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National Underground Railroad Freedom Center Announces
Freedom 55: Freedom Lecture Series
with Bob Moses and Dave Dennis
Featured Speakers offer first-person accounts of
Freedom Summer in the latest Freedom 55 Programming Series Discussion
CINCINNATI, OH (May 28, 2019) – The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center has announced the Freedom 55: Freedom Lecture Series with Bob Moses and Dave Dennis on Thursday, June 27, 2019 beginning with a reception at 6:00 p.m. and followed by a discussion at 6:55 p.m. The discussion is sponsored by John and Francie Pepper and The John A. Scroth Charitable Trust, PNC Bank Trustee. The reception and discussion are free and open to the public. RSVPs are required.
Author and Civil Rights Activist Robert “Bob” Moses is the President and Founder of the Algebra Project, Inc., a nonprofit organization that uses mathematics as an organizing tool to ensure quality public school education for every child in America. Moses directed the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee’s (SNCC), Mississippi Voter Registration Project from 1961-1964; was co-Director of the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO), 1962-1964, and was a lead organizer for the 1964 Mississippi “Freedom” Summer Project, parachuting the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP), to the 1964 National Democratic Convention in Atlantic City. Moses is co-author with Charles E. Cobb, Jr., of the book Radical Equations—Civil Rights from Mississippi to the Algebra Project.
David “Dave” Dennis is an activist and organizer who participated in the first Freedom Bus Ride from Montgomery, Alabama to Jackson, Mississippi in 1961 as the Freedom Riders were attempting to desegregate the interstate bus system, and voter registration efforts during the 1964 Freedom Summer. Dave Dennis worked closely with Bob Moses and Medgar Evers in Mississippi, and was active in many Civil Rights organizations during the 1960’s. Dennis served as co-director of COFO in Mississippi. Dennis also conducted voter registration workshops throughout the south as the Mississippi director of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), working with SNCC members and other civil rights activists in Mississippi under the COFO umbrella.
“Bob Moses and Dave Dennis are civil rights leaders who orchestrated the movement and should be held in the same high esteem as other iconic leaders of the movement,” says Jacqueline Dace, deputy director at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. “The work they have done was, and continues to be quintessential to social and civil liberties through contemporary times.”
“We are thrilled to welcome these fine gentlemen to our institution to share their in-depth experience of what the fight for freedom is about, and what it represents in American history,” says Dion Brown, president and Chief Operating Officer at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. “Our guests are sure to be inspired to contribute in the ongoing fight after experiencing this discussion.”
This lecture is a continuation of the Freedom 55 Programming Series that includes screenings, book signings, lectures and musical performances throughout 2019 commemorating the 55th anniversary of Freedom Summer. Freedom Summer was a 1964 voter registration drive, also known as the Mississippi Summer project. The goal was to end the prevailing discriminatory and segregated voting system through increased voter registration of African Americans. In preparation, hundreds of student volunteers gathered for two, one-week orientation sessions from June 14 to June 27, 1964 at Western College for Women (present day Miami University) in Oxford, OH.
Freedom 55: Freedom Lecture Series with Bob Moses and Dave Dennis is Thursday, June 27, 2019 beginning with a reception at 6:00 p.m. and followed by a discussion at 6:55 p.m. at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. This program is free and open to the public. RSVPs are required. For more information, visit freedomcenter.org.
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About National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center opened in August 2004 on the banks of the Ohio River in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio. Since then, more than 1.3 million people have visited its permanent and changing exhibits and public programs, inspiring everyone to take courageous steps for freedom. Two million people have utilized educational resources online at freedomcenter.org, working to connect the lessons of the Underground Railroad to inform and inspire today’s global and local fight for freedom. Partnerships include Historians Against Slavery, Polaris Project, Free the Slaves, US Department of State and International Justice Mission. In 2014, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center launched a new online resource in the fight against modern slavery, endslaverynow.org.