Rennie Davis

Rennard Cordon “Rennie” Davis (born May 23, 1941) is a former, prominent American anti-Vietnam War protest leader of the 1960s. He was one of the Chicago Seven.

Davis was the National Director of community organizing programs (the Economic Research and Action Project, or ERAP, in Ann Arbor, Michigan), a project of Students for a Democratic Society. Davis, along with Tom Hayden, organized anti-war demonstrations in Chicago before and during the 1968 Democratic National Convention for the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam (“the Mobe”). He has appeared on Larry King Live, Barbara Walters, CNN, Phil Donahue, VH1, and other network programs, and provided advice in business strategies for Fortune 500 companies.

Davis grew up in Berryville, Virginia, and is an alumnus of Oberlin College in Ohio. His father was labor economist John C. Davis, who was President Harry S. Truman's chief of staff of the Council of Economic Advisers. Davis came back to Chicago for the 1996 Democratic National Convention to speak at the "Festival of Life" in Grant Park and to appear on a panel with Tom Hayden discussing “a progressive counterbalance to the religious right”.

Chicago Seven
The Chicago Seven were seven defendants charged with conspiracy, inciting to riot, and other charges related to nonviolent and violent protests that took place in Chicago, Illinois on the occasion of the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

The original eight protester/defendants, 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. Seale's case was separated from the others during the early part of the trial. The Chicago Seven defense attorneys were William Kunstler and Leonard Weinglass of the Center for Constitutional Rights. The judge was Julius Hoffman. The prosecutors were Richard Schultz and Tom Foran. The trial began on 24 September 1969, and on 9 October the United States National Guard was called in to join the Chicago police for crowd control as demonstrations grew outside the courtroom.

Divine Light Mission
In the early 1970s Davis became a follower of Guru Maharaj Ji (Prem Rawat), and was a spokesperson and speaker at the widely publicized Millennium '73 event organized by Divine Light Mission in the Houston Astrodome. He described the arrival of Guru Maharaj Ji as, Texas Monthly cited Davis as stating: "This city is going to be remembered through all the ages of human civilization." An Op-ed in The San Francisco Sunday Examiner speculated on whether Davis had undergone a lobotomy, and suggested, "If not, maybe he should try one."

Foundation for a New Humanity
Davis later became a venture capitalist and lecturer on meditation and self-awareness. He is the founder of Foundation for a New Humanity, a technology development and venture capital company commercializing breakthrough technologies.

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