Autographs
"To you from me / Dick Gregory" Album Page Signed
DICK GREGORY (1932-2017). African-American Comedian, Civil Rights Activist, Health Issue Spokesman. Dick Gregory became nationally recognized in the 1960s for a biting brand of comedy that attacked racial prejudice.
Autograph Book Album single removed Page Inscribed and Signed, "To you from me / Dick Gregory", 5" x 4.25", Undated , Choice Very Fine. Dick Gregory drew what appears to be a man dancing between his first and last names.
DICK GREGORY (1932-2017). African-American comedian, civil rights activist, and spokesman for health issues, Dick Gregory became nationally recognized in the 1960s for a biting brand of comedy that attacked racial prejudice. By addressing his hard-hitting satire to white audiences, he gave a comedic voice to the rising Civil Rights Movement. In the 1980s, his nutrition business venture targeted unhealthy diets of Black Americans.
Gregory sought entrance to the national comedy circuit in Chicago. His breakthrough came in 1961, when a one-nighter at the Chicago Playboy Club turned into a six-week stint that earned him a profile in Time magazine and a television appearance on "The Jack Paar Show." In his numerous subsequent television, nightclub, and concert routines, he targeted poverty, segregation, and racial discrimination. Active in the Civil Rights Movement, he participated in numerous demonstrations and was arrested for civil disobedience several times; in 1963 he was jailed in Birmingham, Alabama. His activism spurred him to run for Mayor of Chicago in 1966 and for President of the United States in 1968.
In the early 1970s Gregory abandoned comedy to focus on his political interests, which widened from race relations to include such issues as violence, world hunger, capital punishment, drug abuse, and poor health care. He generated particular attention for his many hunger fasts. At this time he became a vegetarian, a marathon runner, and an expert on nutrition. He soon began a successful business venture with his nutritional product, the "Bahamian Diet," around which he built Dick Gregory Health Enterprises, Inc. Through his company, he targeted the lower life expectancy of Black Americans, which he attributed to poor nutrition and drug and alcohol abuse.
Gregory wrote many books, including (eBay refused to allow me to spell the first word as Dick Gregory spelled it when he wrote it) Ni99er: An Autobiography (1964) and No More Lies: The Myth and the Reality of American History (1971). He made a brief return to the comedy circuit in the mid-1990s.