Betty Walker
Aug 26, 2017 · 4 min read

Betty S. Walker Writer, JD Harvard Law School

In Praise of the Wisdom and Work of the Comic Artist

Mr. Dick Gregory was known to me, as to the world, for so many years as Comedian, Wellness Expert and dedicated Freedom Fighter. So when I had the privilege of meeting him in person, there was initially the false veneer of true familiarity that one experiences in the presence of the famous. In this case, however, I believe that the circumstances and storied place facilitated an authentic sense of ‘kinship ‘ and congeniality.

It was the Year 2000. Both of us had traveled to historic Selma, Alabama. The occasion was the annual Commemoration, “Jubilee” Weekend in March of the brutally aborted Selma to Montgomery March for Voting Rights of 1965 by peaceful, nonviolent freedom loving and freedom pursuing people. The world witnessed ‘Bloody Sunday’: the violent attack, of physical blows upon male and female, young and older African Americans by billy- clubs, cattle prods, tear gas and unrestrained, manifest hatred as they reached the Edmund Pettus Bridge by ‘Law Men’, the Alabama State Troopers. For it was televised.

Mr. Gregory and I shared deep and lengthy friendships as family connections with. the Organizers of “Jubilee “, Senator ‘Hank’ and Faya Rose Sanders, Principals of the iconic Selma Chestnut, Sanders & Sanders Law Firm and that was the setting of our meeting. My memory is that Mr. Gregory was holding ‘Court’, so it felt just right that that Hank and Faya Rose had assigned him a role in the planned Mock Trial. He would be a key Witness and I would do the Closing Argument for the Prosecution in the case of Mr. Jimmie Lee Jackson.

Mr. Jackson, 26 and a Deacon in his Church was a peaceful protester in a nonviolent March in Marion, Alabama on the night of February 18, 1965. He was savagely beaten and clubbed, shot in his stomach multiple times, while trying to protect his grandfather and mother, also being beaten, from blows of the attackers, the Alabama State Troopers. Jimmie Lee died days later from his murderous inflicted wounds. This monstrous official act of inhumanity in a place and time acquainted with grief, raw injustice, violent racist attacks and suffering in today’s parlance became a coordinating Tipping Point and catalyst for the landmark Civil Rights March from Selma to Montgomery.

I considered it a valued and cherished opportunity especially for prosecutorial participation in the Mock Trial and to do so with Mr. Gregory added authenticity and a feel of reality to our ‘make believe’ event. This was because he had long before garnered my immense respect for his ubiquitous presence and absolute and indefatigable work in the nonviolent Struggle for Justice wherever courageous Warriors were needed: in the Deep South with Dr. King; in London with fellow Civil Rights warrior, Mr. James Baldwin; advocating on radio, television, books, college campuses; marching, demonstrating and being arrested and jailed; supporting “Jubilee “ and the list of his commitment seemed interminable.

Since his recent passing and contemplation on that brief, yet impressionable time, I have received an insight about Mr. Gregory that, heretofore, I did not possess.

Notwithstanding the deadly and deeply painful subject being litigated in that Mock Courtroom, he brought into that somber environment his humor. He had no intention of leaving that which was an essential and inextricable part of him at the proverbial ‘door’. It was merciful for all there that he would not and that he could not do so. His humor was a safety valve, an instrument of soothing and healing of some mighty deep, consciously and unconsciously sustained and carried injuries and their resultant pain and anger and all sorts of other undiagnosed and untreated deleterious effects. I suppose it worked its magic upon him too, for he always knew and told us, before the revelation that then, FBI Director, J. Edgar Hoover, encouraged his murder, that he, as our other warriors, was among ‘The Hunted’.

Throughout his direct testimony and cross examination in his witness chair he incessantly hurled the wittiest of brilliant zingers at his Interrogator, Faya Rose, including advising her that the wig she had donned for her role, was coming off her head. Witness Gregory was too hot to handle and he kept all his audience ‘in stitches’ in the Mock Trial,as he did in real life.We all actually laughed until we cried and when we stopped, I doubt that there was full cognition of what he had done for us.

Thinking of him in recent days, in a manner that only death brings focus and belated comprehension, I have even greater respect for what he did in placing for many a decade his extraordinary comedic gift in service to The Struggle. He performed in that room and in his life the feat of reconciliation of the polarities of grief and celebration and thus, worked a miracle of sacred dimension.

This is a Lesson we sorely need to teach us that in the unfunny seasons of life when experiencing that designed to destroy us and all we hold dear, true, noble and just, as now, we must resist with all within us, the taking of our Joy. For it is an essential ingredient of the Hope, that is an essential ingredient of our armament as we continue The Struggle for Freedom and Justice that continues. Mr. Gregory, so wisely, knew this.

As a member of what has been harrowingly and piercingly characterized as “ The Emmitt Till Generation” and as an active participant in the Civil Rights Movement, my hope is inspired by the legatee embodiment of his Message in the bold, highly socially and politically conscious young brother comedic artists and ‘warriors’ in their time — Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock and D.L. Hughley, to name a few. They keep us laughing ‘til we cry, as this is work for the soul, needing tears and laughter, while they imperceptibly lead us on ground, sacrificially and thankfully cultivated by Mr. Gregory to the victory that shall be ours. For sure.

What a man, Mr. Dick Gregory!What a Legacy!

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