David M. Novick (b. 1942) was a civil rights activist and writer for the local black
press in Milwaukee, particularly The Milwaukee Star
and The Milwaukee Courier during the 1960s. While a
student at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, he participated in black voter
registration drives in Mississippi and the movement for open housing laws in
Milwaukee. His later activism centered around the struggles for desegregation of
local public schools, Latino rights, and the peace movement. He died in Milwaukee in
2003.
The FBI and the Milwaukee Police Department kept extensive files on Novick's
activities, movements, and affiliations during the 1960s, through the use of
informants and espionage. Novick was among the first four Milwaukeeans to obtain his
FBI files through a court order after the Congress passed the Privacy Act Amendments
to the Freedom of Information Act in 1974.
