Biography
Dick Gregory ranked among the earliest African-American performers to attract predominantly white crowds while also ranking among the era’s most incisive commentators on social and political matters. He converted nightclub appearances into platforms from which he examined racial injustices of the Civil Rights period through empathy, precise observation, and unvarnished wit.
Gregory entered the world on October 12, 1932, in St. Louis and spent his early years polishing shoes to support his household. While still in high school he drew notice by organizing a protest against segregated schooling. Once he chose comedy as a vocation, he deliberately sidestepped the caricatures that trapped many Black performers of the time. His routines steered clear of gratuitous profanity, and although race formed the core of his subject matter, his commentary remained incisive and pointed rather than broad or harmless. His aim was to reach both white and Black listeners, so from the start he braced for the prejudice he anticipated; accounts describe how he rehearsed for shouted slurs by seating his wife in the crowd and having her interject the word “Nigger!” at random, requiring him to answer instantly with a fitting reply.
His earliest recordings appeared on Colpix, among them the 1961 debut In Living Black and White, yet he soon moved to Vee-Jay and released Dick Gregory Talks Turkey, a set of current-events observations that showcased his nimble, ironic style. Two further albums, Two Sides and the prophetically titled Running for President, preceded his first explicit move into activism with My Brother’s Keeper, a benefit disc intended to supply food to the needy in LeFlore County, Mississippi. After county officials declared they could not raise the $37,000 required for a local food bank, Gregory pressed 3,700 copies of the album himself and sold each for $1.60, thereby meeting the target; leftover proceeds covered manufacturing expenses.
Even as his performance calendar stayed full, his political interests deepened. After returning to Colpix and issuing East & West, We All Have Problems, and the 1961 Top 25 hit In Living Black and White, he stepped away from stand-up to campaign in the 1968 presidential race. Influenced by Martin Luther King, Jr., he also became a dedicated antiwar advocate and undertook fasts to protest human-rights violations both domestically and overseas. When he resumed comedy in 1969 with The Light Side: The Dark Side, his perspective had shifted; although the material remained clever and wry, the sets now functioned more like lectures that carried warnings for listeners to consider.
A subsequent stretch of live work produced 1970’s Live at the Village Gate, 1971’s Dick Gregory On…, and 1972’s Kent State before he again left the club circuit, this time for more than twenty years; Caught in the Act preserved his final August 1973 performance. In the years that followed he maintained his role as activist and frequent speaker, yet he gained perhaps wider notice for a diet regimen that championed a vegan raw-food approach. In 1992 he established the “Campaign for Human Dignity” to combat crime in his hometown of St. Louis, and in 1995 he resumed occasional stand-up dates. More than two decades after that return he issued the studio comedy album You Don’t Know Dick in 2016. He passed away in August of the following year in Washington, D.C., at the age of 84.
Gregory entered the world on October 12, 1932, in St. Louis and spent his early years polishing shoes to support his household. While still in high school he drew notice by organizing a protest against segregated schooling. Once he chose comedy as a vocation, he deliberately sidestepped the caricatures that trapped many Black performers of the time. His routines steered clear of gratuitous profanity, and although race formed the core of his subject matter, his commentary remained incisive and pointed rather than broad or harmless. His aim was to reach both white and Black listeners, so from the start he braced for the prejudice he anticipated; accounts describe how he rehearsed for shouted slurs by seating his wife in the crowd and having her interject the word “Nigger!” at random, requiring him to answer instantly with a fitting reply.
His earliest recordings appeared on Colpix, among them the 1961 debut In Living Black and White, yet he soon moved to Vee-Jay and released Dick Gregory Talks Turkey, a set of current-events observations that showcased his nimble, ironic style. Two further albums, Two Sides and the prophetically titled Running for President, preceded his first explicit move into activism with My Brother’s Keeper, a benefit disc intended to supply food to the needy in LeFlore County, Mississippi. After county officials declared they could not raise the $37,000 required for a local food bank, Gregory pressed 3,700 copies of the album himself and sold each for $1.60, thereby meeting the target; leftover proceeds covered manufacturing expenses.
Even as his performance calendar stayed full, his political interests deepened. After returning to Colpix and issuing East & West, We All Have Problems, and the 1961 Top 25 hit In Living Black and White, he stepped away from stand-up to campaign in the 1968 presidential race. Influenced by Martin Luther King, Jr., he also became a dedicated antiwar advocate and undertook fasts to protest human-rights violations both domestically and overseas. When he resumed comedy in 1969 with The Light Side: The Dark Side, his perspective had shifted; although the material remained clever and wry, the sets now functioned more like lectures that carried warnings for listeners to consider.
A subsequent stretch of live work produced 1970’s Live at the Village Gate, 1971’s Dick Gregory On…, and 1972’s Kent State before he again left the club circuit, this time for more than twenty years; Caught in the Act preserved his final August 1973 performance. In the years that followed he maintained his role as activist and frequent speaker, yet he gained perhaps wider notice for a diet regimen that championed a vegan raw-food approach. In 1992 he established the “Campaign for Human Dignity” to combat crime in his hometown of St. Louis, and in 1995 he resumed occasional stand-up dates. More than two decades after that return he issued the studio comedy album You Don’t Know Dick in 2016. He passed away in August of the following year in Washington, D.C., at the age of 84.
Albums
Live
