Defining Moments in Black History (Reading Between the Lies) by Dick Gregory
A Review By: SQ
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 50 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.
Review Notes:
Audio Book Publication Year: 2017
An installment in a Series? No
Narrator (s): James Shippy
This audiobook was a random collection of essays by the incomparable Dick Gregory. It was a series of glimpses into history as this man lived them. Historical figures and events that one man was in the room to experience make for one compelling listen and read.
My age as my witness, a lot of things in this book I’ve only ever held a rudimentary knowledge of, if I knew of it at all. I didn’t really have a grasp on who Dick Gregory was! The narrator (while obviously not Mr. Gregory) enacted this book as if these were his lived experiences. I was absolutely riveted once I began listening.
There was nothing that I disliked about this book or the performance of it. I even enjoyed how the book skipped around history, so I never knew where the next story would take me! With that said, I could see how that might bother the next person.
Reading Recommendation? Yes!
Rating: NORTH STAR RATING
Content Warnings? Human or animal loss, Physical abuse/violence
