Dick Gregory - drum major for justice and equality - Research Paper Example

Being an American comedian, Gregory conveyed his ideas through social satire which changed the way how white Americans view blacks. Today he continues to be the “drum major for justice and equality” (Demary par. 1). Gregory began to develop his passions for social justice and athletics while in his teens and led his first demonstration against segregated schools while attending Summer High School (Gay, p. 193). He entered the national comedy scene when Chicago's Playboy Club booked him as a replacement for white comedian, 'Professor' Irwin Corey in 1961 (Demary par. 1). His style was detached, ironic, and satirical, and he came to be called the "Black Mort Sahl" after the popular white social satirist (Demary par. 3). As Hughes has said, “Dick Gregory’s entire night club act is composed of social material - something unheard of for a colored comedian a decade ago” (Hughes, et. al., p. 443). Gregory began to vocalize his feelings about politics and social justice on stage and off and became active in the civil rights movements, was front and center in the infamous 1965 Watts Riot in Los Angeles (Gay, p 263), used his celebrity status to draw attention to such issues as segregation and disenfranchisement (AEI Speakers Bureau par. 4) and led a voter registration drive at the courthouse in Americus, Georgia in August 1965 (Anderson, p. 34) His autobiographies, non-fiction essays, and concert performances during the 1960s and 1970s include half-dozen explicit, self-conscious, and sustained parables of a black Frankenstein monster (Young, p. 161). During the 1960s, with Black performers emerged, public air has been filled with Black humor and open challenge and admonishment became a major part.

On one instance, Dick Gregory playfully threatened to picket the U.S. Weather Bureau until it names a hurricane after a Black woman called “Beulah” (which, in fact, it eventually did) (Cohen, pp. 74-75). When Dick Gregory became famous as a comedian and activist, he gave speeches in different parts of the country, one of which was in Dartmouth College where he spoke briefly about how “America tends to use groups of people to systematically perpetuate itself, while the rich get richer and stay in power” ( Perry, p. 37). He also wrote books which include Shame, Nigger, Code Name Zorro: The Murder of Martin Luther King Jr.

, and his recent book, Callous On My Soul, which became a best-seller within weeks of publications (AEI Speakers Bureau par. 6, 7 and 13). Dick Gregory also supported the anti-war movement and was able to perform, together with Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland and Barbara Dane in “Acting in Concert for Peace” and in two musical concerts, one given by Graham Nash and David Crosby and the other by legendary folk singer Phil Ochs (Small and Hoover., p. 146). When he was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, Dick Gregory refused chemotherapy and opted for alternative medicine.

With a regimen of variety of diet, vitamins, exercise, and modern devices unknown to the public, he was later declared 100% cancer free and thus helped millions of his fans around the world to understand that cancer is curable (AEI Speakers Bureau par. 11). Bibliography AEI Speakers Bureau. Dick Gregory. 2013. Web. 5 February 2013. A brief biographical description of Richard Gregory by the AEI Speakers Bureau, an organization organizing professional and motivational speaking