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!"
― Dick Gregory
Richard Claxton "Dick" Gregory (October 12, 1932 – August 19, 2017) was an American civil rights activist and comedian. Gregory drew on current events, especially racial issues, for much of his material: "Segregation is not all bad. Have you ever heard of a collision where the people in the back of the bus got hurt?"
Most of his career was based on using humour to make fun of and combat racism. For this reason he upset a lot of racist people, who branded him as anti-white and a danger to society. The University of Tennessee used this as a pretext to revoke his permission to speak on campus when he tried to give a performance there. The students who invited him sued the university and forced them to change their policy, allowing Gregory to perform on campus in 1970.
Gregory published an autobiography, N*gger, in 1964. Many people were offended by the title of his book, but he defended it by saying "Any time you hear that word, they selling my book."
During the Vietnam War, Gregory was one of the people at the forefront of opposition to the war and opposition to racial injustices, particularly against African-Americans but also against Natives. He was arrested at multiple protests for both of these issues and went on several hunger strikes.
Gregory was an outspoken feminist, and in 1978 joined a group of American suffragists in their march to ensure that the Equal Rights Amendment was ratified by the United States Congress. The march got the deadline for the ERA extended, but it ultimately failed to pass.
A week prior to his death, Gregory was hospitalized in Washington, D.C., with a bacterial infection. He died in the hospital on August 19, 2017.