Comedian and civil rights activist Dick Gregory died August 19, 2017, and although he is best known for his humor, the satirist once called out government-funded abortion and birth control as a genocide effort targeting the Black community.

Gregory was the father of eleven children but tragically, one of his children died as an infant. He often used his humor to touch on the social ills of the day, and as a result, many white people attended his comedy events. He became a strong voice in the Black community during the tumultuous times of the 1960’s and 70’s during the African American civil rights struggle.

In 1967, Gregory joined more than 1,100 Black delegates for the First National Conference on Black Power where he along with others in the group adopted a black power manifesto that called for the “refusal to accept birth…