The Movement Made Us: A Father, a Son, and the Legacy of a Freedom Ride

by David J. Dennis Jr.

The Movement Made Us takes literature to a momentous Southern Black space to which I honestly never thought a book could take us. This is literally the Movement that made us and both Davids love us whole here with a creation that is as ingenious as it is soulfully sincere. Stunning. --Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy

A dynamic family exchange that pivots between the voices of a father and son, The Movement Made Us is a unique work of oral history and memoir, chronicling the extraordinary story of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and its living legacy embodied in Black Lives Matter. David Dennis Sr, a core architect of the movement, speaks out for the first time, swapping recollections both harrowing and joyful with David Jr, a journalist working on the front lines of change today.

Taken together, their stories paint a critical portrait of America, casting one nation's image through the lens of two individual Black men and their unique relationship. Playful and searching, anxious and restorative, fearless and driving, this intimate memoir features scenes from across David Sr's life, as he becomes involved in the movement, tries to move beyond it, and ultimately returns to it to find final solace and new sense of self - revealing a survivor who travels eternally with a cabal of ghosts.

A crucial addition to Civil Rights history, The Movement Made Us is the story of a nation reckoning with change and the hopes, struggles, setbacks, and triumphs of modern Black life. This is it: the extant chronicle of why we live, why we move, and for what we are made.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Memoir, Race, Biography, Activism, Social Justice

288 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2022

Reviews

[Brandice · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Movement Made Us is the story of a father, a son, their relationship and the Civil Rights Movement. I regret to share that I was unfamiliar with David Dennis Sr. prior to reading this book, from which I learned a lot.

David Dennis Sr. recounts his life as an activist in the 1960s, which often took him away from home. He’s seen some things — Brutality, discrimination, the loss of friends including fellow activist, Medgar Evers. David Dennis Jr. is a journalist, now collecting this oral history from his father, filled with painful memories but also progress, informing DDJ’s view of how his family came to be and the Movement’s impact on them.

The Movement Made Us is a highly informative, moving memoir.

[Sharon Orlopp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Buckle up for a front row seat to historical moments in the 1960s Civil Rights Movement. David Dennis, Sr. and David Dennis, Jr. partner together in one of the most powerful books I have read.

Dennis, Sr. grew up poor in Louisiana and was a key leader in the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). He was a freedom rider and worked with Medgar Evers, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., John Lewis, Andrew Young, and many other Civil Rights leaders. Like many who devote themselves and their lives to critical causes, he neglected his son and wife.

In juxtaposition with many similarities, Dennis, Jr. is an award winning journalist who focuses on the intersection of race, culture, and sports. He was awarded the 2021 American Mosaic Journalism Award. He shares recent events in America including the tragic deaths of George Floyd, Michael Brown, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Daunte Wright, Eric Garner and many, many others.

In addition to the historical and current context of racial inequality, there is a subplot about the relationship strains between a father and a son....and how the pandemic and this book played a role in improving their relationship.

Near the end of the book, a memorable passage sums it up well: Be an activist, not a useless bystander.

I listened to this on audiobook and it is superbly narrated by Cary Hite and Leon Nixon.

Highly, highly recommend!

[Traci Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved David Dennis Sr. so much in this book. He is a hero but also a real person. David Dennis Jr. wrote so beautifully for his father and created a complex narrator with so much heart. The book made me wish I knew more about the people of The Civil Rights Movement who aren't the names we are taught in school. I just didn't realize what was going on and this book helped me understand.

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best Book I’ve ever read about Freedom Summer.

This memoir really strikes a nerve. It really brings to life what CORE experienced and how dangerous it was. The authors lived the experience and worked with locals.

[MaryKate Berg · Rating 4 out of 5]

“I’ve come to understand that your history is as much about what you don’t remember as it is about what you can recall with precise certainty…you know that our bodies tell the stories our minds can’t.”

This book may not be the best written novel, but damn, this story is important. I am glad my college forced me to read this book.

[Shelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway. I beautiful memoir and well written. It gave me a much deeper understanding of what it means to be black in America.

[Hannah Matos · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. David Dennis Jr. unveils the life and work of his father, David Dennis Sr., during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and how they connect to recent events in American history.
Tragic but necessary. A story that needed to be told.
I loved how this book showcases intergenerational healing too. It was fascinating to read about their father-son dynamics and how the Movement has shaped them and their families. How they have persevered despite the structures that have threatened to tear them apart.
Thought-provoking and well done. Would love to read again.

[Victoria Huggler · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up a copy of this book because a librarian recommended it to me, and it did not disappoint. The Movement Made Us is a beautifully written memoir that tells the nuanced story of a prominent Civil Rights activist. The book’s exploration of the movement, generational trauma and relationships, and legacy gave me a better understanding of what it means to be Black in America.

[Abby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Moving, tragic, and heartbreaking story of David Dennis Sr., his experiences as a leader during the Civil Rights movement, and his son David Dennis Jr.’s relationship with his father and the legacy of that movement. Tough but important read (potential PTSD triggers).

[Amelia · Rating 4 out of 5]

My summer school book. Typically I feel like I kinda have to force my way through mandatory books but this one kept me engaged the whole time. It’s a book that makes you think.

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding. Still work to do.

[Graham Whittington · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 but I’m bumping it up for several reasons. First, this biography feels so real. We get a blunt, often bleak account of the deep struggles and dangers for civil rights workers in the deep Mid-South.

Also, Dennis, Jr. spotlights this particular father-son dynamic in a way that elevates the biography when it easily could have held it back. I imagine some will find the shifts between the 60s-biography and more recent family-relationship biography to be distracting or disruptive to the book’s flow. But I thought this device added a unique element in that we see how Dennis, Sr.’s traumatic past affected his later life and relationships. And we get to see that from the perspective of his son, who can provide a viewpoint that manages to be both intimate and objective. In short, I thought the structure of the book made this biography much more personal, which brought out the emotional and psychological impact of the Civil Rights Movement on one who worked on its frontline.

It was also interesting to see a perspective of someone not as heralded as others in the movement. That helped me expand my conception of how many local leaders put themselves on the line.

Also, finally, go ‘Cats.

[ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this book for class, but it still SPEAKS volumes today especially with the current president.

[Valectrice · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to this memoir of David Dennis as an audiobook, which turned out to be a fortunate coincidence. “The Movement Made Us” tells how Dennis devoted much of his youth to the fight for voting rights and for the right of black Americans to be treated like people (the book ends after the funeral of James Chaney, one of the three activists executed by white Mississippians during the Freedom Summer so I don’t know how much longer Mr. Dennis continued his civil works activism). He was a reluctant activist at first, but once he committed he was all in — jailed and physically tortured numerous times and emotionally conflicted and consumed by guilt all the time. Dennis felt personally responsible for the abuse and violence that the volunteers activists endured as a result of participating in the actions that he organized. Whole some of the events presented in the book are familiar, Dennis’s narrative gave me a sense of the day-to-day efforts required, day in and day out, to wrest even the smallest victory from the white establishment in Louisiana and Mississippi on the 1960s. He talks about his hope, his frustrations, his fear and his anger with an immediacy and emotion that I don’t think would have reached and affected me as much if I had just read them as words in a page. Thanks to the emotion and strain in the narrator’s voice when he described Fannie Lou Hamer’s feelings of humiliation at having to hike up her dress in front of the white law enforcement officer and the black prisoners who they force to brutally beat her, I was able to have a small understanding of the brutality and pure evil of this experience brought the personalities and events to life for me. I’m glad that I read this book with my ears, instead of my eyes. It made for a more enriching and horrifying experience for me as the reader.

“The Movement Made Us” is about more than the civil rights movement in the 1960s. It is also about how these events affected David Dennis Sr. as be realized the toll it took on his family, his wife and his family long after the violence of the 1960s was over. This memoir was coaxed out of him by his son, David Dennis Jr. who saw this project as a way to connect with a father who was often absent emotionally as well as physically. Dennis Sr. comes across as a tortured soul who cannot forgive himself for living while others died. The brutality he experienced, witnessed and lived through and with mattered his psyche as well as his body. As a result, there are episodes that he has forgotten or at least hidden away to protect himself. The consequence of this self-preservation technique seems to be that he often hid himself away from those close to him. Dennis Jr. finds this project succeeding in deepening his bond with his father. In three letters written by the younger Dennis during the course of this project were particularly affecting for me. He examines his motives in making his father relive these painful memories. He discussed the deeper understanding he gains from hearing his father tell his story. He realizes how much he loves his father as the flawed man that he is. He treasures his father for the ways he connected with Dennis Jr and his family in his later years. It is a touching tribute to David Dennis Sr. and a testament to the power of small moments such as singing Happy Birthday over Zoom in a car at connecting people. This is a powerful story told honestly and well. Thank you David Dennis Jr.

I also must acknowledge that while there is a redemptive and life-affirming quality to this story, it also possesses a depressing side to it when Dennis Jr. talks about events for the past 4-5 years and the way that black Americans continue to be demonized and disregarded as human beings. Here’s hoping that enough of us will allow the spirit and grit of David Dennis to enter us so that we can change that narrative for ourselves and generations to come.

[Ellen Morris Prewitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

As I read THE MOVEMENT MADE US, I reflected on what I learned about generational racialized trauma in books such as My Grandmother’s Hands by Resmaa Menakem. Menakem’s book is wonderful, full of wisdom and advice. But what we learn from the father/son telling in THE MOVEMENT MADE US is on a different level. David Dennis Jr., in collaboration with his father, takes us into the Civil Rights battles and the aftereffect on both Dennises. As a result, we gain emotional learning. The courage and vulnerability such a telling requires is a true gift to the reader.

THE MOVEMENT MADE US is the result of intensive interviews between the journalist son and the activist father. At the time of the interviews, Dennis Sr. was almost eighty years old. The telling of Dennis Sr.’s recollections are interspersed with present-day letters from Dennis Jr. to his dad and, lastly, to his own children.

Early in my writing career, I interviewed my mom for a family memoir. The core of the memoir was the silence about my dad’s death when his car hit a train, killing himself and the other woman in the car. Often, as I asked my questions, my voice shook at broaching a taboo subject, my courage to know faltered. What I was excavating doesn’t approach the intensity of violence, responsibility, and hatred Dennis Jr. was asking his dad to remember. Nor was my relationship with my mom as complicated as Dennis’ with his dad. I admire his undertaking, and his honesty about how hard that undertaking was on both men.

Following Dennis Sr.’s activist life, the story begins in New Orleans, weaves through Shreveport, and spends a great deal of time in Mississippi. The arc of the telling culminates in Dennis Sr.’s insights into the power of white supremacy. Dennis Sr. told himself whites wouldn’t harm women and children. That whites wouldn’t harm other whites. That democracy was more important than white supremacy. One by one, each of these beliefs tumbled to the dominance of white supremacy.

The hopelessness I felt reading Dennis Sr.’s experience was similar to my feeling reading Derrick Bell. Dennis Jr. increased this hopelessness by tying his father’s experiences to his own modern-day experiences. But—and this is the crucial note the book ends on—he also answered the hopelessness.

The book ends with a letter from Dennis Jr. to his own two children. The letter is an eloquent answer to the “seemingly unstoppable force of generational terror.” I’ll let you read it for yourself, but the belief in the power to heal and change the flow of three-dimensional time lifts all hopelessness. I know that one day the story will mean as much to this next generation as it did to the first two.

[Nori Ochi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely necessary reading, especially for those who think our country is "not racist" or who have the misguided understanding that we are no longer racist. David Dennis begins his father's memoir describing someone who was by no means a racial justice activist, starting to attending meetings because of a young woman he had a crush on. By the end, the reader is just left in awe of how total his commitment was/ is to the cause of racial justice. The descriptions of the vitriol and hatred that Dennis and his colleagues faced from the Klan, the police, the vast majority of white folk, in their fight for de-segregation and merely registering to vote brought tears to my eyes. It was unimaginable for someone who did not previously have any connection to the movement of the '60s. The clarity in which Dennis, Jr. captured the guilt and shame his father had in not being in the car alongside the Freedom riders James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Mickey Schwerner when they were murdered was haunting. The descriptions of the Harlem riots, equally disturbing by how the facade that racism only existed in the south was wiped away.
One of the most effective accomplishments of this book, why it will stay with me for a long time, is how the author linked the fight for equal justice in the '60s with current events, the election of Trump as a response to Obama, the deaths of too many Black men and women... the struggle is far from over.
Thank you for this book. Everyone needs to read it.

[Terry · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an inside view of the early Civil Rights Movement, from 1961 through 1964, as related by David Dennis, Sr., to his son, David Dennis, Jr. More than a memoir, it’s also a conversation between father and son and the weight of sacrifice and loss the Movement imposed on their relationship. Dennis, Sr, one of the original Freedom Riders, relates the suffering, terror and horror heaped upon Black people simply for wanting to participate in the democracy promised by the United States. Dennis, Sr knew and worked with most of the well-known Civil Rights leaders of the 60s and 70s, but he also makes it clear that Black women (who are often left out of the story) were a bedrock of the Movement and critical to the progress that was made. The book makes clear that Black civil rights were being violated in the north as well as the south, contrasting the Harlem Riot in New York City with the killings of three civil rights workers in Mississippi that occurred within less than a month of each other in 1964. While significant changes have occurred since the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and so many others show how far we are from rooting out white supremacy and living up to the ideal that “all men are created equal”. This story is personal and gut-wrenching and hard to read at times, but necessary to understanding the toll leading the Civil Rights Movement took on generations of Black people and continues to take today.

[Rebecca Cook · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a book. By turns inspiring, harrowing and haunting, this is a recollection of the Civil Rights Movement from the perspective of someone who was present at some of the most pivotal and tragic moments of the struggle in Louisiana and Mississippi in the early 1960s. My heart broke over and over again as I read about the Freedom Summer and the loss of precious human life. Then I wept as I reckoned with the reality of our present day, when racism and white supremacy are not only still present but centered in our public and political lives, with a reach that extends into the highest courts and elected offices of the land. It's sickening and disheartening. It's hard to keep holding space for hope in this landscape, but when you read these stories of determination and resilience in the face of unspeakable brutality, you know there's no choice but to keep the faith and keep on working for a better tomorrow. We owe it to our children and we owe it to those who cam before and worked tirelessly and at great risk for freedom. Thank you Dave Dennis (Sr and Jr) for this important testimony.

[Kristin Perrine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I grew up in a fairly diverse area, going to school with kids of all different skin colors, ethnicities, and religions. I learned about slavery and the civil war and lynching and the civil rights movement in school. I knew people rode buses and marched and got killed in their fight for equal rights. But I have never read such a detailed, emotional, and passionate account as this. If you want to truly understand just how much was sacrificed in the civil rights movement and just how much the pain of that sacrifice reverberates through the years and generations to the events of present day, you need to read this book. This is just one man's story, but it is a powerful one and absolutely worth your time.

I cried several times as I read this book. I cried for David and the difficulties he faced. I cried for our nation. I cried for the last and the future. This is a quick read but not an easy read.

[Pat | _chaoticbooknook · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an extraordinary book. This was such an interesting and profound account of the struggles and unexpected joys of community organizing and the Freedom Summer. It was an aspect of the Civil Rights Movement I had little exposure to, and this first-hand account was thrilling, gripping, and heartbreaking. Just the recounting of Freedom Summer would've been enough, but interspersed through it was the impact of all that community organizing on David Dennis Jr, which I found particularly poignant. It's easy to view the leader as a one-dimensional person who is simply the face of the movement; it's easy to forget the other facets of humanity they have to contend with vis a vis being a parent, lover, spouse, child, etc. and how their involvement in something bigger than themselves can impact the other parts of their lives.

[Vickie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was beautiful and painful, and amazing to listen to. I enjoyed learning about the specifics of the civil rights movement in Shreveport, Louisiana and how the author's father branched out from there as an activist - both philosophically and geographically. I couldn't help but love the mentions of Dookie Chase (restaurant in New Orleans) and other locations in the Bywater, Carollton and other neighborhoods. But mostly I was struck by the letters written from son to father, and from father to children. Ultimately, this book is a memoir on survival and familial bonds, and I truly learned much about what it meant to be the child of a civil rights activist and simply a new and important perspective from a Black man in America. Excellent memoir.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was nudged from my TBR to active status after a Books Are Pop Culture author interview (thanks @reggiereads and @ablackmanreading). I'm grateful to have taken my time with this selection-45 days total, with other books read in between. Perhaps other poly-readers will relate to the heaviness of a topic that alternately draws and detracts, tires and inspires, sends you reaching for quick articles, romances, anything lighter or off topic.

This is a vulnerable read. History rarely records lesser heralded architects and heroes, particularly not the loved ones who also sacrifice. It's a beautifully written appreciation and love letter from son to father.

WITH ALL GRATITUDE AND LOVE Thank you D.D., Sr. and the men, women and children of the movement.

H. Hiller ❤

[Andrea Haberman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heartbreaking and heroic! Why can’t we turn this absolute shit of a murderous country around in terms of racism, ignorance and hatred? It takes fearless, FEARLESS leaders like David Dennis. I’m 54 years old white lady and a public school and public university graduate of a Midwestern red state. How is it that I haven’t heard of David Dennis???? Taking down confederate statutes and fighting the ignorance behind public outrage over CRT at school board meetings is the very least of it….how do we repair our education system to include in depth study of the men and women who faced death to try to live in freedom…the beauticians, the maids, the drivers, the teachers, the farmers? Thank you David Dennis Jr for being willing to bring this story to print through what I can imagine may have been personal and generational trauma! Your writing was so vivid and harrowing. I am so sorry for the wrongs of this country upon generations of your family and friends and of the utter failure of our country to even acknowledge it now. May you continue to shine a light on the truth!

[paige · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always find first hand accounts of historical events to be so powerful. Dave Dennis Sr lived through so many intense and traumatic experiences, but continued to move forward. I found it interesting how this book examined the complex emotions of anger, fear, bravery, and sorrow that came with participating in the Civil Rights Movement. I especially loved how poetic Dave Dennis Jr’s writing style was, and how this allowed him to put these feelings into words. Dave Dennis Jr’s letters to his father and children added a more personal layer to the book by fleshing out their relationship more. The connections between the past and present showed how racism prevails and evolves. Dave Dennis Sr’s realization that the movement never ends was very emotional.

[Patricia Lane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent account of a tumultuous time and place. David Dennis Sr. was one of the original Freedom Riders and took part in many of the major protests, voter registration campaigns, and other singular events in Louisiana and Mississippi in the 1960s. It's set up as an "as told to" with his son, David Dennis Jr., who is a present-day activist and scholar, whose letters to his father are interspersed. I was in middle and high school during these years; I was aware that awful things were happening from news reports and teachers talking but the full shameful evil of what transpired was not reported in my white world. This is a heartbreaking book but one that should be included in every American history curriculum. The record needs to be set straight.

[Maddie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am so glad I read this book, and even more glad to have buddy read with a dear friend.

David Dennis Jr shares his father’s story—and their sometimes fraught relationship—in a compelling and poetic way. I know very little of the day to day history of the civil rights movement, and I look forward to finding more fiction and non fiction about this time period. Much of this book reads like fiction, but it’s very real. I loved how this book highlighted the non-household names of the Movement, and it made me think about the regular folks in the movements, efforts, events of today.

Really great story, well told.

[Alec Finch · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’ll give it 2.5 stars. I borrowed this from Vicky. It was the Davidson summer book for this year, written by an alum ofc.

My goal in reading this was to come away with a better understanding of the civil rights movement and the freedom rides. I can safely say that’s true thanks to a few raw, intimate retellings of what Dave has been through. I remember almost crying at one point actually.

However, I did get a little lost/tired/confused during some chapters. I expected a more coherent storyline since it takes place over only a few years. Instead, the plot seemed scattered. Too many details that didn’t build up together like I hoped they would.

[jane]

i found out about this book as David Dennis Jr and Sr came to speak at school for an event. Dennis Sr's stories and recollections had the whole room crying from his retellings, and i thought this book evoked similar feelings. I thought this was a very raw story of the civil rights movement from the eyes of a prominent civil rights leader and one that departs from the arguably more "sanitised" version that is traditionally taught in schools. I also appreciated the intergenerational reflections brought by his son Dennis Jr and his discussion on how the civil rights movement impacted Dennis Sr's relationship with his son even 40 years later.

[Rebecca McPhedran · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish I could give this book 500 stars. This is the story of David Dennis Sr, a Civil Rights activist, and an original organizer of the Freedom Summer of 1964. This is his story of the Movement, as told to his son.

There are so many powerful and moving aspects to this book, but the biggest is his humanity, and his ability to see his faults. Yes, David Dennis was an integral part of the Civil Rights Movement, but he was also a man; a husband, and a father. This book is so important, and so powerful. I’m so glad I read it.

[Jim Feroce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part love letter between son and father, part history lesson, part play by play from a man eyeballs deep in the Civil Rights movement. This is a great read from all three of those perspectives. Not to be cliché, but the efforts of Dave Dennis and others is nothing short of astounding. Yet, 50 some odd years later it feels like we’ve barely moved - especially 2017-2020. Actually, it doesn’t feel like that at all. It is precisely just that.
This is a moving book that anyone with the slightest interest in America’s recent history will enjoy and appreciate.