Dave Dennis (activist) facts for kids

David J. Dennis is a brave civil rights activist. He started working for equal rights in the early 1960s. Dave grew up in Omega, Louisiana, where Black and white people were kept separate.

He helped lead important groups like the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in Mississippi. He also helped plan the Mississippi Freedom Summer in 1964. Dave worked closely with other civil rights leaders like Bob Moses and Medgar Evers. He also worked with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

Dave's journey in the Civil Rights Movement began with a sit-in at a Woolworth store. He then became a Freedom Rider in 1961. Since 1989, Dave has worked with the Algebra Project. This group, started by Bob Moses, helps improve math education for minority children. Dave also shares his experiences from the movement through an organization called Dave Dennis Connections.

Growing Up

Dave Dennis was born in 1940 on a farm in Omega, Louisiana. He grew up in a world where Black people were treated unfairly. He once said, "I grew up in this life where you had to stay in your place."

His family was very poor. They lived in the Shreveport area without basic things like running water or electricity. Dave didn't have these until he was nine years old. Even when his family moved to the city, Black families could only get basic services by going into white areas.

Dave was the first in his family to finish high school. He graduated from Southern High School, which was connected to Southern University. Student protests were starting there. At first, Dave wasn't interested in joining these protests. He said, "I didn’t have this interest in civil rights that you might think most people are born with." He tried to avoid the activism happening around him.

College Life

Dave Dennis went to Dillard University in New Orleans. He still tried to avoid civil rights protests. But then he met a young woman named Doris Castle. She was very involved in the movement. Dave became interested in the movement because of her.

He said he thought she was "cute" and went to talk to her after she spoke to students. Soon, he agreed to go to a CORE demonstration. This was Dave's first protest. He joined a sit-in at a Woolworth store in New Orleans. This led to his first of 30 arrests related to the Civil Rights Movement.

A big moment for Dave was during a meeting about the Freedom Rides. Someone said, "There is no space in this room for both God and fear." This made Dave decide to join the Freedom Ride. He left college to dedicate his life to this new path. Later, he did go back to school. He earned two degrees from Dillard University and a law degree from the University of Michigan Law School.

Important Work

Dave Dennis held several important roles in the Civil Rights Movement:

• Co-director of the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO).
• Mississippi director of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE).
• One of the main organizers of the Mississippi Freedom Summer.

Key Moments in Activism

Dave's activism started with the Woolworth sit-in in New Orleans. He was also one of the Freedom Riders who continued the original Freedom Ride. This ride went from Alabama to Jackson, Mississippi in 1961. This journey was a turning point for him.

Dave worked to make CORE stronger in Mississippi. He was active in the Delta Project and the Jackson boycott. He also helped start a Home Industry Cooperative in Ruleville. Eighteen local women made rugs, quilts, and aprons to sell. This helped support the movement. Dave also spent time in Hattiesburg, where he met and married Mattie Bivins.

Dave wanted to start a voter registration drive in Madison County, Mississippi. He saw it as a perfect place because Black people made up over 70% of the county's population. He also noted that Canton, a city in the county, was close to Tougaloo College. This meant college students could help with the voter drive. CORE finally agreed. But after two years of violence from police and threats from the Klan, they struggled to organize the Black communities there.

In 1964, Dave and Bob Moses' plan for Freedom Summer began. Dave explained why they brought white volunteers from the North. He said they knew that if a white person was hurt or killed, it would get more national attention. Black people had been hurt and killed in Mississippi for years with little government action. They hoped white volunteers would bring more attention to the violence.

During that summer, a terrible event happened. Three Freedom Summer volunteers were killed by the Ku Klux Klan. Dave was deeply affected because he had worked with these men. He was supposed to be with them but couldn't due to illness. Dave felt responsible for their deaths. He said, "I feel very responsible for Chaney and them...you never get over that."

Dave gave a powerful speech at James Chaney's funeral. He spoke strongly against the unfairness in Mississippi and across the country. Part of his speech was shown in the movie Mississippi Burning. The deaths of these three men made Dave question the methods and costs of the movement. He wondered if the gains were worth the sacrifices.

Other Ways He Helped

Dave Dennis also helped in other ways:

• He helped challenge the Mississippi Democratic Party at the 1964 Democratic National Convention. He also challenged the Louisiana Democratic Party at the 1972 Democratic National Convention.
• He helped organize many sit-ins and protests. These took place in New Orleans, Shreveport, and Baton Rouge in Louisiana. They also happened in Hattiesburg, Clarksdale, Canton, and Jackson in Mississippi.
• He started the first African American cooperative in the South. This was the Ruleville Mississippi Quilting Cooperative. It was made up of 18 women from that town.

After the Movement

After his main work in Mississippi, Dave went to the University of Michigan Law School. He earned a law degree and opened his own law firm in Lafayette, Louisiana.

In 1989, Dave reconnected with Bob Moses at a Freedom Summer reunion. He learned about Bob's project to teach algebra to sixth graders in inner-city schools. Dave was very interested. They wanted to expand the program into Black public schools in Mississippi's Delta region. They eventually brought the Algebra Project to Mississippi, Louisiana, Kentucky, and Arkansas.

Today, Dave Dennis is the director and CEO of the Southern Initiative of the Algebra Project. This group works to improve math education for minority children. He also gives talks about his experiences in the Civil Rights Movement. He shares lessons he learned and shows people how they can make a difference in their own communities. He says it doesn't take much to change the world: "It [takes] looking in the mirror and saying, ‘What can I do?’"

Dave's son, David Dennis Jr., wrote a book about his father's time in the movement. The book is called The Movement Made Us and was published in 2022. It includes interviews with his father and letters from his son. The book talks about the experience and how it affected their relationship. David Dennis Jr. won the 2021 American Mosaic Journalism Prize.