Library Stories

Ep. 42 "A Deeper Story" | Library Stories by The Library Stories ProjectAugust 17, 2016

Behind every great book lies a deeper story. In an interview from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, NYPL Board Member Gordon Davis tells the story of his parents, Allison Davis and Elizabeth Stubbs Davis. Mr. Davis describes how the two came to research and write "Deep South," a seminal anthropological study of racism in the American south in the 1930's. His parents, along with two white anthropologists, effectively went under cover in order to do their field work, putting themselves in considerable peril for the better part of two years. What resulted is a text that has been read by everyone from Martin Luther King to Whitney Young, and has rippled across generations to inform the way we think about race and racism in America.

Library Stories is a video series from The New York Public Library that shows what the Library means to our users, staff, donors, and communities through moving personal interviews.

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Gordon Davis

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Deeper Story - Deep South research

Submitted by Charmaine Jefferson (not verified) on October 1, 2016 - 2:35pm

I want to thank Gordon Davis for stopping to personalize and bring home the import of the work of his parents, and how it has informed his life. For all the years I had the occasion to work with/for Mr. Davis, other than his grandfather Benjamin O. Davis, I never heard him mention this extraordinarily important study by his parents. It just never came up. When Mr. Davis wrote the great article in the NY Times to further inform the world how institutionalized racism impacted property ownership, getting and retaining a job and so much much more, I was so grateful for his effort because he spoke for so many of us. With these and other revelations, I have come with each occasion to have even greater and greater respect not just for what Gordon Davis has accomplished, but the direct, subtle and effective ways in which he has worked to make a difference. I am honored that I ever had a chance to have my path cross with his when I was in NY. Thank you for NYPL for telling this "deeper story". Charmaine Jefferson [former Dep. & Acting Commissioner, NYC Dept. of Cultural Affairs; former Ex. Dir. of Dance Theatre of Harlem; former Ex. Dir. of the California African American Museum]