Howard University is a federally chartered, private, coeducational, nonsectarian, historically black university located in Washington, D.C., United States. It has a Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education status of RU/H: Research Universities (high research activity).

From its outset it has been nonsectarian and open to people of both genders and all races.^[4] In addition to the undergraduate program, Howard has graduate schools of business, pharmacy, law, medicine, dentistry and divinity.

History[link]

Shortly after the end of the Civil War, members of The First Congregational Society of Washington considered establishing a theological seminary for the education of African-American clergymen. Within a few weeks, the project expanded to include a provision for establishing a university. Within two years, the University consisted of the Colleges of Liberal Arts and Medicine. The new institution was named for General Oliver Otis Howard, a Civil War hero, who was both the founder of the University and, at the time, Commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau. Howard later served as President of the university from 1869-74.^[5]

Congress chartered Howard on March 2, 1867, and much of its early funding came from endowment, private benefaction, and tuition. An annual congressional appropriation administered by the U.S. Department of Education funds Howard University and Howard University Hospital.^[6]

Howard Hall was renovated and made a dormitory for girls; many improvements were made on campus; J. Stanley Durkee, Howard's last white president, was appointed in 1918.^[7]

Howard University has played an important role in American history and the Civil Rights Movement on a number of occasions. Alain Locke, Chair of the Department of Philosophy and first African American Rhodes Scholar, authored The New Negro, which helped to usher in the Harlem Renaissance.^[8] Ralph Bunche, the first Nobel Peace Prize winner of African descent, served as chair of the Department of Political Science.^[9] Beginning in 1942, Howard University students pioneered the "stool-sitting" technique, which was to play a prominent role in the later civil rights movement. By January, 1943, students had begun to organize regular sit-ins and pickets at cigar stores and cafeterias around Washington, D.C. which refused to serve them because of their race. These protests continued until the administration asked the students to stop in the Fall of 1944.^[10] Stokely Carmichael, also known as Kwame Toure, a student in the Department of Philosophy and the Howard University School of Divinity coined the term "Black Power" and worked in Lowndes County, Alabama as a voting rights activist.^[11] Historian Rayford Logan served as chair of the Department of History.^[12] E. Franklin Frazier served as chair of the Department of Sociology.^[13] Sterling Allen Brown served as chair of the Department of English.

In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson delivered a speech to the graduating class at Howard, where he outlined his plans for civil rights legislation and endorsed aggressive affirmative action to combat the effects of years of segregation of blacks from the nation's economic opportunities.^[14]

In 1975 the historic Freedman's Hospital closed after 112 years of use as Howard University College of Medicine's primary teaching hospital. Howard University Hospital opened that same year and continues to be used as Howard University College of Medicine's primary teaching hospital with service to the surrounding community.

In 1989, Howard gained national attention when students rose up in protest against the appointment of then-Republican National Committee Chairman Lee Atwater as a new member of the university's Board of Trustees. Student activists disrupted Howard's 122nd anniversary celebrations, and eventually occupied the university's Administration building.^[15] Within days, both Atwater and Howard's President, James E. Cheek, resigned.

In April 2007 the head of the faculty senate called for the ouster of Howard University President H. Patrick Swygert, saying that the school was in a state of crisis and it was time to end “an intolerable condition of incompetence and dysfunction at the highest level.”^[16] This came on the heels of several criticisms of Howard University and its management. The following month, Swygert announced that he would retire in June 2008.^[17] The university announced in May 2008 that Sidney Ribeau of Bowling Green State University would succeed Swygert as president.^[18] Ribeau appointed a Presidential Commission on Academic Renewal to conduct a year-long self-evaluation that resulted in reducing or closing 20 out of 171 academic programs.^[19] For example, they proposed closing the undergraduate philosophy major and African studies major.^[19]

On September 4, 2009, 350 students and union workers protested the failure of the financial aid office to distribute promised funds to students. Students also sought a recycling program, technology upgrades and more on-campus housing. Members of SEIU local 32BJ protested the possible outsourcing of cleaning services to contractors whose wages would undercut Howard's union contract.^[20]

Campus[link]

This section requires expansion.

Founders Library is an iconic building on the Howard University campus that has been declared a National Historic Landmark.

The 256 acres (1.04 km²; 0.400 sq mi) campus is located in northwest Washington.^[2] Major improvements, additions, and changes occurred at the school in the aftermath of World War I. New buildings were built under the direction of architect Albert Cassell.^[21] Howard's buildings and plant have a value of $567.6 million^[22]

Howard University has several historic landmarks on campus, such as Andrew Rankin Memorial Chapel, Fredrick Douglass Memorial Hall, and the Founders Library. Howard University has ten dorms in which students can live: Bethune Annex (women's undergraduate dorms), Tubman Quadrangle (women's freshman dorms), Carver Hall and Drew Hall (men's undergraduate dorms), Cook Hall (co-ed, undergraduate students), Plaza Towers West (co-ed, for juniors and seniors only), Plaza Towers East (graduate and undergraduate honor students), Meridian Hill Hall (co-ed, off campus residence), Slowe Hall (co-ed) and Mays Hall (co-ed graduate facility).

Howard University Hospital, opened in 1975 on the eastern end of campus, was built on the site of Griffith Stadium, in use from the 1890s to 1965 as home of the first, second and third incarnations of the MLB Senators, as well as the NFL's Washington Redskins, several college football teams (including Georgetown, GWU and Maryland) and part-time home of the Homestead Grays of the Negro National League.

WHUT-TV station in Washington, D.C.

Howard University is home to WHUR-FM 96.3, also known as Howard University Radio. Howard is also home to WHUT-TV, which is a television station located on campus beside WHUR-FM.

Organization[link]

The university is led by a Board of Trustees that includes a faculty trustee from the undergraduate colleges, a faculty trustee from the graduate and professional colleges serving 3-year terms, two student trustees, each serving 1-year terms, and three alumni-elected trustees, each serving 3-year terms.^[2]

Academics[link]

Schools and colleges[link]

Research[link]

Howard is one of two historically black colleges and universities (the other is Jackson State University) classified as a "Research I" tier university by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.^[19][23] "The Moorland-Spingarn Research Center (MSRC) is recognized as one of the world's largest and most comprehensive repositories for the documentation of the history and culture of people of African descent in Africa, the Americas, and other parts of the world. The MSRC collects, preserves, and makes available for research a wide range of resources chronicling black experiences.^[24]

NASA University Research Center (BCCSO)[link]

The Beltsville Center for Climate System Observation (BCCSO) is a NASA University Research Center located at the Beltsville, Maryland campus of Howard University. BCCSO consists of a multidisciplinary group of Howard faculty in partnership with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Earth Sciences Division, other academic institutions, and government. This group is led by three Principal Investigators, Everette Joseph, also the director of BCCSO, Demetrius Venable and Belay Demoz. BCCSO trains science and academic leaders to understand atmospheric processes through atmospheric observing systems and analytical methods.^[25][26]

Publications[link]

Howard University is home to The Hilltop, the nation's only HBCU daily newspaper. Founded in 1924 by Zora Neale Hurston, The Hilltop enjoys a long legacy at the university, providing students with the ability to learn the newspaper industry.

Howard University is the publisher of The Journal of Negro Education, which began publication in 1932. The Howard University Bison Yearbook is created, edited and published during the school year to provide students a year-in-review. Howard University also publishes the Capstone, the official e-newsletter for the university; and the Howard Magazine, the official magazine for the university, which is published three times a year.

Student life[link]

Mock Trial[link]

Howard University was the first team to win two national championships in the same year, both the 1997 National Silver Flight Tournament and the 1997 National Championship. Additionally, the Howard Team has been listed in the Top Ten Teams in the nation over 9 times and won the 2000 National Silver Flight Championship, the 1998 and 2003 Eastern Regional Championship and the 2003 National Division Title. In April 2006, the team placed third in the nation. Howard University continues to qualify for national tournaments.

Greek letter organizations[link]

Howard University is a home to all nine National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC) organizations; however, it is a historic site for six NPHC groups. The Beta Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha was the first to appear in 1907.^[27] The Alpha Chapters of Alpha Kappa Alpha (1908), Delta Sigma Theta (1913), Omega Psi Phi (1911), Phi Beta Sigma (1914), and Zeta Phi Beta (1920) were established on the Howard campus.^[28] Also in 1920, the Xi Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi appeared on the campus, followed by the Alpha Phi Chapter of Sigma Gamma Rho in 1939, and the Alpha Tau Chapter of Iota Phi Theta in 1983.

Other Greek letter organizations registered at Howard include Delta Sigma Pi, Phi Sigma Pi, Alpha Phi Omega, Alpha Nu Omega, Alpha Kappa Psi, Phi Sigma Rho, Gamma Iota Sigma, Phi Mu Alpha, Sigma Alpha Iota, Gamma Sigma Sigma, Kappa Kappa Psi, Tau Beta Sigma and Phi Alpha Delta.^{[citation needed]}

Athletics[link]

Athletic teams compete in the NCAA as a part of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. The teams play under the name Howard Bison and use a similar logo to that of the Buffalo Bills professional football team. The Swimming and Diving team plays under the name Howard Sharks.

Marching Band[link]

The Howard University "Showtime" Marching Band, is under the direction of John Newson and Kelvin Washington. The Showtime marching band performs at football games, band competitions, and even NFL halftime shows.

People[link]

Students[link]

Howard undergraduates have a mean composite SAT score of 1,082.^[2] The students come from the following regions: New England 2%, Mid-West 8%. South 22%, Mid-Atlantic 55%, and West 12%.^[2]

As of 2006^[update], Howard's six year graduation rate was 67.5%.^[29] In 2009, 1,270 of the 1,476 full time freshmen enrolled were found to have financial need (86%). Of these, Howard could meet the full financial aid needs of 316 freshmen.^[30] Howard's average undergraduate student's indebtedness at graduation is $16,798.^[30]

Between 1998 and 2009, Howard University produced a Marshall Scholar, two Rhodes Scholars, two Truman Scholars, twenty-two Fulbright Scholars and ten Pickering Fellows.^[31][32]

Faculty[link]

Howard faculty include media entrepreneur Cathy Hughes, marine biologist Ernest Everett Just, political consultant Ron Walters, blood shipment pioneer Charles Drew,^[33] psychiatrist Francis Cress Welsing, civil rights lawyer Charles Hamilton Houston, Emmy-winning actor Al Freeman Jr..^{[citation needed]}, John Davis, political science professor and Roscoe Bartlett, member of Congress from Maryland.

Notable alumni[link]

Howard is the alma mater of several notable individuals to include: Ben Ali (co-founder and owner of Ben's Chili Bowl, the famous restaurant in Washington, DC.), choreographer, actress and singer Debbie Allen, the first Nigerian President Nnamdi Azikiwe, NFL players Antoine Bethea and Marques Douglas, Thurgood Marshall (former U.S. Supreme Court Justice), United States Ambassador Andrew Young, attorney Vernon Jordan, Congressman Elijah Cummings, actor Ossie Davis, David Dinkins (the first African-American Mayor of New York City), Mike Espy (the first African-American U.S. Secretary of Agriculture), Mayor of Atlanta, Georgia Kasim Reed, Former Mayor of the District of Columbia Adrian Fenty, Gus Johnson (American Sports Broadcaster), American television personality Ananda Lewis, Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Toni Morrison, American actress and singer Phylicia Rashad, and Crystal Waters (American dance music and house music singer and songwriter).

See also[link]

	District of Columbia portal
	University portal
	African American portal

• A Bridge Across and Beyond by artist Richard Hunt (a sculpture located at the Blackburn Fountain)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikisource has the text of the 1905 New International Encyclopedia article Howard University.

• Howard University
• Howard University at the Open Directory Project
• University Trustees

Coordinates: 38°55′18″N 77°01′12″W / 38.92167°N 77.02°W / 38.92167; -77.02

Tyrese Gibson
Gibson at the 2009 San Diego Comic Con for Image Comics
Background information
Birth name	Tyrese Darnell Gibson
Also known as	Black-Ty
Born	(1978-12-30) December 30, 1978 (age 33) Watts, Los Angeles, California, United States
Genres	Contemporary R&B, hip hop
Occupations	Author, singer, actor, VJ, screenwriter, film producer, television producer,
Years active	1996
Labels	RCA (1997–2001) J (2002–2006) Voltron (2011–Present)
Website	www.myspace.com/tyrese

Tyrese Darnell Gibson (born December 30, 1978) also known simply as Tyrese, is an American R&B singer, rapper, actor, author, former fashion model and MTV VJ. After releasing several albums, he transitioned into films, with lead roles in several Hollywood releases.

Early life[link]

Gibson was born in Los Angeles, California, growing up in the Watts neighborhood.^[1][2] His mother, Priscilla Murray Gibson (née Durham), raised him & his 3 older siblings as a single parent after Gibson's father, Lurk Gibson left.^[3][4] Gibson's career began when he was discovered on a bus. An appearance in a 1994 Coca-Cola advertisement, singing the phrase "Always Coca-Cola",^[5] led to bigger fame.

Acting[link]

This section is empty. You can help by adding to it.

Discography[link]

• Tyrese (1998)
• 2000 Watts (2001)
• I Wanna Go There (2002)
• Alter Ego (2006)
• Open Invitation (2011)

Filmography[link]

Gibson also featured in Lady Gaga's music video, "Telephone" ft. Beyonce and "Angel of Mine" by Monica.

Awards/nominations[link]

• American Music Awards
  • 2000, Favorite New R&B/Soul Artist: (Winner)^[6]

• Black Movie Awards
  • 2006, Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role: Waist Deep (Nominated) ^[6]

• Black Reel Awards
  • 2006, Best Ensemble: Four Brothers (Nominated)^[6]
  • 2002, Best Song: "Just a Baby Boy" from Baby Boy w/ Mr. Tan & Snoop Dogg (Nominated)^[6]
  • 2002, Best Actor: Baby Boy (Nominated)^[6]

• Grammy Awards
  • 2004, Best R&B Male Vocal Performance: "How U Gonna Act Like That" (Nominated) (released December 17, 2002)
  • 2000, Best R&B Male Vocal Performance: "Sweet Lady" (Nominated)

• Image Awards
  • 2002, Outstanding Hip-Hop Artist: 2000 Watts (Nominated)
  • 2002, Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture: Baby Boy (Nominated)^[6]
  • 2002, Outstanding Performance in a Variety Show: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (Nominated)^[6]

• Literary Awards
  • 2011, Best Writer, African-American Literary Award, Category: Self-Help, "How To Get Out of Your Own Way" (Nominated)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Tyrese Gibson

• Tyrese Gibson at the Internet Movie Database
• Tyrese Gibson at AllRovi

Dick Gregory
Dick Gregory in March 2010
Born	(1932-10-12) October 12, 1932 (age 79) St. Louis, Missouri, United States
Medium	Stand-up, film, books
Nationality	African American
Years active	1953–present
Genres	Satire/Political satire, Observational comedy
Subject(s)	American civil rights, American politics, American culture, African-American culture, racism, race relations, vegetarianism, healthy diet
Spouse	Lillian Gregory (1959–present) 10 children
Notable works and roles	In Living Black and White nigger: An Autobiography Write Me In!
Website	www.dickgregory.com

Richard Claxton "Dick" Gregory (born October 12, 1932 in St. Louis, Missouri) is an American comedian, social activist, social critic, writer, and entrepreneur.

Gregory is an influential American comic who has used his performance skills to convey to both white and black audiences his political message on civil rights. His social satire helped change the way white Americans perceived African American comedians since he first performed in public.

Early life[link]

As a poor student who excelled at running, Gregory was aided by teachers at Sumner High School, among them Warren St. James. Gregory earned a track scholarship to Southern Illinois University Carbondale.^[1] There he set school records as a half-miler and miler. His college career was interrupted for two years in 1954 when he was drafted into the U.S. Army. The army was where he got his start in comedy, entering and winning several Army talent shows at the urging of his commanding officer, who had taken notice of Gregory's penchant for joking. In 1956, Gregory briefly returned to SIU after his discharge, but dropped out because he felt that the university "didn't want me to study, they wanted me to run".

In the hopes of performing comedy professionally, Gregory moved to Chicago, Illinois, where he became part of a new generation of black comedians that included Nipsey Russell, Bill Cosby, and Godfrey Cambridge, all of whom broke with the minstrel tradition, which presented stereotypical black characters. 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?".^[2]

Career[link]

After completing military service, Gregory performed as a comedian in small, primarily black-patronized nightclubs while working for the United States Postal Service during the daytime. In 1961, while working at the Black-owned Roberts Show Bar in Chicago, he was hired by Hugh Hefner to work at the Chicago Playboy Club after Hefner heard him perform the following material before a largely white audience:

Good evening ladies and gentlemen. I understand there are a good many Southerners in the room tonight. I know the South very well. I spent twenty years there one night.

Last time I was down South I walked into this restaurant and this white waitress came up to me and said, "We don't serve colored people here." I said, "That's all right. I don't eat colored people. Bring me a whole fried chicken."

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!".^[3]

This routine caused a direct request from publisher Hugh Hefner and he was booked as a replacement for the white comedian Professor Irwin Corey.^{[citation needed]} Until then Gregory had worked mostly at small clubs with predominantly black audiences.

Gregory's first TV appearance was on the late night The Tonight Show Starring Jack Paar.^{[citation needed]} He soon began appearing nationally and on television.

Post career[link]

Gregory is number 82 on Comedy Central's list of the 100 Greatest Standups of all time and has his own star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame. There is a grassroots effort afoot to get him a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, spearheaded by Radio One host Joe Madison.

Gregory is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.

Gregory was a former co-host with radio personality Cathy Hughes, and is still a frequent morning guest, on WOL 1450 AM talk radio's "The Power", the flagship station of Hughes' Radio One. He also appears regularly on the nationally syndicated Imus in the Morning program.

Gregory appears as "Mr. Sun" on the television show Wonder Showzen (the third episode, titled "Ocean", aired in 2005). As Chauncey, a puppet character, imbibes a hallucinogenic substance, Mr. Sun warns, "Don't get hooked on imagination, Chauncey. It can lead to terrible, horrible things." Gregory also provides guest commentary on the Wonder Showzen Season One DVD. Large segments of his commentary were intentionally bleeped out, including the names of several dairy companies, as he made potentially slanderous remarks concerning ill effects that the consumption of cow milk has on human beings.

Gregory attended and spoke at the funeral of James Brown on December 30, 2006, in Augusta, Georgia.

Gregory is an occasional guest on the Mark Thompson's "Make It Plain" Sirius Channel 146 Radio Show from 3pm to 6pm PST.

Gregory appeared on The Alex Jones Show on September 14, 2010, and again on March 19, 2012.

Personal life[link]

Gregory met his wife Lillian Smith ^[4] at an African-American club; they married in 1959. They have ten children, including one who died at birth: Michele, Lynne, Pamela, Paula, Stephanie (aka Xenobia), Gregory, Christian, Miss, Ayanna, and Yohance.^[5] In 1973 the Gregorys moved to Plymouth, Massachusetts.^{[citation needed]}

Activism[link]

Political activism[link]

This section includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (March 2012)

Dick Gregory at the Miami Book Fair International of 1984

Active in the civil rights movement, on October 7, 1963, Gregory came to Selma, Alabama and spoke for two hours on a public platform two days before the voter registration drive known as "Freedom Day" (October 7, 1963).^[6]

In 1964, Gregory became more involved in struggles for civil rights, activism against the Vietnam War, economic reform, anti-drug issues, conspiracy theories, and others. As a part of his activism, he went on several hunger strikes.

Gregory began his political career by running against Richard J. Daley for the mayoralty of Chicago in 1967. Though he did not emerge victorious, this would not prove to be the end of his dalliances in electoral politics.

Dick Gregory in 1965

Gregory unsuccessfully ran for President of the United States in 1968 as a write-in candidate of the Freedom and Peace Party, which had broken off from the Peace and Freedom Party. He garnered 47,097 votes (including one from Hunter S. Thompson^[7]) with fellow activist Mark Lane as his running mate in some states, David Frost in others, and Dr. Benjamin Spock in Virginia^[8] and Pennsylvania^[9] garnering more than the party he had left.^[10] The Freedom and Peace Party also ran other candidates, including Beulah Sanders for New York State Senate and Flora Brown for New York State Assembly.^[11] His efforts landed him on the master list of Nixon political opponents.

Gregory then wrote the book Write Me In about his presidential campaign. One interesting anecdote therein relates the story of a publicity stunt that came out of Operation Breadbasket in Chicago where the campaign had printed dollar bills with Gregory's image on them, some of which made it into circulation, causing considerable problems, but priceless publicity.

The majority of these bills were quickly seized by the federal government. A large contributing factor to the seizure came from the bills resembling authentic US currency enough that they worked in many dollar-cashing machines of the time. Gregory avoided being charged with a federal crime, later joking that the bills couldn’t really be considered US currency because "everyone knows a black man will never be on a US bill."

Shortly after this time Gregory became an outspoken critic of the Warren Commission findings that President JFK was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald. On March 6, 1975, Gregory and assassination researcher Robert Groden appeared on Geraldo Rivera's late night ABC talk show Goodnight America. An important historical event happened that night when the famous Zapruder film of JFK's assassination was shown to the public on TV for the first time in history.^[12] The public's response and outrage to that showing led to the forming of the Hart-Schweiker investigation, which contributed to the Church Committee Investigation on Intelligence Activities by the United States, which resulted in the House Select Committee on Assassinations investigation.

Gregory was an outspoken feminist, and in 1978 he joined Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, Bella Abzug, Margaret Heckler, Barbara Mikulski, and original suffragists to lead the National ERA March for Ratification and Extension, a march down Pennsylvania Avenue to the United States Capitol of over 100,000 on Women's Equality Day (August 26), 1978 to demonstrate for a ratification deadline extension for the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution, and for the ratification of the ERA. The march was ultimately successful in extending the deadline to June 30, 1982, and Gregory joined other activists to the Senate for celebration and victory speeches by pro-ERA Senators, Members of Congress, and activists. The ERA still narrowly failed to be ratified by the extended ratification date, however, but the Women's Movement was largely successful in securing gender equality in the laws and society.

On July 21, 1979, Gregory appeared at the Amandla Festival where Bob Marley, Patti LaBelle, and Eddie Palmieri, amongst others, had performed. Gregory gave a speech before Marley's performance, blaming President Carter, and showing his support for the international Anti-Apartheid movements. Gregory and Mark Lane conducted landmark research into the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., which helped move the U.S. House Assassinations Committee to investigate the murder, along with that of John F. Kennedy. Lane was author of conspiracy theory books such as Rush to Judgment. The pair wrote the MLK conspiracy book Code Name Zorro, which postulated that convicted assassin James Earl Ray did not act alone. Gregory has also argued that the moon landing was faked and the commonly accepted account of the 9/11 attacks is incorrect, among other conspiracy theories.^[13][14]

Gregory was an outspoken activist during the US Embassy Hostage Crisis in Iran. In 1980 he traveled to Tehran to attempt to negotiate the hostages' release and engaged in a public hunger strike there, weighing less than 100 pounds (45 kg) when he returned to the United States.

In 1998 Gregory spoke at the celebration of the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. with President Bill Clinton in attendance. Not long after, the President told Gregory’s long-time friend and P.R. Consultant, Steve Jaffe, “I love Dick Gregory; he is one of the funniest people on the planet.” They spoke of how Gregory had made a comment on Dr. King’s birthday that broke everyone into laughter, when he noted that the President made Speaker Newt Gingrich ride “in the back of the plane,” on an Air Force One trip overseas.

Gregory was diagnosed with lymphoma in late 1999. He said he was treating the cancer with herbs, vitamins, and exercise, which he believes kept the cancer in remission.^[15]

Since the late 1980s, Gregory has been a figure in the health food industry by advocating for a raw fruit and vegetable diet. He wrote the introduction to Viktoras Kulvinskas' book "Survival into the 21st Century". Gregory first became a vegetarian in the 1960s, and has lost a considerable amount of weight by going on extreme fasts, some lasting upwards of 50 days. He developed a diet drink called "Bahamian Diet Nutritional Drink" and went on TV shows advocating for his diet and to help the morbidly obese. He is probably best remembered for his attempts, chronicled in the media on daytime talk shows in early 1988, at helping 1,200 pound (540 kg) Long Island resident Walter Hudson drop nearly 600 pounds (270 kg) in only a few months on a liquid diet. In 2003, Gregory and Cornel West wrote letters on behalf of PETA to Kentucky Fried Chicken's CEO, asking that the company improve their animal-handling procedures.^[16]

At a Civil Rights rally marking the 40th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, Gregory criticized the United States, calling it "the most dishonest, ungodly, unspiritual nation that ever existed in the history of the planet. As we talk now, America is 5 percent of the world's population and consumes 96 percent of the world's hard drugs".^[17]

Gregory announced a hunger strike on September 10, 2010, saying in a commentary published by the Centre for Research on Globalisation in Montreal that he doubted the official U.S. report about the attacks on September 11, 2001. "One thing I know is that the official government story of those events, as well as what took place that day at the Pentagon, is just that, a story. This story is not the truth, but far from it. I was born on October 12, 1932. I am announcing today that I will be consuming only liquids beginning Sunday until my eightieth birthday in 2012 and until the real truth of what truly happened on that day emerges and is publicly known."^[18]

Health Enterprises, Inc.[link]

In 1984 he founded Health Enterprises, Inc., a company that distributed weight loss products. In 1985 Gregory introduced the "Slim-Safe Bahamian Diet", a powdered diet mix.^[19]

Discography[link]

• In Living Black and White (1961)
• East & West (1961)
• Dick Gregory Talks Turkey (1962)
• The Two Sides of Dick Gregory (1963)
• My Brother's Keeper (1963)
• Dick Gregory Running for President (1964)
• So You See... We All Have Problems (1964)
• Dick Gregory On: (1969)
• The Light Side: The Dark Side (1969)
• Dick Gregory's Frankenstein (1970)
• Live at the Village Gate (1970)
• At Kent State (1971)
• Caught in the Act (1974)
• The Best of Dick Gregory (1997)
• 21st Century "State of the Union" (2001)

Books[link]

• Nigger: An Autobiography, with Robert Lipsyte, E.P. Dutton, September 1964. (one account says 1963) (reprinted, Pocket Books, 1965-present)
• Write me in!, Bantam, 1968.
• From the Back of the Bus
• What's Happening?
• The Shadow that Scares Me
• Dick Gregory's Bible Tales, with Commentary, a book of Bible-based humor. ISBN 0-8128-6194-9
• Dick Gregory's Natural Diet for Folks Who Eat: Cookin' With Mother Nature! ISBN 0-06-080315-0
• (with Shelia P. Moses), Callus on My Soul : A Memoir ISBN 0-7582-0202-4
• Up from Nigger
• No More Lies; The Myth and the Reality of American History
• Dick Gregory's political primer
• (with Mark Lane), Murder in Memphis: The FBI and the Assassination of Martin Luther King
• (with Mel Watkins), African American Humor: The Best Black Comedy from Slavery to Today (Library of Black America)
• Robert Lee Green, Dick Gregory, daring Black leader
• African American Humor: The Best Black Comedy from Slavery to Today (editor) ISBN 1-55652-430-7

Filmography[link]

• "One Bright Shining Moment" (2006)
• The Hot Chick (2002)
• Children of the Struggle (1999)
• Panther (1995)
• Sweet Love, Bitter (1967)

See also[link]

• African-American Civil Rights Movement (1896–1954)
• African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955–1968)
• Timeline of the American Civil Rights Movement
• Gregory v. Chicago

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Dick Gregory

• Dick Gregory on IMDb
• A short biography from www.dickgregory.com
• Dick Gregory Photographs from the Western Historical Manuscript Collection at the University of Missouri–St. Louis
• The Juice on Dick Gregory (dietary habits)
• Dick Gregory's oral history video excerpts at The National Visionary Leadership Project
• Booknotes interview with Gregory on Callus on My Soul: A Memoir, March 4, 2001.
• Speech by Dick Gregory given on October 20, 1969. Audio recording. From the University of Alabama's Emphasis Symposium on Contemporary Issues.