Line Up Boys

“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I understand there are a good many Southerners in the room tonight. I know the South very well. I spent twenty years there one night. Last time I was down South I walked into this restaurant and this white waitress came up to me and said, "We don't serve colored people here." I said, "That's all right. I don't eat colored people. Bring me a whole fried chicken." Then these three white boys came up to me and said, "Boy, we're giving you fair warning. Anything you do to that chicken, we're gonna do to you." So I put down my knife and fork, I picked up that chicken and I kissed it. Then I said, "Line up, boys!"
~ In 1961, Dick Gregory was working at the black-owned Roberts Show Bar in Chicago when he was spotted by Hugh Hefner. Gregory was performing this material before a largely white audience.

“Once I accept injustice, I become injustice. For example, paper mills give off a terrible stench. But the people who work there don't smell it. Remember, Dr. King was assassinated when he went to work for garbage collectors. To help them as workers to enforce their rights. They couldn't smell the stench of the garbage all around them anymore. They were used to it. They would eat their lunch out of a brown bag sitting on the garbage truck. One day, a worker was sitting inside the back of the truck on top of the garbage, and got crushed to death because no one knew he was there.”
~ Gregory gave the keynote address for Black History Month at Bryn Mawr College on February 28, 2013. His take-away message to the students was to never accept injustice.

“Let me say this. Never before in the history of this planet have anybody made the progress that African Americans have made in a 30-year period, in spite of black folks and white folks denying the number one problem we’re confronted with now is police brutality. Now, am I saying police brutality is worse today than it was 50 years ago? No. Then what have changed? My mindset. There’s things I would have tolerated 50 years ago that I won’t tolerate there.

Here’s what make police brutality so bad. If I’m in Mississippi and a Klansman say, “Ni**er, come here,” I say, “Your mama’s a ni**er.” If he pull out a gun on me, I can take the gun and pistol-whip him. I can’t do that to a cop. If a cop say, “Ni**er, come here,” I got to stop. If he pull out a gun, I can’t take it. So, they have a power over me. And yet, white America, many folks in the black community—and, finally, just let me just say this here. Colin Powell is probably one of the strongest human beings on the planet, because he’s secretary of state. If Colin Powell was in New York—I’m going to say this twice, so you all don’t walk off and say it happened. If Colin Powell was in New York and his best friend was hit by a car and they called him and they take him to Columbia Presbyterian and Colin runs down, get a elevator, come downstairs to find out that a black man can’t get a cab in New York today. And then he’s asked the doorman, “How far is Columbia Presbyterian?” He says, “It’s two blocks that way and a half a block to the right.” And he starts jogging. It’s at 9:00 at night. He starts starts jogging, praying, “My best friend, I hope he be alive when I get there.”

These racist white cops turn the corner, they see a ni**er running, they don’t see Colin Powell. They say, “Stop, ni**er.” He keeps running, chokehold, he’s dead. And America want to be outraged because we don’t mind you killing a ordinary Negro, but not Colin Powell…

“So, Friday, I’m starting a fast to thank Ali. My wife said, “How long are you going?” I might go 10 years. I don’t know yet, haven’t made up my mind. Have not made up my mind. But I’m not going to eat no more food after I leave that funeral. It might be 10 years. It might be for the rest of my life. I don’t know. That’s the effect he had on me. I’m out here. I know what people do with money. I know the parties they go to. I know how they sit back and woof and talk all the talk. Not me. I’m say thanks to him and to his wife, 25 years. When the glory days was gone, she’s picking him up and carrying him and answering the phone. Answering the phone. So when I went by to see him last year, I said, “Can he remember?” She said, “I don’t think so.” I said, “I’ll ask him. I owe him about $2 million.” I said, “I owe you any money?” “No, no.” I say, “He’s sick. He’s sick.”

~ Dick Gregory in 2016.
The legendary comedian, civil rights activist died at a hospital in Washington, D.C., on August 19, 2017, at the age of 84 (just days after the death of his close friend and fellow Vietnam War resister, heavyweight boxing champ of the world Muhammad Ali.) The cause was heart failure. Dave Chappelle ended his show at Radio City Music Hall by calling Dick Gregory a giant and saying he wouldn’t be here today if Gregory had not been there before him.

“Dick Gregory was born Richard Claxton Gregory on October 12, 1932, into poverty and deprivation in St. Louis, Missouri. In some ways his humble beginnings fueled the topical racial comedy which catapulted him into fame in the 1960s. The radicalization which transformed many Americans during the 1960s led Gregory to see things in a global perspective. Many of his public appearances started to combine comedy with political commentary. He became an outspoken opponent of American involvement in Vietnam and of racial as well as ethnic discrimination in America and elsewhere. Dick Gregory was a deeply spiritual man but was not limited to any traditional religion or formulized dogma. Instead, he advocated the attainment of oneness with a "Godself," which he believed was the most complete state of being. He advocated a holistic approach to life through diet, fitness, and spiritual awareness.”
~ biography dot your dictionary dot com