Conversations with Great Minds - Dick Gregory

For tonight's Converation with Great Minds - I am joined by Dick Gregory to talk about Occupy Wall Street, his activist work on the death penalty for a white supremacist, the Keystone Pipeline and more. Dick Gregory is a comedian, social activist writer, and entrepreneur whose work has redefined how Americans perceive political comedy and African American comedians. He got his first big break when he was hired by Hugh Hefner to perform stand up at the Chicago Playboy Club in 1961 and he hasn't stopped since. He began political activism by running against Richard J. Daley for the mayor's office in Chicago in 1967 and followed that up with a write-in campaign for the Oval Office in 1968 as a candidate of the Freedom and Peace Party. He has devoted himself to many causes throughout his career as an activist - including civil rights, women's rights, anti-war campaigns, the international anti-apartheid movement and environmental protection issues. When Thom Hartmann ran a community for abused kids in New England in the early 1980s, he was on the advisory board, and did fundraisers for the Salem program, and he traveled with Thom to Uganda during the end of the war with Idi Amin to set up famine and medical relief programs. He has devoted his life to using his considerable talents and gifts to helping others. He now finds himself on Comedy Central's list of the 100 Greatest Standups of All Time and has his own star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.