In fifth grade, Jeremiah ’29 had just celebrated Christmas with his cousin, Jarvis Lykes, right before he was killed by police. Because he was unarmed, Lykes became an early symbol of the Black Lives Matter movement; his image appears on multiple murals in the Columbus, Ga., area, and other places.
“There was no bodycam footage, no neighborhood cameras, no evidence,” Jeremiah recounted. “Jarvis became a symbol.”
Jeremiah was a theater kid, an actor and singer. He held the privilege of performing in “Ruby Bridges” at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, with Ruby Bridges herself in the audience. But the circumstances around his cousin’s death were moving him toward activism and an interest in law. These interests only intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic, when adversity struck hardest and even closer to home.
His mother, Japonica Dennis, describes a period of intense struggle beginning in 2020. She was out of work, and the pandemic made things worse. Jeremiah, at 13 and on lockdown with the rest of the country, scrolled through social media as tensions peaked around the death of George Floyd and resurfaced feelings about what had happened to Jarvis.
“I was soaking up all the protest footage, seeing everything on the news,” Jeremiah said. “You couldn’t open your phone without seeing what was happening. I immediately wanted to go out and protest—but I was too young.”
“I saw where it took a toll on him mentally,” his mother added. “I didn’t want him to just sit on social media and get consumed by anger. So, I encouraged him to get active, get creative, to stay positive.”
That is when Jeremiah learned to sew. Communities around the country needed masks, and a family friend showed Jeremiah how to make them. He sewed the likeness of his cousin onto them, spending most of his COVID free time in his room producing the protection his community needed. Soon, he moved on to shirts, hats and other items.
Suddenly, Jeremiah had become a 14-year-old area fashion mogul, launching a clothing brand called JayFYE (Fresh Young Entrepreneurs).
“People started noticing,” Jeremiah said. “Local rappers, pop-up shops, malls. Suddenly, I needed help, so my mom got us a business license and learned how to help make everything.”
“We started traveling and selling his clothes,” Dennis added. “Concerts, events, this little 14-year-old kid with his own brand. He made his struggle look cool. He turned what we were going through into something inspiring.”
During this period in Jeremiah’s life, his interest shifted from theater to law. His magnet high school offered programs in both, so he had to make a choice.
“I’ve always had an interest in law because of what happened to my cousin,” he said. “I didn’t want to be on stage; I wanted to be in a courtroom. So, I picked law.”
But immediately, life threw the family another curveball. Late into a pregnancy, Dennis suffered a heart attack, which resulted in an immediate cesarean section. Baby Josiah was rushed to a children’s hospital in Birmingham, Ala., while Dennis stayed in Montgomery.
“I was in one hospital,” Dennis said, “Josiah was in another, and Jeremiah was bouncing between home, school and hospitals.”
Jeremiah moved in with his grandmother, juggling classwork, taking care of his mom and little brother and learning to be an adult in the ninth grade. He missed weeks of school.
“The other students would clap if I made it to school five days in a row, but nobody knew what I was going through,” Jeremiah said. “I didn’t get a single A in ninth or tenth grade, except for Law. No matter what, I never missed Law.”
During this time, Dennis focused on ensuring Jeremiah felt loved and stable. “I feel like the best thing you can do for someone you love is show them that love—especially in the hardest times,” she said.
The second half of high school went better. His mom was healing. She found a new job. He fell in love with mock trial competitions and landed an internship at the Montgomery Circuit Court.
“Mock trial took it for me,” he said. “We prepared our own cases. We went to state. I was hooked. And when the judge offered me an internship, I got to see the courtroom for real.”
Because of the rough start in high school, Jeremiah’s GPA wasn’t considered competitive, but his test scores were decent, and his interview skills were on point. Though he didn’t know anything about getting into college, he was determined to go and to find a way not to take on significant debt.
His first thought on accomplishing this was to join the Air Force, but during an admissions interview at Georgetown University, the counselor told Jeremiah he’d be a great fit for Berea College.
I wrote a list of what I wanted in a college. Berea checked all the boxes. It’s one of the first integrated colleges. I’m from Montgomery, once the capital of the Confederacy. That history means something to me.
Jeremiah ’29
“I wrote a list of what I wanted in a college,” Jeremiah said. “Berea checked all the boxes. It’s one of the first integrated colleges. I’m from Montgomery, once the capital of the Confederacy. That history means something to me.”
Jeremiah and Dennis told this story just a few days before Jeremiah graduated from high school. Dennis beamed with joy and pride.
“Watching him walk across that stage,” she said, “it’s overwhelming. It could have gone a whole different way.”
Jeremiah beamed as well, happy, confident, excited about the future, already sounding like a Berean. He plans to major in English and African and African American Studies and to study abroad in Africa. He’s a Bonner Scholar, which means he will devote himself to community service while at Berea.
“I want to give back, not just learn,” he said. “I want to be part of the communities that need change. We talk about making change all day, but until you put your hands and feet in, it won’t happen.”
He’ll spend his summer preparing to move and honing his advocacy skills at the YMCA Youth Conference on National Affairs.
“Jeremiah is a remarkable young man,” his mother said. “He’s very driven. He keeps God first. He is going to break some generational curses. He already has.”
Jeremiah sees being the first in the family to attend college as an opportunity to lift up the whole family.
“It’s going to open so many doors,” he predicted. “Now I’ll be able to help my little brother, my cousins, my other siblings get an education. They will have the information I didn’t have.”
