Joseph Gray

A Life, A Trial and Tribulation and Overcome

"I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have

tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)

Joseph Gray was born to Sylvia Ford and Judge Henry Gray in Junction City, Georgia on March 24, 1938. Joseph had nine siblings, Luke, Elizabeth, Mary George, Willie, Annie Laura and Josephine, Judge Henry, Jr., MacArthur, and George Edward. At a young age he accepted the Lord as his personal Savior and was baptized at Powell Baptist Church in Talbotton, Georgia.

When Joseph moved to Capitol Heights, Maryland, he joined the First Baptist Church of Highland Park in Hyattsville, Maryland.

Joseph joined the US Army on September 16, 1955, in Atlanta, Georgia and was discharged in 1958. After discharged from the army he worked as a Police Officer for the Federal Protective Services. He also worked for Safeway but after short stints at both jobs, he found his heart’s calling in Cosmetology.

Joseph was a sponge seeking information, he took numerous classes in Cosmetology so he could provide the best experience for his clients. He often attended hair shows up and down the east
coast. He first started as a barber renting a booth but after years of hard work he opened his own barbershop. However, his love for Cosmetology extended to fanning the same desire in new
barbers. That desire led him to his partnership with the Roosevelt Adult Learning School for Barbering. He became a valuable pipeline giving new and aspiring barbers, first jobs; allowing
them to continue to perfect their craft under him a Master Barber.

Joseph’s first barbershop was in the Mt. Pleasant area of Washington, D.C. In 1991, Mt. Pleasant now, Columbia Heights, was ground zero for civil unrest. The Mt. Pleasant Riot of 1991 broke out in response to an African American female police officer having shot a Salvadoran man in the chest following a Cinco de Mayo celebration. In the aftermath almost 50 police officers were injured, 60 police vehicles and 21 city transit buses were either destroyed or damaged. Also, over 31 businesses were damaged or destroyed but not Joseph’s Barbershop. When Joseph was asked by his niece Penelope, “Are you going to lock the barbershop up and go home, Uncle Joe?” Joseph defiantly said, “I am going to stay in my barbershop, they are not coming in here!” And they didn’t Joseph Barbershop was untouched during the riot.

Joseph relocated his barbershop to Georgia Avenue, NW right across from Howard University School of Business. There he became a staple of the Shaw Community. He was the personal barber of many of the Presidents of Howard University and gave discounts to HU Students. He was the personal barber of Former Police Chief Charles Ramsey and Former Mayor Anthony Williams. Many police officers of the Metropolitan Police Department would frequent his shop for a haircut and conversation.

Joseph enjoyed many favorite things in life, dearest to him were the Hollis-Ford Family Reunions and love of traveling. Joseph made every reunion from the 1980's to 2016 and saw his family grow in leaps and bounds from the red clay hills of Georgia. He is one of the founding cornerstones of the Ford-Hollis Family Reunions.

Joseph is preceded in death by two sisters, five brothers, Elizabeth Gray, Annie Black, George, Edward, Judge Henry, Luke, Willie, and MacArthur and Lorine Davis, the mother of his two
sons, Carl and Joseph. He leaves to mourn two sisters, Mary George Hall of Washington, DC, Josephine Jamison of Hyattsville, MD; and two sons Carl and Joseph; two daughters in-laws, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, nieces, nephews and host of relatives and friends.