John Warren Davis (February 11, 1888 – July 12, 1980) was an American educator, college administrator, and civil rights leader. He was the fifth and longest-serving president of West Virginia State University in Institute, West Virginia, a position he held from 1919 to 1953. Born in Milledgeville, Georgia, Davis relocated to Atlanta in 1903 to attend high school at Atlanta Baptist College (later known as Morehouse College). He worked his way through high school and college at Morehouse and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1911. At Morehouse, Davis formed associations with John Hope, Mordecai Wyatt Johnson, Samuel Archer, Benjamin Griffith Brawley, Booker T. Washington, and W. E. B. Du Bois. He completed graduate studies in chemistry and physics at the University of Chicago from 1911 to 1913 and served on the faculty of Morehouse as the registrar and as a professor in chemistry and physics. While in Atlanta, Davis helped to found one of the city's first chapters of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
Davis served as the executive secretary of the Twelfth Street YMCA in Washington, D.C., from 1917 to 1919 when he was elected as the president of West Virginia Collegiate Institute. Under his leadership the school, (later renamed West Virginia State College), became one of the leading historically black colleges and universities and land-grant universities in the United States, in both academics and athletics. Through Davis' efforts, West Virginia Collegiate Institute became the first African American college to be accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCA) in 1927. Under his leadership, the college became home to the West Virginia Schools for the Colored Deaf and Blind and to West Virginia's Extension Service for African Americans. Davis also secured a Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP) and Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP) unit for the college during World War II. Through his efforts and educational statesmanship, Davis laid the groundwork for West Virginia State's transition into an integrated institution, and white students began enrolling in large numbers toward the end of his presidency.
U.S. President Harry S. Truman appointed Davis as a charter member to the first National Science Board for the National Science Foundation, on which he served from 1950 to 1956. In addition, President Truman appointed Davis as the director of the Technical Cooperation Administration program in Liberia from 1952 to 1954. Davis helped to establish the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (NAACP LDF), and he served as special director of the NAACP LDF Teacher Information and Security Program from 1955 to 1972. In this role, he administered the NAACP LDF's scholarship programs for African American undergraduate, graduate, and professional students. In his later life, Davis was appointed to the U.S. National Commission for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and served as a member of the Bergen County College board of trustees. Davis continued to work as an active consultant for the NAACP LDF and serve as the head of its Herbert Lehman Fund until his death in 1980. Davis was a recipient of 14 honorary degrees throughout his lifetime, and he was awarded Haiti's National Order of Honour and Merit (1948) and Liberia's Order of the Star of Africa (1955) for his service to those countries.
John Warren Davis was born on February 11, 1888, in Milledgeville, Georgia. He was the son of Robert Marion Davis, a merchant, and his wife, Katie Mann Davis. Davis' mother was the biracial daughter of a white pastor. He was raised at his maternal grandfather's home from the age of five, after his parents relocated to Savannah, Georgia, with their other children.
Davis attended elementary school in Milledgeville; however, since there were no public high schools for African Americans in the U.S. state of Georgia, Davis relocated to Atlanta, Georgia, in 1903 to attend Atlanta Baptist College (later known as Morehouse College). He worked his way through high school and college at Morehouse, and gained the attention of the college's first African American president, John Hope, while polishing the floor of his house. Hope, known as "the maker of college presidents," elevated Davis to a position in the college's business office. Davis completed the school's academic course in 1907 and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (with honors) in 1911.
While attending Morehouse, Davis was a roommate of Mordecai Wyatt Johnson, who later served as president of Howard University; they remained longstanding friends. Davis and Johnson both played for Morehouse's football team; Davis was a defensive end. They befriended Charles H. Wesley in 1910 while playing for the team. In addition to Hope, Davis was influenced by Morehouse professors Samuel Archer and Benjamin Griffith Brawley. Davis attended Morehouse during the ongoing Atlanta Compromise debate between Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois over the future of African American education. Davis sided with Du Bois in this ideological debate, and he "began to formulate his lifetime philosophies and commitment to the educational development of the black community." Davis received counsel from both Washington and Du Bois, and he remained a lifelong friend of Du Bois.
With Hope's encouragement, Davis completed graduate studies in chemistry and physics at the University of Chicago from 1911 to 1913. Davis and other African American students were able to attend the university by working after-hour and summer jobs, which were secured for them by an influential African American benefactor at Chicago's Union Stock Yards.
Davis commenced his career in education as a member of the Morehouse faculty, where he served as the registrar from 1914 to 1917, and as a professor of chemistry and physics. Davis also served on the college's standing committee on athletics, and taught physics for the college's academy. In 1915, Davis assisted African American educator and historian Carter G. Woodson in establishing the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. He also helped Walter Francis White to found one of the city's first chapters of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
Throughout his early years in the segregated American South, Davis overcame racial discrimination, which included being forced out of a Mississippi town at gunpoint for entering a store that refused service to African Americans, and being prevented from attending an educational conference at Georgia State College by the Ku Klux Klan.
In 1917, Davis was hired as the executive secretary of the Twelfth Street Branch of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) in Washington, D.C., by Jesse E. Moorland of the YMCA's Colored Men's Department. Davis served in this position until 1919.
President of West Virginia State College
On August 20, 1919, Davis was selected to succeed Byrd Prillerman as the fifth president of West Virginia Collegiate Institute in Institute, West Virginia; he commenced his presidency on September 1, 1919. The institute had been founded in 1891 as the West Virginia Colored Institute, under the Morrill Act of 1890, to provide West Virginia's African Americans with education in agricultural and mechanical studies. Davis was elected as the school's president through his association with Morehouse president John Hope, and a personal recommendation from his friend Carter G. Woodson. While he had no previous experience as an educational administrator, Woodson promised to give him advice and assistance, so Davis accepted the position. Davis then invited Woodson to assist him by serving as the Academic Dean of the institute's college department. Woodson accepted this position because he was grateful to have employment, and the $2,700-per-year salary enabled him to operate his Journal of Negro History. Woodson had been offered the presidency of the West Virginia Collegiate Institute in 1919 but declined due to the administrative duties required to operate a college, as it would have left him with little time to research and write.