Callus On My Soul: A Memoir

by Dick Gregory and Shelia P. Moses

Book Overview

Providing his thought-provoking insights on race, fame, and politics, a fascinating glimpse into the life and work of Dick Gregory, one of America's top comedians and civil rights workers, details the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0758202024
• ISBN13: 9780758202024
• Release Date: February 2003
• Publisher: Dafina
• Length: 301 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 1.0" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

Great book!

I like everything about the information contained in this book! History is especially history when told truthfully by someone who has experienced it first hand and I am so glad I had the honor of reading this book! Thank you Dick Gregory and thank you Miss Moses!

Good Thinking

Brother Greg believes O.J. is innocent. That is hard to believe, and there is some paranoia with his thinking. Conspiracy theories make for good fiction, but some of it is enlightening and believable. Mr. Gregory is a great man, and has a lot of knowledge. He is very smart. He is very funny, but he is also obsessed. If he calms down, he would do better. I love him. He is trying so hard to stop world hunger, and wants people to be slim and trim, and not fat as a pig. He wants justice. If people were more like Mr. Gregory, the world would be a much better place.

We've Been Best Friends for 35 Years

To those who might consider this a biased review, I want to first say that reading this book will transform your life and your beliefs about about everything. From the truth about racism to facts about love and humor. I want to say that I have have had the honor, the pleasure and the God-given reward to have been the friend of Dick Gregory for 36 years. So if you were to judge my words on a prejudice you would be right. But that just makes me a more informed reporter regarding whether or not you should read this book.Over the past 5 decades we have benefitted from what he has done. Dick Gregory has spent, going to jail for us to break the bonds of prejudice? We are certainly grateful that someone so courageous as Dick Gregory has used his fame, the notoriety he earned from his wit and wisdom to communicate -- though he made it a point to forever stop performing in nightclubs, though it cost him millions of dollars, because he knew it was a travesty to sell liquor or cigarettes to people because these were deadly substances. So he gave up the wealth that so many stars, entertainers, celebrities, etc. had access to. Why? Because he was a man of truth. He remains a man of truth.While he had married the woman of his dreams, the woman of his life, Lil Gregory (forgive me for using the familiar first name but after knowing them for 35 years it's second nature to me now), he also sought to communicate the tragic, and heinous ills of society's prejudice and racism, through a method of communication that he learned in school. In 'Nigger' the first Dick Gregory autobiography, and in "Callus On My Soul," the second autogiogaphy by Dick Gregory and Shelia Moses, he told of his dilemma for survival.He was small and not able to prevail on the street corner or in the schoolyard without something extra. Had he been a giant, strong and awesome physically, it would have been easy. But Gregory was smart, he was gifted intellectullay and most of all he was funny, comical, and had a talent for humor. If you can make people laugh, you can lower their defenses. So Greg began a lifetime of making people laugh. It started with a need to survive but it continued to flood a nation which had never seen the wit and wisdom of such a person.At the same time, Gregory was in command of his physical self. This would be something that would define his life many years later. While in his school years, he became a champion long distance, cross-country runner, and eventually he became the champion of the State of Missouri.Humor was his entry into history and his commitment was his entry into a life of dedication to the civil rights movement with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and many others. The experiences he relates in his book are enough to give you chivers because of his creativity, born of his talent for humor in some cases, but also his courage, such as to call for and be granted a face-to-face meeting with the Ayatollah Khomeni during he incarceration of the Americans who wor

WOW!!! STRONG!!! A Black Booksellers Dream Book!!!

Another hero in African American & American His-story. This book should be on the shelf next to The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Sure to become a classic!!! How many people you know have worked this hard?