just reading this at the minute-didnt realise what a fascinating AND important guy this cat was.

anybody else read this? im pretty keen to read a few more of his works now

I may be revealing how ignorant I am, but I don't know who this guy is.

The title alone is provocative enough to make me at least skim the pages.

Yes, I have that book. Also, when I was in high school, I did a section of the "Not Poor, Just Broke" chapter for a speech contest.

Honestly, I'm not too familiar with any of his other works.

jonylawson said:

Biography? Is he like Richard Wright?

Imago said:

Dick Gregory (born Richard Claxton Gregory on October 12, 1932 in St. Louis, Missouri) is an American comedian, social activist, social critic, writer and entrepreneur.

Gregory is an influential American comic who has used his performance skills to convey to both white and black audiences his political message on civil rights. His social satire changed the way white Americans perceived African American comedians since he first performed in public.

Influenced to stand up for civil rights by his early surroundings of poverty and violence, Gregory became the first comedian to successfully perform for both black and white audiences

Gregory unsuccessfully ran for President of the United States in 1968 as a write-in candidate of the Freedom and Peace Party, which had broken off from the Peace and Freedom Party. He won 47,097 votes (including one from Hunter S. Thompson[8]) with fellow activist Mark Lane as his running mate in some states, David Frost in others, garnering more than the party he had left [9]. The Freedom and Peace Party also ran other candidates, including Beulah Sanders for New York State Senate and Flora Brown for New York State Assembly [10]. His efforts landed him on the master list of Nixon political opponents.

He then wrote Write Me In about his presidential campaign. One interesting anecdote in the book related the story of a publicity stunt which came out of Operation Breadbasket in Chicago where the campaign had printed $1 bills with Gregory's image on them. Some of these bills made it into circulation in cash transactions causing considerable problems, but priceless publicity.

The majority of these bills were quickly seized by the federal government. A large contributing factor to the seizure came from the bills resembling authentic US currency enough that they worked in many dollar cashing machines of the time. Gregory avoided being charged with a federal crime, later joking that the bills couldn’t really be considered US currency because everyone knows a black man will never be on a US bill.

On July 21, 1979, Gregory appeared at the Amandla Festival where Bob Marley, Patti LaBelle and Eddie Palmieri, amongst others, had performed. Gregory held a speech before Marley's performance, blaming President Carter and the political failures, and showed his support for the international Anti-Apartheid movements. Gregory and Mark Lane did landmark research into the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., which helped move the U.S. House Assassinations Committee to investigate the murder along with that of John F. Kennedy. Lane was author of conspiracy theory books such as Rush to Judgment. The pair wrote the MLK conspiracy book Code Name Zorro, which postulated that convicted assassin James Earl Ray did not act alone.

Gregory was an outspoken activist during the US Embassy Hostage Crisis in Iran. In 1980 he traveled to Tehran to attempt to negotiate the hostages' release and engaged in a public hunger strike there, weighing less than 100 pounds (45 kg) when he returned to the United States. In 1998 Gregory spoke at the celebration of the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and President Clinton was in attendance. Not long after that, the President told Gregory’s long-time friend and PR. Consultant, Steve Jaffe, “I love Dick Gregory, he is one of the funniest people on the planet.” They spoke of how Gregory had made a comment on Dr. King’s birthday that broke everyone into laughter, when he noted that the President made Speaker Newt Gingrich ride “in the back of the plane,” on an Air Force One trip overseas.

According to a June 2000 JET Magazine interview, Gregory stated that he was diagnosed with lymphoma in late 1999. Gregory reported that he was treating the cancer with herbs, vitamins and exercise which he believes has kept the cancer in remission [11].

Since the late 1980s, Gregory has been a figure in the health food industry by advocating for a raw fruit and vegetable diet. Gregory first became a vegetarian in the 1960s, and has lost a considerable amount of weight by going on extreme fasts, some lasting upwards of 50 days. He developed a diet drink called "Bahamian Diet Nutritional Drink" and went on TV shows advocating for his diet and to help the morbidly obese. He is probably best remembered for his attempts, chronicled in the media on daytime talk shows in early 1988, at helping 1,200 pound (540 kg) Long Island man Walter Hudson drop nearly 600 pounds (270 kg) in only a few months on a liquid diet [12].

At a Civil Rights rally marking the 40th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, Gregory criticized the United States, calling it "the most dishonest, ungodly, unspiritual nation that ever existed in the history of the planet. As we talk now, America is 5 percent of the world's population and consumes 96 percent of the world's hard drugs

I've been in the same space as he. Was quite the surprise, and immediately humbling.

DG's pretty damn monumental in the grand scheme of the Civil Rights movement. But GD certainly isn't the forum for this thread.

MuthaFunka said:

P&R

MuthaFunka said:

agreed, on both counts.

a good book

Imago said:

Yeah he's the only black man i know named Dick.
Warren Ballentine scared the shit out of me one morning on his radio
show when he said to call me if you need some Dick in your life and
then my WTF levels dropped when i found out he was talking about
the legendary Dick Gregory.

phunkdaddy said:

A St. Louis treasure. One of the funniest and insightful books I've read.

start with this:

...and go from there

Great book. Parts broke my heart.

Vendetta1 said:

Yeah me too. Especially the parts when he was a kid. Would you believe this is my ex's idol?

heybaby said:

No I don't that for a damn minute.

He's on KGO right now http://www.kgoradio.com/ Click on the arrows next to listen under the host's name and then listen live.

It will be available for download after this hour. Under Podcasts, click on hourly archives and click the 10pm - 11pm listen or download options.
http://members.kgoradio.c...chives.php
[Edited 7/8/09 23:00pm]

heybaby said:

?uestlove is NOT your ex...

ThreadBare said:

I've read Dick Gregory's Political Primer.

I love'em.

DG is no joke.

I have a copy of that - he's one of my favorite writers. I put it up there with Black Boy by Richard Wright - another fave.

"HUH!?" lmao he gets me everytime when he does that. But he came to my school last spring and he was great.