Born: March 2, 1841 in St. Louis, MO Died: February 14, 1919 in Chicago, IL
Baptist minister. Appointed Brigadier General by Gov. Adelbert Ames. Gray was a strong proponent of civil rights legislation.
Unfortunately, Gray’s life seems to have been marked by scandal and corruption. In late 1876, he was indicted for embezzling funds from a Baptist church in Fayette County, Kentucky. Later newspaper articles imply other questionable incidents.
Listed on the 1870 census in Greenville with wife Hester and on the 1880 census in Lexington, KY with wife S.J. and mother Sarah Gray. By the late 1880s, Gray was a minister in St. Paul, Minnesota. At some point, he served as keeper of the gallery in the Minnesota state senate. Gray eventually moved to Chicago, where he spent the last years of his life.
His second wife, “S.J.” was Selena J. Walker. She was born August 17, 1852 in Columbia, TN, and died March 20, 1919 in Chicago. She appears with her family, apparently free, on the 1860 census in Nashville. She attended Fisk University and is listed in 1877 and 1878 Nashville city directories as a public school principal.
Birth and death dates from the Cook County Deaths Index.
“William Gray of Greenville, was a young Baptist preacher of some education and much natural cleverness. A leader in the demands for civil rights for Negroes, he was lacking in tact, and was probably at times guilty of double-dealing both in politics and in religious affairs.”
(Vernon Lane Wharton, The Negro in Mississippi, 1865-1890, 1965)
Signature of William Gray from an 1871 petition supporting Blanche K. Bruce as a trustee of Alcorn UniversityClarion-Ledger, March 24, 1870Weekly Mississippi Pilot, April 30, 1870Vicksburg Daily Times, July 16, 1870Petition supporting B. K. Bruce, May 13, 1871New National Era, February 13, 1873Petition to Governor Ames, March 20, 1874Vicksburg Herald, October 18, 1874Clarion-Ledger, March 4, 1875Chronicle-Star, March 13, 1875Weekly Democrat-Times, May 8, 1875Weekly Mississippi Pilot, May 8, 1875Clarion-Ledger, May 12, 1875Vicksburg Herald, August 5, 1875Vicksburg Herald, August 15, 1875Vicksburg Herald, August 17, 1875Vicksburg Herald, August 17, 1875Clarion-Ledger, August 18, 1875Weekly Mississippi Pilot, Aug 21, 1875Canton Mail, August 28, 1875Daily Mississippi Pilot, Sep 21, 1875Daily Mississippi Pilot, Oct 31, 1875Daily Evening Express, May 8, 1876Weekly Democrat-Times, Dec 16, 1876Yazoo Herald, December 22, 1876Clarion-Ledger, January 31, 1877Louisville Courier-Journal, March 3, 1877Weekly Democrat-Times, May 19, 1877Weekly Democrat-Times, Aug 18, 1877Port Gibson Reveille, August 18, 1877Cincinnati Daily Star, October 17, 1879Weekly Democrat-Times, July 5, 1884Western Appeal, May 7, 1887St. Paul Daily Globe, Sep 26, 1888Western Appeal, October 6, 1888New Ulm Weekly Review, Mar 6, 1889Washington Bee, March 8, 1890The Appeal, March 22, 1890The Broad Ax, January 12, 1901The Broad Ax, February 20, 1904The Statesman, August 2, 1907The Broad Ax, May 2, 1908Vardaman’s Weekly, June 20, 1908Montana Plaindealer, September 11, 1908Rock Island Argus, October 6, 1911