In the early 1970s, Davis became a follower of Guru Maharaj Ji (Prem Rawat) and his Divine Light Mission.

[1] His father, John, worked in nearby Washington, D.C., including as chief of staff to the Council of Economic Advisers under President Harry S.

[8] The original eight protester/defendants, as 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, a Black Panther leader.

On October 9, the Illinois National Guard was called in to join the Chicago police for crowd control, as demonstrations grew outside the courtroom.

[1] At his testimony, given January 23, 1970, Davis related, for the Court, a speech he gave at the University of Chicago on November 20, 1967, and, by extension, his reasons for demonstrating at the Democratic National Convention.

[10] Now one of these balls, I explained, was roughly three times the power of an old fashioned hand grenade.... Every living thing exposed in that 1000-yard area from this single bomb, ninety percent of every living thing in that area will die ... whether it's a water buffalo or a water buffalo boy.

This bomb would not destroy this lecture podium, it would not damage the walls, the ceiling, the floor ... if it is dropped on a city, it takes life but leaves the institutions.

[10]Foran objected that the methods and techniques used during the Vietnam war had nothing to do with whether or not people in the United States had a right to travel in interstate commerce to incite a riot.

He was a spokesperson and speaker at the widely publicized Millennium '73 event organized by Divine Light Mission in the Houston Astrodome.

"[13] An op-ed in the San Francisco Sunday Examiner speculated at the time as to whether Davis had undergone a lobotomy, and suggested, "If not, maybe he should try one.

[15] He appeared on Larry King Live, Barbara Walters, CNN, Phil Donahue, VH1, and other network television programs.

[16] Davis returned to Chicago for the 1996 Democratic National Convention to speak at the "Festival of Life" in Grant Park.

[17] In a 2005 article published in the Iowa Source, Davis said: If you were to do a survey of what causes misery on earth, it would tend to fall into three broad categories.