Biographing Social Change: Dick Gregory in Recent American History

Black and white satirical image of Dick Gregory (a frowning Gregory appears in the bottom foreground of the image while a smiling group of men appear standing in the upper background, including a police officer, a hooded Klansman, a confederate civil war soldier holding a bayonet, and a man holding a confederate flag). — Image: Satirical image of Gregory in front of smiling southern sheriffs and a Klansman. Image is from cover of his 1965 book What’s Happening?. Photo credit: The Dick Gregory Foundation (original image credited to Dick Gregory Enterprises, Inc., now defunct).

Monday Seminar:

Edward Schmitt

UW System Fellow (2018-2019)

History, UW-Parkside

Dick Gregory was a pivotal figure in modern American popular culture and a catalyst in the movements for social justice emerging out of the 1960s. This presentation will offer a brief overview of Gregory’s life and historical significance, along with a discussion of the methodological gifts and challenges of examining a recent historical figure in the digital era.

Edward Schmitt is an associate professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, where he has taught since 2002. His research and teaching focuses on the intersections of politics, social movements, and culture, particularly as these have addressed inequality in American life. His first book, President of the Other America: Robert Kennedy and the Politics of Poverty, was published by the University of Massachusetts Press in 2010.