| 1903 |
Born September 8 in Dawson, Georgia; grandson of a
former slave. |
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Father: Benjamin J. Davis, Sr., Mother: Jimmie
(Willa) Davis nee Porter. |
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Younger sister, Johnnie (Mrs. Richard Carey). |
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| 1909 |
Attended segregated rural elementary school in
Dawson, Georgia |
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| 1910-1914 |
Attended Summer Hill School, Atlanta, Georgia |
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| 1915-1921 |
Attended Morehouse Academy, Atlanta, Georgia |
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| 1921-1922 |
Attended Morehouse College, Atlanta, Georgia |
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| 1923 |
On July 5, arrested in Atlanta for refusal to obey
jimcrow seating rules in a city |
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bus |
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| 1923-1926 |
Attended Amherst College; received B.A. degree;
played first violin in the |
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college orchestra; sang in the Glee Club; was head
of the debating team. |
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| 1926-1930 |
Attended Harvard Law School |
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| 1931 |
Opened law office in Atlanta, Georgia |
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| 1932 |
Became attorney for Angelo Herndon; joined
Communist Party; joined legal |
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staff of Scottsboro Case; represented the Atlanta
Six; acted for Willie Peterson |
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| 1935 |
Came to New York; edited the Negro Liberator;
was arrested for activity in a |
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Newspaper Guild strike at the Amsterdam News |
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| 1936 |
Joined staff of the Daily Worker |
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| 1937 |
Became Secretary of the Harlem Division of the
Communist Party |
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| 1940-1946 |
Became a member of the Board of Directors of the
Freedom of the Press |
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Company (Publisher of the Daily Worker) and
eventually President of the |
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Board. |
| 1943 |
Elected to the Council of the City of New York. |
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| 1945 |
Acclaimed on the Honor Roll of the Chicago
Defender |
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| 1945 |
Re-elected to the Council of the City of New York
with the second highest |
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vote any Councilman ever received. |
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| 1949 |
Tried, with eleven other high-ranking Communists,
under the Smith Act, and |
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imprisoned; wrote autobiography in prison |
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| 1954 |
Released from prison; prison authorities refused
to allow him to take his |
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autobiography with him (it was released to his
wife only after his death). |
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| 1956 |
Married Nina Davis nee Stamler, April 25;
resumed position on National |
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Committee of the Communist Party |
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| 1959 |
Chosen National Secretary of the Communist Party |
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| 1962 |
Addressed Harvard Law School Forum; spoke on many
other college |
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campuses, including Columbia, CCNY, Amherst,
Oberlin, University if |
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Minnesota. |
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| 1964 |
Died in Beth Israel Hospital, New York, August 22,
of cancer |
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Source:
Ben Davis: Crusader for Negro Freedom &
Socialism (1967) |
