Birth Place: | Detroit, MI |
Field: | Urban Economics, Labor Economics |
Awards: | MLK Community Service award, 2008 Bishop H. Coleman McGehee, Jr., Lifetime Achievement Award, 2014 |
Alma Mater: | Wayne State University (BA) (MA) University of Michigan (PhD) |
Institution: | Oakland University Wayne State University Congressional Budget Office Office of Management and Budget |
Karl D. Gregory is an American economist who is professor emeritus of economics at Oakland University in Michigan,[1] and was an early president of the National Economic Association.[2] In 1962, he was refused the opportunity to purchase a home in developer William Levitt's Belair subdivision of Bowie, Maryland, based on his race, sparking extensive protests which contributed to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1968.[3]
Gregory was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan.[4] He earned two degrees from Wayne State University and a PhD in economics from the University of Michigan.[5]
Gregory worked in the Bureau of the Budget (now the Office of Management and Budget) in Washington, D.C., in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations while volunteering as chair of the Congress of Racial Equality.[6] He then joined the faculty of Oakland University, where he taught for 27 years.
In 2014, the Michigan Coalition for Human Rights awarded him the Bishop H. Coleman McGehee Jr., Lifetime Achievement Award.