Michael DeMond Davis (January 1939 – November 13, 2003), also known by the byline Mike Davis, was an American journalist and author. In 1963, he was hired as the first black reporter at the ''

Atlanta Constitution ''The Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' (''AJC'') is an American daily newspaper based in Atlanta metropolitan area, metropolitan area of Atlanta, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the flagship publication of Cox Enterprises. The ''Atlanta Jo ...

.'' He co-authored ''Thurgood Marshall, Warrior at the Bar, Rebel at the Bench'', a biography of the

Supreme Court justice The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest-ranking judicial body in the United States. Its membership, as set by the Judiciary Act of 1869, consists of the chief justice of the United States and eight associate justices, any six of ...

. His other works include ''Black American Women in Olympic Track and Field.''

Early life and education

One of four children of John P. Davis and Marguerite Davis (née DeMond), Michael D. Davis grew up in Washington, D.C., and

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. His father, John P. Davis was a graduate of

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...

and a prominent journalist and civil rights lawyer. His mother was a graduate of

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. It was established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church but has been nonsectarian since 1920 ...

. Mike Davis was the grandson of Dr. William Henry Davis and the Reverend Abraham Lincoln DeMond In 1943, the first lawsuit challenging segregated schools in Washington, D.C., was brought in Michael D. Davis's name by his father, John P. Davis. ''

The Washington Star ''The Washington Star'', previously known as the ''Washington Star-News'' and the ''Washington'' ''Evening Star'', was a daily afternoon newspaper published in Washington, D.C., between 1852 and 1981. The Sunday edition was known as the ''Sunday ...

'' was highly critical of an African-American lawyer legally challenging the District's Dual school system when the principal of Noyes School refused to admit Mike Davis at five years of age, stating that the District citizens had long accepted separate schools for blacks and whites and that the suit brought by John P. Davis would cause even deeper divisions in the nation's capital. The U.S. Congress, in response to John P. Davis's suit, appropriated federal funds to construct the Lucy D. Slowe elementary school directly across the street from his Brookland home in the neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Davis attended the Fieldston school in

New York, New York New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on New York Harbor, one of the world's largest natural harb ...

. As a student at

Morehouse College Morehouse College is a Private college, private, Historically black colleges and universities, historically black, Men's colleges in the United States, men's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Atlanta, Georgia, ...

Atlanta, Georgia 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 ...

, and a member of the

Southern Christian Leadership Conference The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is an African Americans, African-American civil rights organization based in Atlanta, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. SCLC is closely associated with its first president, Martin Luther King Jr., ...

(SCLC), he worked closely with

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister, civil and political rights, civil rights activist and political philosopher who was a leader of the civil rights move ...

, and was a leader of the student

sit-in movement The sit-in movement, sit-in campaign, or student sit-in movement, was a wave of Sit-in, sit-ins that followed the Greensboro sit-ins on February 1, 1960, led by students at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical Institute (A&T). Even though ...

. He was arrested many times in Atlanta's bus stations and department stores.

Journalism

Ralph McGill Ralph Emerson McGill (February 5, 1898 – February 3, 1969) was an American journalist and editorialist. An anti-segregationist editor, he published the ''Atlanta Constitution'' newspaper. He was a member of the Peabody Awards Board of Ju ...

, publisher of the ''

'', and

Eugene Patterson Eugene Corbett Patterson (October 15, 1923 – January 12, 2013), sometimes known as Gene Patterson, was an American journalist and civil rights activist. He was awarded the 1967 Pulitzer Prize, 1967 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing. Early li ...

hired Davis as the paper's first African-American reporter. McGill became his mentor and friend. Davis went on to

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

as the Afro-American Newspapers

war correspondent A war correspondent is a journalist who covers stories first-hand from a war, war zone. War correspondence stands as one of journalism's most important and impactful forms. War correspondents operate in the most conflict-ridden parts of the wor ...

. During his 18 months in Vietnam, he reported on combat activities of black service people in the Afro's 13-state circulation area. When he returned home, he joined the ''

Baltimore Sun ''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local, regional, national, and international news. Founded in 1837, the newspaper was owned by Tribune Publish ...

''. He was a staff member of the San Diego Union, where he covered Governor

Jerry Brown Edmund Gerald Brown Jr. (born April 7, 1938) is an American lawyer, author, and politician who served as the 34th and 39th governor of California from 1975 to 1983 and 2011 to 2019. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic P ...

, the now-defunct ''

Washington Star ''The Washington Star'', previously known as the ''Washington Star-News'' and the ''Washington'' ''Evening Star'', was a daily afternoon newspaper published in Washington, D.C., between 1852 and 1981. The Sunday edition was known as the ''Sunday ...

'', an editor of

NBC television The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

news in Washington, D.C., and a reporter for the ''Washington Times''. His work has received several Front Page Awards from the

American Newspaper Guild The NewsGuild-CWA is a labor union founded by newspaper journalists in 1933. In addition to improving wages and working conditions, its constitution says its purpose is to fight for honesty in journalism and the news industry's business practic ...

. The

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an American civil rights organization formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du&nbs ...

gave him an award for his coverage of Vietnam.

Vietnam Foreign News Correspondent

From July to November 1967, Davis published over 100 articles as the Vietnam War correspondent for the ''Baltimore Afro-American'' in the column called the "Vietnam Notebook".

Selected articles

* "On the Battlefields of Vietnam, 'They couldn't care less what color you are," ''Baltimore Afro-American'', July 22, 1967. * "Major Brown Says: 'Your decisions have to be right," ''Baltimore Afro-American'', August 5, 1967. * "Wounded Veterans Describe Horror of Vietnam," ''Baltimore Afro-American'', July 1, 1967. * "In the Face of Death, They Laugh: Mud erases color in jungle Viet 'front,'" ''Baltimore Afro-American'', October 7, 1967 * "Young talks of rights and peace," ''Baltimore Afro-American'', September 16, 1967. * "Wait until these GIs come home," ''Baltimore Afro-American'', August 12, 1967. * "The Other War," ''Baltimore Afro-American'', November 5, 1967. * "3 Dead, 50 Shot on S.C. Campus," ''Baltimore Afro-American'', February 10, 1967. * "Memo From Vietnam: 'I'm a lot safer over here than in the states,'" ''Baltimore Afro-American'', August 5, 1967. * "Few Colored Officers in Command", ''Baltimore Afro-American'', June 3, 1967. * "Davis to Tell AFRO Readers of the Role of Our Men in Vietnam", ''Baltimore Afro-American'', June 24, 1967. * "Your Decisions Have to Be Right," ''Baltimore Afro-American'', August 4, 1967. * "Vietnam Notebook", ''Baltimore Afro-American'', August 5, 1967. * "He Works With People in Vietnam", ''Baltimore Afro-American'', September 9, 1967. * "20 Minutes to Save three Lives", ''Baltimore Afro-American'', October 14, 1967. * "We Walked into an Ambush," ''Baltimore Afro-American'', August 12, 1967. * "GIs shocked by U.S. Riots," ''Baltimore Afro-American'', August 12, 1967. * "Mud Erases Color in Jungle of Viet Front," ''Baltimore Afro-American'', October 7, 1967. * "Togetherness is Key as men of the 173rd Fight to Stay Alive," ''Baltimore Afro-American'', November 11, 1967. * "Wait Till These GIs Come Home," ''Baltimore Afro-America''n, August 12, 1967 * " Mike Davis tells forum Viet GIs expect rights," ''Baltimore Afro-American'', February 3, 1968.

Bibliography

Contemporary newspapers and journals

* ''Baltimore Afro-American'', 1966–1969 * ''Ebony'', 1967 * ''Jet'', 1965

Books

* Carson, Clayborne, David J. Garrow, Gerlad Gill, Vincent Harding, and

Darlene Clark Hine Darlene Clark Hine (born February 7, 1947) is an American author and professor in the field of African-American history. She is a recipient of the 2014 National Humanities Medal. Early life and education Darlene Clark was born in Morley, Miss ...

, eds, ''The Eyes on the Prize Civil Rights Reader: Documents, Speeches, and * Firsthand Accounts from the Black Freedom Struggle'', New York: Penguin Books, 1991. * Davis, Michael D. ''Black American Women in Olympic Track and Field'', McFarland, 1992. * Davis Michael D., and Hunter R. Clark. ''Thurgood Marshall: Warrior at the Bar, Rebel on the Bench''. New York: Birch Lane Press, 1992. * Farrar, Hayward. ''The Baltimore Afro-American: 1892-1950''. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1998. * Graham, Herman III. ''The Brother's Vietnam War: Black Power, Manhood, and the Military Experience''. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2003. * Hall, Simon. ''Peace and Freedom: The Civil Rights and Antiwar Movements in the 1960s''. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005. * Jeffries, Hasan Kwame. ''Bloody Lowndes: Civil Rights and Black Power in Alabama's Black Belt''. New York: New York University Press, 2009. * Raines, Howell. ''My Soul is Rested: The Story of the Civil Rights Movement in the Deep South''. New York: Penguin Books, 1983. * Sugrue, Thomas J. ''Sweet Land of Liberty: The Forgotten Struggle for Civil Rights in the North''. New York: Random House, 2008. * Terry, Wallace. ''Bloods: An Oral History of the Vietnam War by Black Veterans''. Random House: New York, 1984. * Washington, James Melvin, ed. ''A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings of Martin Luther King, Jr''. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1986. * Westheider, James. ''Fighting on Two Fronts: African Americans and the Vietnam War''. New York: New York University Press, 1997. * Wyatt, Clarence. ''Paper Soldiers: The American Press and the Vietnam War''. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1993. * Broussard, Jinx. ''African American Foreign Correspondents: A History (Media and Public Affairs)''. Louisiana State University Press, June 2013.

References

External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20070914150814/http://www.johnpdaviscollection.org/ *
John P. Davis Collection

The Root.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Michael DeMond 1939 births 20th-century African-American writers Morehouse College alumni American male journalists 20th-century American journalists American war correspondents 2003 deaths 21st-century African-American people