Freedom in Laughter: Dick Gregory, Bill Cosby, and the Civil Rights Movement

Analyzes the dynamic period in which Dick Gregory and Bill Cosby moved African American professional stand-up comedy from the chitlin' circuit to the mainstream.

In this groundbreaking book, Malcolm Frierson moves comedy from the margins to the center of the American Civil Rights Movement. Freedom in Laughter reveals how stand-up comedians Dick Gregory and Bill Cosby used their increasing mainstream success to advance political issues, albeit differently. Frierson first explores Gregory's an...