Richard Bartlett Gregg (1885–1974) was an American

social philosopher Social philosophy examines questions about the foundations of social institutions, social behavior, and interpretations of society in terms of ethical values rather than empirical relations. Social philosophers emphasize understanding the social c ...

said to be "the first American to develop a substantial theory of

nonviolent resistance Nonviolent resistance (NVR), or nonviolent action, sometimes called civil resistance, is the practice of achieving goals such as social change through symbolic protests, civil disobedience, economic or political noncooperation, satyagraha, cons ...

" based on the teachings of

Mohandas K. Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

, and so influenced the thinking of

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...

Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the prominent Huxley ...

, civil-rights theorist

Bayard Rustin Bayard Rustin (; March 17, 1912 – August 24, 1987) was an African American leader in social movements for civil rights, socialism, nonviolence, and gay rights. Rustin worked with A. Philip Randolph on the March on Washington Movement, in 19 ...

, the pacifist and socialist reformer

Jessie Wallace Hughan Jessie Wallace Hughan (December 25, 1875 – April 10, 1955) was an American educator, a socialist activist, and a radical pacifist. During her college days she was one of four co-founders of Alpha Omicron Pi, a national fraternity for university ...

, and the

Peace Pledge Union The Peace Pledge Union (PPU) is a non-governmental organisation that promotes pacifism, based in the United Kingdom. Its members are signatories to the following pledge: "War is a crime against humanity. I renounce war, and am therefore determine ...

Life and work

Law & labor relations

After graduating from

Harvard Law Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

in 1911, Gregg worked at several law firms in Boston. In 1916 he was employed in labor management by a private firm in Chicago. From 1917 to 1921 in Washington, D.C., at the NWLB, Gregg became the 'examiner in charge' for the

Bethlehem Steel The Bethlehem Steel Corporation was an American steelmaking company headquartered in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. For most of the 20th century, it was one of the world's largest steel producing and shipbuilding companies. At the height of its succe ...

strike, publishing a 1919 law article. He then obtained a position at the Railway Department Employees Union. It involved traveling in support of its 400,000 workers during a time of strikes and labor disputes. These seven years in industrial relations he described as "investigation, conciliation, arbitration, publicity and statistical work for trade unions." The Union eventually was forced to capitulate.

Gandhi's Satyagraha

Disillusioned, he worked as a farmhand and took courses in agriculture at the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

Madison Madison may refer to: People * Madison (name), a given name and a surname * James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States Place names * Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital of Wisconsin and the largest city known by this ...

. He wrote to Mohandas K. Gandhi who was then in jail. C. F. Andrews replied, inviting him to stay at the

Sabarmati Ashram Sabarmati Ashram (also known as Gandhi Ashram) is located in the Sabarmati suburb of Ahmedabad, Gujarat, adjoining the Ashram Road, on the banks of the River Sabarmati, from the town hall. This was one of the many residences of Mahatma Gandh ...

. He sailed to India on January 1, 1925 for the study of Indian culture and to seek out

Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

. First he lived at the ashram with Gandhi's family and his many followers (itinerant and permanent, many who were already well-known, or became so). He engaged in farming and spinning in local villages. Gandhi's

spinning wheel A spinning wheel is a device for spinning thread or yarn from fibres. It was fundamental to the cotton textile industry prior to the Industrial Revolution. It laid the foundations for later machinery such as the spinning jenny and spinning f ...

later became an icon of the

Swadeshi movement The Swadeshi movement was a self-sufficiency movement that was part of the Indian independence movement and contributed to the development of Indian nationalism. Before the BML Government's decision for the partition of Bengal was made public in ...

. Absorbing and integrating the nonviolent philosophy, Gregg became able to spread its teachings. He then taught on various subjects connected with Gandhi's activism, e.g., for three years the school run by Samuel Evans Stokes of

Simla Shimla (; ; also known as Simla, the official name until 1972) is the capital and the largest city of the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. In 1864, Shimla was declared as the summer capital of British India. After independence, the ...

. Gregg corresponded with African-American leader

W. E. B. Du Bois William Edward Burghardt Du Bois ( ; February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American-Ghanaian sociologist, socialist, historian, and Pan-Africanist civil rights activist. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up in ...

. After about four years in India, he returned to Boston. The next year he married. Drawing on his learning and experience with Gandhi's

Satyagraha Satyagraha ( sa, सत्याग्रह; ''satya'': "truth", ''āgraha'': "insistence" or "holding firmly to"), or "holding firmly to truth",' or "truth force", is a particular form of nonviolent resistance or civil resistance. Someone w ...

, he published pamphlets, essays, books. One of his titles later helped transmit Gandhi's inspiration to

Ecology and farming

In the 1940s Gregg became involved in

ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

and

organic farming Organic farming, also known as ecological farming or biological farming,Labelling, article 30 o''Regulation (EU) 2018/848 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2018 on organic production and labelling of organic products and re ...

. He then worked eight years at the innovative farms in New England owned by

Helen Nearing Helen Knothe Nearing (February 23, 1904 – September 17, 1995) was an American author, advocate of simple living and a lifelong vegetarian. Biography Helen Knothe was born on February 23, 1904, in Ridgewood, New Jersey, as the daughter of Fr ...

and

Scott Nearing Scott Nearing (August 6, 1883 – August 24, 1983) was an American radical economist, educator, writer, political activist, pacifist, vegetarian and advocate of simple living. Biography Early years Nearing was born in Morris Run, Tioga County, ...

. In 1954 his first wife died, following a long illness. He remarried. In India from 1956 to 1958, he taught ecology and economics at

Gandhigram Rural University The Gandhigram Rural University (GRI) is a centrally-funded Deemed University based on Dindigul in Tamil Nadu, India. History Dr. T.S. Soundaram and Dr. G. Ramachandran developed the institute. The Gandhigram Rural Institute of Higher Educa ...

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...

(near

Madurai Madurai ( , also , ) is a major city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the cultural capital of Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of Madurai District. As of the 2011 census, it was the third largest Urban agglomeration in ...

), a school associated with

G. Ramachandran G. Ramachandran (known by Friends and Family as "Rama") is a former president of the Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SICCI). He was the President during the years 1966–1968, 1973–1974, 1982–1984, 1985–1986, and was its ...

whom Gregg had met in 1925 at Gandhi's Sabarmati Ashram.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Also in 1956 Gregg began correspondence with Dr. King, which was during the

Montgomery bus boycott The Montgomery bus boycott was a political and social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama. It was a foundational event in the civil rights movement in the United States ...

. About the book ''The Power of Non-Violence'' King wrote to Gregg, "I don't know when I have read anything... that has given the idea of non-violence a more realistic and depthful interpretation." Gregg was "thrilled by the revival of Gandhi's method in Montgomery." For King's 1958 book ''

Stride Toward Freedom ''Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story'' (published 1958) is Martin Luther King Jr.'s historic account of the 1955–1956 Montgomery bus boycott. The book describes the conditions of African Americans living in Alabama during the era, and ...

'' Gregg provided some Gandhi background. He also aided King with scheduling and contacts when he and his wife visited in India in 1959. Gregg also took part in "nonviolent training sessions" for Black civil rights workers. King after the bus boycott listed his top five books: Gandhi's ''autobiography'',

Fischer Fischer is a German occupational surname, meaning fisherman. The name Fischer is the fourth most common German surname. The English version is Fisher. People with the surname A * Abraham Fischer (1850–1913) South African public official * Ad ...

's biography of Gandhi,

Thoreau Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817May 6, 1862) was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading transcendentalist, he is best known for his book ''Walden'', a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and hi ...

on "civil disobedience", Rauschenbusch on the

social gospel The Social Gospel is a social movement within Protestantism that aims to apply Christian ethics to social problems, especially issues of social justice such as economic inequality, poverty, alcoholism, crime, racial tensions, slums, unclean envir ...

, and Gregg.

Publications

His most widely-known book, ''The Power of Non-Violence'' (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott 1934), was a presentation of Gandhi's teachings addressed to the western reader. He revised it for a 2d ed. in 1944, and again for a 3d ed. in 1959 with a 'Foreword' by Martin Luther King Jr. His other writings referencing Gandhi include ''The Economics of

Khaddar Khadi (, ), derived from khaddar, is a hand-spun and woven natural fibre cloth promoted by Mahatma Gandhi as ''swadeshi'' (self-sufficiency) for the freedom struggle of the Indian subcontinent, and the term is used throughout India, Pakistan ...

'' (1928), ''The Psychology and Strategy of Gandhi's Non-violent Resistance'' (1930), ''Gandhiji's Satyagraha'' (1930). In a 1939 pamphlet, ''Pacifist Program in Time of War, Threatened War or Fascism'', he discussed a program for how American pacifists could use non-violence to oppose war and

fascism Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy an ...

in the United States. An influential 1936 essay
"Simplified Living"
his philosophical espousal of its need and benefit, was originally published in an Indian journal. He coined the term "

voluntary simplicity Simple living refers to practices that promote simplicity in one's lifestyle. Common practices of simple living include reducing the number of possessions one owns, depending less on technology and services, and spending less money. Not only is ...

". ''A Preparation for Science'' (1928) was aimed to prepare primary school teachers in rural India, to instruct village children helped by use of locally available materials. Gregg authored ''A Compass for Civilization'' (Ahmedabad: Navajivan 1956), which was published under several titles.Tully (2018): ''The Self beyond Yourself'' (Lippincott), ''Spirit through Body'' (Boston), ''Self-Transcendence'' (Victor Gollancz).

References

External links

Gregg website
at Richardgregg.org
Richard Gregg materials in the South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA)
* Finding aid to th
Richard Bartlett Gregg papers
at th
University of Pennsylvania Libraries
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gregg, Richard 1885 births 1974 deaths American pacifists American spiritual writers Harvard Law School alumni Nonviolence advocates Organic farmers Simple living advocates Social philosophers Sustainability advocates War Resisters League activists