October
12, 1932-August 19, 2017
Was an American civil
rights activist, social critic, writer, entrepreneur, comedian, conspiracy
theorist, and occasional actor. Sunrise: October12, 1932 St. Louis, MO; Sunset:
August 19,2017 Washington, D.C. Survived his wife of 58 years Lillian nee Smith
Gregory and 11 children, 10 surviving. Richard Jr., ( who died two months after
birth): Michele, Lynne, Pamela, Paula, Stephanie (a.k.a. Xenobia), Gregory,
Christian, Miss, Ayanna, and Yohance.
The earliest I remember of a man named Dick Gregory was in
my youth about 8 or nine years old seeing how my father responded to him being
on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. He sat straight up in his chair and
chuckled for the next few minutes, really very hard. I took notice. From then on,
I would listen to him and how he would make sense of the struggles of the day
back then while doing it with humor. When you would see the Rev. Dr. Martin L.
King shortly after that I would notice Mr. Gregory in some compacity speaking,
marching, very visible for civil rights of Black People. I have tried his Bahamian Diet for a while
back in the 1980’s to which if I had stuck with I might have lost more weight.
With 2 small children, it was impossible for me at least. It was to my
recollection a powered drink mix as a meal replacement that had a tropical
taste to it. Then came along the slim-quick drink powered drink mixes we know
today. He was ahead of his time then.
Mr. Gregory has written several books:
Nigger’, an
autobiography written with Robert Lipsyte, E. P. Dutton, September 1964. (one
account says 1963) (reprinted, Pocket Books, 1965–present)
‘Write me
in!’, Bantam, 1968.
‘From the
Back of the Bus’
‘What's
Happening?’
‘The Shadow
that Scares Me’
‘Dick
Gregory's Bible Tales’, with Commentary, a book of Bible-based humor.
‘Dick
Gregory's Natural Diet for Folks Who Eat: Cookin' With Mother Nature!’
‘Up from
Nigger’
‘No More
Lies; The Myth and the Reality of American History’
‘Dick
Gregory's political primer
(with Mark
Lane), Murder in Memphis: The FBI and the Assassination of Martin Luther King
(with Mel
Watkins), African American Humor: The Best Black Comedy from Slavery to Today
(Library of Black America)
Robert Lee
Green, Dick Gregory, daring Black leader
Forward
written by Dick Gregory ‘African American Humor: The Best Black Comedy from
Slavery to Today’
"Not
Poor, Just Broke", short story
‘Defining
Moments in Black History: Reading Between the Lies’, 2017.
All of them
are a good read. They address racism with humor to an audience full of white
people is very tricky and hard to pull off.
He found
with humor we are not that different with our day to day struggles. To shed
light on what is mostly misunderstandings helps, if one wants to bridge a gap
between communities. You would have to walk in my shoes to understand how it is
to walk in a store and be followed around, or to want to feed my family with
work and be called names and spat on and it’s okay with you on a Sunday
morning? The Civil Rights Movement was about getting rid of the notion we, the
Hebrews of the Bible, [ taken from Judah-land for slavery] are more than 1/3rd
human. ‘All men are created equal’ was not meant for us in this country. We had
to and still fight for basic human rights today. At most every junction of
protests for civil rights Mr. Gregory was there.
In his last days,
he was still an Activist for our causes. He spoke about the drinking water,
food to better health and need of lack thereof for so much processed garbage we
put into our system. If 60 people came right behind me to write something they
would be adding another 100 pages or more. Mr. Dick Gregory was a force to be reckoned
with intellectually. I will add another picture in my home along with the Rev.
Dr.; Malcolm.
Mr. Gregory was and will always be one our greatest leaders
of our community.
We give you back to God our Creator
…Pandora
