Here are three links related to Joyce:
1) funeral-home obituary:
https://www.mwfuneralhome.com/obituaries/Joyce-Dennison-3/#!/Obituary
2) photo/caption about her 1963 protest arrest (from the Friday, February 22, 1963 edition of The Morning Herald [Hagerstown, MD])
3) obituary from The Baltimore Sun (Baltimore, MD), originally published on-line Sept. 12, 2024 (and reproduced below)
https://www.baltimoresun.com/2024/09/12/joyce-i-dennison-civil-rights-and-aids-activist-dies/
Joyce I. Dennison, civil rights and AIDS activist, dies
By Frederick N. Rasmussen | frasmussen@baltsun.com
UPDATED: September 12, 2024 at 9:42 p.m.
Joyce I. Dennison, a retired Baltimore educator, civil rights and AIDS activist who participated in the 1963 Northwood Theatre demonstrations, died Sept. 1 at her Radnor-Winston home. She was 82.
“She saw her participation in the Northwood Movie Theatre demonstration as an important moment in her life,” said Amy Nathan, author of “Round and Round Together: Taking a Merry-Go-Round Ride Into the Civil Rights Movement.”
“She wanted people to know the role students played, that they had put their lives on the line trying to make Baltimore a better place,” Nathan added.
Joyce Irene Dennison, daughter of Lindley Hemsley, a scrapyard worker, and Martha Dennison Bond, a domestic worker, was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania, the youngest of three sisters.
Raised in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, she graduated in 1960 from Kennett Consolidated School and earned a bachelor’s degree in 1964 from Morgan State University.
While at Morgan, Ms. Dennison became involved in the civil rights movement and was jailed for her participation in the 1963 protest over the whites-only policy at the now-demolished Northwood Theatre.
“We knew there were plenty of battles to be fought. There were plenty of soldiers that were needed. We all felt a part of that,” Ms. Dennison recounted in an interview with Nathan. “It was no walk in the park. Crowds would spit on you, threaten you and attempt to throw hot coffee on you.”
Ms. Dennison and the other demonstrators were arrested and spent several days in jail. Her photograph sitting in a cell with another female student was published in Jet magazine. Her sister purchased a copy and called their mother.
“When I finally got out of jail and called home, mother was well-prepared,” she told Nathan. “‘Joycey,’ she said, ‘do you have something to tell me?'”
Baltimore, MD-2/13/13 - Joyce Dennison, 71, of Baltimore, a retired teacher, visits her alma mater, Morgan State University, where an exhibit honoring the role that she and other students played in the civil rights movement is displayed at the Student Center. Dennison was one of hundreds of college students who were jailed 50 years ago during protests against the segregated policy that excluded African-Americans from attending Northwood Theatre, now defunct. Their mass arrests led to the desegregation of movie theaters in Baltimore. Amy Davis / Baltimore Sun - #1716
Joyce I. Dennison attended the March on Washington on Aug 28, 1963. (Kim Hairston/The Baltimore Sun)
Ms. Dennison was a contributor to the Maryland Center for History and Culture’s 2022 exhibition, Passions and Purpose: Voices of Maryland’s Civil Rights Activists.
“Joyce engaged in our oral history interviews and with students,” said David Armenti, vice president of education and engagement at the center. “She was willing to share her perspective, sit down with them and reflect on what people were doing in the 1950s and 1960s. She was very generous with her time.”
After graduating from Morgan, she returned to Kennett Square, where she became a physical education teacher at her old high school. In the early 1970s, she moved to Delaware, where she taught for several years in public schools.
In 1974, she joined the Women’s Army Corps, serving as director of women’s athletics in Korea, Panama and West Point before being assigned as a recruiter in Baltimore. After being discharged in 1984, she worked as an activity director at the YWCA and, after the AIDS epidemic broke out, she joined the Health Education Resource Organization, where she was director of the Maryland AIDS Hotline.
Ms. Dennison returned to education after a 20-year break and taught health and physical education in Baltimore until retiring in 2004.
In retirement, she became an active member of the Renaissance Institute at Notre Dame of Maryland University.
In recent years, Ms. Dennison was in demand as a speaker about her civil rights activism by Morgan State University, The Reginald Lewis Museum and the Maryland Center for Arts and Culture.
She wrote Out of My Mind, a series of autobiographical essays about her life. She enjoyed traveling, especially by train, and was a fan of the Metropolitan Opera and the old Baltimore Opera Co.
“Her two favorite divas were Leontyne Price and Jessye Norman,” said her partner of 40 years, Amanda K. Joyce, a retired consultant.
A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Oct. 19 at Govans Presbyterian Church, 5828 York Road.
Originally Published: September 12, 2024 at 5:00 a.m.