New Directions

Volume 7 | Issue 4 Article 2

7-1-1980 Arthur P.Davis Touching Lives Harriet Jackson Scarupa

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Recommended Citation Scarupa, Harriet Jackson (1980) "Arthur P.Davis Touching Lives," New Directions: Vol. 7: Iss. 4, Article 2. Available at: http://dh.howard.edu/newdirections/vol7/iss4/2

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Davis a: d graduate student Charles DeArman

NEW DIRECTIONS JULY 1980 Touching Lives

By Harriet Jackson Scarupa ceive a PhD. in English at Howard [1968] Wisdom laced with wit: it is the APD. 5 It was one of those magnificent April and now a University of.the District of Co- trademark. days, the sky gently caressed with cloud lumbia professor, compared Davis to a Characteristically, he clothes his erudi- wisps, the dogwoods abloom in their batsman in cricket, the popular game of tion in a folksy manner, frequently profes- white and pink splendor, the benches on his native Trinidad. "A batsman who has sing to be "jes a po' country boy from the the Howard University campus filled with retired has merely displayed to the world South." If so, he is one po' country boy students engaged in flirtatious repartee, that he is a dominating force," he said in whose achievements would stretch a long happy to be free, at last, of bulky over- his crisp, clear, accented English. "He is long way down some dusty southern coats and overheated rooms. not out. Dr. Davis is an outstanding lane. As three o'clock approached, some of teacher and thus will never be out. Arthur P. Davis has been first and the students drifted over to the gallery of Through his students and through their foremost a teacher, starting out at North the College of Fine Arts building where students there will be a continuation of his Carolina College in Durham (1927-28), they were joined by a good sampling of wisdom. People who don't even know then at Virginia Union University (1929- students from previous generations. what Dr. Davis looks like will know him 44), Hampton Institute (summers 1943- Neither the current students nor their through his ideas." 49) and, since 1944, at Howard. While his older counterparts had come for the The testimonials rolled on, followed by initial specialty was 18th century English opening of a new exhibit. Not this time. the presentation of a commemorative literature, he soon became drawn to what They came, instead, to pay special hom- album of the writings of past and present was at one time considered a new and age to a special person who had touched students, the reading of poems ("You is a startling field: Afro-American literature. all their lives in a special way. folk tale man") and the singing of songs Davis remembers that day back in That person was Arthur P. Davis, ("Touch Somebody's Life"). 1943 on a visit to the campus when a teacher, scholar and pioneering il- "The song seems appropriate," said member of Howard's English department luminator of the works of Black writers. Annie Perkins, the graduate student who confronted him with a question "Why are The reason for the homage: Davis' re- served as mistress of ceremonies, "be- you wasting your time fooling around with tirement from teaching at the age of 75. cause you have touched all our lives." 'nigger literature' when you could be writ- Davis, who retains his title of University ing about 'real' literature?" The attitude Professor, will continue to work at Howard 'With the exception of Sterling implicit in the question was typical of the part-time, pursuing his own scholarly proj- Brown, I think I have sent out times even though Howard's attitude to- ects and serving as consultant to the Eng- into the field of Black wards the legi imacy of the works of Black lish department. But this fall, for the first writers was far more advanced than that time in a little over half a century, he will not literature ... more people than on most campuses. For the university was preside in front of a classroom. any other professor in the blessed by the presence of three of the And so, those who know Davis, respect country.' seed-planters of Afro-American literature: him and, yes, love him, came together on Benjamin G. Brawley, Alain LeRoy Locke that balmy afternoon awash with the new The man who touches lives stepped and Sterling A Brown. Brown, pajticu- beginnings of a new season to speak of forward. A bespectacled, genial-looking, larly, in his undergraduate coursei his what he has meant to them. pale-beige-skinned-man dressed in a criticism and his poetry conti ;Dally Edward Hawthorne, dean of the dark suit, Arthur P Davis looked like what shared with Howard students the-.wealth Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, he is: a professor. But the professor was that is Black literature. [See New Di- assured those in the audience that "we momentarily at loss for words. His emo- rections, Winter 1974. for a profile of this have no intention of letting this gem leave tions runneth over. "That last song did it," the campus. Dr. Davis is a literary giant. he said, his voice almost breaking. "This pioneer.] He makes all our lives richer by just being has been one of the happiest times in my In 1964, Davis began offering Howard's here." life." first graduate level course in the field: Estelle Taylor, chairman of the English Then, that familiar twinkle came into his English 248-249 ("Literature of the Ameri- department, told of the importance of eyes as his wit quickly recovered itself. "I can Negro"). Inaugurated at a time of Davis' graduate course, "Literature of the know some of this talk [about wisdom] is exploding Black consciousness, it proved American Negro," in "those lean lean days hyperbole. Anyone can be wise [he to be the right course at the right time. when most people know nothing of their drawled out the word southern style] if Quickly it became an institution not only heritage." "For him," she added, "Black you live long enough. It all comes from because of its popularity, but perhaps scholarship is a serious thing, not a rap- hanging in there." Laughter coursed more important in the long run, because ping session." through the room, erasing any residue of of its productivity. From the ranks of its Gregory Rigsby, the first student to re- sadness. students emerged a stream of scholars-

NEW DIRECTIONS JULY 1980 6 Black and white - who fanned out to And in a more impish vein: for the wit and wisdom of Arthur P Davis. spread the word. Bragging like a proud Apropos of nothing in particular: "That's There is also the A.PD. of the books. papa, Davis says, "With the exception of the way I interpretate it? Have you heard Isaac Watts: His Life and Works, pub- Sterling Brown, I think I have sent out into anyone say interpretate?" [No answer.] lished in the U.S. in 1943 and in England in the field of Black literature - both in writ- You don't know too many ignorant people 1948, is a study of a leading 18th century ing and teaching-more people than any then." English hymn-writer and religious dis- other professor in the country." Upon introducing a visitor to the class, senter. Full of reference to now-obscure English 248-249 was one of those rare the daughter of a former student: "I al- theological controversies and persona, the courses that actually changed lives. A ways remember my smart students. Not book today seems more a curiosity than case in point: Jeanne-Marie Miller, now a the dumb ones." anything else (especially in that it was pen- Howard administrator and an authority on In answer to a question about an up- ned by a "po' country boy from the South," Black drama. "I took the course the first coming final: "It's not a hard exam. I think and a Black one at that.) Yet it enabled time it was offered that summer," she I could pass it." Davis to begin honing the critical and writ- recalls, "and I decided then and there Davis has no special formulas for good ing skills which were to serve him so well that whatever talents I had would be de- teaching, he explained later. One thing he later on. voted to attempting to enlighten people does know, though, is that "You can't fool It is through Davis' books and his dozens about Afro-American literature. Dr. Davis students. They can detect a phony. They of articles and book reviews illuminating was directly responsible for my making a know if you're really interested in them Black literature that he has made his major decision to do research in Afro-American and if you know your subject. So I never mark as a scholar. drama. I liked the kind of exposure to tried to appear to know more than I do. I With Sterling Brown and the late Ulysses hope I have given my students a feeling Black literature he gave and I liked his Lee, he edited The Negro Caravan, that balanced presentation. He took no stand that honesty in scholarship is as impor- pioneering anthology of the works of Black on the literature but let it unfold itself to tant as honesty in life." writers. The book, which included short you and you would make your own deci- stories, poetry, essays, selections from sion about it. It's the same approach I am ,... The tom-tom cries and the novels, folk literature, drama and biog- using today in my course [at Howard] in tom-tom laughs.' raphy, was pu blished at a time [1941] when Afro-American drama. I try to give that the literary establishment kept its eyes same broad view." While he had offers in the past to teach closed to the legitimacy, indeed, to the ex- In the classroom, Davis proved a mas- at predominantly-white colleges, he al- istence, of Black literary creativity. Caravan ter at blending facts, opinions, recitation ways turned them down. "I am not anti- forced open a lot of eyes. and old-fashioned story-telling ("Can I tell white and a lot of Black nationalism - not As Julius Lester wrote in the introduction you an-anecdote?") to capture the intent of all of it -I consider foolishness. I just feel to a new 1970 edition, "Few books acquire the writers he presented. more at home with Negro students. Also, I the status of legends. But this is one ... it A visitor to some of his classes last feel I can do more with them, that I have a acquired a place in the lives of black intel- spring was treated to some typical better understanding of them." lectuals and those able to acquire a copy A.PD.isms: When asked to compare more recent congratulated themselves for being the re- After a student had given an insiqhtful students with those in the past, he an- cipient of one of the Lord's few modern report on poet Robert Hayden: "Hayden swers readily: "Students in the past were miracles .... It comes as close today as it weaves several themes to create a har- a little more conventional in their study did in 1941 to being the most important monious whole. That's good artistry when habits and they tended to do more work. single volume of black writing ever pub- one can do that." But they did not .have the imagination lished." After a lively discussion on "message" present-day students have. In the past, a Davis' name is affixed to the covers of writing: "The line between propaganda student might give me a paper on the life two other important anthologies of Black and art is often vague. You could look at of Langston Hughes and discuss his writing. Cavalcade: Negro American Writ- Dante's "Divine Comedy" as propaganda works in general. Today, a student might ers from 1760 to the Present (1971), co- for Catholicism yet it is undoubtedly a write a long paper on the imagery in one edited with Saunders Redding, includes work of art." Langston Hughes poem. It's more chai- many of the same writers as its distin- After a student had shared one critic's lenging teaching contemporary students. guished predecessor but extends its time- view on Richard Wright's use of "moral Students have grown today and, frankly, frame to embrace those writers of the '60's distancing": "I never thought of looking at in some cases they have grown beyond who chose to forge their craft into a tool of Wright that way. That's what a good critic me." the Black revolution (however defined). does. He opens your mind." The classroom has been but one forum The New Negro Renaissance: An Anthol-

NEW DIRECTIONS JULY 1980 .. ogy (1975), co-edited with Michael Pepfow that black is beautiful. He felt that black life have a special mission. This he defines as 7 (an English 248-249 alumnus), concen- was ugly, brutal, violent, devoid of kindness "a certain right, a certain Obligation, even, trates its focus on that prolific literary and love. And he places much of the blame to interpret his background and share his period between 1910 and 1940-a period for this bleakness on that great fog of racial attitudes with the world. But this does not whose spirit was perhaps best captured by oppression that hung over the Negro like a mean that every Black writer must do so or Langston Hughes in the following lines: tremendous, compelling natural force, ex- that every Black writer must do so all the "We younger Negro artists who create now pelling him from the finer things of Western time. For the Black writer to confine himself intend to express our individual dark- civilization, dehurnanizinq and brutalizing to 'Black themes' or 'to make every poem skinned selves without fear or shame. If the him physically and spiritually In one sense political', as [Amiri] Baraka once said, is white folks seem pleased, we are glad. If this is Wright's only theme." too limiting. It's writing according to line. So they are not, it doesn't matter. We know we There are certain key themes that run many things in a Black man's life have no are beautiful. Ugly too. The tom-tom cries through Davis' own approach to Afro- racial tag." and the tom-tom laughs .... " American literature, themes that have His views on literary criticism, which he From the Dark Tower, Davis' critical and sometimes brought him into conflict with calls "one of our weakest disciplines," are biographical study of major Black writers younger colleagues. In a series of inter- similar. "A Black literary critic can look more from 1900 to 1960, takes its title from a views in his small, frequently-visited office understandingly at the works of a Black poem by Countee Cullen, a leading figure in a "temporary" building on the Howard writer than a white critic, again, all other of the New Negro Renaissance (and a man campus, and in his comfortable apartment things being equal. His blackness does Davis personally knew). The book, pub- near the university's Dunbarton campus, give him more insight into and familiarity lished by Howard University Press in 1974, he took time out to talk about some of them. with the problems of Blacks. But a good remains one of the Press' best sellers and At each meeting, the geniality of this man- Black critic needs no special equipment to has been well-received by the critics. ner matched perfectly the geniality of his criticize the works of Black writers. He Choice, the influential book review maga- countenance. would use the same criterion to criticize a zine, for instance, included it in its list of book by Saul Bellow as by James Baldwin. outstanding academic books for 1974-75. 'A Black literary critic can look A good Black critic should be a good critic. Period." The volume represents a compendium of more understandingly at the the ideas and insights Davis had devel- works of a Black writer than a Davis' own approach to literary criticism oped in scores of articles and book re- white critic ... ' is ostensibly simple: "I look at a work and views, classroom lectures, informal ex- react to it If I like it, I find the reasons why If I dislike it, I do the same.It's very personal. I changes with fellow teachers, students "American Negro literature is essentially and friends and in a series of 26 radio talks do not ground my criticism in a set of isms American literature," observed Davis as he (Ebony Harvest) produced by American -whether Marxist, Freudian or thcse of the sat in his living room near a bookcase Black Aesthetic. I do not tell the work what University in 1972-73. It is also a book that crammed with works of Black authors. "I to tell me." readily shows that Davis is one professor disagree with the Black Arts Aesthetic. I do who not only knows how to research and to Among his favorite writers are Langston not think we are distinct and apart. As Pro- Hughes, James Baldwin, Richard Wright, analyze but to write. Two samples: fessor [Sterling] Brown used to say, if we Gwendolyn Brooks, Sterling Brown and On what happened when some writers are 'different' that difference can too often Robert Hayden. Among younger writers he stopped producing "protest" literature: be translated into 'inferiority.' A good admires are Sonia Sanchez ("Something "One must also remember that the protest American Negro writer is a good American about her appeals to me.") and Ishmael tradition was no mere surface fad with the writer. Period." He then qualified his state- Reed ("a brilliant writer."). Negro writer. It was a part of his self- ment somewhat: "A person writes best respect, part of his philosophy of life, part about what he knows best. All other things Davis proudly calls himself an "inte- of his inner being. It was almost a religious being equal, a Black writer can write better grationist." "That's the word I use," he ex- experience with those of us who came up on Black material than a white writer and I plained. "Some use the term 'universalist.' through the dark days of the twenties and emphasize all other things being equal. But I'm not sure I know what that means." thirties. When a tradition so deeply in- But there is nothing to keep whites from He also proudly calls himself "Negro." "I grained is abandoned, it tends to leave a writing good books on Blacks. One of the remember being in a meeting at Howard in spiritual numbness - a kind of void not best books about Zora Neale Hurston [the 1968 and I said something about Howard easily filled with new interests or motiva- New Negro Renaissance writer-folklorist], being a Negro school and someone said, tions." for instance, was written by a white man. 'You mean 'Black?' And I answered, 'No, On Richard Wright, the seminal author of [Robert C. Hemenway] God damn it! I mean Negro!' And nobody Native Son, etc. "[Wright] did not believe Still Davis believes the Black writer does bothered me again."

NEW DIRECTIONS JULY 1980 8 His reasons for using "Negro" are vari- Americans and for evervthinq associated have a right to hate, particularly if you have ous: "One, because of my age; I'm more with them, including middle-class Ne- been abused for centuries." (Davis' rejoin- accustomed to being called Negro. Sec- groes" Ironically, he finds "the reasons for der to this one: "I can't answer that. He is ondly, because Negros aren't black; they hating whitey were far stronger in the days right. You do have that right.") are various shades of brown. Thirdly, the of this generation's fathers and grand- "I was not saying this poetry is not good work 'Black' gets confused with black as an fathers than they are now" for all people," Davis elaborated in one adjective. If you say, alter White was a On the one hand, he admires the bold- interview "Nor was I telling these poets, blue-eyed blond Black,' you're doing vio- ness of this new generation of writers that 'You shouldn't be writing this kind of thing.' I lence to the language." "fears nothing, has no shibboleths." On the was saying that for Arthur P Davis this Still, in his writing Davis often has alter- other hand, he finds its anti-white obses- poetry has too much hate. Also, I don't think nated "Black" with "Negro" and "Afro- sion ultimately monotonous "Too much of it will last. I just can't see hatred as a American" "to keep sentences from being this hate poetry is repetitive, mouthing over motivating force for poetry over a long monotonous." And he has never tried to and over again the same revolutionary slo- period of time. It's like building on a sand foist his preference for "Negro" on others. gans and themes; some of it is guilty of bad foundation. In spite of everything I believe "If you choose to call yourself 'Blackl'rn not taste, not moral but aesthetic, in using filfth deep down, all of us are human beings and going to fight you about it. Just don't make and obscenity only for the purpose of we do not hate all the time." me use the word." shocking the Establishment." He also Haki Madhubuti is one of the "new poets" The tiresome business of "Negro" vs. questions the authenticity of the hatred ex- some might place in Davis' categorization. "Black" once more taken care of, Davis re- pressed: "After reading a considerable In his own defense, Madhubuti says, "I turned to the subject of integration - and number of these poems, I get the same have never written from a position of hate. I literature. impression I receive from reading too many wrote from a position of Black love. What "When I started teaching," he recalled, pastorals - the forms and conventions Arthur interprets as hate is a distrust of our "the standard literature anthologies in- tend to stand out more clearly than any- enemies and a profound love of our own cluded no Black authors. The time will thing else." people." Madhubuti, who has been writer- come - and it is on its way - when Even some of Davis' most fervent ad- in-residence at Howard, quickly points out textbooks on American literature will in- mirers disagree with some of the ideas he that his disagreement with Davis is philo- clude more and more of the best Negro expressed in this article, especially its cen- sophical, not personal. "My view is that writers. I hope, too, in the future we shall tral premise that this was, in fact, "poetry of white people are the enemies of Black become so integrated that a course like Black hate." people and I hit on that in my work. I am mine [English 248-249] will be an elective Ramona Hyman, a graduate student in more political. Arthur is more literary. It's because all American literature courses the English department, loves to drop by more a generational thing." Overall, he will include Phillis Wheatley, Frederick Davis' office to chat. She calls him "a big lauds Davis for "his meticulousness, his Douglass, Robert Hayden, Langston influence on my life," "a folk tale," "a vision, his caring for Black literature." "You Hughes. " wealth," and that crowning compliment can't talk about the beauties of Black litera- As a self-avowed integrationist, as well "He's good people." Yet she believes he is ture and then act the opposite. Arthur P as a veteran literary critic, Davis has had off base in this particular article. "I don't Davis mirrors the literature." difficulties approachinq those Black writ- think it was a poetry of Black hate," she Then, too, Ramona Hyman urges ers who would wield their craft solely into a argues. "I think it was a poetry of Black love. younger readers to put "The Poetry of Black weapon to slay the white man. Nowhere is What these writers did was write about the Hate" in perspective. "That's one of the this more apparent than in his controversial hateful things in Black life because they most important things I learned from Dr. article, "The New Poetry of Black Hate." loved Black life so much." (Davis' answer: Davis," she says, "to put a writer's works in (First published in the June 1970 issue of "My mind is not subtle enough to take that perspective - in terms of his age, class, the CLA Journal, later included in Modern in.") education, influences ... " Black Poets: A Collection of Critical Es- Similarly, Stephen E. Henderson, di- Arthur Paul Davis was born on Novem- says, 1972.) rector of Howard's Institute for the Arts and ber 21, 1904 in Hampton, Va. His father, In the article, Davis looks at poetry in- the Humanities and author of Understand- Andrew Davis, had been born in slavery spired by the manifesto once promulgated ing the New Black Poetry, calls Davis "mis- and had been held in his mother's arms as by Amiri Baraka: "We want 'poems that kill,' taken" in his interpretation. "If you call these she watched the Battle of the Monitor and Assassin poems, poems that shoot/guns poets 'poets of Black hate' you would have the Merrimac. One of the earliest ... We want a Black poem. And a Black to call people like Claude McKay and graduates of Hampton Institute [class of World." For Davis, such poetry is "based on Langston Hughes poets of Black hate," he 1872], And rew Davis became a master and motivated by 'poetic' hatred for white contends. Then he adds: "Besides, you plasterer and contractor .whose work

NEW DIRECTIONS JULY 1980 graced many of the finest homes in the regarded by other Blacks as "nothing but a He met writers like Langston Hughes, 9 area. At home, he served as a model of bunch of 'diety niggers,'" Davis com- Countee Cullen and Wallace Thurman. He proud manhood for his eight children (a mented in the same article. Yet underneath visited the 139th Street apartment fur- ninth died in infancy). Davis wrote of his any trappings of class consciousness, nished by Alelia Walker, daughter of the father in a January 1950 article in the Negro Davis observed, "we were not a bad lot, pioneering Black cosmetics entrepreneur, History Bulletin: "Though born in slavery and we never gave oursleves any great as a meeting place for young writers and and reared in the South, he had grown up in airs. Lacking the sophistication of the older artists. He joined the Sunday parade up that period immediately following the Civil Negro families in the large cities, we were and down "The Avenue" (7th Avenue near War when the South grudgingly and briefly plain, simple, and relatively uneducated 135th Street) and once saw WE.B. DuBois, awarded the Negro equality He never out- folk, determined to be decent and simple, dressed in morning coat and stripedtrous- grew his early conditioning in freedom; as a determined also to see to it that the children ers, and Marcus Garvey, in similar formal result he walked through life as a full man, grew up to be well-mannered law-abiding attire but with the added touch of a gold- making few if any concessions to race." citizens." headed walking stick, deliber,ately snub What's more, Andrew Davis knew, from Determined to see, too, that the children each other as they passed. He took in intense personal experience, that whites developed a healthy respect for learning. Bojangles Robinson at the 135th Street were neither special nor superior. Andrew Davis took it for granted that his YMCA, heard Fats Waller at the Lafayette sons would do well in school. And Davis, Theater, attended funky rent parties where 'Harlem in the 1920s was a the youngest of the lot, early showed he he ate his fill of chitterlings, pig feet and delightful place, particularly had no intentions of disappointing him. In hopping-john [rice and black-ey~d peas]. so to a youngster reared in a 1922, he graduated as valedictorian of his "Harlem in the 1920's was a delightful small southern town.' high school class at Hampton Institute. In place, particularly so to a youngster reared his valedictory address he urged his in a small southern town," Davis observed classmates to heed the call "to discover in an article in the Negro American Forum As a youth he had gone North and for 10 our own talents, to respect our own per- (Fall, 1968). "But this enjoyment [of Har- years. lived as a white man. Observed sonalities, to develop our own powers, and lem] was not the phony exotic primitivism Davis about his father in an article in Com- by so doing to stir up the gifts that are within which the white folk came uptown nightly to mon Ground (Winter, 1944): "After ten us that we may give to the world our own find in cabarets and other hot spots. Our years 'across the line,' he found it was best selves." enjoyment was in part the pride of having a better to be a poor Negro than a poor city of our very own-a city of black intel- white; he came back, married my Davis received a scholarship to study at lectuals and artists, of peasants just up brownskin mother, and never left home or Columbia College but first spent a year at from the South, of West Indians and Afri- race again. He, of course, used to tell us Howard (where an elder brother was in cans, of egroes of all kinds and classes." many anecdotes about his experiences on medical school) in order to earn the lan- Meanwhile, at Columbia, Davis was mak- the other side. With such a background, guage credits he would need to attend the ing his way in an almost lily-white world. He there was little danger of our growing up Ivy League school. Howard, after Hampton was one of the few Black students in with the feeling of racial inferiority which the with its predominantly-white teaching staff, attendance and that special status pattern of southern living tends to create in was an eye-opener for this unsophisticated seemed to confer on him a special burden. the Negro." southern boy ("Meeting a man like Alain "I felt the whole 'race' rode on my poor Arthur P Davis, with his flaming red hair, Locke-brilliant, cosmopolitan, interested weak shoulders, that somehow if I failed, I freckles and green eyes, was often called in African art - was a whole new experi- would be letting down all Negroes," he re- "plug JlQIy" by some of his darker-skinned ence for me ") minisced in an article published in Obsi- playmates. "As a little 'yaller' boy, I early He was to meet Locke again when he dian (Winter, 1978). "Many Negroes of my learned I had to fight the color line both attended Columbia. It was a good time to generation assumed that attitude when within and without the group," he wrote in be at Columbia and to live in nearby Har- they attended northern white schools. It the Common Ground article. "But I also lem for those were the flourishing years of helped to make us more competitive." ~earned that the internal fight was trivial and the New Negro [or Harlem] Renaissance. insignificant compared with the real fight- Even though Davis was juggling his Competitive Davis was. He majored in the outside." studies, part-time jobs (e.g. waiter, elevator philosophy ("I don't have the least idea The Davis family numbered amongst the operator, settlement house worker), and a why. Philosophy sounded 'big,' 'difficult.") town's leading Black families (though budding romance with a young librarian and he did well, well enough to be elected "Black," of course, was not the terminology named Clarice Winn, he could not help but to Phi Beta Kappa, an honor which earned of the day). These families, light in com- get caught up in the fervor of Harlem at that him a front-page article in the New York plexion, middle-class in values, were often time. Times as the first Black Phi Beta Kappa at

NEW DIRECTIONS JULY 1980 10 Columbia. ("It was a false alarm. I was the peared in Common Ground and was later Roosevelt's death ("As I listened to the second.") But when two Times photo- included in several anthologies. eulogies on the radio, as I talked with men g raphers came to take Davis' photo for the The story, inspired by a man Davis knew on the street, as I stood uncove.red and story, they took one look at his near-white at Hampton, is a folk tale in the John watched the funeral procession stream si- complexion and put their cameras away. Henry-Paul Bunyan mold. It tells of John lently by, I felt for the first time a part of, a "No dice," one complained. "He looks too Boscoe with "the sweetest and deepest oneness with the soul of America. I was an . much like the others." bass anybody had ever listened to on this American mourning with other Americans earth," who gets so possessed by pride the loss of a man whose charm, whose Majoring in philsophy might have proved that he challenges the devil to a singing 'saving common sense,' whose sublime that Davis could handle a "big," "difficult" contest. When it looks like "01' Satan" will simplicity, and whose large soul took all of subject, but he knew philosophy couldn't win, John realizes the folly of his overin- us-black, white, Jew, Catholic, aristocrat, put bread on his table. ("There was only flated pride and begs forgiveness: "Oh, and laborer - and fused us into a spiritual one Negro school with a philosophy de- Lord, I know I been a sinful and a prideful whole.") partment [Howard] and Alain Locke was in man! I know I been 'side myself with my it. So I knew they didn't need me.") So he Through his column, Davis caught the own biggityness ... And, Lord, that voice decided to earn an M.A. in English at Co- eye of many of the nation's Black intellec- you gave me to bring souls to you, I done tuals. One of them was Sterling Brown, who lumbia. The topic of his thesis: "Jeremy used to feed my own vanity and pride." The Collier and the Reformation of the English in 1937 had conceived the idea of The Lord, heeding John's plea, fills his voice Stage." Negro Caravan and later invited Davis and with new power. John wins the contest and Ulysses Lee, then a student, to come on "No, it wasn't considered odd for a Black returns home a much-humbled man. board as co-editors. person to be writing on such a subject," Davis enjoyed writing about John Bos- Working on The Negro Caravan crys- Davis answered in response to the obvious coe and his foolish pride but he didn't pur- talized Davis' interest in Afro-American lit- question. "At the time academicians didn't sue fiction. ("I don't really know why.") He erature. "I felt here was a genuine field, a think tliere were any Black authors worth did, though, pursue journalism. relatively new field and there were only a writing on. Also, there was our own thinking few people working in it, Sterling, one or at the time. We would have been insulted if 'I came here in 1944 during two others. I somehow sensed that this someone had suggested we write on [Afro-American literature] was an impor- someone like Paul Laurence Dunbar. We the golden years ... Howard tant segment of American literature. Sec- didn't want to be put in a racial niche. Our was a great place then and it ondly, I liked the literature. It's been a reve- attitude was, 'Give us a chance and we'll is a great place now. ' lation, a constant discovery." show you we can do anything you can do- and do it just as well" While at Virginia Union and at Howard, Despite his pale complexion and despite his insistence on calling himself "Negro," With similar motivation, Davis chose he wrote a popular column for the Norfolk Davis says no one has ever challenged him Isaac Watts as the subject for his Ph.D. Journal and Guide called "With a Grain of for adopting Afro-American literature as his dissertation (which was to become his first Salt." In his inaugural column on October field. Nor has his commitment to Black folk, book). Research on Watts took him to Lon- 16, 1942, he cited his mission: "In these in general, ever been challenged. Not even don (financed by fellowships) and brought articles, I can assure you of one thing only: in the tumultuous '60s. "1 think it's because him into contact with an intellectually you will find no pompous pronunciamentos everything about me is so typically Negro stimulating group of African, West Indian concerning economics, politics, or the -the way I talk, my sense of humor. Every- and Black American students, among race problem ... And above all you will find thing but my color." them, Ralph Bunche. no racial opportunism ... On the contrary, though right or wrong, though taking the Not surprisingly, Davis has no regrets By the time Davis received his Ph.D. in popular or the unpopular approach, I shall about shifting his scholarly gaze from the 1947, he was a husband (having married 'call 'em as I see 'em' - but always with a writing of 18th century England to that of his favorite librarian), a father (to one Arthur generous grain of salt" Black Americans through the years. Nor Paul Jr.), an Ellglish teacher at Virginia In more than 800 weekly columns, he does he have any regrets about staying at Union University and the author of numer- discussed a wide range of concerns, Howard so long. ous scholarly articles on literature as well among them: his son's "addiction" to comic "I came here in 1944 during the golden as popular articles for such publications as books (which he bemoaned until he came age of Howard," he told those assembled Negro Digest and The Crisis. across one featuring a heroic Black World at that commemorative program last In 1947, also, he published his only work War II soldier); Richmond ("a Southern mat- spring. "Howard was a great place then of fiction, How John Boscoe Outsung the ron old enough to be sensible yet young and it is a great place now. It is a seminal Devil, a short story which originally ap- enough to be appealing"); and Franklin D. American university.. I know a lot of

NEW DIRECTIONS JULY 1980 people who retire and they have so many that commemorative program, "There are 11 gripes, I've served under three presidents, those professors who allow you to take and four vice presidents for academic affairs, those who give, They give so much of two graduate deans and six chairmen of themselves that you become a part of their the English department and I don't have a very sphere, That distinguishing feature- gripe of any kind, Nobody shortchanged the giving of self - is what marks Dr, Davis me, Nobody done me in:" above all else," , 0 "I've gotten almost sentimental about Howard," he had confessed earlier, "And, frankly, Howard has been very good to me - bringing me back for seven years after retirement on full salary, asking me back part-time, , Davis says he supports the idea of com- pulsory retirement, in general, "There's got to be a way to get rid of no good teachers and to enable younger faculty members to have a chance to advance, But there should be enough play in the rule that ex- ceptions can be made, Some scholars are doing their best work at 65," [Davis, for instance, has three books plus numerous important articles to his credit since that aqe.] He is now finishing up an autobiography he has been working on over the last few years, ("I'm not satisfied with it yet. It lacks a certain something,") He also plans to work affection, "Clarice was the kind of woman on a history of Afro-American literature everyone liked, Everywhere she went-in based on the wealth of frequently- the library system, the neighborhood, overlooked material in M,A, theses pro- wherever-she made friends, The word for duced by graduates of Howard's English her was 'gentle, '" There are other painful department. He will continue to serve on absences in his life, too: all but one of his the Commission of Management and Op- sisters and brothers; friends; colleagues; erations of Howard University Press, and former students, , , on the Policy Advisory Board of the Institute But there are also joys: family (his son, for the Arts and the Humanities, And, as now an assistant principal at a D,C, junior usual, he will keep out a welcome mat for high school; his teacher daughter-in-law; the many past and present Howard stu- his especially beloved 16-year-old grand- dents and teachers who flock to him for daughter to whom he dedicated From the scholarly advice or to just sit around and Dark Tower, and all the others in the larger shoot the breeze, Davis clan whose numbers include a "1 have a little bit of sadness about not nephew and niece who are making their teaching anymore," Davis admitted, "but I own marks on Black literature - the Yale also know old people have a tendency to scholar-administrator Charles Davis and stay on too long," the poet Thulani Davis); his enduring love There is sadness in other corners of his for good books and for good conversation; life, as well, Two years ago, shortly before a his ongoing scholarly projects; and, of 50th wedding anniversary, Clarice Davis course, his students, For, he says, "My stu- died, By all accounts, they had what today dents have been my lifeblood," often seems a rarity: a very happy mar- It's been a nourishment that has flowed riage, Says Davis, his voice softening with both ways, As Gregory Rigsby observed at

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