History
(Non-Fic)
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Richard Claxton Gregory (October 12, 1932 – August 19, 2017) was an American comedian, civil rights activist, social critic, writer, conspiracy theorist, entrepreneur,and occasional actor. During the turbulent 1960s, Gregory became a pioneer in stand-up comedy for his "no-holds-barred" sets, in which he mocked bigotry and racism. He performed primarily to black audiences at segregated clubs until 1961, when he became the first black comedian to successfully cross over to white audiences, appearing on television and putting out comedy record albums. "Sounds interesting!"
Do you know who you are? There are nine planets to the Universe you just happen to have nine holes in your body do you think that’s an accident? That’s because you are the Universe, you are nature. You got twenty-six thousand billion cells in your body, sixty-two thousand miles of blood vessels in your body that blood makes a complete cycle every thirty seconds which means your blood travels 104,000 miles a minute. You know how strong you are? D...
The average president of these institutions so damn busy out making fund raising pitches and keeping his finger in somebody’s eye and so damn scared of that board of directors now that’s where the problem comes from on the colleges is that board of directors. You want to have some fun, you write down the names of every college in America and then do some research and look up all the board ...
First thing you want to do is we got to give you a test. Oh what was ABRAHAM LINCOLN' s mother’s name? What the hell that Indian give a damn about ABRAHAM LINCOLN' s mama? May be we would understand it a little bit better if all Americans had to take an Indian test before we could go to college. May be that Indian throw you up on that reservation and ask you what was sitting Bull’s great
Birmingham, Alabama - May 20, 1963 He might have chosen to stay home and protect his lucrative career as a nationally acclaimed comedian, but Dick Gregory was ready to go to jail in Birmingham, Alabama. May 6, 1963, marked the day more nonviolent civil rights protestors were arrested than any other day in American history. As demonstrators took on a city with a reputation as "the Bastille of segregation." Gregory flew in from Chicago to help. He led th...
Reflections on Brown BOND: Dick Gregory, welcome to Explorations in Black Leadership. GREGORY: Thank you. BOND: I'm going to begin with a few questions about the decision in Brown v. the Board of Education in 1954. You were three years out of high school when this decision was handed down. GREGORY: May the 17th. BOND: At the time, what did you think it was going to mean? GREGORY: I didn't. The shock -- I mean, the legis... -- the world was stunned, you know wh...
AMY GOODMAN: Today, a special broadcast. We remember the pioneering comedian and civil rights activist Dick Gregory. He died on Saturday in Washington, D.C., at the age of 84. In the early 1960s Dick Gregory became one of the most popular comedians in the country and paved the way for generations of African-American comedians, from Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor to Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle. On Sunday, Chris Rock wrote on Instagram, quote, “We lost a king. They’ll never be ...
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