52nd City

What a Book!

While at the Webster University library last week, I happened across a copy of Dick Gregory's autobiography "nigger" (1964, E.P. Dutton) in the stacks. It was a book that I wanted to pick up for some time, if only because of Gregory's occasional appearances in the old Gaslight Square district. What I found, though, was a fascinating account of life in St. Louis during the late-'30s through the mid-'50s, at which point Gregory took a track scholarship to SIU-C.

The first third of the book contains the St. Louis-specific material, but Gregory's accounts of facing racism as a star college athlete, breaking into show business in a competitive Chicago market and then seguing into a lead role in the civil rights struggles of the South (and, true, the Midwest). The material was compelling enough that I had force myself to put it down, in order to not run through the 232-pages in one reading.

For those who might know Gregory only for his recent forays into writing diet books and taking on odd causes, this is a wonderful primer to the man's early days. And it's another "must have" for any comprehensive STL book collection. While I'm returning my copy to WU today, I'm planning a trip to Dunaway Books for this afternoon, as well, in hopes of adding this one to the personal bookshelf. From there, it'll be a much loaned-out work, I'm certain.