Dave Dennis (activist) facts for kids

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

Dave Dennis helped lead important groups like the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in Mississippi. He was also a key organizer for the Mississippi Freedom Summer in 1964. He worked closely with other famous activists like Bob Moses and Medgar Evers.

His journey in the Civil Rights Movement began with a sit-in at a Woolworth store. Later, he became a Freedom Rider in 1961, riding buses to challenge segregation. Since 1989, Dennis has continued his activism with the Algebra Project. This is a group started by Bob Moses that helps improve math education for minority children. Dave Dennis also shares his experiences from the movement through an organization called Dave Dennis Connections.

Growing Up in Louisiana

Dave Dennis was born in 1940 on a farm in Omega, Louisiana. He grew up in a world where everything was segregated, meaning Black and white people were kept apart. He once said, "I grew up in this life where you had to stay in your place."

His family was very poor and lived in an area near Shreveport where they didn't have basic things like running water or electricity. Dave didn't experience these until he was nine years old. Even when his family moved to the city, Black citizens could only get basic services by going into white areas.

Dave was the first person in his family to finish high school. He graduated from Southern High School, which was connected to Southern University. Student protests were starting to happen there. But at that time, Dave wasn't interested in joining any protests. He said he was "trying to run from them."

College and Early Activism

Dave Dennis went to Dillard University in New Orleans. He still tried to avoid the 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 Doris. He said he thought she was "cute" and agreed to go to a CORE demonstration with her. This was his first protest: a sit-in at a Woolworth store in New Orleans. This led to his first arrest related to the Civil Rights Movement. He would be arrested 30 times in total.

A big moment for Dave was during a meeting about whether to continue 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 himself to the movement. Later, he did go back to school and earned degrees from Dillard University and a law degree from the University of Michigan Law School.

Leading Civil Rights Groups

Dave Dennis played important leadership roles in the Civil Rights Movement:

• He was a co-director of the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO).
• He was the Mississippi director for the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE).
• He was one of the main organizers of the Mississippi Freedom Summer.

Key Moments in the Movement

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

Dennis worked to build a strong CORE presence in Mississippi, where it had been weak. He was active in the Delta Project and the Jackson boycott. He also helped start a Home Industry Cooperative in Ruleville. This group of eighteen local women made rugs, quilts, and aprons to sell to supporters in the North. Dennis also spent time in Hattiesburg, where he met and married Mattie Bivins.

Dave Dennis 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 knew it was close to Tougaloo College, which meant college students could help. CORE eventually agreed. After two years of facing violence and threats, they were able to organize the Black communities there.

In 1964, Dennis and Bob Moses launched the Freedom Summer project. They decided to bring white volunteers from the North to Mississippi. Dennis explained that this was to get national attention. He said that if white people were harmed, the government would pay more attention than if Black people were. Sadly, during that summer, three Freedom Summer volunteers were killed. Dave Dennis was deeply affected by these deaths. He was supposed to be with them but couldn't because he was sick. He felt responsible for their deaths.

At the funeral for James Chaney, one of the killed volunteers, Dave Dennis gave a powerful speech. He criticized the people in Mississippi and across the country who were not doing enough to fight injustice. Part of his speech was even shown in the movie Mississippi Burning.

Other Ways He Fought for Rights

Dave Dennis was involved in many other important actions:

• He helped organize challenges to the Democratic Party in Mississippi in 1964 and in Louisiana in 1972.
• He co-organized many sit-ins and demonstrations in cities across Louisiana and Mississippi.
• He helped create the first African American cooperative in the South, the Ruleville Mississippi Quilting Cooperative.

Life After the Movement

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

In 1989, at a reunion for the Freedom Summer anniversary, Dennis reconnected with Bob Moses. Moses told him about his project to teach algebra to sixth graders in inner-city schools. Dennis was very interested. They worked together to expand the Algebra Project into 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 travels and speaks about his experiences in the Civil Rights Movement. He teaches people how they can make a difference in their own communities. He says it doesn't take much, just "looking in the mirror and saying, ‘What can I do?’"

Dave Dennis's son, David Dennis Jr., wrote a book about his father's experiences in the movement. The book, published in 2022, is called The Movement Made Us.