Defining Moments in (Black) History - Dick Gregory

   2017; 271 pages.  Full Title: Defining Moments in [Black] History – Reading Between the Lies.  New Author? : Yes.  Genres : Historical Essays; African-American History; Non-Fiction; Socio-Political Commentary.  Laurels: 2017 NAACP Image Award (winner); 2018 BCALA (Black Caucus of the American Library Association) Literary Award.  Overall Rating : 7½*/10.

    America today is once again in a Black Lives Matter crisis, and while I am fully support the protesters and activists, I also have to admit that I know very little about their mindset.  It’s therefore a good time to read something/someone relevant to the movement, but who and what to choose?  Well, let’s use the “BOFFO” criteria.

    B.  Black.  It makes sense to select a black author, because they will inherently be more attuned to BLM than us white folks, just like you wouldn’t pick a male author to describe what labor pains feel like while giving birth.

    O.  Old.  It would be best if the author participated in the 1950’s/60’s Civil Rights protests, yet was also still around when the BLM demonstrations of this decade were going on.

    F. Famous.  Famous people rub elbows with other famous people, and it would be interesting to hear what black professional athletes, movie actors, and politicians think about the protests from someone who knows them personally.

    F. Funny.  Yes, Civil Rights and Black Lives Matter are serious topics, but a couple of witty anecdotes every once in a while would help lighten the mood.

    O. Outspoken. There’s no need to sugarcoat the subject.  The author should have a reputation of telling it like it is.

    That’s all fine and dandy, but who’s out there that fulfills all our BOFFO preferences?

    Well, Dick Gregory for one.

What’s To Like...

    The "meat" of Defining Moments in (Black) History consists of five essays written by Dick Gregory, plus a Frontspiece (worth reading), Foreword (skippable), Introduction (kind of a sixth essay), and Epilogue (the author’s closing thoughts).  A brief summary of the Essays:

    Introduction : Dick-ol-o-gy (3%)

        Getting used to the writing style; getting used to the comedic interludes.

    Essay 1 : Searching For Freedom  (11%)

        The early history of slavery in the US.

    Essay 2 : Solidarity  (22%)

        The Civil Rights movement in the 1950’s/60’s and the organizations formed to promote them.

    Essay 3 : The More Things Change, the More Thy Stay the Same  (41%)

        Politics and the passing of the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965.

    Essay 4 : Making Something Out of Nothing  (59%)

        Notable black people in the Arts.

    Essay 5 : Running in Place, Embarrassing the Race  (85%)

        Notable black people in Sports.

    The essays are written in a “conversational” style, which took me a while to get used to.  I have a feeling someone taped Dick Gregory as he spoke, and then transcribed it.  The result is a lot of “As I said”, “Follow me now”, and “But, keep in mind, as I keep saying“ type of expressions, plus an occasional cussword.

    Dick Gregory does a lot of name-dropping along the way, but that’s okay.  It was enlightening to read his opinions about all sorts of famous folks, both historical and recent.  Rosa Parks, my personal hero, gets major ink, as do Muhammad Ali, Toni Morrison, Tiger Woods, Sidney Poitier, and Maya Angelou.  I had forgotten about Tommie Smith and John Carlos, and it's embarrassing that I’d never heard of Mae Jemison.

    The discourse on “the difference between racism and white supremacy” was educational for me.  For lovers of trivia, it’s pointed out that November 11th is both Veteran’s Day and  Nat Turner’s Death Day.  I think I’ll start commemorating it for the latter event.  You’ll also learn things like why Louis Armstrong was nicknamed “Satchmo”.

    I was surprised to learn the Dick Gregory had a rather low opinion of both Abraham Lincoln and John Kennedy.  He views Bill Clinton in only a slightly better light, but really appreciated John Brown’s commitment to abolition.  The history of The Supremes was fascinating, and oddly enough, one of my favorite bands, The Doors, get a brief mention.

Excerpts...

    For those who haven’t been to jail but kind of wonder in the back of their minds what it was like in the civil rights days, let me explain it to you.  First day you get arrested, the food is horrible.  Second day, it’s miserable.  The third day, it doesn’t taste too bad.  The fourth day, you’re asking for the recipe.

    By the time I got down south to protest, blood was running in the streets.  (loc. 1274)

    Once you admit that there’s somebody in the universe other than you, white supremacy goes out the window, doesn’t it?  Organized religion as we know it goes out the window, doesn’t it?  My grandmother didn’t have space in her head to believe there could be a Baptist on Mars.  Worst of all, in the view of white supremacists, if we start to think we’re not alone in the universe, then white supremacy doesn’t mean a thing, because we would all become earthlings.  There wouldn’t be a Memphis or a Chicago or an America or a Russia or a China or an Africa – we would be Earth people.  This is what this thing is all about.  (loc. 3500)

“White is not a color; it’s an attitude.”  (loc. 678 )

    The book has some weaknesses.  For starters, the comedic interludes, while entertaining, were also distracting.  Yes, you can tell Dick Gregory’s spiel about the history of hurricanes is not to be taken seriously, but it wasn’t clear whether the Jocko Graves anecdote was fact or farce; ditto for the "turtle, butterfly, and dinosaur" object lesson.  A lot of the historical tie-ins – such as the role of the (black) Tuskegee airmen saving the day for the whole D-Day invasion – seemed overstated.

    Even worse were Dick Gregory's conspiracy theories.  Lincoln and Kennedy were both killed by the banks.  Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed by someone other than James Earl Ray.  Otis Redding and Sam Cooke were both killed by the Jewish owners of record companies.  The King Kong movie was really a slander against the boxer Jack Johnson.  Tiger Woods was brought down by white supremacists.  And last and laughably least, Michael Jackson was killed by the government.  Using lasers.

    It was also sad to see the author struggling to defend some of his personal friends, such as Bill Cosby.  It’s noble to have a friend’s back, but the evidence against Cosby is overwhelming.  Dick Gregory can’t refute it, so he justifies it by saying lots of others in the movie industry were doing the same thing, and they weren’t punished.  Somehow, that sounds eerily similar to wing-nuts defending Trump's grabbing of female genitals.

    But overall, the pluses about Defining Moments In (Black) History outweigh the minuses.  It’s important to remember these are essays, not dissertations.  You’re getting Dick Gregory’s opinions about important steps in the road to black freedom, not a scholarly presentation of facts.  He’s trying to instill a sense of pride in black readers through telling them their history that was never taught to them and giving them lots of black role models,  He couldn't care less whether some of the details are debatable.

    When viewed in that light, the book is a powerful effort.  And it shouldn't be surprising at all that Dick Gregory gave the Black Lives Matter movement his wholehearted endorsement.

    7½ Stars.  Defining Moments In (Black) History was Dick Gregory’s seventeenth and final book.  He was born on October 12 (Columbus Day!) in 1932, and he passed away on August 19, 2017, less than a month before, on September 05, the hardcover version of the book was published.  RIP, sir!