Black History Month: Dick Gregory, Comedian and Activist

I’d never really heard of Dick Gregory until his death a few years ago. All I ever knew of him was he was often in pictures with Hugh Hefner, owner of Playboy magazine. It turns out his story is more interesting–and more important than that.

Gregory did topical comedy–he didn’t shy away from sensitive topics. He told them in clubs, he wrote them in books. In the 1950s and 1960s, that meant discussing race. Because of that, Gregory was shunned from many places–without shock, I suspect you would be unsurprised that most of these places were in the South where segregationists were doing their best to prevent equality–and a black man standing before crowds with all attention on him as he discussed racism…that was unacceptable.

(There’s a downside to Gregory–I’ll put that at the end)

Gregory went South and spoke at Selma. After the ‘Mississippi Burning’ murders, Gregory looked into events, didn’t believe the police (rightfully), and then convinced Hugh Hefner to publicize a $25k reward for information–an action which forced the FBI to announce its own reward.

Gregory’s involvement in civil rights was not just for blacks. It was also for women–and he spent substantial time from 1969-1978 campaigning for the Equal Rights Amendment and things like equal pay for women in the workplace–an issue still going on 40+ years later.

Other issues he lobbied for ranged from animal rights to obesity.

Gregory, however, held some odd views. First, he came to believe in the 1980s that the Apollo program was a fake and that the United States had never landed on the moon, that the story was concocted to take attention from racial tension in the United States. The second was that 9/11 was orchestrated by the American government–that Jews knew and stayed home that morning from work to avoid being killed and that the plane heading at the Pentagon was downed by a cruise missile fired from an American submarine off the coast. (Cruise missiles don’t target planes…) Gregory believed this because of his dislike of George Bush and that Bush was willing to do anything to screw people over. (Gregory’s argument was countered by many black experts and writers who noted, “There is so much animosity and hatred toward President Bush that you have large segments of the public – especially African American progressives – who believe he is capable of doing anything. They believe that this was trumped up and orchestrated by Bush operatives, not only to consolidate power and control it, but to expand it.”

Those bits are necessary for completing the Gregory story–they aren’t mentioned to detract from his advocacy of the 1950-60s. If Gregory had remained quiet, it’s quite possible he would have been a beloved comedian, hired to do ‘I Spy’ and maybe later star in ‘The Gregory Show’ rather than a different black comedian. I think you have to respect the commitment, that he sacrificed his career and his income for the sake of his beliefs and values.