Book : Nigger An Autobiography - Gregory, Dick

-Titulo Original : Nigger An Autobiography

-Fabricante :

Plume

-Descripcion Original:

Comedian and civil rights activist Dick Gregory’s million-copy-plus bestselling memoir-now in trade paperback for the first time.“Powerful and ugly and beautiful...a moving story of a man who deeply wants a world without malice and hate and is doing something about it.”-The New York TimesFifty-five years ago, in 1964, an incredibly honest and revealing memoir by one of the Americas best-loved comedians and activists, Dick Gregory, was published. With a shocking title and breathtaking writing, Dick Gregory defined a genre and changed the way race was discussed in America.Telling stories that range from his hardscrabble childhood in St. Louis to his pioneering early days as a comedian to his indefatigable activism alongside Medgar Evers and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Gregorys memoir riveted readers in the sixties. In the years and decades to come, the stories and lessons became more relevant than ever, and the book attained the status of a classic. The book has sold over a million copies and become core text about race relations and civil rights, continuing to inspire readers everywhere with Dick Gregorys incredible story about triumphing over racism and poverty to become an American legend. About the Author A friend of luminaries including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Medgar Evers, and the forebear of todays popular black comics, including Larry Wilmore, W. Kamau Bell, Dave Chappelle, and Trevor Noah, Dick Gregory was a provocative and incisive cultural force for more than 50 years. As an entertainer, he always kept it indisputably real about race issues in America, fearlessly lacing humor 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. He died in 2017. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. I Its a sad and beautiful feeling to walk home slow on Christmas Eve after youve been out hustling all day, shining shoes in the white taverns and going to the store for the neighbors and buying and stealing presents from the ten-cent store, and now its dark and still along the street and your feet feel warm and sweaty inside your tennis sneakers even if the wind finds the holes in your mittens. The electric Santa Clauses wink at you from windows. You stop off at your best friends house and look at his tree and give him a ball-point pen with his name on it. You reach into your shopping bag and give something to everybody there, even the ones you dont know. It doesnt matter that they dont have anything for you because it feels so good to be in a warm happy place where grownups are laughing. There are Daddies around. Your best friends so happy and excited, standing there trying on all his new clothes. As you walk down the stairs you hear his mother say: Boo, you forgot to say good-by to Richard, say good-by to Richard, Boo, and wish him a . . . Then youre out on the street again and some of the lights have gone out. You take the long way home, and Mister Ben, the grocer, says: Merry Christmas, Richard, and you give him a present out of the shopping bag, and you smile at a wino and give him a nickel, and you even wave at Grimes, the mean cop. Its a good feeling. You dont want to get home too fast. And then you hit North Taylor, your street, and something catches your eye and you lift your head up and its there in your window. Cant believe it. You start running and the only thing in the whole world youre mad about is that you cant run fast enough. For the first time in a long while the cracked orange door says: Come on in, little man, youre home now, and theres a wreath and lights in the window and a tree in the kitchen near the coal closet and you hug your Momma, her face h