Actor and civil rights activist Dick Gregory dies at 84

News Actor and civil rights activist Dick Gregory dies at 84

Dick Gregory, actor and civil rights activist, died on Saturday. It was 84.

His family announced the news in a public Facebook page.

"It was with sadness that Gregory's family claimed that their father, the legend of comedy and the civil rights activist Dick Gregory TN leave this World tonight in Washington, D.C., his son Christian Gregory said in the post." "The family appreciates the outpouring of support and love and respects their intimacy as they demand grief on this very difficult." Further details will be published in the next few days.

According to the Associated Press, Gregory, who had just entered and exited the hospital, died after a severe bacterial infection. NPR has not independently confirmed the cause of death.

Gregory drew attention as a comedian in the early 1960, and was the first black comedian to gain much praise from the white audience. Darryl Littleton, author of the book Black comedians on the black comedy, said NPR in 2009 that Gregory solve the obstacles with his appearances on television, just in session:

"Dick Gregory was the first to be recognized--and he will say it--the first black comedian, able to stand flat, and only the comedy released." Do you have other comedians at the time, but they always have to do a little song or dance or something, Sammy Davis have to dance and sing, then tell a joke. Even with Pearl Bailey and several other actors. But Dick Gregory was able to grow up on television, sitting in the show Jack Paar-and sitting on the couch and actually having a discussion, and he never happened in the history of television. "

Gregory "opened the door" to Bill Cosby's Rise to Fame, said Littleton.

He is recognized for his political and social activism, starting with the Civil Rights movement in 1960. He attended the historic 1963 March on Washington. 40 years later, Gregory told Tavis Smiley NPR about his experience in March, describing him as "a great joy." It was a feast, and as far as the human eye could see. "

Gregory speaks in 2003 of his experience trying to integrate a restaurant in Mississippi before walking, showing that he can inject a bit of humour into serious history:

"We're trying to integrate a restaurant, and they say," We don't serve people of color here, "and I said," Well, I don't eat people's place of color. " Bring me some pork. And then the Ku Klux Klan arrived, and the woman said, "We don't have pork chops, so I said:" Well, bring my chickens Kalasan. "" And then the clan heads to me when they put all that fried chicken in front of me, and they said, "Whatever you do to that dick, boy, we'll do for you." So I opened his legs and kissed him on the back and tell you all, "Be my guest." "

He was direct in his language on race. He wrote with Robert Lipsyte Negro books: autobiographies-lowercase "n"-in the year 1964. Gregory says NPR Why she chose the title:

"So the word" negro "is one of the most used words in America, especially among blacks." And I said, "Well, let's get the cupboard out." Let's put this here. We're dealing with it. We're going to dissect that. Now the problem I have is the day when people call the N-word. He should never have called the word N. You see, how you talk about the swastika with the use of another term?

Gregory called the United States "the most racist system on the planet." And I hope the Americans are willing to remove the shoes from this racism and deal with racism and deal with sexism.

He ran for the mayor of Chicago in 1967 and ran for president in 1968 under the Freedom and Peace party. He was on the ballot in eight countries and got a voice, as 47.133 Ken Rudin wrote to NPR.

The action of the hunger strike is a tool often militant for Gregory. She told Juan Williams about the nation that he went without solid food for two and a half years to protest the war in Viet Nam.

At some point he said he weighed £365. But he lost a lot of weight quickly to protest against the war. "I went on a 40-day fast, water." 40 days of fruit juice. 40 days of fruit. And then 40 day water again, "Gregory said NPR."

In the year 2000, Gregory made a hunger strike to protest police brutality, long before the wave of activism.

Gregory has promoted several conspiracy theories, saying NPR year 2005 of conspiracy involving the death of Princess Diana and the attacks of September 11. "The FBI and the CLA are probably"