Up From Nigger

¶ … Nigger is an autobiography of Dick Gregory, comedian, athlete, Black activist and politician whose humor used social satire to raise American understanding of racism and its effects. This book is a sequel to his first autobiography, Nigger, and covers time from 1963 to 1975. The book opens with an invitation to Gregory and his wife from the White House to stay there and help celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. He did not feel fully emancipated and probably wouldn't have attended except for his wife's prodding.

Throughout the book the reader sees glimpses of Gregory's humor, starting with the very first anecdote, where he attempts to slap the President on the behind, a racing tradition, only to be mobbed by Secret Service agents prepared to protect the President from this event. As a runner in high school and college, Gregory works racing imagery into many stories in the book.

As Gregory tells of his experiences, he describes in vivid detail how he took major life events and considered how they affected his views of the world as a Black man. Gregory was an activist for many decades, often joined by his wife, who participated in integration sit-ins in Atlanta restaurants on Christmas Day. They realized that the picture of a woman pregnant with twins jailed for such a reason would get people's attention. Some of Gregory's stories are truly hair-raising. He was well-known because of his comedy routines.

He was well enough established that he was on the "Red Skelton Show" in 1961. In 1964, during a snowstorm in Maryland, a white man recognized him from his television appearances as well as his activism, and called him a "nigger bastard." Although Gregory had been trained in non-violent responses, the man had caught him off-guard, and he punched the man.

He threw the money to pay for his gas on the snow, got in his car and raced away, but the man followed him for miles through the blizzard at about 15 miles per hour, as fast as either of them could drive on the slippery roads. He finally came to a restaurant, thinking he had found safety, only to see the sign "No Colored Allowed." He and his partner managed to make it to Washington, D.C.

And safety, but the incident seems to have validated his opinion of one year before that he was not fully emancipated. All of the anecdotes provide illumination on troubling times in recent United States history. Because Gregory was so well-known, probably everyone who lived during this time can relate in one way or another to his stories. Many people saw him on television as a comedian, and people who lived through the times also remember the periods of racial turbulence.

Dick Gregory was a comedian who charmed all kinds of people with his biting humor, but he was also a man who went on hunger strikes that put his life in jeopardy to bring attention to social issues important to him. Gregory saw instance of racism clearly, but he also was open to people who might have held abhorrent views in the past but who were able to grow.

He worked hard to bring together an event that united Black activists and a former Ku Klux Klan leader to help needy Black people in Mississippi. Because of Gregory's entertainment career he was able to draw on the influence of such people as Sammy Davis, Jr., and Eartha Kitt, other Black entertainers whose audiences crossed color lines. He understood the power of the media and was able to draw in things such as news coverage.

As a result, he had David Brinkley reporting as Gregory's coalition gave away turkeys in Mississippi to poor people of all ethnic backgrounds including black, white, Native American and Asian. Gregory, however, was suspicious of most power systems in the country. He remained convinced that more than one shooter was involved in Kennedy's assassination, and refers to his reasons for this in several places in the book.

While other people believe this, his sometimes suspicious nature is understandable given some of the events in his life, such as the example above of having to flee through a blizzard from white men determined to do harm to him. However, he knew how to use his growing influence. He participated in many demonstrations, but described himself as gaining a reputation among local police and sheriff departments as.