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Crystal A. de Gregory

@hbcustorian

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Thought Leader | Historian | Storyteller
@hbcustory + @dorianandbeyond, Founder
#HBCU. #FiskFamily. #1913.
Posts mine. she/her 🇧🇸

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

I’ve been posting monthly lately, but this meetup deserved a special edition post.

Put a PhD, MD, and JD from Grand Bahama at Barcelona Wine Bar in Nashville and somehow you get laughter, life updates, Bahamas election commentary (thanks @brooke913341) and enough conversation to remind us why some things are best protected by attorney client privilege 😂

After decades since all of us had been together, we somehow picked up right where we left off. It’s amazing how many life experiences we share despite the different paths life took us on.

The dreams we carried from Mary Star of the Sea Catholic School and Freeport Anglican High School could not have prepared us for this reunion, but it was definitely one for the books. Ironically, our high school graduation theme in 1999 was “Making Dreams Reality,” and sitting at that table, it was hard not to realize we had done exactly that.

Somewhere along the way, we quietly broke down false perceptions of who we were supposed to be, simply by becoming who we were created to become.

Thank you, ladies, for welcoming me to your town. It was a time of restoration and redemption mixed with good food, wine of course, plenty of laughter, and periodic updates on the Bahamas elections (thank you, Brooke 😂).

And despite the titles and careers, for a few hours we were simply girls from Grand Bahama again.

By the end of the night, we may not have solved the world’s problems, but we did reflect on how far we’ve come, the lives we’ve built, and the women we’ve become.

And somewhere between Cooling Waters getting rebranded as the Mighty Clouds of Joy, Grey’s Anatomy level stories, and all of us admitting we still want a little something out of life…we realized our dreams did not end in Freeport. They simply took us to many places, with many more still to come.

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I saw a post by @/books.to.read.on.vacation that was highlighting different books set around the Caribbean for the summer. I’ll be honest - I was not impressed with some of the recs (personal thoughts), but especially not with the selection for The Bahamas. Here’s some books to pick up if you want to read books set in The Bahamas or Bahamian authors. 🫶🏽🇧🇸📖

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#ReadCaribbean #ReadBahamian #CaribbeanBookRecs

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Crystal de Gregory, PhD

Thought Leader, Historian, Storyteller

“My journey into the work I do began in childhood, sitting at the feet of women—especially Black women—who understood that stories are a form of inheritance. My grandmother was my first archive. I loved to ask her for stories: about family, about struggle, about joy, about the quiet triumphs that never made headlines but shaped our lives. In listening to her, I began to understand that memory is not passive—it is powerful.

That early love of stories grew into a love of social studies in grade school and high school, and eventually into a major in history in college. But it was never history as a distant or abstract subject. It was history as lived experience. History as responsibility. History as a way to honor the people whose labor and faith built the worlds we now inhabit.”

To learn more about this soulFULLy shining sister, visit: https://www.soulfullbydesign.com/drcrystaldegregory

#WomensHistoryMonth
#soulFULLySheShines

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Today, Ghana celebrates 69 years of independence. Standing in front of the statue of Kwame Nkrumah in Accra always feels like standing in the presence of history.

This photo was taken during one of our Conscious Immersion journeys. For several people in the group, it was their first time setting foot on the African continent.

Over the years, my family has hosted more than 100 friends and colleagues from the United States in Ghana, helping them experience Africa through our own lens. Watching people encounter the country's culture, history, and entrepreneurial energy for the first time is always powerful.

That spirit eventually inspired the creation of Conscious Immersion Ghana. Our journeys are curated experiences that go beyond tourism to explore culture, business, investment, and deeper connections to the continent.

If you’re curious about joining one of our 2026 journeys, we’ll be hosting an information session next week.

Conscious Immersion Ghana Information Session
📅 Tuesday, March 10, 2026
⏰ 7:00 PM CST
🔗 https://bit.ly/ghanainfosession310

As Nkrumah once said: "The independence of Ghana is meaningless unless it is linked with the total liberation of Africa."

Each journey is a reminder that the bridge between Africa and the Diaspora is not just symbolic. It is something we must intentionally build.

#Ghana #GhanaIndependence #AfricanDiaspora #ConsciousImmersion #GlobalAfrica

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Books listed below

LEARNING TO BREATHE | @janicelynnmather

IF I HAD THE WINGS | @helenklonaris

BETWEEN ISLANDS | @ethanarchipelago

STILL ABOVE RUBIES | @bjaneturnquest

REDEEMING YOUR NARRATIVE | @jayjeune

MAGIC AND MORTAL | @hbcustorian

#ReadBahamian #ReadCaribbean #CaribbeanReads [Caribbean Books, Bahamian Author, Bahamian Books]

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Storer College in Harpers Ferry.

The educational institution was founded in 1867 to educate formerly enslaved humans and quickly became a beacon of Black learning and activism, including hosting the Niagara Movement in 1906, a key step toward the NAACP.

#themoreyouknow #history #didyouknow #historybeforeus #hbcu

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Fisk Homecoming 2025… I hadn’t been home to Fisk in nearly two decades, hadn’t felt the hallowed grounds beneath my feet or heard the echoes of those sacred voices that once saved my beloved Alma mater. I hadn’t stood in front of the life-sized statue of W.E.B. Du Bois and imagined the days when he, too, walked those very grounds. This return home was the blessing I didn’t know my soul needed. It was an amazing joy reuniting with old classmates, friends, and teammates. It was great meeting the new Fiskites proudly carrying on the legacy of Black excellence and distinction. But, even more, it was just great being home in the place where I grew into my manhood, my sense of self, the young being that would blossom into my current self. We grow up fast, “college days swiftly pass,” and all we long for is a moment to slow down time for a spell or two. The setting sun is still as warm and genial; I am still a son forever on her altar. Fisk Forever!!!
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#fiskuniversity #hbcu #hbcupride #nashville #blackexcellence✊🏾

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Something about #FiskWomen. I need to interview you. #thepowerofaplantedseed💛 #congratulations via @hbcustorian Recently, I made her-story—again—by becoming the first-ever Honorary Lifetime Member of the Southern Association for Women Historians (SAWH).

Being first is a blessing I don’t take lightly, but it’s never the whole assignment. Every “first” should fling the doors wider for who and what comes next.

My prayer is always that in being the first of any good thing, I am neither the only nor the last. I pray that future scholars and storytellers stride through spaces and places carrying their own brilliance (and maybe an even bigger, brighter tassel!). And most importantly, I pray they are supported by others who help shoulder the incredibly heavy mantle of ethical leadership grounded in radical—and yes, accountable—love.

I, too, call on the universe: may the same be attracted unto me, as is deserved.

My endless thanks to my SAWH family for honoring the labor, love, and light poured into #SAWH2025—and to the Mary McLeod Bethune Institute and the woman whose name it bears, my daily reminders that Black women’s genius changes worlds, opens doors, shakes tables, still matters, and always will.

If we’ve ever learned together, cried together, swapped sources or battle stories at 2 AM, this honor is yours too.

History belongs to those who keep the receipts at the ready—and the receipts say: we made HERstory.

#HerDue #BethuneAt150 #BlackWomenLead #FirstButNotLast #UnspeakableChallenges

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Today is the day a dream becomes reality. The team and I welcome 25 guest travelers to Ghana for an experience Conscious Immersion journey. Their lives will forever be changed as they spend the next 10 days experiencing one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies. Today, we make history while bridging the African Diaspora!

We’ve curated an insightful agenda that will allows our guests to witness the magic of Ghana’s tourism sector, learn about pathways to citizenship, explore real estate developments, meet entrepreneurs, and connect with tribal and government leaders. I’m truly honored that they’ve entrust us with guiding them through Ghana, the gateway to Africa.

Many thanks to my dear sister Angela E. Addae Yevunya and my dear brother Delali Kotoka, PMP Bsc. for their partnership in bringing this vision to life!

#consciousimmersion #Ghana

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Every time someone joins Conscious Immersion Ghana, the experience becomes richer.

This time, we’re honored to journey with Dr. Crystal DeGregory and Tonya Lewis, two dynamic entrepreneurs whose presence will have an incredible impact on the group and the communities we engage with.

We’re not just seeing Ghana, we’re feeling Ghana. Thank you for being part of this unfolding story.

Spots for 2026 open soon. Be part of the next chapter.

#ConsciousImmersion #Ghana2025 #BridgingTheAfricanDiaspora #ImmersionSpotlight

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As Director of the Franklin Library and former archivist, this moment meant a great deal to me. Some stories wait quietly in the archives — until it’s time to be heard.
Last April, just weeks after Women’s History Month, I invited Dr. Crystal A. deGregory '03 of Bethune-Cookman's Mary McLeod Bethune Institute for the Study of Women and Girls into Fisk University’s John Hope and Aurelia E. Franklin Library — as its Director, former archivist, and lifelong Fiskite — to unseal an unmarked archival box. Inside, Mary McLeod Bethune’s own letters and diary pages emerged, revealing her partnership with Charles S. Johnson and reshaping twentieth-century Black progress.

As a Black woman scholar, HBCU alumna, and public historian, some discoveries aren’t hidden; they’re simply waiting for us to pay closer attention.

This rediscovery underscores the vital role our library plays in preserving Black women’s voices. I’m honored to spearhead our Adam Matthew Digital partnership — serving as Project Director — to digitize and share these earliest Bethune–Johnson papers with scholars and students worldwide.

Read our op-ed in The Tennessean, co-authored with Dr. deGregory, to see how these pages reframed Bethune’s influence — and why Nashville must steward these collections with urgency and care. Many thanks to Andrea Williams for the opportunity to share this story with the city that shaped me.
https://www.tennessean.com/story/opinion/contributors/2025/07/11/mary-mcleod-bethune-fisk-university-smithsonian/84536645007/
#MaryMcLeodBethune #ArchivesMatter #BethuneAt150 #FiskUniversity

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If you are in tbe New York City/Westchester area on June 14th, come and be a part of the audience for my new stage play SAVED BY THE 10 COMMANDMENTS. I am writer and producer. Our heroine gets accepted to Fisk University.

www.lucindacarrproductions.com/sb10c
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Via @lucinda_carr #tagafiskite

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