Latest news with #SummerofFreedom
Yahoo
12-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Civil rights icon Dave Dennis to discuss 1964 Freedom Summer at LSU Shreveport
SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – A Shreveport native and civil rights icon will speak at LSUS on Friday to discuss his role in the 1964 Summer of Freedom in Mississippi. Dave Dennis was one of the architects and participants in the Summer of Freedom when young people from across the country sacrificed summer fun to end segregation in the South. Dennis was exposed to the fight for equal rights for Black Americans, as people like Reverend C.O. Simpkins and others started to lay the foundation of activism in Shreveport; however, like many young people, he did not plan to join the civil rights movement, the movement called him to it. Learn more about Shreveport's relationship to the Civil Rights Movement 'Dave was a fly on the wall of perhaps the most pivotal time in the Shreveport Civil Rights Movement. When you talk about younger people in the movement, Dave Dennis is way up there in terms of importance.' As a student at Dillard University in New Orleans, Dennis participated in a sit-in at a Woolworth's Department Store, the first organized demonstration in the state's largest city. The sit-in ignited something in Dennis, and he joined the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and worked with student groups and overarching civil rights groups related to the movement. Dennis played a key role in integrating the Louisiana State Fair in 1961. He and others would spread rumors throughout the community that caused the fair to lose money, forcing integration to recoup losses. 'Dave Dennis was the lone CORE field secretary in the area in 1961, and the Fair doesn't get integrated without him,' said LSUS graduate student Mikal Barnes, a researcher on Joiner's Civil Rights Heritage Trail project in Caddo Parish. 'Simpkins would organize a fake protest because he knew there were informants in his meetings. Dennis and others spread the rumor throughout the community, and the entire police force shows up expecting a riot. Businesses don't want to get tarnished during a Fair riot, so they don't show up either, and the Fair loses a lot of money. They lose so much money that they integrated the Fair.' Widow of Rev. C.O. Simpkins on famous photo of her late husband and Dr. King For all of his involvement and organizing, the moment Dennis is most widely-known for is the Summer of 1964, a mass push for voter registration. This is when he and others deployed citizens from across the country to pressure the state of Mississippi to recognize the voting rights of African-Americans. The events of that summer would become the 1988 film Mississippi Burning starring the late Gene Hackman. His efforts to push for a better America landed him in jail 30 times and unlike many participants in the movement, he has lived to speak about it and share those experiences with an audience in his hometown. To learn about the Freedom Summer, and how an HBCU student with no interest in protests, marches or creating movements became an icon for American civil rights, don't miss his lecture on Friday, March 15, 2025, at 6 p.m. in the LSUS Science Lecture Auditorium. 'Opportunities like these are golden, irreplaceable,' Joiner said. 'One of our big emphases is to talk to these heroes and get their impressions, learn from them. You can't help but admire his intelligence, honesty and demeanor. We're so damn lucky that he wants to come here.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
13-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
DeSantis' latest ploy to counter Pride Month is 'Second Amendment Summer'
In case you haven't been paying attention, we here in Florida are getting quite inventive in figuring out new ways to thwart the annual observance of Pride Month. Last year, our little schemer Gov. Ron DeSantis came up with the 'Summer of Freedom' as a way to discontinue the practice of lighting state bridges in rainbow colors in June to mark the annual observance of Pride Month for LGBTQ+ Floridians. 'We're kicking off summer the right way in Florida — enjoy the Summer of Freedom,' DeSantis posted on social media. Get it? The right way. Not the gay way. The rainbow colors of June were replaced with the ordered red, white and blue lights of Florida's 'Summer of Freedom.' Not to be a nitpicker but I'm pretty sure that Pride Month is all about freedom in an important way. The Stonewall Inn riots that became the inciting event in the civil rights movement for LGBTQ people was an uprising by those who wanted the freedom to live without being harassed and arrested by police for simply being who they are. So, for Pride Month to be subverted in order that we can all celebrate 'freedom' is some truly twisted reasoning. I guess the 'Summer of Freedom' was a dud, or at least something that could stand some tweaking as we head closer to another June and its celebration of Pride Month. 'The Summer of Freedom' is now being busted down to 'Freedom Month' in July, opening up June for some new gay-bashing opportunities. Surely, there must be some other 'right way' to kick off the summer and own the gays. So what will DeSantis come up with this time to polish his bigot street cred? He delivered the answer this month with his budget. He wants to declare this year a 'Second Amendment Summer' in Florida, which will include a holiday of state sales tax on the purchases of guns, rifles, shotguns, ammunition and accessories during the period from Memorial Day to July 4 – which just so happens to include all of June's Pride Month. And unlike past sales-tax holidays, when the break only applied to lower-cost items, the proposed sales-tax holiday doesn't put a ceiling on the cost of the weapons included in the tax break. Brief sales-tax holidays are nothing new in Florida. They have been most common for such innocuous things as back-to-school supplies and hurricane preparedness items … not an AR-15. Issuing tax breaks on guns and ammo to encourage sales as some pretext to celebrating the Constitution breaks some new ground. Opinion: Delray Beach's stance on fluoride is a win for teeth and common sense I would have started out smaller, say with a 'Militia Month' and then worked my way up to a 'Summer of Carnage Celebration.' And let's face it, this is very much a 'coals to Newcastle' situation here in Florida. It's not as if Floridians need to be nudged or reminded to buy more firearms. They're pretty good at doing it on their own. For example, there are 28 gun shows next month in Florida, according to the Gun Show Trader. They're in East Palatka, Newberry, Ocala, Okeechobee, Englewood, Melbourne, Miramar, Pensacola, Stuart, Crestview, Fort Lauderdale, Inverness, Palmetto, West Palm Beach, Brooksville, Bunnell, Hudson, Orlando, Pensacola (again), Sebring, St. Petersburg, Weirsdale, Dade City, Deland, Ft. Walton Beach, LaBelle, Miami, and Ocala (again). We already have lots of gun commerce without taking millions of dollars out of the state budget, which could be used for better, more pressing needs than encouraging Floridians to buy more guns and ammo. While gun sales have been falling in the rest of the country, Florida is just one of four states that have seen rising gun sales during the past few years. But, I guess, we've got to stop those gays from having June all to themselves. If DeSantis gets his wish for 'Second Amendment Summer' it remains to be seen how we'll light the bridges to celebrate shooting each other. Recommendation: Hemoglobin red lights. The other thing about celebrating guns in Florida is that 65 percent of gun homicides in Florida are suicides – about eight percent more than the national average of gun-suicide deaths, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control. Opinion: Riviera Beach board fights its own values in suing Target for too much diversity So, maybe we ought to acknowledge that as we encourage Floridians to stock up. How about calling it 'Freedom to Kill Yourself Summer' or something catchy like that? It's also a bad time of year to celebrate guns. It would be much more responsible to have a 'Second Amendment Winter.' Summers are the peak time of year for people losing their minds and going on shooting rampages. The Gun Violence Archive, which tracks mass shootings, shows June, July, and August are prime times for mass shootings. The lowest totals are from December through March. The Independence Day weekend tops the list in the time of year most likely for a mass shooting. The massacre at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, which at the time was the deadliest mass shooting done by one person, killed 49 people and wounded 53 more. The shooter legally purchased the two firearms he used – a military-style rifle and a handgun – from a Florida gun store a week before the attack. The gay club massacre happened nine years ago on June 12, which I guess this year would be smack dab in the middle of our 'Second Amendment Summer' celebration. I think DeSantis can do better than leaning on the Second Amendment to turn his back on LGBTQ+ Floridians. A reader of mine had a much better idea. Maybe DeSantis could have a tax holiday for height-enhancing shoes, she suggested. I think we could all use a lift like that. Frank Cerabino is a news columnist with The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA Today Network. This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: DeSantis shows his colors with Second Amendment Summer | Opinion
