NFL
By: Zachary Draves
Comedian, Satirist, Activist, Humanitarian, Nutrition Guru, 1968 Presidential Candidate, and all around Revolutionary is how you best describe the late Dick Gregory.
Even after his passing in 2017, his impact is still being felt.
He was many things to many people but he was a man on a mission to do right and he did just that and he made you laugh in the process.
(Courtesy: Rolling Stone)
His wittiness, charisma, one liners, and uncompromising principles were inescapable and incomparable and all was documented in the recent Showtime documentary The One and Only Dick Gregory.
(Courtesy: Showtime)
Directed by Andre Gaines and produced by Kevin Hart and Lena Waithe, the film, released this past July, follows the trajectory of Greg’s life from his impoverished upbringing in St. Louis to his rise as one of the most consequential entertainers and social change agents of our time.
It highlights his barrier breaking comedy career in Chicago as well as his devotion to social justice that placed him on the front-lines of some of the major sociocultural and political battles of his time including the Civil Rights Movement and Vietnam War and in the epicenter of the revolution in places such as Birmingham, Washington DC, Selma, and Watts to name a few.
Along the way he was able to forge alliances and friendships with the likes of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and other freedom fighters.
(Courtesy: Rolling Stone)
His tireless work included advocating for the rights of women and Native Americans as well as a passion for combating world hunger and promoting a healthier lifestyle based on a strict vegetarian routine and the creation of his groundbreaking Bahamian diet mix in the 1980’s.
(Courtesy: Heritage Auctions)
It was during his campaign to combat hunger that he dedicated himself to running across the country to raise awareness that led to a special shoutout from none other than Muhammad Ali.
(Courtesy: BOTWC)
After one of his fights, Ali recognized Greg’s struggle and the two eventually formed a bond based on shared interests and a commitment to the greater good that was very much in sync with the social ethos of their era.
Many may not know that Greg was an athlete.
He excelled at track while at Sumner High School in St. Louis and in 1950 he won the state cross country championship before attending Southern Illinois University on a track scholarship where he would set records as a miler and half miler.
His connection to sports ran deep and over the years he spoke fondly of and had relationships with some of the most prominent athletes turned activists of all time including Ali, Jim Brown, and Hank Aaron to name a few.
(Courtesy: theorgininalinsidesports)
He would also reminisce about his childhood listening to Joe Louis fights on the radio and spoke about how it was better than Christmas because by the time Christmas came around there was no guarantee on receiving a gift.
An unlikely connection he made that was ostensibly sports related was with famed New York Times sportswriter Robert Lipsyte, who was best known for his coverage of Ali at the height of his career.
(Courtesy: ESPN Front Row)
Robert would co-write Greg’s autobiography entitled “N word”.
Their journey was unorthodox at best but revolutionary in the long run and I had the honor of a lifetime to talk to Robert, who’s also featured in the film, about how his relationship with Greg came about, his place in the sports world, and the totality of his legacy.
What was it like to be in the company of Dick Gregory and how did you get to co-write his autobiography?
It was amazing. I grew up in an all-white neighborhood and when I met him in Sept. 1963, he became my most important teacher. He was the door opening into Black America. He was a pioneering comedian. It was stunning for me. He had written a joke book and the publisher proposed an autobiography that I would ghost write. The publisher scraped the bottom of the barrel. They set up a meeting to see him and I was the 500th writer to be chosen because he had turned everyone down. I go up to the hotel where he was staying and I walked into his bed and he was crying and in his underwear. I introduced myself and asked him why he was crying and he said “did you hear about those 4 little girls?” (16th Street Baptist Church Bombing in Birmingham, Alabama on Sept. 15 1963).
I was mesmerized. He was exhausted and he said “come back tomorrow.” I kept going back a couple of days and after a few days and with frustration I said “the only I don’t have against you is the color of your skin.” He then invited me to a coffee shop for lunch. During lunch, he said “let’s write a book they won’t expect.” We would take the book across the country at various clubs and his goal for this book would be for it to become such a bestseller that the N-word would be associated with something successful. It didn’t quite work that way.
I asked him “Why did you let a white guy make the book with you? He said that black people knew his story but that he wanted a white guy to be an interpreter for white people to understand it.
How would you describe his connection to the world of sports?
The relationship between black athletes and entertainers is genuine. His level of celebrity was not only close to Malcolm, Martin, and Jesse (Jackson), but every black athlete from Jim Brown to Muhammad Ali. Bill Russell and Kareem Abdul Jabbar would reach out to him and Ali would defer to him because he knew that Greg was a major thinker.
The only major black athletic figure he wouldn’t crack through was Sonny Liston. While training for the second Ali fight in Cape Cod, we would go up to talk with him. Greg was collecting turkeys to be delivered to Mississippi and Sonny Liston is in front of the television set watching a movie and then Greg says “we are wasting our time and we won’t get a penny from him”.
What is the legacy of Dick Gregory?
He put his money where his mouth was and he wanted to have an impact. He understood that if he went to a civil rights demonstration, the network news would be there and the racists would not open fire. He was making the demonstration possible and was protecting the demonstrators. There was a madness to him with his every move and his thought patterns.
