Dave Dennis, Clarksdale Mississippi

Dave Dennis, a Louisiana native, joined the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in New Orleans in 1961 while attending Dillard University. In the Spring of 1962, he became the program director for Mississippi CORE, and was a co-founder of the Freedom Summer Project with Bob Moses. Along with John Lewis, Dennis was one of the original Freedom Riders who traveled by bus across state lines in 1961 in support of civil rights. Steve Schapiro took this photo of Dennis speaking in the Oakhurst Baptist Church with members of the Clarksdale community. Dennis later provided an impassioned eulogy for slain Freedom Summer activist James Chaney after his body was discovered alongside those of Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner in the summer of 1964.