244 Culture, Identity, and Community: From Slavery to the PresentAlthough Pryor’s parents were not married when Richard
was born, they did marry briefl y three years later, but from
an early age, he was left in the care and custody of his fa-
ther’s mother at the brothel on north Washington Street.
Th e Offi cial Biography of Richard Pryor says that at age six,
he was raped by a teenage neighbor and was later molested
by a Catholic priest during catechism. His home life was not
much better. He was later molested again as a teenager by
one of the brothel’s customers and allegedly witnessed his
mother performing sexual acts for money with the town’s
mayor. Many of those closest to him attribute his legend-
ary problems with booze, sex, and alcohol to his inability to
escape the traumas of his early life.
Bishetta D. Merrit says in her profi le of Pryor for the
Museum of Broadcast Communications that his public per-
forming career began in high school when a teacher con-
vinced him to stop cutting and disrupting classes by giving
him the opportunity to perform his comedy routine once
a week for his classmates. Later, Pryor dropped out of highorganizations without an offi cial affi liation with either
country’s Masonic orders.
See also: Black Fraternal Societies; Hall, Prince
Jane M. AldrichBibliography
Walkes, Joseph A. Black Square & Compass: 200 Years of Prince
Hall Freemasonry. Richmond, VA: Macoy Publishing & Ma-
sonic Supply, 1989.
Wilder, Craig. In the Company of Black Men: Th e African Infl uence
on African American Culture in New York City. New York:
New York University Press, 2002.
Pryor, Richard
Richard Pryor (1940–2005) began his comedic career with
relatively race-neutral comedy modeled aft er his idol Bill
Cosby, but he eventually brought an African American folk
sensibility tinged with a sometimes foul-mouthed vulgar-
ity to his humor. His stage act oft en drew on the pathos of
the African American working class and the dispossessed,
such as pimps, prostitutes, and winos, in an overt and un-
apologetic way. His comedic styling opened up African
American language and customs to the American main-
stream. An article in Ebony magazine written in 2006, said
that Pryor mirrored the black condition without exploiting
it and that his comedy contributed to the evolution of a true
black humor in the United States (Ebony, February 2006).
Initially, his comedic style aft er a self-imposed exile
in California’s Bay Area was considered black hipster chic.
However, Pryor’s outrageous stage persona and unique
style of looking at the world eventually exerted a lasting
infl uence on the nation’s humor and cultural life. At the
time of his death from a heart attack on December 11,
2005, news outlets across the country noted that Pryor’s
comedy had given numerous entertainers, including Eddie
Murphy, Robin Williams, Chris Rock, and Steve Martin,
license to inject social commentary into their comedy, act-
ing, or art.
Richard Franklin Lenox Th omas Pryor III was born
on December 1, 1940, in Peoria, Illinois. His father, Leroy
“Buck” Pryor, was a pimp; his mother, Gertrude Th omas
Pryor, was a prostitute; and his grandmother who raised
him, Marie Carter, was a madam who ran a brothel.
Comedian Richard Pryor performs at the Hollywood Bowl on
September 19, 1977 , in Los Angeles, California. (AP Photo/Lennox
McLendon)