By Margaret Hicks
Eagle Staff Writer
mhicks@theoklahomaeagle.net
Comedian, Civil Rights Activist, Health Guru, Entrepreneur…
Richard Claxton Gregory, better known as Dick Gregory, died on Saturday, August 19, 2017. He was 84. Gregory was born October 12, 1932, in St. Louis, Mo. According to The Associated Press, “Gregory, who was recently in and out of the hospital, died following a severe bacterial infection.” They published that within hours of Gregory’s death.
His Family
Gregory was the husband of one wife, Lillian Smith, who he married in 1959. They met at a club where Gregory was performing. He and his wife had 11 children, one of which died at the age of two months; Richard, Jr. He is also survived by 13 grandchildren.
See Dick Run
In 1954, while a student at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale on a track scholarship, Gregory was drafted into the army. This is where he began performing comedy. After leaving the military he returned to school, but soon left, without earning his degree, because he felt that the university “didn’t want me to study, they wanted me to run.” Gregory’s younger brother Ron’s “…excellence was emblematic of an era in the 1950s when African Americans from the Public High League dominated the cross-country scene statewide.” Ron, a classmate of The Oklahoma Eagle’s publisher, James O. Goodwin, “…went on to have a stellar career at Notre Dame where he was an All-American in cross country and track. He is still listed in the school’s record books in 13 different categories.”
Because Gregory wanted to perform comedy professionally, he moved to Chicago and he became a part of a new generation of black comedians who broke with the minstrel tradition that presented stereotypical black characters. At that time comedians were making about five dollars per night in black clubs. Gregory held down a day job at the post office.
Tulsa Ties
Gregory had Tulsa ties. He was a friend with the Edward L. Goodwin, Jr. family and had a writing partner, James Sanders, from Tulsa. In September 1963 – Gregory was arrested during a Civil Rights March in Greenwood, Miss. … with his writing partner James Sanders.
Greg Goodwin had this to say: “Honored to have met this Civil Rights legend on several occasions, first as a youngster following my dad (Edward Goodwin Jr.) around as he did his journalistic work for The Oklahoma Eagle, later as a student at Tennessee State University, and several times during my adult life. My wife Cynthia and I attended his show last summer in Atlanta. Each time I had the opportunity to hear this visionary speak I was captivated by his willingness to help his African American brothers and sisters better themselves. He left a highly successful comedy career and thrust himself into the middle of the Civil Rights struggle and for his sacrifices I will be eternally grateful.”
The Big Break
Gregory was a comedian extraordinaire. He understood the power of comedy. He could take a confrontational subject and make it a punch line: “…and you heard what Bobby Kennedy said about eight weeks ago…he said about 30 years from this year (1961) a negro could become president. So, treat me right or I’ll get in there and raise taxes on you! I mean, now don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t mind paying my income taxes if I knew it was going to friendly country!”
It was in 1961 when Hugh Hefner saw Gregory’s act and was so impressed he booked him as a replacement for white comedian “Professor” Irwin Corey. The venue was a Playboy Club and the audience was white.
Social Activist
As a youth Gregory demonstrated a strong sense of social justice. This was evidenced while a high school student at Sumner High School in St. Louis, Mo., where he led a march protesting segregated schools.
Later in life he was inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and organizations such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), under the leadership of Kwame Ture, then known as Stokely Carmichael. Gregory used his celebrity status to draw attention to segregation and disenfranchisement. He chartered a plane to bring in food to Mississippi when the local government stopped distributing Federal food surpluses to poor blacks in areas where SNCC was encouraging voter registration,
Gregory participated in SNCC’s voter registration drives and in sit-ins to protest segregation, most notably at a restaurant franchise in downtown Atlanta. He later disclosed that he held stock in the chain.
A Champion For Social Injustice
The Vietnam War, Civil Rights Protests, the assassinations of U.S. President John F Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and Robert F. Kennedy, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the landing of the first man on the moon dominated the 60s. Gregory spent more time on social issues than he did on performing.
He supported a variety of causes: drug abuse, opposing the Vietnam War, and world hunger to name a few. He protested by marching and more than 60 times he protested by fasting. “…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 pounds when he left Iran.”
In 1966 Gregory ran for mayor of Chicago, opposing Richard J, Daley who served as the 38th Mayor of Chicago for a total of 21 years beginning on April 20, 1955 until his death on December 20, 1976.
1968 Gregory ran for president of the United States as a write-in candidate for the Freedom and Peace Party, received 1.5 million votes. Democrat Hubert H. Humphrey lost the election to Republican Richard Nixon by 510,000 votes. Many believe Humphrey would have won had Gregory not run.
Gregory’s activism continued into the years to come. He had no fear of speaking truth to power. In the 1980s after a number of writers alleged that the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was involved in cocaine trafficking to predominantly African American areas in Los Angeles, Gregory protested at CIA headquarters and was arrested.
In 1992 Gregory began a program called “Campaign for Human Dignity.” The purpose of this program was to fight crime in the neighborhoods of his hometown, St. Louis.
The Author and Nutritional Consultant
Between 1964 and 2017 Gregory has penned 11 books, with the first being, “nigger: An Autobiography.” (Please note, his title is with a lower case “n.”) Gregory’s explanation for choosing that tittle: “So this word ‘nigger’ was one of the most well-used words in America, particularly among black folks. And I said, `Well, let’s pull it out the closet. Let’s lay it out here. Let’s deal with it. Let’s dissect it.’ Now the problem I have today is people call it the N-word. It should never be called the N-word. You see, how do you talk about a swastika by using another term?”
The forward in his book is a note to his mother and it explains his choice for the title: “Whenever you hear the word ‘nigger’,” he said, “you’ll know they’re advertising my book.”
In 1973, he wrote “Dick Gregory’s Natural Diet for Folks Who Eat: Cookin’ With Mother Nature.” It was at this time Gregory became a nutritional consultant. He was interested in plant based eating long before it became popular.
Gregory founded Health Enterprises, Inc., in 1984. This company distributed weight loss products. A few years later Gregory brought to market the Slim-Safe Bahamian Diet. This powdered diet mix, was profitable, not just to Gregory but to those who took advantage of a multi-level marketing venture.
Gregory updated his autobiography in 2000. At that time, he said ‘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 was 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 percent 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.”
“How Come I See Stuff Different Than You?”
In a video, published on YouTube in January of 2017, Gregory asks a black audience “How come I see stuff different than you?” He was speaking about the shooting of Tamir Rice, the 12-year old child who was killed by policeman in Ohio. He pointed out to the audience that the tops of the trees could be seen, as well as the top of the building and Tamir’s head. He asked if it is common practice to dispatch a policeman to a scene where a person has a toy gun. On the flip side he asked if it is common practice to send just one car to a scene where a person has a gun? Gregory saw things that we all see, but he saw something different. He had a conspiracy theory for just about everything; he had answers for the “who, what, why, and how Prince, Tupac Shakur, Afeni Shakur, and Michael Jackson died; insight on the sale of the Beatles publishing to Sony, his views on the Bill Cosby scandal, Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson…
“One Monkey Don’t Stop No Show”
When The Oklahoma Eagle caught up with Rudy Ealy on the morning of Sunday, Aug. 20, he said Gregory fell sick in Little, Ark., returned to Washington D.C. where he was hospitalized. He had been hospitalized for 13 days at the time of his death. Ealy was Gregory’s manager, and Gregory and Paul Mooney were on tour.
According to Ealy, the scheduled events will still go on. Ealy said “Lavelle (Crawford) and Eddie Murphy will be replacements.”
One could say that these men will have “some big shoes to fill”, while others might say “they need to bring their own shoes.”
