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« FTV 144 W.E.B. DuBois: 100 Years of The Souls of Black Folk (Part Two)
FTV 146 Malcolm X: Listening with a New Ear »

FTV 145 Dick Gregory

There is nothing like a good laugh to make a bad situation better. The challenge is to be able to find humor in something as bleak and tragic as racism in America, fell into the hands of a young man from Chicago with an acerbic wit and a charismatic presence. Mr. Dick Gregory, a longtime Pacifica radio personality and supporter, became one of the first Black comedians to successfully deal with race to both White and Black audiences… and he confronted race and class head on.

So many events had affected Dick Gregory’s social and political consciousness, such as the murder of Emmett Till in Mississippi, and the Montgomery Bus Boycott in Alabama that catapulted Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther Jr. to national attention. By the late 1950’s, Mr. Gregory began regular visits to the South to participate in civil rights demonstrations. Gregory was arrested for civil disturbance during one such visit to Birmingham Alabama.

A few weeks later on May 25th, 1963 Dick Gregory sat down with Pacifica Radio KPFA producer Ralph Gleason in an extraordinary conversation, revealing the trials and tribulations of this popular entertainer traveling to the South to help his people in the thick of the Civil Rights Movement. This week on From the Vault we celebrate the amazing legacy of Dick Gregory through this and other special recordings preserved by the Pacifica Radio Archives.

From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project.

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