Gary activist and historian Sam Love knew upon reading the entry his neighbor, the Rev. Dena Holland-Neal, submitted for his “The Gary Anthology” project that it would be the lead.
He doesn’t remember when exactly they met, but they became fast friends as they worked to make Gary a better place, he said. He’s now taken in her beloved cat, Bahati, in her honor.
Services for Holland-Neal have been set for Friday. She died December 10 at the age of 70.
Civil rights activists Rev. Dena Holland-Neal, on right, and Lamar Taylor speak near a statue of former Gary mayor Richard G. Hatcher near city hall on Thursday, July 2, 2020. (Kyle Telechan / Post-Tribune)
“Her life embodied the political hopes and creative talents of the past half-century here,” Love said. “Like so many friends here, I think we were meant to pass through this brief moment in time together, but we were comrades for a greater Gary, then friends, and finally — and most importantly to me — neighbors.
“Like so many of her friends I’m inspired by her life and work, hoping I can carry a bit of the spirit on, but also feeling very empty right now.”
A fierce defender of her city, Holland-Neal came by it honestly; her father, James Holland, was the late Mayor Richard Hatcher’s special assistant and deputy mayor, and she campaigned for him when she was 14, according to Post-Tribune archives. Holland-Neal was a 17-year-old West Side High School senior when Gary was set to host the 1972 National Black Political Convention at the same time that the Cougars were in the state high school basketball tournament.
The Rev. Dena Holland-Neal speaks out Friday, April 7, 2017, against the use of the Gary/Chicago International Airport by ICE for deportations. (Jim Karczewski / Post-Tribune)
West Side lost a racially tinged state title game to Connorsville a week later and received a year’s suspension from the state athletic association. She watched the game, then turned around and came back to the convention.
“For me, it’s something that remains on the top of the list of events in my life,” the pastor for Peace United Church of Christ told the Post-Tribune in 2021. “There were so many people with so many different ideas about where we needed to go.”
She was incredibly proud of her daughters, Mia and Nia. When Mia Neal was up for the Oscar for Hairstyling and Makeup in 2021, Holland-Neal hosted a Zoom party for 14 friends and family members, the Post-Tribune reported.
“The whole evening became surreal for me. One part of me said ‘she’s going to win it,’ but you can’t really say that. Everything started lining up,” she said in 2021.
After it was announced that Mia won for “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” Holland-Neal said all she could hear was screaming.
“It was truly one of the greatest feelings I ever had in my life. Going through my head was everything that Mia has gone through to get there.”
Holland-Neal said Nia and some friends originally from Gary attended the ceremony, after which they went to a party hosted by the movie’s star Viola Davis. Mia wore a gown created by CD Greene, a New York designer she found out was from Gary, the Post-Tribune reported
As part of The Interfaith Action Network, she was instrumental in garnering commitments of support from stakeholders that could bring a Mobile Crisis Response team to Gary. Part of the Gary Police Reform Commission’s recommendations, the MCR team would be the first to address mental health and addiction emergencies with a trained team able to deploy 24 hours a day instead of providing a law enforcement response.
“Today is the day for us to do right by our neighbors,” she said at the time.
Holland-Neal could be found protesting injustice often, be it the ICE deportations from the Gary/Chicago International Airport or in solidarity with Black Lives Matter.
“If we sit quietly and watch as ICE removes innocent people from their homes, people who work hard every day to provide a decent life for their families … they will soon come knocking at our doors,” she said of ICE, adding that she was dissatisfied with how the Trump administration handled its enforcement of immigration policies in 2017. “We must be diligent in our fight to reject the Trump administration’s reckless and inhumane deportation agenda by working to establish state law that ensures that our state and local resources are not used to deport families,” she said. “We must stand, and we must fight.”
Dena Jo Holland-Neal leaves behind her daughters, Nia Neal of Merrillville, IN and Mia Neal of New York, NY; grandchildren DeWayne Jackson Jr. and Jordan Brame. both of Merrillville; and James Deacon of New York, NY; God “Blessed” Son, Charles “Duke” Tanner of Indianapolis, IN; and a host of other relatives and friends. She is preceded in death by her parents, James and Dorothy Holland.
Visitation will be Friday from 9:00 a.m. –11:00 a.m. at Trinity United Church of Christ, 1276 West 20th Ave, Gary, with a service after.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
