Even Martin Luther King Jr. laughed: How Black people coped in the Civil Rights Movement

Editor’s note: This article uses era-specific terminology about race which may be offensive to some readers.

"Somebody actually asked me recently, 'Why do Black people laugh so hard? And why do they go to so many comedy shows?' And I said, 'We need to laugh the most because we've been through the most,'" comedian Guy Torry says. "And we have to laugh to keep from crying."

Black History Month often recycles tales of adversity faced by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Rosa Parks. But, among the many untold stories are some of the figures who made them laugh.

Dick Gregory, Jackie “Moms” Mabley, Richard Pryor, Godfrey Cambridge and more established and emerging Black comedians of the '60s challenged and eased racial tension during the Civil Rights Movement with their tongues. Comedy persists as an accessible resource, combining social commentary and humor, as book bans against literature about American history mount and teaching Black history is challenged by politicians amid divide over critical race theory. It's one of the forms of storytelling today that lives on thanks to the fight from Civil Rights Era comedians, who risked arrest and lynching to tell their truth.

"It's a survival mechanism, and if Black folks didn't have laughter or the ability to laugh at the situation, there's certainly a very good chance we wouldn't be here," Dick Gregory's son and estate manager Dr. Christian Gregory says. 

Comedians of the Civil Rights Movement exposed racial inequities through humor

"I don't mind going to jail myself. I just hate to see Martin Luther King in jail," Dick Gregory joked during a speech in Birmingham on May 10, 1963. 

"For various reasons: One, when the final day gets here, he is going to have a hard time trying to explain to the boss upstairs how he spent more time in jail than he did in the pulpit," he said. "When I read in the paper in Chicago that they had him in jail on Good Friday, I said that's good. And I was praying and hoping when they put him in Good Friday, they had checked back there Easter Sunday morning and he would have been gone. That would have shook up a lot of people, wouldn't it?"

The joke was meant to put Black people at ease ahead of rioting in the fight for equal rights. Dick Gregory's stardom also brought national coverage to areas that would otherwise not be reported on, his son says.

Gregory has fond memories of Parks, Coretta Scott King and Cicely Tyson bursting into "tears of laughter" when they saw him because it would instantly bring back memories of the jokes his father used to tell. 

Mabley, Pryor and Cambridge would also often poke fun at the white establishment as a way of reducing racism to a "silly" concept.

"The need to laugh at our enemies, our situation, ourselves, is a common one, but it often exists the most urgently in those who exert the least power over their immediate environment; in those who have the most objective reasons for feelings of hopelessness," Lawrence W. Levine writes in his chapters devoted to comedy in "Black Culture and Black Consciousness."

Humor in the face of racial adversity dates back to slavery

The instinct to defuse racial tension with humor pre-dates the Civil Rights Movement. Experts have examined the trauma behind laughter shared by enslaved people brought to the Americas and those used as entertainment by their masters. 

"Negros been on tour for a long time," jokes comedian Torry, who founded the all-Black comedy night Phat Tuesdays in the '90s. "Slaves used to tell jokes to keep from getting whipped."

The historical oppression sharpened the comedic toolkit as the years went on. "Most comedians are darker individuals," Torry adds, comparing them to diamonds crafted from the pressure of life and hardship.

"I had a dream last night. I asked for my equal rights. Somebody said, 'Moms, you're next!' And then I woke up with a rope around my neck," Mabley sang as a joke during a 1961 set at The Uptown Theater in Philadelphia, recalling her efforts to vote in Georgia. The crowd roared with laughter.

Fearlessness is the only hope for future of political satire, comedians say

Black comedians — especially in the South — faced incarceration in the '60s if their comedy seemed to rally Black audiences and allies or if it took aim at racial power constructs. Torry calls it the original "cancel culture."

"I'm very unapologetic with my stand-up. I don't give a damn about cancel culture," he says, adding that he likes to push the envelope on topics about racism and sexism in America. "It's my responsibility to drop gems and teach and try to move this world forward."

The future of activism in comedy is something some in the industry feel is dying out. As comedians struggle with the line between "cancel culture" and accountability, there are less willing to take a chance. Torry stresses that if you're going to go there, you have to have your facts right.

"We're at a loss for real activists comics like Dick Gregory and even (Bill) Cosby at a certain time … and it's a very hard thing to do, to knock down the old system of old white males," comedian Luenell says. "A lot of people may feel a certain way, but they won't stand up and say anything because they don't wanna make anybody mad. They don't want to ruffle any feathers."

The reason D. L. Hughley, Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle and Katt Williams "are so popular" is because they do "political humor," she adds. "We need to do it just to maybe wake some people up, but I definitely don't think that people are taking the risk that they used to."

Today, Black comedians may feel limited in what they're able to say when the majority of comedy clubs have white ownership, Luenell says.

"I don't like working for white people (when) Black people have to pay white people to go see Black people," she says; Luenell has a residency at Jimmy Kimmel's Comedy Club in Las Vegas through the end of March. But, Black entertainers should be investing in Black-owned spaces where comedy can remain unfiltered, she suggests.

Even Torry's Phat Tuesdays all-Black comedy night, featured in a Prime Video documentary of the same name, took place at the white-owned Comedy Store. "The whole purpose of Phat Tuesdays was not only just to tell our story as Black comedians, but to have a platform (in Hollywood amid the 1992 Los Angeles riots) where we can tell stories in the Black community that are untold," he says.

One of Gregory's lasting legacies that challenge racial constructs in America is his 1964 autobiography, "Nigger." In the dedication, the comedian writes, "Dear Momma — Wherever you are, if you ever hear the word 'nigger' again, remember they are advertising my book."

The title was one he struggled to get through its publisher Plume. "The purpose was to make white people uncomfortable," Gregory says, adding that it showed the irony of the evolution of the world once being widely accepted to use against Black people.

If you ponder why Black people seem to laugh at so much tragedy within the community, remember that even King laughed; Malcolm X laughed; Parks laughed — the refusal to let years of oppression turn them to stone instead of a diamond. 

Black stories for Black History Month, onward:

• Punching up in comedy:Comedians like Chappelle, Gervais want to punch down. But what about the need to punch up?
• Black History Month: 'Sesame Street' was designed for kids of color
• Black in Fashion Council at NYFW:Designers pay homage to the diaspora 
• 'Harlem': Season 2 gives Black women 'permission' to be messy
• Using joy to heal pain:Tabitha Brown, more Black creators and celebs are focusing on joy amid trauma
• Do stereotypes have a place in comedy?Phoebe Robinson, more comedians talk being in on the joke