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

A STEPHEN CURRY'S BOOK CLUB PICK

SOUTHERN INDEPENDENT BOOKSELLERS ALLIANCE BESTSELLER

“A story of triumph and resilience centered around those who dedicated their lives to the Civil Rights movement. It reminds us that, in order to truly appreciate how far we’ve come—and how far we still have to go—we must acknowledge the past and pay homage to those who laid the foundation. It reminds us that everyday people can be heroes if they stand up for what’s right. It reminds us that we’re not alone in our experiences, and that if we work together, we can make impactful change.”—Stephen Curry

“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 a moving father and son 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 and original Freedom Rider, 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 American and Black 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.

• A Father-Son Dialogue: Go inside the powerful, decades-long conversation between David Dennis Sr., an architect of the 1960s movement, and his son, a journalist on the front lines of Black Lives Matter today.
• Never-Before-Told Stories: For the first time, David Dennis Sr. shares his harrowing and joyful recollections as a CORE field secretary and one of the original Freedom Riders, detailing the personal cost of the fight.
• The Weight of Legacy: Explore the intergenerational trauma and survivor’s guilt of an activist traveling with the ghosts of his friends, and the impact on a son who must carry that history forward.
• From CORE to Black Lives Matter: Witness the direct line from the struggle for equality in the segregated South to the ongoing fight for social justice in modern America, connecting two crucial eras of activism.