Dave Dennis

David J. Dennis is an American civil rights activist whose involvement began in the early 1960s. Dennis grew up in the segregated area of Omega, Louisiana. He worked as a co-director of the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO), as director of Mississippi's Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and as one of the organizers of the Mississippi Freedom Summer of 1964. Dennis worked closely with both Bob Moses and Medgar Evers as well as with members of SNCC, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. His first involvement in the Civil Rights Movement was at a Woolworth sit-in organized by CORE and he went on to become a Freedom Rider in 1961. Since 1989, Dennis has put his activism toward the Algebra Project, a nonprofit organization run by Bob Moses that aims to improve mathematics education for minority children. Dennis also speaks publicly about his experiences in the movement through an organization called Dave Dennis Connections. He did not want any part of the civil rights activism, "Things were happening [in the country] and I was trying to run from them”. He helped his local community by setting up a Home Industry Cooperative in Ruleville, which consisted of eighteen local women who made rugs, quilts, and aprons to sell to northern civil rights supporters. Dennis also spent time in Hattiesburg where he met a local woman, Mattie Bivins, whom he married.

Dennis was frustrated with CORE's lack of support in Mississippi, however, CORE wasn't pleased with Dennis’ strategie. The organization was not pleased because Dennis did not care which organization got the credit for the successes of the movement, yet CORE still valued Dave Dennis. Dennis wanted to establish a voter registration drive in Madison County, Mississippi, as Dennis believed it was an optimal location for a CORE project because Black people made up a majority of the county's population. Dennis proposed to CORE that Canton was in close proximity to Tougaloo College, which made it possible to involve college students in the voter registration drive. CORE agreed, but after two years of violence from the police and threats from the Ku Klux Klan, they were unable to organize the Black communities in Madison County.

The deaths of Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, and Chaney left Dennis cynical and skeptical of the methods and the cost of the Southern Freedom movement. Published in 2022, the book is titled The Movement Made Us. Dennis Jr. is the winner of the 2021 American Mosaic Journalism Prize.

Other activism

Co-organizer of a challenge to the Mississippi Democratic Party at the 1964 Democratic National Convention and also to the Louisiana Democratic Party at 1972 Democratic National Convention. Co-Organizer of numerous sit-ins and demonstrations in New Orleans, Shreveport, and Baton Rouge in Louisiana and in Hattiesburg, Clarksdale, Canton, and Jackson in Mississippi. Established the first African American cooperative in the south, the Ruleville Mississippi Quilting Cooperative, which was formed of 18 women from that town.

Organizations

Co-director of Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) Mississippi director of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) One of the coordinators of the Mississippi Freedom Summer