Kim Fields Once Got Advice From Dick Gregory After Being Arrested At A Protest 

Kim Fields has been a major part of Hollywood for quite a while, starring in beloved shows like Living Single and Facts of Life.

But, one of Fields most memorable moments didn’t happen on screen.

The actress stopped ESSENCE for a chat with Yes, Girl! about her career and life in Hollywood, where she revealed that she was once arrested during a protest and given advice by late comedian and activist Dick Gregory. 

Fields says she was attending a protest for a Black woman who had been killed in Riverside, California. She was there along with Dick Gregory, Martin Luther King III, and Maxine Waters when she was arrested. 

“It’s unfortunate that some things are still cyclical” she told ESSENCE. “We have to break the cycle. We have to. That’s probably the hardest part about writing about it in the book [Blessed Life] and reliving the memory and then when the beloved Dick Gregory passed away and posting the pictures because he and I were together and Martin III and Momma Maxine and we were all there. That’s the most difficult part about that memory and that experience is the fact that all these decades, saints, decades later. We’re still dealing with this issue”

“There was a part of it that was empowering from the stand point of everyone has a voice…It was very surreal. I wasn’t scared, at all,” she added. “Again, Dick Gregory and Martin and everybody just let me know, because that was my first time being arrested. They let me know what to expect what the process would be, stuff like that. It was also very sad, because of why you’re there. When you realize you’re standing on the shoulders who have come before you to impart change. That part is very empowering”

Fields’ recently released book, Blessed Life: My Surprising Journey of Joy, Tears, and Tales from Harlem to Hollywood, goes into more detail and the actress also dishes on her divorce and the dark period that followed. 

Check out Fields’ episode of Yes, Girl! above.