In honor of a great man. May Dick Gregory's courage, integrity, truth-telling, activism, passionate caring for all of life, and relentless work to help create a more just and loving world inspire us all. Deep bow of reverence and gratitude to this beautiful and courageous human being. ― Molly
Amy Goodman devoted the entire Democracy
Now! program to Dick Gregory on August 21st following his death. Amy
highlighted many things that I was unaware of:
Dick Gregory was the
first African-American comedian to sit on the couch of "The Tonight
Show," then hosted by Jack Parr. But as his popularity grew, so did his
activism. He was jailed and beaten by Birmingham police for parading without a
permit in 1963. He took a bullet in the knee while trying to calm a crowd
during the Watts riots in 1965. That same year he spoke at one of the first
major teach-ins on the Vietnam War at University of California, Berkeley. Two
years later in 1967, Dick Gregory ran for mayor of Chicago against the infamous
Richard Daley. He was a close friend of Martin Luther King, Jr., and in 1968 he
ran for president against Richard Nixon.
He also became well-known for his hunger
strikes for justice. In 1967, he weighed more than 280 pounds and smoke and
drank heavily. Then he began a public fast, starting Thanksgiving Day, to
protest the war in Vietnam. 40 days later, he broke his fast with a hearty
glass of fruit juice. He weighed 97 pounds.
In the summer of 1968, he fasted for 45
days as a show of solidarity with Native Americans. The following summer, he
did another 45 days of fast in protest of de facto segregation in the Chicago
public schools. In 1970, Gregory went 81 days to bring attention to the
narcotics problem in America. Beginning in 1971, he went nearly three years
without solid food, again to protest the war. During that stretch, he ran 900
miles from Chicago to Washington, D.C.
During the Iran hostage crisis, Dick
Gregory traveled to Tehran in an effort to free the hostages and he traveled to
the north of Ireland to advise hunger-striking IRA prisoners. In his
campaign against hunger, he traveled to Ethiopia more than 10 times. More
recently, his face appeared in newspapers across the country for his community
activist approach to investigate allegations behind the CIA’s connection with
drugs in the African American community. He camped out in dealer-ridden public
parks and rallied community leaders to shut down head shops. He protested at CIA headquarters
and was arrested. Throughout his life, Dick Gregory has been a target of FBI and
police surveillance. And he was virtually banned from the entertainment arena
for his political activism.
Dr. Greg Carr, chair of
Afro-American Studies at Howard University and a friend of Gregory, described
him as a perpetual student. “His intellectual capacity was honed to precision
with a lifetime of deep study.
Dick Gregory died at the age of 84 in
Washington, D.C.
Please go here for the complete
program: https://www.democracynow.org/2017/8/21/dick_gregory_in_his_own_words.
****
Quotes by Dick Gregory
In America, with all of its evils and faults,
you can still reach through the forest and see the sun. But we don't know yet
whether that sun is rising or setting for our country.
Education means to bring out wisdom.
Indoctrination means to push in knowledge.
Last time I was down South I walked into this
restaurant, and this white waitress came up to me and said: 'We don't serve
colored people here.' "I said: 'that's all right, I don't eat colored
people. Bring me a whole fried chicken.
Laughter is the best way to release tensions
and fears.
The most difficult thing to get people to do is
to accept the obvious.
Civil Rights: What black folks are given in the
U.S. on the installment plan, as in civil-rights bills. Not to be confused with
human rights, which are the dignity, stature, humanity, respect, and freedom
belonging to all people by right of their birth.
Whenever the dollar is held supreme and
capitalistic interests dominate, a higher value will always be placed upon
property rights than upon human rights.
Fear and God do not occupy the same
space.
Because I'm a civil
rights activist, I am also an animal rights activist. Animals and humans suffer
and die alike. Violence causes the same pain, the same spilling of blood, the
same stench of death, the same arrogant, cruel and vicious taking of life. We
shouldn't be a part of it.
One of the things I keep learning is that the
secret of being happy is doing things for other people.
Love is man's natural endowment, but he doesn't
know how to use it. He refuses to recognize the power of love because of his
love of power.
No comments:
Post a Comment