Gregory W. Hayes (died December 2, 1906) was an American scholar, educator and administrator, who was a prominent leader in the Baptist community of African Americans in the state of Virginia and the
city of Richmond
The City of Richmond was a local government area about east of Melbourne, the state capital of Victoria, Australia. The city covered an area of , and existed from 1855 until 1994.
History
Richmond was incorporated as a municipality on 24 A ...
). He graduated from
Oberlin College
Oberlin College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1833, it is the oldest Mixed-sex education, coeducational lib ...
.
In 1891 he became the second president of the
Virginia Seminary, which he led until his death in 1906. His wife,
Mary Rice Hayes Allen, was the daughter of a
Confederate
A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a political union of sovereign states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...
general and an African-American mother, as related by her daughter (of her second marriage)
Carrie Allen McCray. Hayes intervened to provide
Ota Benga
Ota Benga ( – March 20, 1916) was a Mbuti ( Congo pygmy) man, known for being featured in an exhibit at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri, and as a human zoo exhibit in 1906 at the Bronx Zoo. Benga had been p ...
, a
Mbuti
The Mbuti people, or Bambuti, are one of several indigenous pygmy groups in the Congo region of Africa. Their languages are Central Sudanic languages and Bantu languages.
Subgroups
Bambuti are pygmy hunter-gatherers, and are one of the oldest ...
pygmy
In anthropology, pygmy peoples are ethnic groups whose average height is unusually short. The term pygmyism is used to describe the phenotype of endemic short stature (as opposed to disproportionate dwarfism occurring in isolated cases in a po ...
former slave who was exhibited at anthropological exhibitions, the opportunity to live with his family and study at the seminary.
In 1899, Hayes was involved in a leadership struggle with Z.D. Lewis over issues of operations and autonomy of an educational institution.
[ His wife succeeded him as the seminary's president after his death. She remarried and moved to Montclair, New Jersey with her second husband.
The G. W. Hayes School of Arts and Sciences, a division of Virginia Seminary and College, was named in 1988 to honor Hayes as its second president.]
References
External links
John Mitchell Jr., Editor, "Three Great Leaders", The Richmond Planet, May 24, 1902
1906 deaths
Religious leaders from Richmond, Virginia
Oberlin College alumni
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