Frank Marshall Davis
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Frank Marshall Davis (December 31, 1905 – July 26, 1987) was an American writer, poet, political and
labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...
activist and businessman. Davis began his career writing for
African American newspapers African or Africans may refer to: * Anything from or pertaining to the continent of Africa: ** People who are native to Africa, descendants of natives of Africa, or individuals who trace their ancestry to indigenous inhabitants of Africa *** List ...
in Chicago. He moved to
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, where he became the editor of the paper he turned into the '' Atlanta Daily World.'' He later returned to Chicago. During this time, he was outspoken about political and social issues, while also covering topics that ranged from sports to music. His poetry was sponsored by the
Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; from 1935 to 1939, then known as the Work Projects Administration from 1939 to 1943) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to car ...
(WPA) under President
Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...
's
New Deal The New Deal was a series of wide-reaching economic, social, and political reforms enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1938, in response to the Great Depression in the United States, Great Depressi ...
programs. He also played a role in the South Side Writers Group in Chicago, and is considered among the writers of the Black Chicago Renaissance. In the late 1940s, Davis moved to
Honolulu, Hawaii Honolulu ( ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, located in the Pacific Ocean. It is the county seat of the Consolidated city-county, consolidated City and County of Honol ...
, where he ran a small business. He became involved in local labor issues. The
Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...
(FBI) tracked his activities as they had investigated union activists since the early 20th century.


Early life

Davis was born in
Arkansas City, Kansas Arkansas City () is a city in Cowley County, Kansas, United States, situated at the confluence of the Arkansas and Walnut rivers in the southwestern part of the county. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 11,974. Pronunc ...
, on December 31, 1905. His parents divorced, and Davis grew up living with his mother and stepfather, and with his maternal grandparents. he graduated from Arkansas City High School (Kansas). In 1923, at age 17, he attended
Friends University Friends University is a Private university, private Nondenominational Christianity, nondenominational Christian university in Wichita, Kansas, United States. It was founded in 1898. The main building was originally built in 1886 for Garfield Uni ...
. From 1924 to 1927, and again in 1929, he attended Kansas State Agricultural College, now Kansas State University. When Davis entered Kansas State, twenty-five other African-American students were enrolled. Kansas was segregated by custom, if not by law.John Edgar Tidwell
"An Interview with Frank Marshall Davis"
''Black American Literature Forum'', Autumn 1985
Davis studied industrial journalism. He began to write poems as the result of a class assignment, and was encouraged by an English literature instructor to continue his poetry writing. Davis pledged
Phi Beta Sigma Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. () is a historically African American fraternity. It was founded at Howard University in Washington, D.C. in 1914. The fraternity's founders, A. Langston Taylor, Leonard F. Morse, and Charles I. Brown, wanted to ...
fraternity in 1925. He left college before getting a degree.The Authors
By Philip A. Greasley


Early career

In 1927, Davis moved to Chicago, a destination of tens of thousands of African Americans during the Great Migration. He worked variously for the ''Chicago Evening Bulletin,'' the ''Chicago Whip,'' and the '' Gary American,'' all African American newspapers. He also wrote free-lance articles and
short stories A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the old ...
for African American magazines. During this time Davis began to write poetry seriously, including his first long poem, entitled ''Chicago's Congo, Sonata for an Orchestra.'' In 1931, Davis moved to
Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...
to become an editor of a twice-weekly paper. Later that year he became the paper's
managing editor A managing editor (ME) is a senior member of a publication's management team. Typically, the managing editor reports directly to the editor-in-chief and oversees all aspects of the publication. United States In the United States, a managing edi ...
. In 1932 the paper, renamed as the '' Atlanta Daily World'' became the nation's first successful black daily newspaper. Davis continued to write and publish poems, which came to the attention of Chicago socialite Frances Norton Manning. She introduced him to Norman Forgue, the publisher of Black Cat Press. In the summer of 1935, Forgue published Davis' first book, ''Black Man's Verse.'' In 1935, Davis returned to Chicago to take the position of managing editor of the Associated Negro Press (ANP), a news service founded in 1919 for black newspapers. Eventually, Davis became executive editor of the ANP. He held the position until 1947. While in Chicago, Davis also started a photography club, worked for numerous political parties, and participated in the League of American Writers. Davis was an avid photographer, and inspired writer Richard Wright's interest in the field. Davis wrote that his photography consisted in large part of nudes because "the female body fascinates me, both aesthetically and emotionally." He said that when photographing, he focused on "contours" and the "wide range of tones". Davis, Richard Wright, Margaret Walker, and others were part of the South Side Writers Group, which met regularly beginning in 1936 to critique each other's work. They were part of what became known as the Black Chicago Renaissance. Davis also worked as a sports reporter, in particular covering the rivalry between African-American boxer
Joe Louis Joseph Louis Barrow (May 13, 1914 – April 12, 1981) was an American professional boxer who competed from 1934 to 1951. Nicknamed "the Brown Bomber", Louis is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential boxers of all time. He r ...
and the German
Max Schmeling Maximilian Adolph Otto Siegfried Schmeling (, ; 28 September 1905 – 2 February 2005) was a German boxing, boxer who was heavyweight champion of the world between 1930 and 1932. His two fights with Joe Louis in 1936 and 1938 were worldwide cul ...
. He and other writers portrayed their confrontation as democracy and equality vs. fascism. Davis used his journalism to call for integration of the sports world. He believed that sports was a field in which men could break the color bar, and was a way to reach out to a working class. During the
Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
, Davis participated in the federal
Federal Writers' Project The Federal Writers' Project (FWP) was a federal government project in the United States created to provide jobs for out-of-work writers and to develop a history and overview of the United States, by state, cities and other jurisdictions. It was ...
, under the
Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; from 1935 to 1939, then known as the Work Projects Administration from 1939 to 1943) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to car ...
and part of President
Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...
's New Deal. In 1937 he received a Julius Rosenwald Fellowship, funded by the president of Sears Roebuck, who became a major philanthropist. He began to work on
community organizing Community organizing is a process where people who live in proximity to each other or share some common problem come together into an organization that acts in their shared self-interest. Unlike those who promote more-consensual community buil ...
, starting a Chicago labor newspaper, '' The Star,'' toward the end of
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. The paper's goal was to "promote a policy of cooperation and unity between Russia and the United States" seeking to " voidthe red-baiting tendencies of the mainstream press." In 1947, the ''
Spokane Daily Chronicle The ''Spokane Daily Chronicle'' is a daily digital newspaper in Spokane, Washington. It was founded as a weekly paper in 1881 and grew into an afternoon daily, competing with ''The Spokesman-Review'', which was formed from the merger of two com ...
'' of Washington state described the paper as "a red weekly", saying that it "has most of the markings of a Communist front publication." After World War II, Americans became suspicious of the
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
, a former ally, after it extended its control over Eastern Europe, and fears were raised about the influence of Communism in the US. In 1945, Davis taught one of the first
jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...
history courses in the United States, at the Abraham Lincoln School in Chicago. In 1948, with the encouragement of authors such as Richard Wright and Margaret Walker, Davis published a collection of poems, entitled ''47th Street: Poems.'' The collection chronicled the varied life of African Americans on Chicago's South Side. Davis had been a strong supporter of the work of Richard Wright, describing his '' Uncle Tom's Children'' as "the most absorbing fiction penned by a Negro since George Schuyler's ''Black No More''" (1931). After Wright published articles explaining his break with communism, the two writers fell out. In his memoir ''Livin' the Blues'' (1992), Davis described Wright's essays on this theme as "an act of treason in the fight for our rights and aided only the racists who were constantly seeking any means to destroy cooperation between Reds and blacks." Davis promoted the ideal of a "raceless" society, based on his belief that ''race'' as a biological or social construct was illogical and a fallacy. Davis was a member of the
Civil Rights Congress The Civil Rights Congress (CRC) was a United States civil rights organization, formed in 1946 at a national conference for radicals and disbanded in 1956. It succeeded the International Labor Defense, the National Federation for Constitutional L ...
in 1947–1948, and was vice chair of the Chicago Civil Liberties Committee from 1944 to 1947. He was a supporter of Henry Wallace's Progressive Party. In ''Livin' the Blues'', Davis wrote of the period 1935 to 1948, "I worked with all kinds of groups. I made no distinction between those labeled Communist, Socialist or merely liberal. My sole criterion was this: Are you with me in my determination to wipe out
white supremacy White supremacy is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White supremacy has roots in the now-discredited doctrine ...
?" Some libraries removed his books, and he was the subject of FBI investigations in the 1940s and 1950s. Tidwell, however, states that Davis became a closet member of the Communist Party.


Career in Hawaii

In 1948, Davis and his second wife, whom he had married in 1946, moved to
Honolulu Honolulu ( ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, located in the Pacific Ocean. It is the county seat of the Consolidated city-county, consolidated City and County of Honol ...
, Hawaii. In a 1974 interview with ''Black World/Negro Digest'', Davis said they had been attracted to the place because of a magazine article his wife had read. In Hawaii, Davis wrote a weekly column, called "Frank-ly Speaking," for the '' Honolulu Record,'' a labor paper published by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU). Davis's early columns covered labor issues, but he broadened his scope to write about cultural and political issues, especially racism. He also explored the history of
blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...
and jazz in his columns. Davis published little poetry between 1948 and 1978, when his final volume, ''Awakening, and Other Poems,'' was published. In 1968, Davis wrote a pornographic novel, titled ''Sex Rebel: Black,'' publishing it under the pseudonym Bob Greene. It was published by William Hamling's Greenleaf Publishing Company. In 1973, Davis visited
Howard University Howard University is a private, historically black, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity" and accredited by the Mid ...
, a
historically black college Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of serving African Americans. Most are in the Southern U ...
in Washington, D.C., to deliver a poetry reading, marking the first time in 25 years that he had visited the U.S. mainland. His work began to be published in
anthologies In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs, or related fiction/non-fiction excerpts by different authors. There are also thematic and ge ...
as there was a revival of interest in black writers due to the civil rights movement and increasing activism. Davis died on July 26, 1987, aged 81, in Honolulu, of a heart attack. Three works were published posthumously: ''Livin' the Blues: Memories of a Black Journalist and Poet'' (1992), ''Black Moods: Collected Poems'' (2002), and ''Writings of Frank Marshall Davis: A Voice of the Black Press'' (2007).


Personal life

Davis was married to Thelma Boyd, his first wife, for 13 years. For a time, while Davis worked in Chicago, Thelma lived and worked in Atlanta and later in Washington, DC. In 1946, he married Helen Canfield, a woman whom he had met in one of his classes; she was 18 years younger than him. Davis and Canfield divorced in 1970. Davis had a son, Mark, and four daughters: Lynn, Beth, Jeanne, and Jill.


Analysis of literary work

Davis said he was captivated by "the new revolutionary style called
free verse Free verse is an open form of poetry which does not use a prescribed or regular meter or rhyme and tends to follow the rhythm of natural or irregular speech. Free verse encompasses a large range of poetic form, and the distinction between free ...
.
Sonnets A sonnet is a fixed poetic form with a structure traditionally consisting of fourteen lines adhering to a set Rhyme scheme, rhyming scheme. The term derives from the Italian word ''sonetto'' (, from the Latin word ''sonus'', ). Originating in ...
and, in fact, all
rhyme A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds (usually the exact same phonemes) in the final Stress (linguistics), stressed syllables and any following syllables of two or more words. Most often, this kind of rhyming (''perfect rhyming'') is consciou ...
held little interest for" him. Davis found inspiration in Midwestern poets and their use of
vernacular Vernacular is the ordinary, informal, spoken language, spoken form of language, particularly when perceptual dialectology, perceived as having lower social status or less Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestige than standard language, which is mor ...
language. He claimed his "greatest single influence" was
Carl Sandburg Carl August Sandburg (January 6, 1878 – July 22, 1967) was an American poet, biographer, journalist, and editor. He won three Pulitzer Prizes: two for his poetry and one for his biography of Abraham Lincoln. During his lifetime, Sandburg w ...
"because of his hard, muscular poetry." Richard Guzman highlights Davis' poetry for its "social engagement, especially in the fight against racism" as well as its "fluent language and stunning imagery." Stacy I. Morgan states that in his work, Davis "delighted in contradicting reader expectations".


Legacy and impact

Kathryn Waddell Takara said of Davis's political and literary legacy: Davis has been cited as being an influence on poet and publisher
Dudley Randall Dudley Randall (January 14, 1914 – August 5, 2000) was an African-American poetry, poet and poetry publisher from Detroit, Michigan. He founded a African-American book publishers in the United States, 1960–80, pioneering publishing company cal ...
. Through exposure provided by Randall, Stephen Henderson and Margaret Taylor Goss Burroughs, Davis influenced the
Black Arts Movement The Black Arts Movement (BAM) was an African Americans, African-American-led art movement that was active during the 1960s and 1970s. Through activism and art, BAM created new cultural institutions and conveyed a message of black pride. The mov ...
. In 2018, he was inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame. In
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...
's memoir ''
Dreams from My Father ''Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance'' (1995) is a memoir by Barack Obama that explores the events of his early years in Honolulu and Chicago until his entry into Harvard Law School in 1988. Obama originally published his mem ...
'' (1995), Davis is referred to as a friend in Hawaii of Obama's maternal grandfather Stanley Dunham; Obama later identified the man as Davis. Obama said Davis recounted that he and Stanley Dunham had grown up 50 miles apart in Kansas, near Wichita, although they did not meet until living in Hawaii. Davis described the way Kansas race relations were back then, including
Jim Crow The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws introduced in the Southern United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that enforced racial segregation, " Jim Crow" being a pejorative term for an African American. The last of the ...
restrictions, and his belief that there had been little progress since then. As Obama remembered, "It made me smile, thinking back on Frank and his old
Black Power Black power is a list of political slogans, political slogan and a name which is given to various associated ideologies which aim to achieve self-determination for black people. It is primarily, but not exclusively, used in the United States b ...
, dashiki self. In some ways he was as incurable as my mother, as certain in his faith, living in the same sixties time warp that Hawaii had created." Obama also remembered Frank Davis later in life after taking a job in South Chicago as a community organizer. One day Obama visited areas where Davis had lived, writing, "I imagined Frank in a baggy suit and wide lapels, standing in front of the old Regal Theatre, waiting to see
Duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of Royal family, royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and above sovereign princes. As royalty or nobi ...
or Ella emerge from a gig."Barack Obama, ''
Dreams from My Father ''Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance'' (1995) is a memoir by Barack Obama that explores the events of his early years in Honolulu and Chicago until his entry into Harvard Law School in 1988. Obama originally published his mem ...
'', paperback edition, Chapter 8, p. 145


Works

Selected works * ''Black Man's Verse''; Black Cat, (Chicago, IL), 1935. * ''I Am the American Negro'', Black Cat, (Chicago, IL), 1937, * ''Through Sepia Eyes''; Black Cat, (Chicago, IL), 1938. * ''47th Street: Poems''; Decker (Prairie City, IL), 1948. * ''Black Man's Verse''; Black Cat (Skokie, IL), 1961. * ''Sex Rebel: Black (Memoirs of a Gash Gourmet)'', (written under pseudonym "Bob Greene"); Greenleaf Publishing Company (Evanston, IL), 1968. * ''Jazz Interludes: Seven Musical Poems''; Black Cat (Skokie, IL), 1977. * ''Awakening and Other Poems''; Black Cat (Skokie, IL), 1978. * ''Livin' the Blues: Memoirs of a Black Journalist and Poet'', ed. John Edgar Tidwell; University of Wisconsin Press, 1992, * ''Black Moods: Collected Poems,'' ed. John Edgar Tidwell; University of Illinois Press, 2002, * ''Writings of Frank Marshall Davis: A Voice of the Black Press'', ed. by John Edgar Tidwell; University Press of Mississippi, 2007. ;


References


Sources

* King, Woodie, Jr., ed., ''The Forerunners: Black Poets in America'', Howard University Press, 1975. * An Interview with Frank Marshall Davis, by John Edgar Tidwell. ''Black American Literature Forum'', Vol. 19, No. 3, Autumn, 1985, pp. 105–108 * ''African American Review'', Summer–Fall 2003, p. 466. * ''Black Scholar'', Summer 1996, p. 17. * ''Western Journal of Black Studies'', Winter 2002, p. 215.
"Frank Marshall Davis: Black Labor Activist and Outsider Journalist: Social Movements in Hawai`i" by Kathryn Waddell Takara, PhD
* Takara, Kathryn Waddell. ''Frank Marshall Davis: The Fire and the Phoenix (A Critical Biography)''

from the Center for Labor Education & Research, University of Hawaii – West Oahu


External links


Poetry Foundation biography


by Frank Marshall Davis * ttps://web.archive.org/web/20080501195402/http://www2.hawaii.edu/~takara/fmd_paradise.htm "This is Paradise"a poem by Frank Marshall Davis
Frank-ly Speaking
editorials from the ''Honolulu Record'', Center for Labor Education and Research, University of Hawaii – West Oahu * Tidwell, John Edga
Davis, Frank Marshall (1905–1987)
BlackPast.org
Frank Marshall Davis Papers
at the
DuSable Museum of African American History The DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center, formerly the DuSable Museum of African American History, is a museum in Chicago that is dedicated to the study and conservation of African-American history, culture, and art named after Je ...
* FBI files on Frank Marshall Davis {{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Frank Marshall 1905 births 1987 deaths People from Arkansas City, Kansas American activists African-American poets American male poets African-American non-fiction writers Editors of Georgia (U.S. state) newspapers Friends University alumni Kansas State University alumni Writers from Kansas Works Progress Administration workers Writers from Honolulu 20th-century American poets 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers American male non-fiction writers 20th-century African-American writers