Charles A. Davis Papers

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Charles A. Davis (1922- )

Over a span of sixty years Charles A. Davis has been a journalist, public relations consultant, business entrepreneur, and civic volunteer who strove to improve equal access to employment, education, housing, and health for African Americans in Chicago.

Born in 1922 Mobile, Alabama to Robert A. Davis and Clara Williams Davis, Charles and his two brothers and two sisters (a third brother deceased) soon moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee where his father served as the Atlanta Life Insurance agent. Sadly, both parents soon succumbed to tuberculosis and in 1931 the orphaned children (Robert, Clarice, Marguerite, and Charles) were transferred to Chicago in the care of maternal grandfather Charles Williams. Brought up with his brothers and sisters by their grandfather and several caring aunts, Charles attended high school at Wendell Phillips, later named DuSable High School until his 1939 graduation. A job opportunity as bellhop at Bronzeville’s Grand Hotel that year brought Davis into contact with many notable African Americans such as the NAACP’s Walter White, Roy Wilkins, W.E.B. DuBois, and Dr. Metz Lochard of the Chicago Defender. Just a few years at the hotel earned Davis a promotion to the front desk. However, he soon decided to try his hand at riding the rails as a Pullman porter, spending a short stint on the Milwaukee Road line before he was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1943. He served as technical sergeant in the Pacific (Philippines) before his 1946 discharge. Despite qualifying for officer candidate school Davis was denied a recommendation because of his race. He was removed from his clerical job training and reassigned to the laundry instead.

In 1934 Davis had joined the Church of the Good Shepherd (United Church of Christ) and found congenial yet intellectually stimulating activities for young people. Here he met his future wife Rosalie Dorsey, to whom he was married by the Rev. Harold M. Kingsley in 1943. Charles and Rosalie Davis had two children, Charles A. Jr. and Daphne Kaye. The family remained in Chicago, eventually settling in the north Beverly neighborhood. Davis’ sister Clarice married journalist, radio and television playwright Richard Durham, and remained a lifelong Chicago activist. His sister Marguerite also remained in Chicago. His brother Robert, also known as Davis Roberts, became a successful film actor despite the racial and political discrimination he encountered in Hollywood.

While in the Army, Davis corresponded with Dr. Metz Lochard at the Chicago Defender. In 1946, with army discharge in hand, he, accepted an invitation to join the Chicago Defender as a reporter. He was soon assigned a weekly sports column, later assuming positions as managing editor, city editor, publicity director, and advertising director. Defender colleagues included Richard Durham, Vernon Jarrett, David Kellum and Lucius Harper. During this time Davis continued his quest for higher education begun earlier at Chicago’s Central YMCA College and West Virginia State College, by studying political science at Chicago’s Roosevelt University from 1953 to 1955. It was also during this time that he began to direct his close attention to the growing civil rights movement.

In 1959 Charles Davis left the Chicago Defender to establish his own company, Charles A. Davis Associates, Inc. (C.A.D.A.). Davis created C.A.D.A. to fill a need for public relations services that he saw existed for minority clients and businesses. These services included publicity and advertising, research and marketing, conventions management, and other means of strengthening small businesses as well as entire industries. C.A.D.A. clients ranged from business owners, such as Baldwin Ice Cream, or nonprofit organizations like the Chicago Urban League, to corporations as large as United Air Lines. Not only did Davis assemble an experienced staff to handle diverse tasks, but he personally gained some renown as speechwriter for public figures such as Chicago Urban League president James Compton. Davis was accredited by the Public Relations Society of America in 1971.

As the civil rights movement entered the 1960s, diverse groups of Chicago activists struggled to overcome disunity while confronting public school segregation. With Chicago Urban League president Edwin C. “Bill” Berry and several others, Charles Davis as “convener” helped organize the various activist groups into the Coordinating Council of Community Organizations (CCCO). After carrying out several marches, sit-ins, and street demonstrations the CCCO lost cohesion amid accusations that certain members including Davis himself were secretly colluding with school officials and the mayor. However, after working with Dr. Martin Luther King during King’s Chicago visits Davis decided he could accomplish more by fundraising and promoting the minority business community. He resigned from the leadership of CCCO shortly thereafter but remained active as secretary of the NAACP.

Drawing on his family’s long affiliation with the historically African American life insurance industry, Charles Davis accepted the position of executive director at the National Insurance Association (NIA), in 1962. For more than twenty years Davis provided this trade association with his expertise in public relations, marketing, convention planning, and research services—a significant service during a period when the industry was losing its African American policyholders to larger white-controlled insurance companies.

Davis himself demonstrated entrepreneurship by launching the Jayson Building Corporation, the Phoenix Real Estate Group (a commercial development in Englewood), and the Adco Association (a shopping center at 87^th Street and the Dan Ryan Expressway). His firm received city of Chicago certification as a minority employer. He joined the boards of several community banks, including the Morgan Park Savings and Loan Association. In 1970 Davis worked with several colleagues, including George Brokemond, to organize a new bank in the Gresham neighborhood that would serve a community abandoned by white residents and their banking institutions. After more than a decade the Highland Community Bank had grown into one of the Chicago region’s largest minority-owned banks. Davis remained on its board of directors for over three decades. Charles Davis and Associates, Inc. also provided public relations services including advertising across multiple media, research and marketing.

During the 1970s and 1980s Davis deliberately sought membership on many civic and nonprofit boards, partly in order to promote more capital investment in minority commercial enterprises such as his own. He served for decades on boards of organizations such as the NAACP Southside Chicago Branch, the Chicago Urban League, the Chicago Renewal Society, and several local foundations. Through these board networks, and through his appointments to local public commissions such as the Chicago Commission on Human Relations, the Chicago Economic Development Corp. (CEDCO), and the Cook County Comprehensive Health and Hospitals and Allied Medical Services Governing Commission, Davis built relationships with corporate CEOs, bankers, and high-ranking politicians whose support for minority enterprises and nonprofits he cultivated. In the early 1970s he worked with Chicago Urban League president James Compton to form a metropolitan organization of these colleagues, Chicago United, with a mission to leverage equal opportunity in employment, education, housing, and health care. Davis lobbied at the city, county, and state level on these causes.

In 1983 Charles Davis again responded to a pivotal civil rights issue, this time by supporting Harold Washington’s mayoral campaign. Davis participated in Washington’s mayoral initiatives, including Communications Task Force, and he also served in several economic development organizations such as the Chicago Economic Development Commission (CEDCO). After Washington’s death in 1987, local political backlash coupled with economic stagnation in the African American community presented Davis and his colleagues with fresh challenges as they attempted to maintain momentum in traditional organizations such as the Chicago Urban League and NAACP. On a lighter note Davis developed the Chicago Africa Study Tour Group, leading tours to countries related to the African diaspora and enjoying the research and organizing involved. He also enjoyed social meetings and service activities carried out by the exclusive Frogs and Druids Clubs. The 1990s found Davis still providing leadership through several directorships, including the Highland Community Bank.

Charles Davis received an honorary Doctor of Humane Services degree from Governor’s State University in 1975, its first granted. He was a Frontiers International “Chicagoan of the Year” in 1991. In 1981 the Chicago Insurance Association awarded him its Olive H. Crosthwaite Award. A citation for his contributions to minority business was presented to him by the Chicago Commission on Human Relations in 1974. The Chicago Economic Development Corporation awarded him the Gold Oil Can Award in 1971.

Sources

• Davis, Charles A. with R.E. Simon. On My Own. Chicago: Children’s Press, 1970
• LaRossa, Ralph. Of War and Men: World War II in the Lives of Fathers and Their Families. University of Chicago Press, 2011
• Reed, Christopher Robert. The Chicago NAACP and the Rise of Black Professional Leadership, 1910-1966. Indiana University Press, 1997, opens a new window
• _______. The Depression Comes to the South Side: Protest and Politics in the Black Metropolis, 1930-1933. Indiana University Press, 2011, opens a new window
• Weems, Robert E., Jr. Black Business in the Black Metropolis: The Chicago Metropolitan Assurance Company, 1925-1985. Indiana University Press, 1996, opens a new window
• Wille, Lois. At Home in the Loop: How Clout and Community Build Chicago’s Dearborn Park. Southern Illinois University Press, 1998, opens a new window
• Williams, Sonja D. Word Warrior: Richard Durham, Radio, and Freedom. University of Illinois Press, 2015

SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE

Materials in the Charles A. Davis Papers were created primarily during the 1970s through the 1990s by Charles Davis himself and his public relations firm, Charles A. Davis, Inc., as he pursued his work as public relations consultant, business entrepreneur, civil rights movement fundraiser, and journalist.

The Charles Davis Papers document a subject area poorly represented in archival repositories: business entrepreneurship in the African American community. Charles Davis helped to establish a number of real estate, banking, and small business investment companies that succeeded in racially segregated 20th century Chicago. While by no means a complete record of these activities, the Davis Papers reveal many of the human players, local conditions, and successful business practices involved. They also demonstrate how Davis and his colleagues in the African American community used their social and business networks to generate very successful fundraising and political campaigns that tapped both whites and African Americans of wealth—and that arguably influenced the progress of the civil rights struggle. Dozens of the era’s major players appear in these records, often in multiple contexts.

Just a few of Davis’ correspondents would include: Edwin C. “Bill” Berry, Alvin Boutte Sr., Corneal Davis, Garland Guice, Carey B. Preston, Earl B. Dickerson, Dr. Joseph H. Jackson, Theodore Jones, James Kemp, Charles F. “Chuck” Moore, James A. Pate, Consuelo Pope, and Jolyn H. Robichaux.

The Davis Papers consist almost entirely of correspondence, as well as a number of attached items related to particular organizations and business entities. These other materials include speech and literary drafts; resumes; press releases and other PR copy; news clippings; fundraising event items such as invitations, benefit tickets, and event programs; meeting agendas and minutes; financial reports; board of directors business; and photographs. Mostly absent from these records are materials created during Davis’ years at the Chicago Defender (1946-1959) and the early years of Charles A. Davis, Inc. and other Davis business concerns (1959-1970). Also not included are Davis’ personal documents such as birth, education, military, marriage, and religious records, and significant family correspondence, memorabilia and photographs.

Series 1: Biographical, 1963-1997

The many autobiographical sketches and resumes prepared by Davis himself over time reflect the complexity of his relationships to his clients, his business enterprises, and his nonprofit organizations, in which he simultaneously filled the roles of publicist, entrepreneur investor, and fund-raiser. Also reflected is the long-term nature of Davis’ commitments to the civil rights organizations to which he belonged and the minority businesses he fostered. The series consists mostly of Charles Davis’ own comprehensive and detailed autobiographical sketches and resumes created from 1966 to 2002, arranged chronologically. There is brief material about Davis’ children, and his brother Robert Davis, as well as Davis’ summary about his genealogical research into his slave ancestors. The researcher will find a bit more information about Davis’ family in Series 4, scattered in Subseries A (general correspondence).

Series 2: Manuscripts, 1942-2006

This series shows the breadth of Charles Davis’ authorship as journalist, publicist, autobiographer, and fiction writer. Included are books, shorter works, speeches, and newspaper columns, mostly in draft form. Listed first are Davis’ one published book, On My Own (1971), an autobiographical work intended for junior high school readers, and his unpublished manuscript, “A Cleansing Flame: A Tale from the Civil War,” about an African American and his white counterpart during the Civil War. On My Own provides a wealth of biographical material about Davis’ earlier years (before 1970) not documented elsewhere in this collection. The few short essays, narrative pieces, and other nonfiction works are arranged alphabetically by title or description. These include travelogues created during Davis’ Study Tour Group trips to China and South Africa. Following are speeches Davis either wrote for himself or did not designate otherwise, also listed alphabetically by title or description. The researcher should note that the bulk of the speeches written by Charles Davis may be found with the particular client’s or organization’s correspondence, i.e., speeches prepared for James Compton are filed with the Chicago Urban League material, speeches written for Alvin J. Boutte are found in National Insurance Association files, both in Series 4 (Correspondence), Subseries C (Organizations).

The drafts, finished copy, and news clippings for Davis’ “My View” column written for the Chicago Defender (1983-1987) are arranged chronologically except for column clippings for which drafts were not found, placed at the end. “My View” covered a number of topics relevant both to Davis’ own cherished views and also to contemporary events. The researcher will find that dating on the drafts does not always match dating on the published columns.

Series 3: Charles A. Davis Associates, Inc. (C.A.D.A.), 1965-1990s

Much of the correspondence in the Davis Papers carries the letterhead of Davis’ public relations firm Charles A. Davis Associates, Inc. (C.A.D.A.). However, the small amount of material gathered here into Series 3 represents C.A.D.A.’s internal structure and functions but appears to be far from complete, especially for the years 1959-1970. Included are organizational documents and public relations material of a general nature. Correspondence between Charles Davis and his employees is available where it does not violate privacy concerns. This material helps illustrate how Davis managed C.A.D.A. and how he worked with a variety of employees--from independent professionals, many of whom were active in Chicago’s political, cultural, and economic spheres, to office managers, to typists. However, the researcher should see Series 4 (Correspondence, Subseries A-D) for evidence of the professional work done by particular employees. This series is arranged alphabetically by topic or description, except for the large array of mailing lists which are placed at the end of the series, also in alphabetical order by list title. The mailing lists provide specific names of business concerns, organizations, prominent persons, and other categories of mail recipients active at various times over a thirty-year period, thus revealing Chicago’s contemporary social, political, and economic landscape to the researcher in a concise way.

Series 4: Correspondence, 1962-2001

Subseries A, B, C, D

To provide clarity to the arrangement of this large volume of material, Series 4 Correspondence has been divided into four subseries: general correspondence, individual clients, organizations, and quasi-governmental. The researcher must keep in mind that material about a specific subject (e.g. NAACP) will most likely be found both in the relevant subseries (e.g., organizations) as well as in Subseries A (general correspondence). Subseries A (general correspondence) is arranged chronologically. Subseries B (individual clients), Subseries C (organizations), and Subseries D (quasi-governmental) instead are arranged alphabetically by folder name, and mostly chronologically within folders.

Material in the entire correspondence series provides a wealth of information about the individual citizens, organizations, and governmental entities involved in Charles Davis’ work. The papers also indicate in what ways Davis may have influenced their functioning, the methods he employed, and the wide range of his management skills. This series also provides a nuanced picture of how the African American community in Chicago effected changes and was in turn forced to contend with reactions from the larger community. The researcher may see, for example, how quickly the African American community rallied after the election of Mayor Harold Washington (1983-1987) to advance measures long needed to realize equality of opportunity. Likewise, ways the community dealt with both the economic stresses of the 1980s and the aftermath of Washington’s death are reflected in the contemporary correspondence. The researcher should note three folders of material representing Davis’ 23 years as executive director of the National Insurance Association (NIA. Those records include NIA public relations brochures and handouts; a few details that illustrate the contemporary condition of the organization, such as Davis’ use of Chicago Urban League employment offices to recruit NIA employees; and speeches written by Charles Davis for NIA speaker Alvin J. Boutte. Unfortunately, the bulk of contemporary NIA records are not included in this collection, and their present location is unknown.

Series 4 (Subseries A-D) comprises Davis’ correspondence with his clients, his colleagues in the organizations and businesses he worked with, or persons he wished to include in that circle. This material is almost entirely comprised of Davis’ outgoing correspondence, usually without the referenced incoming correspondence. Occasional correspondence to family members is mostly of a business or financial nature. All correspondence subseries, but particularly B,C, and D, include other material such as speeches, press releases, brochures, invitations, news clippings, political campaign material, financial reports, marketing proposals, meeting minutes, board membership lists, and annual reports. However, a number of photographs referenced as enclosures in the correspondence were not found in this collection.

The original order of the correspondence in the Davis Papers suggests that while separate files were created for some C.A.D.A. clients in earlier years (1970 or earlier), over time most correspondence was filed all together, chronologically. Therefore Series 4 has been arranged to include both those relatively few original client files as well as the later very general correspondence files. For a thorough search, the researcher should examine not only specific individual, organization, or quasi-governmental correspondence (Subseries B, C, and D) but also the general correspondence (Subseries A) in relevant dates.

Series 5: Highland Community Bank (HCB), 1968-2000

Series 5, while providing a broad range of material and information about Highland Community Bank, is limited to those documents created or received by Charles Davis. The series illustrates some of the challenges met by Davis and the other Highland Community Bank directors in their ongoing struggles to maintain adequate capitalization of Highland. Information about the bank’s board of directors provides insight into key individuals and subgroupings within the African American community. Also illuminated is Charles Davis’ relationship to bank president George Brokemond and the board of directors, as well as some information about the small number of other minority-owned banks in the Chicago region. Materials in this series are arranged by topic groupings, including board of directors, financial material, personnel, correspondence, and public relations, and then chronologically within folders. A large number of HCB photographs may be found in Series 9.

Series 6: Obituaries and Funeral Programs, 1979-2000

One of many services provided by Charles A. Davis Associates, Inc. was the preparation and publication of obituary press releases. When possible these materials were removed from the general correspondence, notated as to the presence of obituary or funeral program, placed in this series, and arranged alphabetically by the deceased’s last name.

Series 7: Subject Research Files, 1970-1992

Series 7 includes informational material, such as published reports, not directly related to other series. Of interest is the policy study, “Economic Impact of the Negro Traveler,” (circa 1970). Items are arranged alphabetically by title or description, chronologically within folders.

Series 8: Oral History (Audio), 2009

The three sound recordings in this series were created under the auspices of StoryCorps, an American non-profit organization whose mission is to record, preserve, and share the stories of Americans from all backgrounds and beliefs. These recordings were made to document the life of Chester Commodore, pioneering African American cartoonist who for many years created political cartoons featured in the Chicago Defender newspaper. The recordings, on audiocassette tapes, contain an interview of Charles A. Davis, and also an interview of Earl Calloway, a Davis colleague who worked with him at The Chicago Defender. These interviews produced a wealth of detail about Davis’ work and colleagues at the Chicago Defender. The interviews were conducted in 2009 by Michael Flug and Lorin Nails-Smoote (Chester Commodore’s daughter). Recording took place at the Chicago Public Library’s Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature, Chicago.

Series 9: Photographs, 1946-2002

Series 9 provides nearly a hundred photographs, mostly related to the work of Davis’ public relations firm, Charles A. Davis Associates, Inc. during the 1970s and 1980s. Of particular interest is the first photograph in the series, a group shot showing Davis as a new Chicago Defender reporter working at a 1946 press conference held by former U.S. vice-president and cabinet member Henry Wallace. About ten percent of the photos are portraits of Davis taken over time and used in the promotion of his firm’s services. Another third of the photos, also featuring Davis, show him with his colleagues during events sponsored by the various organizations he worked for or belonged to, including the National Insurance Association (NIA), the Black Public Relations Society, and the Highland Community Bank. Davis’ wife Rosalie and sister Clarice appear in a few of these. Photos that feature some of Davis’ nonprofit and business colleagues, both individually and in group situations, comprise yet another quarter of the photos. The remaining photographs were produced to provide copy for Highland Community Bank publications and feature the bank’s directors (including Davis), employees, customers, and physical plant primarily in the 1970s. The photographs in this series are grouped and arranged in the order described above. Many photographs in this series provided no attached identification.

Series 10: Memorabilia, circa 1977-1978

This “Nothing Says Love Like Insurance” button was part of an industry-wide effort to retain the support of the African American life insurance market, circa 1977 or 1978.

Related materials at the Chicago Public Library include:

• Robert S. Abbott and John H. Sengstacke Family Papers, opens a new window
• Barbara E. Allen Papers, opens a new window
• Brenetta Howell Barrett Papers, opens a new window
• Timuel D. Black, Jr. Papers, opens a new window
• Earl B. Dickerson Papers, opens a new window
• Richard Durham Papers, opens a new window
• Madeline Stratton Morris Papers, opens a new window
• Theodore Charles Stone Papers, opens a new window
• Viewpoint, Inc. Archives

Related materials at other repositories include:

• Asa and Elna Spaulding Papers, Duke University Rubenstein Rare Book Library, opens a new window
• Chicago Urban League Records University of Illinois at Chicago Library Special Collections

CONTAINER LIST

SERIES 1: BIOGRAPHICAL, 1963-1997

SERIES 2: MANUSCRIPTS by Charles Davis, 1946-2006

SERIES 3: CHARLES A. DAVIS ASSOCIATES, INC. [C.A.D.A.], 1965-1990s

SERIES 4: CORRESPONDENCE

Sub-series A, General Correspondence, 1970-2000

SERIES 4: CORRESPONDENCE

Sub-series B, Individual Clients, 1972-1990

SERIES 4: CORRESPONDENCE

Sub-series C, Organizations, 1962-2001

SERIES 4: CORRESPONDENCE

Sub-series D, Quasi-governmental organizations, 1967-1988

SERIES 5: HIGHLAND COMMUNITY BANK [HCB], 1968-2000

SERIES 6: OBITUARIES AND FUNERAL PROGRAMS, 1979-2000

SERIES 7: SUBJECT RESEARCH FILES, 1970-1992

SERIES 8: ORAL HISTORY (Audio) 2009

SERIES 9: PHOTOGRAPHS, 1946-2002

Series 10: Memorabilia, circa 1977-1978