Dick Gregory’s entry into the 1968 presidential race was dismissed by many mainstream media outlets and political commentators as nothing more than an entertaining stunt. But that was cool; Gregory wasn’t speaking to them. His audience heard him loud and clear.
Gregory was famously anti-establishment. He would regularly criticize capitalism and what he believed was the political deception of America’s two-party system. In his book “Write Me In!” Gregory writes, “To be forced to select between party-dominated choices is to have no real choice at all... For a voter to write in a candidate of his own choosing represents the best instinct of the democratic process…”
College students and working-class African Americans flocked to Gregory’s message. Gregory’s campaign called out systemic racism, the excesses of American capitalism, the war in Vietnam, and the limitations of a two-party system. As a third-party candidate, Gregory – a member of the Freedom and Peace Party – presented a different path forward.
Gregory’s fiery speeches attacking the system placed him on the radar of the FBI. They viewed his message of community and love as extremism, all because he wouldn’t bow to white supremacy.
Dick Gregory wasn’t afraid to speak his mind. He believed that we deserve more than representation from the government. We need a government operated by us and that has our best interests at heart. We shouldn’t stop fighting until we realize this political liberation.