Dick Gregory was the first Black comedian to gain wide acceptance with White America. Through him, the way was paved for Bill Cosby and to some extent, Richard Pryor and Flip Wilson. The Black label was rather narrow-minded too. To me, he’s more appropriately a contemporary of Lenny Bruce and Mort Sahl in his satire, throw in Jonathan Winters as well for they all changed the rules.
The reason why Dick may not be as famous or as memorable like Cosby was his commitment to Civil Rights. He sacrificed a lucrative career to be more involved in getting his fellow citizens the equality they’re entitled to. This involved stints in jail and cancelling numerous appearances at the local comedy club or TV.
I have two personal connections to him. The first was learning more about him via Kliph Nesterhoff’s book The Comedians. Dick receives a lot of ink for being the pioneer to reach White audiences despite being less experienced than Redd Foxx. The other was via a gentleman I met who ran Dick’s web site. He was taken aback when I said I knew who the comedian was, I didn’t know much detail yet I was informed enough to state I knew he was famous for social reasons, aka Civil Rights.
In light of the idiocy we saw on display in Charlottesville, I want to thank you Dick for your sacrifice and I for one will do my part to make sure it wasn’t in vain. Meanwhile, you also deserve a big thanks for the jokes you told.