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Arthur P.Davis Touching Lives Harriet Jackson Scarupa New Directions Volume 7 | Issue 4 Article 2 7-1-1980 Arthur P.Davis Touching Lives Harriet Jackson Scarupa Follow this and additional works at: http://dh.howard.edu/newdirections 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 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Howard @ Howard University. It has been accepted for inclusion in New Directions by an authorized administrator of Digital Howard @ Howard University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 4 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.
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