaufort, S. C. He would join the religion 30 years later. Louis Gregory's future stepfather, George Gregory, was First Sergeant in Company C of the 104th in 1866.
The first mention related to the history of the religion known in South Carolina was in a newspaper article. It was published in June 1865 in The Daily Phoenix of Columbia, South Carolina, on the front page, reviewing events that occurred from 1844 to 1850 or so. The source of the extended quote is not named, and makes mistakes typical of the period. See also Josephus on Jesus. It was originally presented in an article in The Literary World of June 14, 1851, as a letter dated February 10, 1851, by Dr. Rev. Austin H. Wright to the American Oriental Society. It was subsequently also published in a newspaper June 26, 1851, and was published in a German newspaper in 1851 translated by his superior, Rev. Justin Perkins. Wright, father of Lucy Myers Wright Mitchell and John Henry Wright, was a medical missionary from New England, and gained his medical degree in Virginia. Wright was the first person to write a paper giving an account on Bábism, and died in what was then called Urumiah, Persia, January 14, 1865. The Daily Phoenix itself began publication March 1865 after Sherman's March to the Sea that burned a third of the city or more and by April was being published as a daily paper.
Louis George Gregory
Louis George Gregory was the first person from South Carolina to join the Baháʼí Faith. He was born on June 6, 1874, in Charleston, South Carolina, to African-American parents liberated during the Civil War including his birth father that died when Gregory was very young - Ebenezer (E. F.) George, who died before 1880. In 1881 his mother married George Gregory. During his elementary schooling, Gregory attended the first public school that was open to both African Americans and Whites in Charleston and then the Avery Institute, the leading school for Americans of African descent in Charleston, and gave the graduation speech entitled, "Thou Shalt Not Live For Thyself Alone." Gregory attended Fisk University, Howard University, and was admitted to the bar in Washington, D.C., in 1902. In 1906 Gregory started to work in the United States Department of the Treasury, and continued to rise in society in various forms of service to the community and the profession. Meanwhile, Gregory was visible in the newspapers over racist incidents.