Dick Gregory’s Natural Food Journey

Dick Gregory’s book on nutrition became a staple in African American homes.

Dick Gregory was part of the new generation of 60’s black comedians that included Bill Cosby and Nipsey Russell. In one of his early routines he said, “I walked into this restaurant in the South and this white waitress comes up to me and says, ‘We don’t serve colored people here.’ I said, ‘That’s all right. I don’t eat colored people. Bring me a whole fried chicken instead.’”

While attending a family Thanksgiving in the early 60's, he began to fantasize about food. Gregory imagined aliens from another planet who viewed humans in the same way we view animals, as a food source.

I could see myself in some strange planetary oven, being basted and roasted. It would be one thing to roast white folks brown; they’d be trying to figure a way to “undone” us black folks. I even thought about myself lying on a platter all filled with stuffing! Then I’d have these visions of beings from another planet going to the butcher shop with their meat list. I could hear them placing an order: ‘Give me a half dozen Oriental knees, two Caucasian feet and twelve fresh black lips.’ And the shopkeeper comes back smiling and says, ‘These black lips are so fresh they’re still talkin.’” After that, I couldn’t eat my Thanksgiving dinner. But it started me thinking.

Gregory decided to stop eating meat. It was not about health at first. In his memoir Callus on My…