Edward Davis (February 27, 1911 – May 3, 1999) was an American car dealer.

Biography

Early life

Davis was born in Shreveport, Louisiana in 1911 and his family moved to the

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

area in 1921. He graduated from

Cass Technical High School Cass Technical High School (simply referred to as Cass Tech) is a public high school in Midtown Detroit, Michigan, United States.

Career

After graduating from Cass Tech, Davis opened a car wash but would eventually find success in sales at a local Dodge dealership. In 1938, he opened a used car lot and two years later became a Studebaker dealer. Studebaker Corporation faced financial difficulties in the 1950s which led to Davis closing his dealership in 1956. In 1963, he opened a Chrysler- Plymouth dealership which he ran until 1971. Following his retirement from the car business, Davis accepted an appointment as general manager of the Detroit mass transit system from mayor

Roman Gribbs Roman Stanley Gribbs (December 29, 1925 – April 5, 2016) was an American politician who served as the Mayor of Detroit from 1970 to 1974. Later, Gribbs served as a judge on the Michigan Court of Appeals. Gribbs was the last white mayor of the ...

. During this time he also wrote his autobiography, ''One Man's Way'', which was published in 1979. In 1996, Davis became the first black inductee in the

Automotive Hall of Fame The Automotive Hall of Fame is an American museum. It was founded in 1939 and has over 800 worldwide honorees. It is part of the MotorCities National Heritage Area. the Automotive Hall of Fame includes persons who have contributed greatly to a ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Edward Ed 1911 births 1999 deaths American automobile salespeople African-American history in Detroit Businesspeople from Detroit People from Shreveport, Louisiana 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century African-American businesspeople