Frank Marshall Davis

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Frank Marshall Davis
American culture
Literary movementSocial realism

Frank Marshall Davis (December 31, 1905 – July 26, 1987) was an American journalist, poet, political and

labor movement
activist, and businessman.

Davis began his career writing for

Black Chicago Renaissance.[1]

In the late 1940s, Davis moved to

Honolulu, Hawaii, where he ran a small business. He became involved in local labor issues. The Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI) tracked his activities as they had investigated union activists since the early 20th century.

Early life

Davis was born in

Kansas State Agricultural College
, now Kansas State University.

When Davis entered Kansas State, twenty-five other African-American students were enrolled. Kansas was segregated by custom, if not by law.[5] Davis studied industrial journalism. He began to write poems as the result of a class assignment, and was encouraged by an English literature instructor to continue his poetry writing.[5] Davis pledged Phi Beta Sigma fraternity in 1925. He left college before getting a degree.[6]

Early career

In 1927, Davis moved to Chicago, a destination of tens of thousands of African Americans during the

short stories
for African American magazines. During this time Davis began to write poetry seriously, including his first long poem, entitled Chicago's Congo, Sonata for an Orchestra.

In 1931 Davis moved to Atlanta to become an editor of a twice-weekly paper. Later that year he became the paper's managing editor. In 1932 the paper, renamed as the Atlanta Daily World[9] became the nation's first successful black daily newspaper.[10] Davis continued to write and publish poems, which came to the attention of Chicago socialite Frances Norton Manning. She introduced him to Norman Forgue, the publisher of Black Cat Press. In the summer of 1935, Forgue published Davis' first book, Black Man's Verse.[citation needed]

In 1935, Davis returned to Chicago to take the position of managing editor of the Associated Negro Press (ANP),[11] a news service founded in 1919 for black newspapers. Eventually, Davis became executive editor of the ANP. He held the position until 1947.[citation needed] While in Chicago, Davis also started a photography club, worked for numerous political parties, and participated in the League of American Writers. Davis was an avid photographer, and inspired writer Richard Wright's interest in the field.[12]

Davis wrote that his photography consisted in large part of nudes because "the female body fascinates me, both aesthetically and emotionally."[13] He said that when photographing, he focused on "contours" and the "wide range of tones".[13]

Davis, Richard Wright,

Black Chicago Renaissance
.

Davis also worked as a sports reporter, in particular covering the rivalry between African-American boxer

Sears Roebuck, who became a major philanthropist.[17]

He began to work on community organizing, starting a Chicago labor newspaper, The Star, toward the end of World War II. The paper's goal was to "promote a policy of cooperation and unity between Russia and the United States"[18] seeking to "[avoid] the red-baiting tendencies of the mainstream press."[19] In 1947, the Spokane Daily Chronicle of Washington state described the paper as "a red weekly", saying that it "has most of the markings of a Communist front publication."[20] After World War II, Americans became suspicious of the Soviet Union, a former ally, after it extended its control over Eastern Europe, and fears were raised about the influence of Communism in the US.

In 1945, Davis taught one of the first

South Side.[22] Davis had been a strong supporter of the work of Richard Wright, describing his Uncle Tom's Children as "the most absorbing fiction penned by a Negro since George Schuyler's Black No More" (1931).[23]

After Wright published articles explaining his break with communism, the two writers fell out. In his memoir Livin' the Blues (1992), Davis described Wright's essays on this theme as "an act of treason in the fight for our rights and aided only the racists who were constantly seeking any means to destroy cooperation between Reds and blacks."[19]

Davis promoted the ideal of a "raceless" society, based on his belief that race as a biological or social construct was illogical and a fallacy.[23] Davis was a member of the Civil Rights Congress in 1947–1948,[6] and was vice chair of the Chicago Civil Liberties Committee from 1944 to 1947.[19] He was a supporter of Henry Wallace's Progressive Party.[24]

In Livin' the Blues, Davis wrote of the period 1935 to 1948, "I worked with all kinds of groups. I made no distinction between those labeled Communist, Socialist or merely liberal. My sole criterion was this: Are you with me in my determination to wipe out white supremacy?"[25] Some libraries removed his books,[26] and he was the subject of FBI investigations in the 1940s and 1950s.[24] Tidwell, however, states that Davis became a closet member of the Communist Party.[27]

Career in Hawaii

In 1948, Davis and his second wife, whom he had married in 1946, moved to Honolulu, Hawaii. In a 1974 interview with Black World/Negro Digest, Davis said they had been attracted to the place because of a magazine article his wife had read.[28] In Hawaii, Davis wrote a weekly column, called "Frank-ly Speaking," for the Honolulu Record, a labor paper published by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU).[29] Davis's early columns covered labor issues, but he broadened his scope to write about cultural and political issues, especially racism. He also explored the history of blues and jazz in his columns.[citation needed] Davis published little poetry between 1948 and 1978, when his final volume, Awakening, and Other Poems, was published.

In 1968, Davis wrote a pornographic novel, titled Sex Rebel: Black, publishing it under the pseudonym Bob Greene.[13] It was published by William Hamling's Greenleaf Publishing Company.

In 1973, Davis visited

historically black college in Washington, D.C., to deliver a poetry reading, marking the first time in 25 years that he had visited the U.S. mainland. His work began to be published in anthologies
as there was a revival of interest in black writers due to the civil rights movement and increasing activism.

Davis died in July 1987, in Honolulu, of a heart attack, at age 81.[30][31] Three works were published posthumously: Livin' the Blues: Memories of a Black Journalist and Poet (1992), Black Moods: Collected Poems (2002), and Writings of Frank Marshall Davis: A Voice of the Black Press (2007).

Personal life

Davis was married to Thelma Boyd, his first wife, for 13 years. For a time, while Davis worked in Chicago, Thelma lived and worked in Atlanta[13] and later in Washington, DC.[13]

In 1946, he married Helen Canfield, a woman whom he had met in one of his classes; she was 18 years younger than him.[13] Davis and Canfield divorced in 1970.[32] Davis had a son, Mark, and four daughters: Lynn, Beth, Jeanne, and Jill.[10]

Analysis of literary work

Davis said he was captivated by "the new revolutionary style called

Sonnets and, in fact, all rhyme held little interest for" him.[5] Davis found inspiration in Midwestern poets and their use of vernacular language.[33] He claimed his "greatest single influence" was Carl Sandburg "because of his hard, muscular poetry."[5]

Richard Guzman highlights Davis' poetry for its "social engagement, especially in the fight against racism" as well as its "fluent language and stunning imagery."[34] Stacy I. Morgan states that in his work, Davis "delighted in contradicting reader expectations".[33]

Legacy and impact

Kathryn Waddell Takara said of Davis's political and literary legacy:

No significant African American community existed in Hawai`i to provide Davis with emotional and moral support, and an expanded audience and market for his writing. Also, because he was still concerned with the issues of freedom, racism, and equality, he lacked widespread multi cultural support.... It can be argued that Davis escaped defeat like a trickster, playing dead only to arise later and win the race, although the politics of defeat were all around him. If society seemed to defeat him by denying him financial rewards, publication, and status, he continued to write prolifically. He stood by his principle that the only way to achieve social equality was to acknowledge and discuss publicly the racial and ethnic dynamics in all their complexity situated in an unjust society. He provided a bold, defiant model for writers to hold onto their convictions and articulate them.[35]

Davis has been cited as being an influence on poet and publisher Dudley Randall.[36] Through exposure provided by Randall, Stephen Henderson and Margaret Taylor Goss Burroughs, Davis influenced the Black Arts Movement.[37] In 2018, he was inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame.[22]

In

old Regal Theatre, waiting to see Duke or Ella emerge from a gig."[41]

Works

Selected works

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 978-0-252-09342-5
    . Retrieved March 9, 2013.
  2. ISBN 978-0-19-983956-8
    . Retrieved December 2, 2012.
  3. ISBN 978-0-252-03639-2
    . Retrieved December 2, 2012.
  4. ISBN 978-0-252-02738-3
    . Retrieved August 11, 2018.
  5. ^ a b c d John Edgar Tidwell, "An Interview with Frank Marshall Davis", Black American Literature Forum, Autumn 1985
  6. ^ a b The Authors By Philip A. Greasley
  7. ^ http://eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/1f/86/95.pdf [dead link]
  8. ^ "History of African-American Newspapers". Cti.itc.virginia.edu. Archived from the original on August 26, 2012. Retrieved October 28, 2012.
  9. ^ "Atlanta Daily World Web site". Zwire.com. Archived from the original on October 1, 2012. Retrieved October 28, 2012.
  10. ^ a b Kenan Heise (August 9, 1987). "Frank Marshall Davis, A Jazz Expert And Poet – Chicago Tribune". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved March 10, 2013.
  11. ^ Lawrence Daniel Hogan, "Associated Negro Press" Archived June 8, 2008, at the Wayback Machine, Encyclopedia of Chicago
  12. ^ Richard Wright: The Life and Times, Hazel Rowley
  13. ^
    ISBN 978-0-299-13504-1
    . Retrieved March 9, 2013.
  14. ISBN 9780813550732
    . Retrieved October 28, 2012.
  15. ISBN 978-0-19-512054-7
    . Retrieved October 28, 2012. Frank Marshall Davis South Side Writers.
  16. ^
    ISBN 978-0-19-517774-9
    . Retrieved November 27, 2012.
  17. ^ Jayne R Beilke, "The changing emphasis of the Rosenwald Fellowship Program, 1928–1948", Journal of Negro Education, Winter 1997
  18. ISBN 9780252093425
    . Retrieved July 18, 2012.
  19. ^
    ISBN 978-0-252-06748-8
    .
  20. ^ "Spokane Daily Chronicle - Google News Archive Search".
  21. ^ Arthur M. Vinje, Abraham Lincoln School, Summer Institute Archived June 6, 2008, at the Wayback Machine, Wisconsin Historical Images
  22. ^ a b "Frank Marshall Davis: Chicago Literary Hall of Fame Winner". Chicago Literary Hall of Fame. Retrieved February 25, 2021.
  23. ^
    ISBN 978-0-313-35519-6
    . Retrieved December 2, 2012.
  24. ^
    ISBN 978-0-8135-5073-2
    . Retrieved November 28, 2012.
  25. ^ Livin' the Blues
  26. ISBN 978-1-4443-2348-1
    . Retrieved November 28, 2012.
  27. ISBN 978-1-60473-384-6
    . Retrieved November 4, 2016.
  28. ^ Black World/Negro Digest, Jan 1974
  29. ^ "Frank Marshall Davis' Blog 1949". Hawaii.edu. Retrieved May 25, 2012.
  30. ^ Most sources list the date of his death as July 26. However, the Social Security Death Index gives July 15, 1987 as his date of death, as does his college fraternity, Phi Beta Sigma.
  31. ^ "K-State Libraries". Lib.k-state.edu. Retrieved October 28, 2012.
  32. ISBN 978-0-252-02738-3
    . Retrieved March 9, 2013.
  33. ^
    ISBN 978-0-8203-2579-8
    . Retrieved November 28, 2012.
  34. ISBN 978-0-8093-2703-4
    . Retrieved November 28, 2012.
  35. ^ Frank Marshall Davis: Black Labor Activist and Outsider Journalist: Social Movements in Hawai`i, by Kathryn Waddell Takara, PhD
  36. ^ Dudley Randall, Melba Joyce Boyd, Roses and Revolutions: The Selected Writings of Dudley Randall
  37. ^ "Frank Marshall Davis", The Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature
  38. ^ Obama, Barack, Video of Sep 1995 Book Talk at Cambridge Library, where Obama explicitly identifies "Frank" as Frank Marshall Davis
  39. ISBN 978-1-118-65119-3
    . Retrieved September 18, 2014.
  40. ISBN 978-1-4000-8277-3
  41. ^ Barack Obama, Dreams from My Father, paperback edition, Chapter 8, p. 145

Sources

External links

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