Comedians: They Have Overcome

  • Share
  • Read Later

(2 of 2)

Gregory, in his act, goes on with the theme. "Right now, it's not a question of getting served at the counter," he says. "It's a matter of eating too much. I never got served before, but now I have to eat at all these restaurants. The food is so good and I'm eating so well that I can't sing We Shall Overcome. I have to burp it."

Cambridge, offstage, expresses the creed behind this new outlook when he says, "I am only concerned with letting people see the truth of our lives, like, for example, the way Negroes are afraid of each other too. We have got to show the common bonds. I have an act about people staring at a Negro in the Safeway. I want people to realize that they really do stare. We must bring things out into the open. There are some people you can't reach. You neutralize this kind. If two men are laughing at each other, nobody gets stabbed." He sums it all up in his act when he says: "You people aren't going back to Europe, and we aren't going back to Africa. We got too much going here."

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. Next Page