Television pioneer documents her history | accessAtlanta
By Nedra Rhone
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Belva Davis begins her memoir with a vivid scene. The 31-year-old
divorced mother of two, who had no journalism training, was charged with
covering the 1964 Republican National Convention in San Francisco. She
and the news director of the Bay Area radio station where she worked as
a traffic manager were among the 1 percent of African-Americans in
attendance.
When they were spotted in the crowd, recording speeches and scribbling
notes which they would later report to the station's primarily
African-American audience, things took a nasty turn. As they rushed to
leave, they were pelted with garbage and hate speech, but Davis was
ready. She had learned from her childhood to wear the mask of dispassion
and steel herself against abusers.
Decades later and hundreds of miles from that first politically charged
encounter, Davis would tearfully celebrate the inauguration of the
nation's first black president.
Belvagene Melton Davis Moore, believed to be the first woman of color to
work as a reporter for a major commercial television station, documents
her rise from the child of a 15-year-old Louisiana laundress to media
maven, in her book, "Never in My Wildest Dreams: A Black Woman's Life in
Journalism" (PoliPointPress, $25). She will be in Atlanta on Tuesday to
discuss the book at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum.
Though Davis has told stories of many people over the years, telling her
own wasn't so easy. She had to fight back tears when recalling the early
tragedies of her life including abuse, poverty and a failed marriage. "I
don't read that chapter anymore," said Davis by phone. "I am a person
that looks forward and I never tried to go back and use what happened to
me as some sort of crutch."
Davis worked as a freelancer for black print publications before she
scored a job in radio and managed to get her own show -- a two-hour
mishmash of topics for women. The show became a frequent stop for top
celebrities of the time when they passed through town, such as Ella
Fitzgerald, Bill Cosby, Frank Sinatra and Georgia's own, James Brown who
Davis remembered as a "tough guy."
As her popularity grew, Davis used her media connections to produce Miss
Bronze Northern California pageant, a beauty pageant for black women.
The winners included supermodel Beverly Johnson, the first black woman
to grace the cover of American Vogue. "More than anything, it was a
statement that our women are as beautiful as any women on earth. It is
the building of pride," Davis said. "We tried to give them enriching
lessons they needed to carry forward in life."
When she approached a local Oakland station to run a promo for the
pageant, they offered her a program slot instead. Davis studied books
from the local library to learn how to direct and produce the show. Her
crash course proved useful when she was later hired as a reporter at
KPIX, San Francisco's CBS affiliate and was thrown into covering the
civil unrest of the time in San Francisco and Berkeley.
"There was the Third World Liberation Front, the Black Panthers, the
anti-war and anti-draft folks. They created so much confusion. You had
all these active people knocking at the door wanting to be heard and it
kept us hopping. It was a period of real unrest in America," Davis said.
She crossed paths with many leaders of the time such as the Rev. Martin
Luther King Jr. and Andrew Young. And she learned many lessons along the
way -- some of which she draws on as she makes the speaking rounds to
schools during Black History Month. "I live in a city that has a very
small black population,"Davis said. "At least this month, the black
students are center stage and they can start to get their stories out."
And now, Davis has done the same.
Book Signing
"Never in My Wildest Dreams," (PoliPointPress, $25). 7 p.m. Tuesday.
Free. Jimmy Carter Presidential Library & Museum, 441 Freedom Parkway.
www.jimmycarterlibrary.gov. 404-865-7100.
--
http://mo.accessatlanta.com/AccessAtlanta-sharing_/television-pioneer-documen
ts-her-832847.html
Via InstaFetch
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"Sixties-L" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
[email protected].
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/sixties-l?hl=en.
