Rennie Davis

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Rennie Davis
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (MA)
Known forChicago Seven
SpouseKirsten Liegmann
RelativesJohn C. Davis (father)

Rennard Cordon Davis (May 23, 1940 – February 2, 2021) was an American

anti–Vietnam War
protest movement of the 1960s.

In the early 1970s, Davis became a follower of Guru Maharaj Ji (Prem Rawat) and his Divine Light Mission. He began to travel as a spiritual lecturer. He also became a venture capitalist, and founded the Foundation for a New Humanity to combine these goals.

Early life

Davis was born in

University of Illinois.[3]

In the 1960s, Davis became active in the

Students for a Democratic Society. He was the National Director of their project of community organizing programs (the Economic Research and Action Project, or ERAP) in Ann Arbor, Michigan.[3][4] He became increasingly allied with anti-war groups, and helped organize protests and related events before and during the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago for the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam ("the Mobe").[1]

Democratic Convention protests and subsequent trial

Main article: Chicago Seven

Davis was one of the principal organizers of the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam to plan anti-war protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. He negotiated unsuccessfully to gain a permit with Chicago city counsel David Stahl. [5] At a police riot in Grant Park on August 27, 1968, Davis was among protesters beaten by Chicago police officers, and he suffered a concussion.[6][7][1]

The Chicago Eight (later known as the Chicago Seven) were eight men charged with conspiracy, inciting to riot, and other charges related to the nonviolent and violent protests that took place in Chicago.[8] The original eight protester/defendants, as indicted by the grand jury on March 20, 1969, included Davis, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, John Froines, Lee Weiner, and Bobby Seale, a Black Panther leader.[1][9]

During the early part of the trial, Seale's case was separated from the others.

Chicago police for crowd control, as demonstrations grew outside the courtroom.[8] Davis was found guilty of inciting to riot and sentenced to five years imprisonment. His conviction was overturned on appeal.[1]

At his testimony, given January 23, 1970, Davis related, for the Court, a speech he gave at the University of Chicago on November 20, 1967, and, by extension, his reasons for demonstrating at the Democratic National Convention. The suppression of his testimony led the defense to motion for a mistrial. During his speech, Davis held up a small green steel ball, about the size of a tennis ball, and described how 640 of them were dropped by an American F-105 fighter jet over Nam Ding, Vietnam.[10]

Now one of these balls, I explained, was roughly three times the power of an old fashioned hand grenade.... Every living thing exposed in that 1000-yard area from this single bomb, ninety percent of every living thing in that area will die ... whether it's a water buffalo or a water buffalo boy. This bomb would not destroy this lecture podium, it would not damage the walls, the ceiling, the floor ... if it is dropped on a city, it takes life but leaves the institutions. It is the ideal weapon, you see, for the mentality who reasons that life is less precious than property.... And in 1967 the American Government told the American public that in North Vietnam it was only bombing steel and concrete.... The American government claimed to be hitting only military targets. Yet what I saw was pagodas that had been gutted, schoolhouses that had been razed, population centers that had been leveled. Then I said that I am going to the Democratic National Convention because I want the world to know that there are thousands of Young people in this country who do not want to see a rigged convention rubber stamp another four years of Lyndon Johnson's war.[10]

Foran objected that the methods and techniques used during the Vietnam war had nothing to do with whether or not people in the United States had a right to travel in interstate commerce to incite a riot. The Court sustained the objection and Kunstler motioned for a mistrial.[10]

Divine Light Mission

In the early 1970s, Davis became a follower of

San Francisco Sunday Examiner speculated at the time as to whether Davis had undergone a lobotomy, and suggested, "If not, maybe he should try one."[14]

Foundation for a New Humanity

Davis later became a

venture capitalist and lecturer on meditation and self-awareness. He created the Foundation for a New Humanity, a technology development and venture capital company commercializing breakthrough technologies.[15]

He appeared on

business strategies for Fortune 500 companies.[16]

Davis returned to Chicago for the 1996 Democratic National Convention to speak at the "Festival of Life" in Grant Park. He also appeared on a panel with activist Tom Hayden discussing "a progressive counterbalance to the religious right".[17]

In a 2005 article published in the Iowa Source, Davis said:

If you were to do a survey of what causes misery on earth, it would tend to fall into three broad categories. One, we can call systems: the economy, AIDS, terrorism – things that are 'systems' in nature. The second would be a list of everybody to blame: Bush is the cause of my misery, my ex-wife, my boss. The third would be things that come utterly out of left field: a tornado through town, a tsunami, events that are not in our apparent control. What this huge list would have in common – something everybody would agree with – is that the cause of misery are things outside 'myself'. But the cause of our misery is absolutely, positively not at all what we believe it to be. This is not a new view. Certainly saints and philosophers in every generation have basically argued if you want to change the world, you have to change yourself.[16]

Death

Davis died on February 2, 2021, at his home in Berthoud, Colorado. He was 80 and suffered from lymphoma, which was discovered only two weeks prior to his death.[1]

Popular culture

See also

Notes and references

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Applebome, Peter (February 3, 2021). "Rennie Davis, 'Chicago Seven' Antiwar Activist, Dies at 80". The New York Times. Retrieved February 3, 2021.
  2. ^ "Episode 13: Make Love not War". CNN. Archived from the original on April 30, 2003.
  3. ^ a b Anderson, James (February 4, 2021). "Rennie Davis, 'Chicago Seven' activist, dies at 80". Associated Press News. Retrieved February 4, 2021.
  4. ^ "Students for a Democratic Society records". The Civil Rights History Project. American Folklife Center. Retrieved February 3, 2021.
  5. ISBN 978-0226741147
    .
  6. ISBN 978-0674964518
    .
  7. ISBN 978-1608990610
    .
  8. ^ a b "The Trial of The Chicago Seven (or Chicago Eight)". Archived from the original on February 11, 2008. Retrieved February 14, 2008.
  9. ^ a b George, Doug (October 16, 2020). "The Chicago 7: A timeline of the protests, the clashes, the trial and the fallout". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved February 3, 2021.
  10. ^ a b c Linder, Professor Douglas O. "Famous Trials: Testimony of Rennie Davis". Famous Trials. Retrieved October 9, 2021.
  11. ISBN 0-8156-2923-0
    (2001), p. 52
  12. ^ Davis, Rennie. "Introduction", Who Is Guru Maharaj Ji?, Edited by Charles Cameron, New York: Bantam Books, Inc., 1973
  13. ^ Dreyer, Thorne (January 1, 1974). "God Goes to the Astrodome". Texas Monthly. Emmis Communications.
  14. ISBN 1-58234-034-X
    , Chapter "Her Master's Voice", p. 197.
  15. ^ "Chicago 10", PBS, Independent Lens
  16. ^ a b Moore, James (March 2005). "From Chicago 7 to Venture Capitalist to Grand Canyon Visionary". Iowa Source: Iowa's Enlightening Magazine. Archived from the original on May 7, 2006.
  17. ^ "The trial of the Chicago Seven". University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law. n.d. Archived from the original on December 5, 2004. Retrieved December 7, 2004.
  18. ^ "Conspiracy: The Trial of the Chicago 8 (1987)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved February 3, 2021.
  19. ^ "Chicago 10 Film Credits". PBS. Retrieved February 3, 2021.
  20. ^ Bobbin, Jay (July 5, 2015). "Checking in with Bret Harrison". Valley Morning Star. Harlingen, Texas. p. 19. Retrieved February 3, 2021.

Further reading

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