In Honor of Dick Gregory

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. 

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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.