Dick Gregory performs at the Bud Light Presents Wild West Comedy Festival in Nashville in 2014. (Photo by Jason Davis/Getty Images for Bud Light)

The family of the late comedian and civil rights activist Dick Gregory is hosting a celebratory service and parade in his honor this weekend in the D.C. area.

Gregory died on August 19 in the District. He was 84 years old.

The celebratory service is taking place at the City of Praise Family Ministries in Landover, Md. on Saturday at 4 p.m.

Another “celebration of life” will take place from 10-10:30 a.m. at the Howard Theater on Sunday, followed by a parade that will end at Ben’s Chili Bowl. A D.C. police spokesperson says officials are closing one lane on U Street NW for paradegoers, and residents should expect increased traffic.

Special guests throughout the weekend will include Stevie Wonder, Mayor Muriel Bowser, Minister Louis Farrakhan, Martin Luther King III, Cathy Hughes, Nick Cannon, and India Arie, among others.

About a month before he passed, Gregory attended the unveiling of a new mural at Ben’s Chili Bowl on U Street, which features his image along with other prominent African Americans. “Anyone can honor you, but these folks are like family,” Gregory told DCist. “Black folks always supported me before white folks would even come see me,” he said.

Gregory was born in St. Louis in 1932. He began his comedic career in Chicago where he delivered some of his most iconic routines, including this now-famous anti-racist bit, as reported by Chicagoist:

“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I understand there are a good many Southerners in the room tonight. I know the South very well. I spent twenty years there one night.
Last time I was down South I walked into this restaurant and this white waitress came up to me and said, “We don’t serve colored people here.” I said, “That’s all right. I don’t eat colored people. Bring me a whole fried chicken.”

Then these three white boys came up to me and said, “Boy, we’re giving you fair warning. Anything you do to that chicken, we’re gonna do to you.” So I put down my knife and fork, I picked up that chicken and I kissed it. Then I said, “Line up, boys!”

As an activist, Gregory also supported statehood for the District. D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton told Kojo Nnamdi that a photo in her office, which dates back to before she was in Congress, captures Gregory marching for D.C. home rule.

“Dick was drawn to injustice the way butterflies are drawn to honey,” Norton said.

Instead of sending flowers, Gregory’s family is asking folks to purchase copies of his most recent book “Defining Moments in Black History“ in order to “keep the words and passions of Dick Gregory front and center” or donate to the Dick Gregory foundation and Dick Gregory Society.