Gregory talks about an early memory that shaped his life: "One of my earliest and most vivid memories is of a Klan incident, the burning of a cross in front of a house rented by a black family in the small town of La Jolla, California. It was in the early 1920s, when I was about 5 years old, but I remember it well. It must have been my first awareness that hate and violence existed in the world. The incident shocked me, and I suppose the concept of resisting and fighting racial injustice took root and as I grew up became part of my character.”