Dick Gregory: From Comedy to Civil Rights

By Kenneth R. Jenkins
Richard Claxton Gregory (October 12, 1932 — August 19, 2017) was an American civil rights activist, social critic, writer, entrepreneur, comedian, conspiracy theorist, and occasional actor.
He fought to get on the Jack Par Show during a time when black and brown comics were not allowed to but he was one of many after him which makes him a pioneer in the world of comedy.
Gregory was at the forefront of political activism in the 1960s, when he protested the Vietnam War and racial injustice. He was arrested multiple times and went on many hunger strikes. He later became a motivational speaker and author, primarily promoting spirituality.
In 1961, Gregory was working at the black-owned Roberts Show Bar in Chicago when he was spotted by Hugh Hefner. Gregory was performing the following material before a largely white audience:
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I understand there are a good many Southerners in the room tonight. I know the South very well. I spent twenty years there one night.
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.”
Then these three white boys came up to me and said, “Boy, we’re giving you fair warning. Anything you do to that chicken, we’re gonna do to you.” So I put down my knife and fork, I picked up that chicken and I kissed it. Then I said, “Line up, boys!”
He took on racism through his comedy during that time and then he helped during the Civil Rights Movement to fight the injustices that caused unrest in our country.
Fast forward, in 1984, he founded Health Enterprises, Inc., a company that distributed weight-loss products. With this company, Gregory made efforts to improve the life expectancy of African Americans, which he believed was being hindered by poor nutrition and drug and alcohol abuse. In 1985, Gregory introduced the “Slim-Safe Bahamian Diet”, a powdered-diet mix. He launched the weight-loss powder at the Whole Life Expo in Boston under the slogan “It’s cool to be healthy”. The diet mix, drunk three times a day, was said to provide rapid weight loss. Gregory received a multimillion-dollar distribution contract to retail the diet.
No matter if it was comedy, Civil Rights, politics or health, Dick Gregory made a difference in our country. Before Pryor and Murphy, he broke ground for them and so many others to come and we are thankful for a pure comic genius that just told it like it is — Thank you Dick Gregory for laying the ground work.
Kenneth R. Jenkins is a freelance writer, poet, podcast host/producer, minister and devoted husband living in Savannah, GA.
