Benjamin Frank Davis, I

https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/GVVM-MKN

From The Work of a Revolutionary: A Psychobiography and Careerography of Angela Y. Davis. Eur J Psychol. 2021 Aug; 17(3): 198–209. Published online 2021 Aug 31. doi: 10.5964/ejop.5507 < link >

Dr. Angela Y. Davis was born on January 26, 1944, in Birmingham, Alabama. She lived in a segregated neighborhood and attended segregated schools in the 1940s and 1950s until the age of 15. Her neighborhood in Birmingham was labeled “Dynamite Hill” because her Black neighbors’ homes were targeted by the Ku Klux Klan (Davis, 1974, 2018). Both of Davis’s parents were teachers in segregated schools. Her mother earned a master’s degree during summer breaks from school, and shortly after the birth of Davis, her father quit teaching and became a mechanic (Davis, 1974; Weisman, 1972).

Davis is the oldest of four children: Fania Davis Jordan, Reginald Davis, and Benjamin Davis. Her parents were heavily involved in revolutionary and anti-racist work and were members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which at the time was illegal in the eyes of the government, and the Southern Negro Youth Congress (SNYC), a group focused on creating alliances among Black people and defending the wrongfully accused (Davis, 1974; Platt, 2013; Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, 2019). Davis’s parents maintained close relationships with other revolutionaries in the neighborhood, including members of the underground Black Communist Party.

Notes

In a 2023 episode of the PBS series Finding Your Roots, < link Henry Louis Gates revealed to Angela Y. Davis that she is a descendant of William Brewster, a passenger on the Mayflower. (relationship path).

References

• Benjamin F Davis in the 1950 United States Federal Census < AncestrySharing >
• The Work of a Revolutionary: A Psychobiography and Careerography of Angela Y. Davis. Eur J Psychol. 2021 Aug; 17(3): 198–209. Published online 2021 Aug 31. doi: 10.5964/ejop.5507 < link >