December 12, 1964

Dick Gregory, African American comedian, author and civil rights activist, was featured at Christmas House Parties Weekend. Noted by The Miscellany News for “his ability to make people laugh and then think about why they’re laughing,” Gregory aimed his humor at targets ranging from the snow on campus—“I like snow; it’s about the only white thing we can step on”—to his daughter’s reflection of the shifting status quo in American families—on telling him he must knock before entering her room: “‘I’m three years old, I’ve got rights.’” She also, he said, no longer believed in Santa Claus, because “‘No white man’s coming to our neighborhood after midnight.’”

The Miscellany News

A frequent visitor to Vassar, Dick Gregory appeared on campus in November 1976, February 1981 and March 1999.