Dick Gregory, comedian, actor, and civil rights activist, was born Richard Claxton Gregory in 1932 in St. Louis, Missouri. Gregory’s father left the family when Gregory was a child forcing his mother, Lucille, a maid, to raise him and his five siblings. During his high school years Gregory joined the track team at Sumner High School and broke several school records. He consequently won a track scholarship to Southern Illinois University in 1951. Around 1953, Gregory’s mother died and he left college. He was drafted into the Army, where he performed as a comedian and won his first talent show.

Three years after leaving the Army, Gregory made his name as a comedian in Chicago nightclubs while living with his brother Presley. In 1959, he married Lillian Smith and together they had ten children.

In 1960, Gregory accepted Hugh Hefner’s invitation to perform for a group of white Southerners at Chicago’s Playboy Lounge. The gig turned into a six-week commitment and he received positive reviews in national publications such as Time magazine. The job helped Gregory become one of the first black comedians to successfully perform in major all-white nightclubs. Through programs such as the Jack Paar Show, he became one of the first black comedians to break through to national white television audiences. His humor often addressed the contemporary issues of segregation and racism which were being brought to the national spotlight by the civil rights movement. During this time Gregory increasingly devoted his humor to the civil rights cause. Between 1961 and 1964 he released In Living Black and White, Dick Gregory Talks Turkey, The Two Sides of Dick Gregory, and Running for President.