Dick Gregory Speaks at The University of Alabama: The Crimson White coverage
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As part of the Emphasis lecture series, Dick Gregory, civil rights activist and performer, spoke at Morgan Auditorium and then in a roundtable panel at Foster Auditorium on October 20, 1969. He appeared on stage with Thomas Bradley, the first African American mayor of Los Angeles, 1973-1993 and Charles Evers, the first African American mayor since Reconstruction of Fayette, Mississippi.
The Crimson White writers used black vernacular in capturing Gregory’s words in the coverage. Emphasis in the various texts is original. |
Document 1: "Emphasis '70 Opens Tonight"
Scheduled to open the fifth annual Emphasis program tonight at 7:30pm at Foster Auditorium are three prominent black leaders who will discuss “The Black Man in Politics.”
On the program are Thomas Bradley, who finished second in this year’s Los Angeles mayoral election; Dick Gregory, comedian and 1968 presidential candidate; and Charles Evers, mayor of Fayette, Miss.
Source: “Emphasis ’70 Opens Tonight,” Crimson White, October 20, 1969, 1.
On the program are Thomas Bradley, who finished second in this year’s Los Angeles mayoral election; Dick Gregory, comedian and 1968 presidential candidate; and Charles Evers, mayor of Fayette, Miss.
Source: “Emphasis ’70 Opens Tonight,” Crimson White, October 20, 1969, 1.
Document 2: Yvonne Saliaba's "Gregory: 'Young Have Big Job'"
He talked of heart transplants, Santa Claus, air pollution, panty raids, the Bible and Motorola.
But comedian Dick Gregory said only one thing, “You young folks have a big job, a big job.”
At the University for a three-man seminar on The Black Man in Politics, Gregory took the stage at Morgan Auditorium Monday afternoon to speak alone and about nothing in particular.
A showman in every sense of the word, Gregory came striding onto the stage, giving a peace symbol to the 500-odd students and faculty who had been cramped into the middle section of the auditorium for the benefit of television cameras.
“I did not come here to impress you,” said Gregory, “only to inform you I couldn’t care less what one of you thinks about Dick Gregory.”
In the future, he told his audience, “you can look back and say at least Brother Gregory didn’t lie to you.” Gregory admitted that he spends “98 per cent of his time on college campuses.”
“You young folks have got to organize,” said Gregory, who wholeheartedly backs the Vietnam Moratorium idea.
“Organize. . .bust the back of the military industrial complex. . . get rid of capital punishment. . . address your grievances to the Capitalists.”
Sprinkling his talk with the bits of black humor for which he has become world-famous. Gregory quipped “It ain’t no big thing. Decide you aren’t gonna get a haircut till the war is over. The barbers will go to Washington and make that man stop the car!”
Gregory took digs at most American institutions, including parenthood. “Your mamas and daddies are so busy making money, they don’t have time to ask why.”
He said if a government inspector came to your (student’s) front door telling parents that the army was sending all the dogs to Vietnam, that would cause more antiwar rebellion than does sending their own sons to Vietnam.
Addressing himself to black problems in America, the comedian stressed that the real racial problem stems from institutional racism and individual racism.
“It’s choking us, and that’s what we’re gonna deal with,” he said.
“We have your stinking white systems. . .we’re holding all white folks responsible for those institutions.”
Said Gregory, “If you call us nigger for dirtying up a black ghetto, we are niggers. Then you are super nigger.”
Questioned frequently as to why no riots or demonstrations occurred during what he termed “riot season” Gregory explained that during the summer black Americans were doing “consumer research.”
“I can tell you one thing about the next riot season. We ain’t stealing no more Motorola!”
In more coherent comments, Gregory addressed himself to helping answer perplexing questions facing students. “Don’t make the same mistakes we did. We were so busy learning how to make a living, we forgot to learn how to live,” said the 37-year-old Gregory.
“You don’t have to go to college to learn how to be somebody. You’re already somebody. And if you learn how to be somebody else, that makes you two people. Ask Freud about that.”
“You know who you are. You are the answer.”
Gregory’s humorous comments also pertained to other things.
On heart transplants – “I’m against them. But I would like to see some white fellow get a black fool. Try taking that to the beach.
On Santa Claus – The first letter I ever wrote was to a man who doesn’t even exist. You know that Santa bit goes over better in the white neighborhood. We know no white cat’s coming into our neighborhood after midnight!”
On demonstrations – “Ten years of panty raids and all they could say is ‘Boys will be boys.’ J. Edgar Hover never got on television and said panty raids were communist inspired.”
On drugs – “We justified drinking by citing a passage in the Bible about a little wine being good for the body. Maybe drug users can find some meaning in all those trips to the mountains to meditate.”
On voting – “Heck you should start voting at 17, if have to die at 18.”
On advertisements – “Just once, instead of a white dove on the kitchen sink, I would like to see a black crow on the biscuits.”
On Ireland – “They’re blaming the Irish trouble on outside agitators – Billy Graham and the Pope.”
On beards – “Abraham Lincoln not only had a beard, he was ugly too.”
Source: Yvonne Saliba, “Gregory: ‘Young Have Big Job’,” Crimson White, October 23, 1969. 1.
But comedian Dick Gregory said only one thing, “You young folks have a big job, a big job.”
At the University for a three-man seminar on The Black Man in Politics, Gregory took the stage at Morgan Auditorium Monday afternoon to speak alone and about nothing in particular.
A showman in every sense of the word, Gregory came striding onto the stage, giving a peace symbol to the 500-odd students and faculty who had been cramped into the middle section of the auditorium for the benefit of television cameras.
“I did not come here to impress you,” said Gregory, “only to inform you I couldn’t care less what one of you thinks about Dick Gregory.”
In the future, he told his audience, “you can look back and say at least Brother Gregory didn’t lie to you.” Gregory admitted that he spends “98 per cent of his time on college campuses.”
“You young folks have got to organize,” said Gregory, who wholeheartedly backs the Vietnam Moratorium idea.
“Organize. . .bust the back of the military industrial complex. . . get rid of capital punishment. . . address your grievances to the Capitalists.”
Sprinkling his talk with the bits of black humor for which he has become world-famous. Gregory quipped “It ain’t no big thing. Decide you aren’t gonna get a haircut till the war is over. The barbers will go to Washington and make that man stop the car!”
Gregory took digs at most American institutions, including parenthood. “Your mamas and daddies are so busy making money, they don’t have time to ask why.”
He said if a government inspector came to your (student’s) front door telling parents that the army was sending all the dogs to Vietnam, that would cause more antiwar rebellion than does sending their own sons to Vietnam.
Addressing himself to black problems in America, the comedian stressed that the real racial problem stems from institutional racism and individual racism.
“It’s choking us, and that’s what we’re gonna deal with,” he said.
“We have your stinking white systems. . .we’re holding all white folks responsible for those institutions.”
Said Gregory, “If you call us nigger for dirtying up a black ghetto, we are niggers. Then you are super nigger.”
Questioned frequently as to why no riots or demonstrations occurred during what he termed “riot season” Gregory explained that during the summer black Americans were doing “consumer research.”
“I can tell you one thing about the next riot season. We ain’t stealing no more Motorola!”
In more coherent comments, Gregory addressed himself to helping answer perplexing questions facing students. “Don’t make the same mistakes we did. We were so busy learning how to make a living, we forgot to learn how to live,” said the 37-year-old Gregory.
“You don’t have to go to college to learn how to be somebody. You’re already somebody. And if you learn how to be somebody else, that makes you two people. Ask Freud about that.”
“You know who you are. You are the answer.”
Gregory’s humorous comments also pertained to other things.
On heart transplants – “I’m against them. But I would like to see some white fellow get a black fool. Try taking that to the beach.
On Santa Claus – The first letter I ever wrote was to a man who doesn’t even exist. You know that Santa bit goes over better in the white neighborhood. We know no white cat’s coming into our neighborhood after midnight!”
On demonstrations – “Ten years of panty raids and all they could say is ‘Boys will be boys.’ J. Edgar Hover never got on television and said panty raids were communist inspired.”
On drugs – “We justified drinking by citing a passage in the Bible about a little wine being good for the body. Maybe drug users can find some meaning in all those trips to the mountains to meditate.”
On voting – “Heck you should start voting at 17, if have to die at 18.”
On advertisements – “Just once, instead of a white dove on the kitchen sink, I would like to see a black crow on the biscuits.”
On Ireland – “They’re blaming the Irish trouble on outside agitators – Billy Graham and the Pope.”
On beards – “Abraham Lincoln not only had a beard, he was ugly too.”
Source: Yvonne Saliba, “Gregory: ‘Young Have Big Job’,” Crimson White, October 23, 1969. 1.
Document 3: Michael Mack's Black Panel Gives Study in Contrasts
Three Negroes, Charles Evers, mayor of Fayette, Miss.; Dick Gregory, comedian; and Thomas Bradley who was narrowly defeated in the mayoral race of Los Angeles spoke Monday night in Foster auditorium as part of Emphasis ’70.
“I could easily hate white folks but I ain’t gonna let you make me hate you because it’s wrong,” said Evers who is the first Negro mayor in Mississippi since Reconstruction. “Fayette now has a mayor of all the people, something we have never had before. And I, along with the three or four other black mayors in this country have to prove to White America that we’re not going to use our powers as mayor to get back at them.”
Using a “Meet the Press” format, questions were asked of the three by UA law student Ed Still, SGA Vice President Joe Estep, Michael Mack and Janet Pruit, member of the AWS house.
Thomas Bradley responded to the question of why he decided to run for the mayorship of Los Angeles by saying.
“I felt it was important that somebody test the city to see whether or not the people of Los Angeles were ready to make their judgment on the basis of a man’s qualifications, his ability, what he proposes to do for the city rather than on the irrelevant factors of his race.”
He added that while making the city live up to the American pronouncement of justice, equality, and liberty for all, there was a unique opportunity to provide inspiration and encouragement to black girls and boys all over that city.
“They need success symbols,” Bradley said. “I felt they needed to see a black man run for office and conduct himself in a way that they could be proud of.”
Traveling after the election, he said there seemed to be a universal feeling of pride for the Negro candidate who won 47 per cent of the votes cast.
“Black boys in particular were proud of what happened and I refuse to look upon it as a defeat,” said Bradley. “I think we achieved many victories in the process of that six month struggle.”
Approximately 2,000 students, faculty, state and local residents, and national press crowded into Foster to hear the trio. Unlike last year’s attendance, the opening session of Emphasis ’70 was, according to Tom Gordon, chairman of the Emphasis committee, “Extremely encouraging.”
Dick Gregory always eager to express his views, said that the police were America’s new “niggers,” underpaid and unrespected. He feels that if anything, they should be overpaid.
“We’ll get better men and we’ll get men who have a basic respect not only for himself, but for his fellow man and once you solve that problem, you’ve solved the problem of a cop pattia’ that night stick on your head,” he said.
Gregory, who ran for President in the last election, and Bradley and Evers said that they felt that oppression in this country is not confined to black people.
“It’s an oppression of the boor and the powerless whatever their color,” Bradley declared. “Black people seem to be the victim most often because he is in a most easily identifiable group. Now we’re beginning to see the Mexican, the Puerto Rican and the poor whites who rise up to secure their rights.
Charles Evers sees this oppression in the fighting of the Vietnam war.
“The United States spends $82 million a day fighting a stupid, senseless war, killing innocent white and black boys, most of them poor because the rich ones are in college. It’s the poor ones they rush off to this crazy war and if they come home they can’t get a job as a doorkeeper,” he declared.
What do you think the greatest challenge will be to black students graduating from colleges and coming of age in this society?
Bradley saw as the greatest challenge to young blacks “developing a sense of excellence” and then getting into politics where some real changes can be brought about.
Gregory felt that first blacks should know and recognize ourselves and our blackness, go for victory and forget the revenge.
“Waste time on revenge, and there may not be any victory. Just go for black and white alike.”
Evers agreed and said, “Go back home to your communities and take what you have learned and teach others. Take that poor drunk black by the hand let him know that he is somebody, that God just happened to bless you a little bit better than some of the rest of them.”
“Go back home and teach our folks how great it is to be somebody and let your light shine so bright that your community will have to watch your beacon and follow behind it, and be willing to join you.”
Source: Michael Mack, “Black Panel Gives Study in Contrasts,” Crimson White, October 23, 1969. 1.
“I could easily hate white folks but I ain’t gonna let you make me hate you because it’s wrong,” said Evers who is the first Negro mayor in Mississippi since Reconstruction. “Fayette now has a mayor of all the people, something we have never had before. And I, along with the three or four other black mayors in this country have to prove to White America that we’re not going to use our powers as mayor to get back at them.”
Using a “Meet the Press” format, questions were asked of the three by UA law student Ed Still, SGA Vice President Joe Estep, Michael Mack and Janet Pruit, member of the AWS house.
Thomas Bradley responded to the question of why he decided to run for the mayorship of Los Angeles by saying.
“I felt it was important that somebody test the city to see whether or not the people of Los Angeles were ready to make their judgment on the basis of a man’s qualifications, his ability, what he proposes to do for the city rather than on the irrelevant factors of his race.”
He added that while making the city live up to the American pronouncement of justice, equality, and liberty for all, there was a unique opportunity to provide inspiration and encouragement to black girls and boys all over that city.
“They need success symbols,” Bradley said. “I felt they needed to see a black man run for office and conduct himself in a way that they could be proud of.”
Traveling after the election, he said there seemed to be a universal feeling of pride for the Negro candidate who won 47 per cent of the votes cast.
“Black boys in particular were proud of what happened and I refuse to look upon it as a defeat,” said Bradley. “I think we achieved many victories in the process of that six month struggle.”
Approximately 2,000 students, faculty, state and local residents, and national press crowded into Foster to hear the trio. Unlike last year’s attendance, the opening session of Emphasis ’70 was, according to Tom Gordon, chairman of the Emphasis committee, “Extremely encouraging.”
Dick Gregory always eager to express his views, said that the police were America’s new “niggers,” underpaid and unrespected. He feels that if anything, they should be overpaid.
“We’ll get better men and we’ll get men who have a basic respect not only for himself, but for his fellow man and once you solve that problem, you’ve solved the problem of a cop pattia’ that night stick on your head,” he said.
Gregory, who ran for President in the last election, and Bradley and Evers said that they felt that oppression in this country is not confined to black people.
“It’s an oppression of the boor and the powerless whatever their color,” Bradley declared. “Black people seem to be the victim most often because he is in a most easily identifiable group. Now we’re beginning to see the Mexican, the Puerto Rican and the poor whites who rise up to secure their rights.
Charles Evers sees this oppression in the fighting of the Vietnam war.
“The United States spends $82 million a day fighting a stupid, senseless war, killing innocent white and black boys, most of them poor because the rich ones are in college. It’s the poor ones they rush off to this crazy war and if they come home they can’t get a job as a doorkeeper,” he declared.
What do you think the greatest challenge will be to black students graduating from colleges and coming of age in this society?
Bradley saw as the greatest challenge to young blacks “developing a sense of excellence” and then getting into politics where some real changes can be brought about.
Gregory felt that first blacks should know and recognize ourselves and our blackness, go for victory and forget the revenge.
“Waste time on revenge, and there may not be any victory. Just go for black and white alike.”
Evers agreed and said, “Go back home to your communities and take what you have learned and teach others. Take that poor drunk black by the hand let him know that he is somebody, that God just happened to bless you a little bit better than some of the rest of them.”
“Go back home and teach our folks how great it is to be somebody and let your light shine so bright that your community will have to watch your beacon and follow behind it, and be willing to join you.”
Source: Michael Mack, “Black Panel Gives Study in Contrasts,” Crimson White, October 23, 1969. 1.
Audio
Audio of his speech is available as a digital four audio files. See “Emphasis (1970: The University of Alabama), Dick Gregory.”
