Dick Gregory

Dick Gregory was an unsparing and incisive cultural force for more than fifty years. A friend of such luminaries as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Medgar Evers, Gregory was an unrelenting, lifelong activist against social injustice, whether he was marching in Selma during the Civil Rights movement or organizing student demonstrations to protest the Vietnam War, participating in rallies for Native American and feminist rights or fighting apartheid in South Africa.

Known as much for his comedic achievements—as an actor, author, and social critic—as for his activism, Gregory was the forebearer of today’s new generation of black comics and always kept it real when discussing race in America, fearlessly lacing laughter with controversial truths.