Pryor performed free of charge—even covering his own travel expenses from Beverly Hills—for the inaugural benefit of Peoria’s Afro-American Black People’s Federation, a cultural nationalist group conceived in the high tide of Black Power. The benefit, which drew over 175 people, raised several hundred dollars for the organization.
He thanked the federation for bringing him to Peoria and vouched to do what he could for the black community. Perhaps because of the pressure of performing for his family and his former mentor Juliette Whittaker—hardly the same constituency who were filling out his audience at clubs like Maverick’s Flat and the Redd Foxx Club in LA—he performed a quite abbreviated set.
Notably, the article conveys a few choice details about the independent film that Pryor was, at that moment in 1969, attempting to pull together. Pryor spoke coyly about the “angel” who was financing it, and mentioned that in the film he was set to play two parts.