DICK GREGORY

DICK GREGORY FOR  THE PEOPLE…
ACTIVIST, PHILOSOPHER, ANTI-DRUG CRUSADER, COMEDIAN, AUTHOR,  ACTOR RECORDING ARTIST, NUTRITIONIST

Gregory,   Richard Claxton “Dick” (Born, October 12, 1932, St. Louis, Mo.),  African  American comedian and civil rights activist whose social satire  changed the way  white Americans perceived African American comedians  since he first performed in  public.

Dick Gregory entered the national comedy scene in 1961 when   Chicago’s Playboy Club (as a direct request from publisher Hugh Hefner)  booked  him as a replacement for white comedian, “Professor” Irwin  Corey. Until then  Gregory had worked mostly at small clubs with  predominantly black audiences (he  met his wife, Lillian Smith, at one  such club). Such clubs paid comedians an  average of five dollars per  night; thus Gregory also held a day job as a postal  employee. His  tenure as a replacement for Corey was so successful — at one   performance he won over an audience that included southern white  convention  goers — that the Playboy Club offered him a contract  extension from several  weeks to three years. By 1962 Gregory had become  a nationally known headline  performer, selling out nightclubs, making  numerous national television  appearances, and recording popular comedy  albums.

It’s important to note  that no biography of Gregory would be  complete without mentioning that he and  his beloved wife, Lil, had ten  kids who have become highly respected members of  the national community  in a variety of fields. They are: Michele, Lynne, Pamela,  Paula,  Stephanie (aka Xenobia), Gregory, Christian, Miss, Ayanna and Yohance.   The Gregory’s had one child who died at birth but they have shared 49  years of  historic moments, selfless dedication and tremendous personal   love.

Gregory began performing comedy in the mid-1950s while serving in  the army.
(See Black sin the Military). Drafted in 1954 while attending  Southern  Illinois University at Carbondale on a track scholarship, Gregory   briefly returned to the university after his discharge in 1956, but left  without  a degree because he felt that the university “didn’t want me  to study, they  wanted me to run.” In the hopes of performing comedy  professionally, he moved to  Chicago, where he became part of a new  generation of black comedians that  included Nipsey Russell, Bill Cosby,  and Godfrey Cambridge. These comedians  broke with the minstrel  tradition, which presented stereotypical black  characters. Gregory,  whose style was detached, ironic, and satirical, came to be  called the  “Black Mort Sahl” after the popular white social satirist. Friends of   Gregory have always referred to Mort Sahl as the “White Dick Gregory.”  Gregory  drew on current events, especially the racial issues, for much  of his material:  “Segregation is not all bad. Have you ever heard of a  collision where the people  in the back of the bus got hurt?”

From an early age, Gregory demonstrated  a strong sense of social  justice. While a student at Sumner High School in St.  Louis he led a  March protesting Segregated schools. Later, inspired by the work  of  leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and organizations such as  the  Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Gregory took part  in the Civil  Rights Movement and used his celebrity status to draw  attention to such issues  as segregation and disfranchisement. When  local Mississippi governments stopped  distributing Federal food  surpluses to poor blacks in areas where SNCC was  encouraging voter  registration, Gregory chartered a plane to bring in several  tons of  food. He participated in SNCC’s voter registration drives and in sit-ins   to protest segregation, most notably at a restaurant franchise in  downtown  Atlanta, Georgia. Only later did Gregory disclose that he held  stock in the  chain.

Gregory’s autobiography, Nigger, was published in 1963 prior to  The  assassination of President Kennedy, and became the number one  best-selling  book in America. Over the decades it has sold in excess of  seven million copies.  His choice for the title was explained in the  forward, where Dick Gregory wrote  a note to his mother. “Whenever you  hear the word ‘Nigger’,” he said, “you’ll  know their advertising my  book.”

Through the 1960s, Gregory spent more  time on social issues and less  time on performing. He participated in marches  and parades to support a  range of causes, including opposition to the Vietnam  War, world  hunger, and drug abuse. In addition, Gregory fasted in protest more   than 60 times, once in Iran, where he fasted and prayed in an effort to  urge the  Ayatollah Khomeini to release American embassy staff who had  been taken hostage.  The Iranian refusal to release the hostages did not  decrease the depth of  Gregory’s commitment; he weighed only 97 lbs  when he left Iran.

Gregory  demonstrated his commitment to confronting the entrenched  political powers by  opposing Richard J. Daley in Chicago’s 1966 mayoral  election. He ran for  president in 1968 as a write-in candidate for the  Freedom and Peace Party, a  splinter group of the Peace and Freedom  Party and received 1.5 million votes.  Democratic candidate Hubert  Humphrey lost the election to Republican Richard  Nixon by 510,000  votes, and many believe Humphrey would have won had Gregory not  run.  After the assassinations of King, President John F. Kennedy, and Robert   Kennedy, Gregory became increasingly convinced of the existence of  political  conspiracies. Gregory wrote books such as Code Name Zorro:  The Murder of Martin  Luther King Jr. (1971) with Mark Lane, world  famous author, attorney and  documentary filmmaker, whose findings  published in the best-selling 1966 book  Rush To Judgment Gregory  credited with reversing the nation’s opinion on who  assassinated the  president and the facts which contradicted the official  government  version contained in the Warren Report. Lane’s book contained answers   and facts, which Gregory has espoused in Numerous lectures from then  until now.  Lane and Gregory have been best friends, co-authors and have  lectured together  for over 40 years and both livein Washington D.C.  Gregory and Lane’s book on the  assassination of Dr. King was recently  released under another title, Murder In  Memphis, as a trade paperback.

Gregory’s activism continued into the  1990s. In response to  published allegations that the Central Intelligence Agency  (CIA) had  supplied cocaine to predominantly African American areas in Los   Angeles, thus spurring the crack epidemic, Gregory protested at CIA  headquarters  and was arrested. In 1992 he began a program called  ?Campaign for Human Dignity?  to fight crime in St. Louis neighborhoods.

In 1973, the year he released  his comedy album Caught in the Act,  Gregory moved with his family to Plymouth,  Massachusetts, where he  developed an interest in vegetarianism and became a  nutritional  consultant. In 1984 he founded Health Enterprises, Inc., a company  that  distributed weight loss products. In 1987 Gregory introduced the  Slim-Safe  Bahamian Diet, a powdered diet mix, which was immensely  profitable. Economic  losses caused in part by conflicts with his  business partners led to his  eviction from his home in 1992. Gregory  remained active, however, and in 1996  returned to the stage in his  critically acclaimed one-man show, Dick Gregory  Live! The reviews of  Gregory’s show compared him to the greatest stand-ups in  the history of  Broadway.

In 1998 Gregory spoke at the celebration of the  birthday of Dr.  Martin Luther King, Jr. and President Clinton were in  attendance. Not  long after that, the President told Gregory’s long-time friend  and PR.  Consultant, Steve Jaffe, “I love Dick Gregory, he is one of the funniest   people on the planet.” They spoke of how Gregory had made a comment on  Dr.  King’s birthday that broke everyone into laughter, when he noted  that the  President made Speaker Newt Gingrich ride “in the back of the  plane,” on an Air  Force One trip overseas. In 2001, Gregory announced  to the world that he had  been diagnosed with a rare form of Cancer. He  refused traditional medical  treatment – chemotherapy –and with the  assistance of some of the finest minds in  alternative medicine, put  together a regimen of a variety of diet, vitamins,  exercise, and modern  devices not even known to the public, which ultimately  resulted in his  reversing the trend of the Cancer to the point where today he is  100%  Cancer free.

Gregory’s going public with his diagnosis has helped  millions of his  fans around the world to understand what Cancer specialists have  been  trying to explain for decades, which is that “Cancer is curable.”  Gregory  was honored recently at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.,  by a sold out  house and a tribute hosted by Bill Cosby, with special  tributes by Mrs. Martin  Luther King Jr., Stevie Wonder, Isaac Hayes,  Cicely Tyson, Mark Lane, Marion  Barry and many more.

His most recent book, Callus On My Soul, (Longstreet  Press, Atlanta,  Ga.) which became a best-seller within weeks of publication, is  an  autobiography that updates his earlier autobiography (Nigger), because  as  Dick says, “I’ve lived long enough to need two autobiographies which  is fine  with me. I’m looking forward to writing the third and fourth  volumes as  well.”

In 2001, Gregory escaped death once again when a massive tree fell   on his car in a storm in Washington D.C. crushing it completely, causing  him to  have to be extricated from the car by emergency crews. One  witness said, “I knew  the driver and his passengers had died when I saw  the tree fall.” Gregory said,  “I knew that God had more work for me to  do when I saw the tree falling. ” He  saved his own life by driving  into the oncoming lanes of traffic. The word of  the accident circulated  the globe immediately in the media, underscoring the  power, influence,  and support that Gregory has earned from people of all  nations.

Doctor’s at George Washington Hospital refused to release  Gregory  for a few days causing his first-ever “State of the Union Address” to   African Americans to be delayed by a month. Gregory gave the first  “State of The  Union” address live on the Internet from Los Angeles on  April 21st. Now the  Internet address is the latest offering on a 3 CD  set. Dick Gregory 21st Century  “State Of The Union”

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