Davis, John P. (John Preston), 1905-1973

John Preston Davis was a journalist, author, and civil rights advocate.

Writer and publisher; b. 1905, d. 1973; played major roles in a number of organizations that sought to better opportunities for African Americans; served as executive secretary of the Joint Committee on National Recovery, helped found the National Negro Congress (NNC), and edited the first edition of the encyclopedic American Negro Reference Book.

John Preston Davis was born on January 19, 1905 and died on September 11, 1973. Davis, a man of enormous talent and varied interests, was a colorful journalist, a fiery orator and an inexhaustible and outspoken advocate of civil rights.

Davis' father, William Henry Davis, was a graduate of the Howard University School of Pharmacy. He was a federal government employee and Official Stenographer for the National Negro Business League. During World War I, he served as secretary to Dr. Emmett Scott, Special Assistant to the Secretary of War. In the 1920's W. H. Davis served as Secretary to the Presidential Commission investigating economic conditions in the Virgin Islands. He retired from government service in 1942.

John P. Davis was born in Washington, D. C. and attended Dunbar High School in that city. In 1922 he enrolled in Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. He graduated in 1926, earning an A.B. and double honors in English and psychology. At Bates Davis was president of Delta Sigma Rho, honorary debating fraternity, and editor of the student publication “The Bobcat.” From 1926 to 1927 Davis had a fellowship at Harvard, where he received his Masters Degree in journalism. He left Harvard to join the staff of Fisk University where he served as Director of Publicity from 1927 to 1928. He later returned to Harvard and earned an LL.B degree from the Harvard Law School in 1933.

In 1932 John P. Davis married Marguerite DeMond. Their union produced two daughters, Miriam and Marguerite, and two sons, Michael and John.

In 1933 Davis became Executive Secretary of the Joint Committee on National Recovery, a position he held until 1936. Among the Committee's most outstanding accomplishments were the prevention of race-related wage differentials and the integration of Negro families into the program of the Homestead Subsistence Division. While Secretary of the Committee, Davis functioned as legislative lobbyist for twenty-six national groups including the Young Woman Christian Association and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Davis was one of the original founders of the National Negro Congress (NNC) in 1936. He remained Executive Secretary and guiding spirit for the organization from its inception until 1942. He left the NNC to become Chief of the Washington Bureau of the Pittsburgh Courier, a position he held from 1943 to 1945.

The Democratic National Committee appointed Davis as Assistant Director of Publicity in 1944. In this capacity, Davis covered the 1944, 1948 and 1952 presidential campaigns. In 1945 Davis also became editor and publisher of Our World Publishing Company where he worked for eleven years.

In 1956, as marketing consultant for the Jacob Ruppert Company, Davis' project was to increase the demand for Knickerbocker beer in the black and Puerto Rican markets. The next year Davis became a consultant for the Jewish Theological Seminary. His assignment there was to prepare a prospectus for the World Academy of Ethics.

John P. Davis worked as a fund raiser from 1958 to 1962. From 1958 to 1961 Davis worked for Lincoln Center for Performing Arts in New York City and from 1961 to 1962 he worked for Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

In 1963 Davis became editor of special publications for the Phelps-Stokes Fund in New York City. Among his accomplishments at the Fund was editing the first edition of the American Negro Reference Book. Davis remained at the Phelps-Stokes Fund until the late 1960's when he became ill.