Dick Gregory speaks on civil issues at CMU

Central Michigan University students and members of the Mount Pleasant community filled Plachta Auditorium in Warriner Hall Tuesday evening for a chance to see civil rights activist and comedian Dick Gregory take the stage. Gregory served as the keynote speaker for the Black History Month celebration led by the Office of Institutional Diversity.

 

For his presentation, he revisited the progress made by African-Americans in the past and the impact it has had on the U.S. in the present day. He thanked Martin Luther King Jr. and other activists like him for their commitment toward equality.

 

“Racism is the ability to control someone else’s faith and destiny,” Gregory said. “Nobody in the history of the world has ever made the progress that African-Americans have made in a 50-year period.”

 

Mount Pleasant senior Paul Barlow said the benefit of hearing Gregory’s message was the knowledge he shared.

 

“There’s a lot of things that you don’t really think about that he spoke on,” Barlow said. “Wanting to change the world isn’t good enough. You have to be pure in your heart and change things within yourself first.”

 

Gregory agreed that his primary message was not only to respect those that paved the way for civil liberties, but to realize that the path toward a better future starts from the inside.

 

“Information is power and all I do is bring information,” Gregory said. “I want everyone to walk away knowing the importance and power of love and kindness.”