Rev. France Davis, 20th Century African Americans in Utah (Season 1, Ep. 13 - Part 1)

**Brad Westwood** (0:07)
Welcome to the podcast, Speak Your Piece. This is a podcast about Utah's history, produced by the Utah Department of Heritage and Arts. I'm Brad Westwood, Senior Public Historian. My job is to make the very best and the most fascinating and the most accurate, peer-reviewed history of Utah accessible to the widest audience. Speak Your Piece is a podcast where writers, historians, curators, and all who contribute to Utah's history, share their insights and discoveries. There's one place, one podcast to get your Utah history fix. This is the place.
My guest today is Reverend France A. Davis, Pastor Emeritus of the Salt Lake City Calvary Baptist Church.
Hello, how are you, Reverend Davis?

**France Davis** (0:54)
I'm good, thank you. How are you?

**Brad Westwood** (0:56)
I'm so glad that we're here together. I have a bit of a cold today and so I'm sounding a little deeper than I usually sound in my voice.
Reverend Davis served as the full-time pastor of the church for over 45 years, retiring at the end of 2019 Reverend Davis came to Salt Lake City in 1972, I believe, to teach and to attend the University of Utah. He was appointed instructor in communications and a adjunct professor of ethnic studies at the University of Utah, where he received a distinguished teaching award at the University of Utah. Reverend Davis retired as an adjunct associate professor in 2014 He has published several books, including a wonderful memoir called France Davis, An American Story Told by Nayra Atiya.

**France Davis** (1:54)
Nayra Atiya, her father was Dr. Atiya.

**Brad Westwood** (2:01)
Oh, of University of Utah. That's right, Atiya.
Among numerous awards and recognitions, he was given the honorary doctorate of the Humane Letters from the University of Utah in 1993, Salt Lake Community College in 1997, Dixie College in 2002, and official citation from the Utah House of Representatives in 2006, in recognition of his service to Utah. There are many, many awards and much accomplished in this distinguished career of Reverend Davis. Again, it's a pleasure to have you here today.

**France Davis** (2:36)
Thank you. Good to be here.

**Brad Westwood** (2:39)
What's brought you the most joy in the first months of your retirement, sir?

**France Davis** (2:44)
The fact that I don't have to do anything anymore. Now I can do as I choose, when I choose, if I choose.
That without having anybody dictating or telling me what to do is pleasurable.

**Brad Westwood** (3:04)
Well, I think you've played a wonderful place in the Society of Utah as a devoted reverend pastor now retired, but also as a historian and someone who has pursued a life as an educator, and as a representative of the African American community, and really of Utah and many others.
I think about some of the things I've read about you, one of which was the first few days when you arrived in Salt Lake City. Apparently, you had paid your rent in advance, and when you arrived in Salt Lake City in what was it, 1970?

**France Davis** (3:44)
1972

**Brad Westwood** (3:47)
Your landlord accepted your first month's rent and deposit, but when he met up with you, he didn't want to honor his agreement.

**France Davis** (3:54)
He did not honor his agreement. In fact, never did.
Later on, offered me one of his places, but I, of course, refused and chose to stay at International House on the University of Utah's campus for the first year.

**Brad Westwood** (4:12)
How did you begin your interaction with the University of Utah? What brought you? What was the thing that drew you here?

**France Davis** (4:19)
I was a student at a college in California, University of California, Berkeley, and other schools and there was an article published about a crazy student that was taking more hours than anybody could imagine. The University of Utah, Dr. Rick Rieke, Chairman of the Communication Department, called, offered me a job and I decided to take the job. So that's what started the process.
I then communicated with the university itself to find a place to stay, and the university had a list of houses that they recommended. I chose one of them, paid a deposit, had a phone in store, and gave out the address only to show up and be denied access to the place.

**Brad Westwood** (5:15)
Tell me then, as you think back now with 50, 60 years of memory, when you compare your life prior to coming to Utah, and what you experienced in Salt Lake City in those early years, can you compare and contrast that?

**France Davis** (5:34)
Well, absolutely. Utah was very much behind the rest of the country in terms of human rights and civil rights.