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Tuesday, October 08, 2002

By Monica L. Haynes, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Dick Gregory has got jokes, opinions, theories and an almost unfathomable devotion to civil and human rights.

	Dick Gregory speaks after receiving a Free Speech Award during the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in March, in Aspen, Colo. (AP Photo)

It's the kind of devotion that makes him go without food, that made him an absentee father and husband, that keeps him on airplanes and in hotels for more than six months a year.

Waiting for a flight out of Louisville, Ky. last week, the comedian/activist/author voiced his opinions about everything from the hit movie "Barbershop" to President George W. Bush.

It's a safe bet he'll talk about those subjects, plus whatever is happening here, when he speaks tomorrow evening at the 14th Annual Harvest Celebration for Just Harvest.

"The World According to Dick Gregory: An Evening of Humor and Humanity" will be held at the Omni William Penn, starting with a silent auction at 6 p.m.

Gregory, a tireless mover in the civil rights movement, has a schedule that would be daunting to men in excellent health and half his 70 years.

Two years ago, Gregory was diagnosed with cancer. Asked about his health, he said, "I feel fine. If I felt any better I'd call the police."

He does 200 engagements a year and has been on the road for six months so far. Last Wednesday his schedule started with a 7 a.m. radio show in Washington, D.C.; then he flew to Louisville to assist a minister friend with a protest of the new $121 million renovation of Churchill Downs (not enough minority subcontractors); then it was on to yet another city.

	If you go . . .'14 Annual Harvest Celebration' FEATURING: Dick Gregory SPONSOR: Just Harvest WHEN: 6 p.m. tomorrow WHERE: Omni William Penn Hotel TICKETS: $35; 412-431-8960

Gregory goes to Louisville five or six times a year at the request of his friend, the Rev. Louis Coleman of the Justice Resource Center. In turn, Coleman supports Gregory in his protests of agencies such as the CIA. Gregory believes, like a number of others, that the CIA introduced crack cocaine into predominantly African-American neighborhoods in Los Angeles.

Referring to the drugs that plague some urban neighborhoods, Gregory said, "We can stop anything we want to stop. . . I could come to Pittsburgh today the dumbest person in the history of the planet and 15 minutes later I can find the crack man. You mean to tell me the police can't find him?"

Gregory also weighed in on the controversy involving the movie "Barbershop."

Disparaging remarks made about Rosa Parks, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Jesse Jackson by one of the film's characters have prompted Jackson and others to request that the comments be edited out. Producers have refused.

Gregory's take is that the movie has tread on sacred ground.

"If you go to a black barbershop they discuss everything, including priests molesting little boys. [But] when you get a white person writing the script, you will see them writing about Rosa Parks," Gregory said. He added that the same character could never get away with saying such things about white cultural icons.

"If they would have called Queen Elizabeth a whore or Jackie Kennedy a whore, they'd be dead by now."

He said those who were involved in the civil rights movement have no problem with humor, but within the right framework. Gregory explained that a woman can do a hilarious skit about the pain of pregnancy and childbirth. "I, as a man, won't have that privilege. It depends on the amount of dues you pay."

Young African Americans have not paid enough dues to poke fun at those who marched and protested so that they can have the freedoms they enjoy now, he explained.

"Spike Lee's [cousin Malcolm Lee] wouldn't have been able to direct that movie if not for our movement," Gregory said.

He also does not agree with President Bush's call for a pre-emptive strike against Iraq.

"He reduces himself down to the Bloods and the Crips," Gregory said, comparing the president to two rival Los Angeles gangs. "Every time they kill somebody, they feel they're right. This has reduced him down to their level."

Gregory said Bush should, like the two gangs, wear colors to identify his affiliation. "I would say wear green or red but that would mess up Christmas," he said.

Born in St. Louis, Gregory was a track star in high school and earned a scholarship to Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. In 1953, he left college to join the Army, where he began hosting and performing comedy in military shows.

Six years later, he embarked on a entertainment career by hosting shows at Chicago nightclubs.

During the '60s, he marched with King and others and fasted in opposition to the Vietnam War and to bring attention to issues such as world hunger and poverty. In 1968, he ran for president as a write-in candidate for the Freedom and Peace Party.

After King's assassination, Gregory became interested in conspiracy theories and authored several books including "Code Name Zorro: The Murder of Martin Luther King Jr."

An updated version of his memoirs, "Callus on My Soul," was recently published.

He and his stalwart wife, Lillian, have 10 children.

Referring to the offspring he rarely saw as they were growing up and the fact that all are college graduates, he joked, "Anybody can get 10 kids through college. I got them out of the house."

Of the hunger and poverty that still exists in America decades after he began speaking out about it, Gregory said hungry people have always existed because they have never been a priority.

"Just thank God that there are groups that say to America and the world, 'We're watching you. We see what you're doing,' " he said. "With enough people shining a spotlight on darkness, darkness will be wiped out."