Defining Moments in Black History: Reading Between the Lies

Dick Gregory

Sep 2017 · HarperAudio · Narrated by James Shippy

About this audiobook

With his trademark acerbic wit, incisive humor, and infectious paranoia, one of our foremost comedians and most politically engaged civil rights activists looks back at 100 key events from the complicated history of black America.

A friend of luminaries including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Medgar Evers, and the forebear of today’s popular black comics, including Larry Wilmore, W. Kamau Bell, Damon Young, and Trevor Noah, Dick Gregory was a provocative and incisive cultural force for more than fifty years. As an entertainer, he always kept it indisputably real about race issues in America, fearlessly lacing laughter with hard truths. As a leading activist against injustice, he marched at Selma during the Civil Rights movement, organized student rallies to protest the Vietnam War; sat in at rallies for Native American and feminist rights; fought apartheid in South Africa; and participated in hunger strikes in support of Black Lives Matter.

In this collection of thoughtful, provocative essays, Gregory charts the complex and often obscured history of the African American experience. In his unapologetically candid voice, he moves from African ancestry and surviving the Middle Passage to the creation of the Jheri Curl, the enjoyment of bacon and everything pig, the headline-making shootings of black men, and the Black Lives Matter movement. A captivating journey through time, Defining Moments in Black History explores historical movements such as The Great Migration and the Harlem Renaissance, as well as cultural touchstones such as Sidney Poitier winning the Best Actor Oscar for Lilies in the Field and Billie Holiday releasing Strange Fruit.

An engaging look at black life that offers insightful commentary on the intricate history of the African American people, Defining Moments in Black History is an essential, no-holds-bar history lesson that will provoke, enlighten, and entertain.

Ratings and reviews

lol come on, man. This dude was a civil rights icon and was hilarious, but his conspiracy theories go so far he says hurricanes didn't start hitting America until after 1619 and that sharks changed their entire migration patterns and where they hunted because the Middle Passage had so much blood in the water from those had been enslaved. He said that in the introduction. Before the book even started. He wasn't joking. I understand he was using hurricanes as a metaphor to show the power of Black women, but to say they didn't even come to North America until 1619? What? We have evidence of hurricanes dating back to 1330 BCE. The sharks nonsense is beyond rational thought. Just wow. Uninstalled before the Introduction was complete. Wish I could get a refund.

loved this book. gave me insight to ppl I thought was for us blacks & whites. enjoyed the raw way he spoke on these situations for us blacks

Amazing insight into Black history through the eyes of someone who lived it. Dick Gregory is Black history.

About the author

Richard “Dick” Claxton Gregory was an African American comedian, civil rights activist, and cultural icon who first performed in public in the 1950s. He was on Comedy Central’s list of “100 Greatest Stand-Ups” and was the author of fourteen books, most notably the bestselling classic Nigger: An Autobiography. A hilariously authentic wisecracker and passionate fighter for justice, Gregory is considered one of the most prized comedians of our time. He and his beloved wife, Lil, have ten kids.