What a … ... Sunday, 14 February 2021. While many ’60s radicals were growing up in cities or suburbs, Mr. Davis spent much of his youth in an idyllic rural setting. He turned down a scholarship to study animal husbandry at Virginia Tech and instead enrolled at Oberlin in 1958. He was true to that regardless what people thought about what he was doing or who he was.”. “He used to say the way to organize is with smoke and mirrors,” said Richard Flacks, an early S.D.S. 16 co-conspirators were also named but never prosecuted. He told the jury to disregard Rennie Davis’ nickname “Rennie … The Passing of a Legend: This is Kirsten, Rennie's wife. That movement peaked with an underwhelming turnout at an event called Millennium 73, held at the Astrodome in Houston in November 1973, where Guru Maharj Ji appeared in a glittering silver suit on a blue plexiglass throne. Alex Sharp portrayed Davis in the 2020 drama film The Trial of the Chicago 7. Rennie’s full Wikipedia entry tells the whole story. RENNIE DAVIS, CHICAGO 7 ACTIVIST DIES AT 80-FILE WED0308-Rennie Davis, one of the Chicago 7 anti-war activists in the '60s, has died at the age of 80. Rennie Davis Dies: ‘Chicago 7’ Radical And TV Documentary Subject Was 80 Deadline - Bruce Haring. “People went off in different directions; not everyone became the rootless cosmopolitans most of us did,’’ said Daniel Millstone, a friend from Mr. Davis’s S.D.S. Standing from left are John Froines, Tom Hayden, Jerry Rubin, Lee Weiner and Abbie Hoffman. Robert Carradine played Rennie Davis in the 1987 film Conspiracy: The Trial of the Chicago 8. The Trial of Chicago 7—a new courtroom drama from writer/director Aaron Sorkin that began streaming on Netflix today—tells a story that will be new to many. ... Their story is a current movie. After that, Mr. Davis returned to antiwar activism, traveling again to Hanoi and going on to organize the 1971 May Day antiwar rally in Washington, which resulted in some 13,000 arrests. Most of the rest of Mr. Davis’s career found him trying to blend the political radicalism of his 20s with an entrepreneurial pastiche of progressive or New Age agendas. See also. Rennie Davis in August 1968 in Chicago. leader who became a sociology professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His wife, Kirsten Liegmann, who announced the death on his Facebook page, said the cause was lymphoma, adding that a large tumor had been discovered only two weeks ago. After the trial, Davis became a public speaker and aligned himself with the Divine Light Mission, a religious movement founded by Hans Ji Maharaj. And he became an international figure, on good enough terms with John Lennon that he was invited in 1971 to a recording session putting the finishing touches on “Imagine.”. When Truman left office — Rennie was in the seventh grade — the family moved to a 500-acre farm in Berryville, Va., in the Blue Ridge Mountains. In an unpublished article he wrote last year, he was critical of Mr. Sorkin’s film, saying its portrayals of the events surrounding the Chicago Seven trial and the people involved, including him, were inaccurate. A national commission later called the clash a police riot, but federal officials charged Mr. Davis and seven others with conspiracy and inciting to riot. I never thought he was ever a huckster kind of guy.”, Susan Gregory, his partner from 1969 to 1973 and a longtime friend after that, said: “He felt called to try and change the world, to end the war, to bring peace, to help people who needed help. He was student body president and played varsity basketball in high school. Plot. Many former allies saw Mr. Davis’s mystical detour as a depressing generational metaphor. In August 1968, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, David Dellinger, Lee Weiner, John Froines, and Bobby Seale make preparations to protest at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Its story was told last year in the Aaron Sorkin film “The Trial of the Chicago 7.”. He also traveled to the North Vietnam capital of Hanoi. The members of the Chicago Seven (L-R): Jerry Rubin (1938 - 1994), David Dellinger (1914 - 2004), Lee Weiner, John Froines, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, Abbie Hoffman (1936 - 1989) (Image: Getty) Rennie Davis, who lived out one of the more quixotic journeys of the 1960s generation when he went from leading opponent of the Vietnam War, as a convicted member of the Chicago Seven, to spokesman for a teenage Indian guru, died on Tuesday at his home in Berthoud, Colo. The Chicago 8: Where Are They Now? But he later said that winning the 4-H Clubs’ Eastern U.S. chicken-judging championship was the proudest moment of his high school career. Chicago Seven anti-war activist Rennie Davis whose trial for helping organize 1968 protest featured in Netflix movie dies aged 80. His celebrity soon waned. A rally at Grant Park on Tuesday, Aug. 27, turned into a riot, with helmeted police clubbing thousands of demonstrators, including Mr. Davis, who was left bloodied, his head swathed in bandages. “One of the things people always said about Rennie Davis was that he was a gentle man. days. He later became an unlikely spokesman for a teenage guru. Davis died at his home in Berthoud, Colorado, according to The Associated Press. New Left His father was a labor economist who joined President Harry S. Truman’s Council of Economic Advisers, and the family lived in Bethesda, Md., during those White House years. As the energy leached out of leftist politics, Mr. Davis's promotional instincts took a surprising turn when he accepted a free plane ticket to India to learn about Guru Maharj Ji. Thomas Hayden gives a big speech in The Trial of Chicago 7's ending, but the movie's version of events isn't what really happened. Some admirers saw a lifelong commitment to a progressive vision taking new forms. In addition to his wife, Mr. Davis is survived by two daughters, Lia and Maya; a son, Sky; a sister, Bea; two brothers, John and Bob; and two grandchildren. Following the trial, Rennie Davis’ (Alex Sharp) life went in some pretty interesting directions. He was not ideological. Impressed by the civil rights movement in the South, particularly the 1960 sit-ins in Greensboro, N.C., and taken with a belief in the power of his generation to effect change, Mr. Davis became a full-time activist and one of the most committed S.D.S. A longtime peace activist, Davis was a protest coordinator when some 3,000 demonstrators clashed with police near the convention in Chicago. Mr. Davis remained proud of his role in history and convinced of his era’s continued relevance. Mr. Davis remained active in relative obscurity, mostly in Colorado, for decades afterward, promoting his work in business consulting, technology, socially responsible investment and various healing regimens. In his later years he worked in business consulting, technology, socially responsible investment and various healing regimens. The Chicago Eight included Abbie Hoffman, Tom Hayden, David Dellinger, Jerry Rubin, Lee Weiner, Rennie Davis, John Froines and Bobby Seale. (“I was portrayed as a complete nerd afraid of his own shadow,” he complained. Five months later, all eight of them are arrested and charged with trying to incite a riot. RENNIE DAVIS, CHICAGO 7 ACTIVIST DIES AT 80-FILE WED0308-Rennie Davis, one of the Chicago 7 anti-war activists in the '60s, has died at the age of 80. In the 2010 film The Chicago 8 Davis was played by Bret Harrison. Davis died on Tuesday of lymphoma at his home in Berthoud, Colorado, his wife, Kirsten Liegmann, told The Associated Press […] With his wife, he led the Foundation for a New Humanity (now called Foundation for Humanity), which sold “peak performance” elixirs, touted a new approach to meditation and promised a New Humanity World Tour for a movement “larger than the Renaissance, American Revolution and Sixties combined.”. Rennie Davis, one of the leading radicals of the 1960s who later recapped those days in numerous television documentaries on the era, has died. Julian Wasser/The LIFE Images Collection, via Getty Images. Mr. Davis in 2016. Rennie Davis in August 1968 in Chicago. Friends and associates said he also experimented at the time with drugs, including LSD. The Trial of the Chicago 7 Is a Riveting Movie. He was 80. But he was never angry or hateful. Smart, charismatic and a blur of energy and engagement, Mr. Davis was a leading figure of the antiwar movement. Alex Sharp, far right, played Mr. Davis in the recent Aaron Sorkin film “The Trial of the Chicago 7.” Mr. Davis complained that the movie portrayed him as “a complete nerd afraid of his own shadow.”, Mr. Davis in New York City in 1972. In 1970, after a tumultuous four-and-a-half-month trial, all seven defendants were acquitted of conspiracy, but Mr. Davis and four others — Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger and Mr. Hayden — were convicted of inciting to riot and sentenced to five years in prison. convention in 1963. Their story is a current movie. By using this website, you accept the terms of our Visitor Agreement and Privacy Policy, and understand your options regarding Ad Choices. That experience led to Chicago, where Mr. Davis helped organize a motley assemblage of antiwar activists, political radicals and the theatrical revolutionaries known as Yippies with the aim of descending on the 1968 Democratic National Convention. He was 80. DENVER — Rennie Davis, one of the “Chicago Seven” activists who was tried for organizing an anti-Vietnam War protest outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago that turned violent, has died. The guilty verdicts were overturned on appeal. “He believed in political salesmanship, creating a kind of myth that wasn’t quite a lie but created an image of possibility, even if it wasn’t yet true.”. Rennie Davis, ‘Chicago Seven’ activist and leader of New Left, dies at 80 Three members of the Chicago Seven — Mr. Davis, center, with Abbie Hoffman, left, and Jerry Rubin — … Rennie Davis Portrayed by Alex Sharp in the Netflix film, Rennie Davis was a leader of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more. Davis was “one of the most important nuts and bolts organizers of the anti-war movement in the 1960s and the early 1970s” and an “essential organizer,” David Farber, a distinguished professor of history at the University of Kansas, told the AP. In the 2010 film The Chicago 8 Davis was played by Bret Harrison. Chicago Seven anti-war activist Rennie Davis whose trial for helping organize 1968 protest featured in Netflix movie dies aged 80. The Chicago 7 give a press conference in October 1969. Rennard Cordon Davis was born May 23, 1940, in Lansing, Mich., to John and Dorothy Davis. … Nicholas von Hoffman described him as “the most stable, the calmest, the most enduring of that group of young people who set out to change America at the beginning of the ’60s.”. It was my honor to know them. As told in “Fire in the Streets” (1979), Milton Viorst’s account of 1960s radicalism, a senior year high school trip to New York City left Mr. Davis torn between remaining in pastoral rural Virginia and wanting to address the ills of poverty and race that he saw in the city’s troubled neighborhoods. Rennie Davis Dies: 'Chicago 7' Radical And TV Documentary Subject Was 80 Danny Ray Dies: James Brown's 'Cape Man' Routine Assistant Was 85 … Rennie Davis, one of the leading radicals of the 1960s and who later recapped those days in numerous television documentaries on the era, has died. He was there as an organizer of protests at the Democratic National Convention and was later tried as a member of the Chicago Seven. Ms. Liegmann described his time with Guru Maharaj Ji as a brief “steppingstone, a portal, that opened a massive pathway” to spiritual work crucial for human awakening. He was 80. In 1970, the seven defendants were acquitted of conspiracy, but Davis and four others -- Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger and Hayden -- were convicted of inciting a riot and sentenced to five years in prison. © 2021 Cox Media Group. Then, in 1973, he took what many thought to be a baffling turn: He became the chief American promoter for Guru Maharaj Ji, a 15-year-old Indian billed as a “perfect master,” who claimed millions of followers around the world. He was not a rabble-rouser, he was not an angry, hostile person,” Farber told the AP. RENNIE DAVIS, CHICAGO 7 ACTIVIST DIES AT 80-FILE WED0308-Rennie Davis, one of the Chicago 7 anti-war activists in the '60s, has died at the age of 80. John N. Mitchell, the Attorney General, appoints Tom Foran and Richard Schultz as … Seated are Mr. Davis (left) and David Dellinger. Davis’ wife, Kirsten Liegmann, announced his death on his Facebook page. “I felt sorry for Tony winner Alex Sharp who played me.”), “I once told the Chicago defendants,” he wrote, “that no movie producer will ever fully capture the courage and elegance of the actual defendants. pic.twitter.com/JGZuVg9im3. In 1967, he and Tom Hayden, another S.D.S. Federal officials charged Davis and seven others with conspiracy and inciting to riot, the Times reported. Alex Sharp Rennie Davis Sacha Baron Cohen Abbie Hoffman ... Chicago 7 is a particularly shiny rendering of history, but Sorkin wisely places the focus … Focused and empathetic, he worked in Chicago with poor white people from Appalachia, played bluegrass banjo at parties and did much of the serious negotiating with the city for permits to march and camp out before the Chicago convention. DENVER — Rennie Davis, one of the “Chicago Seven” activists who was tried for organizing an anti-Vietnam War protest outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago that turned violent, has died. Liegmann said the cause of death was lymphoma, adding that a large tumor was discovered only two weeks ago. Rennie Davis, one of the “Chicago Seven” activists who was tried for organizing an anti-Vietnam War protest outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago in which thousands clashed with police in a bloody confrontation that horrified a nation watching live on television, has died. After graduating from Oberlin College in Ohio, he joined the top ranks of the activist organization Students for a Democratic Society and the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam.