It was not yet winter when he was born; it was November 21, 1904, and autumn covered Hampton, Virginia. But his walk into the life of Andrew and Frances Davis, who named him Arthur Paul, brought a day like a fresh morning in June. Today, the status of African American Literature is indebted partly to his birth. A Phi Beta Kappan, Arthur P. Davis was the first African American to conquer a Ph. D. in English from Columbia University. He matured into a pioneer of African American Literature.

Upon this Howard giant whose work university students read around the country, the Director of the D.C. Public Library bestowed the Martin Luther King, Jr. Leadership Award. But this honor equals only Davis's expertise, not his greatness. For, he walked as an equal in his field with the best. So sharp were his wit for teaching, his appetite for struggles, and his dedication to excellence that his heart drowned in this sea of life in April of 1996.

Davis, who co-edited pioneering works such as the Negro Caravan and Cavalcade: Negro American Writers from 1760 to the Present, is easily quoted saying, "I knew personally people like Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen -- I ran around with them." But his innumerable scholarly articles did not enlighten a wide audience until he started teaching at Howard University in 1944. Between 1944 and 1955, he published at least 34 articles, reviews, and miscellaneous works.

Essay by Edouard Leneus of Howard University