- The late Griffith Davis was a renowned photographer, journalist, and US foreign service officer.

Among his friends were giants of the civil rights movement, and with his lens, he captured many of their public and private moments.

Griff passed away in 1993, but his legacy lives on through his daughter, St. Petersburg resident Dorothy Davis.

(bouncy piano music) - My dad, Griff Davis, was born in Atlanta, Georgia during segregation, or Jim Crow era.

He was born in 1923 and he passed away in 1993.

He started photography in high school in Atlanta and that's where he met the professor or the teacher who taught him about photography and then he became, like, the student campus photographer, and that's kind of how he started.

(bouncy piano music continues) (mellow music) He was a Buffalo Soldier in World War II in Italy with the 92nd Infantry of the US Army and he was the photographer for the infantry.

He always said that's what spared his life, essentially, that he was the photographer.

In any case, when he came back to finish his studies at Morehouse, he took a class with Langston Hughes, who was the visiting professor at what's now known as Clark Atlanta University, and they struck up a friendship.

And then when my dad graduated, he needed a job.

And Langston Hughes was working with "Ebony."

He was doing stories for "Ebony" at the time.

And one day, he was at a World's Fair where John Johnson, the owner and publisher of "Ebony," was asking him, "Do you know anyone I can hire because I'm looking for a roving editor for 'Ebony'?"

He said, "Oh, yeah, I got the right person for you," and then my dad was hired and became the first roving editor for "Ebony."

- "Ebony" magazine was a monthly periodical that was published about African American life and lifestyle.

For so many African American families, it was a reference point for everything that was great about being in the Black community.

- He covered all kinds of stories, like Nat King Cole's honeymoon.

I think it was 1948.

(mellow jazzy music) (soulful piano music) Probably the most famous photo, although nobody knows about it, (laughs) is the one of the first meeting between then-Vice President Richard Nixon and Martin Luther King Jr. and their respective wives, Coretta Scott King and Patricia Nixon, in Ghana during Independence Day celebrations in March 1957.

That photograph was featured in "Tampa Bay Times" January 2020 when I opened an exhibition at the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts, and it was the first time that it had been publicly published.

The reason is that, at the time, Martin Luther King and Coretta had just finished the bus boycott and so the US government did not really want that photograph to be publicized.

And it just so happened that dad grew up with Martin Luther King in Atlanta.

They were, you know, Atlanta boys, right?

And they went to college together at Morehouse.

So it was a real personal and professional moment.

- The uniqueness of this photographer was that he had this connection in two very different lives.

And one was his connection with politicians, politicians here in the United States, but also in Africa.

He was very close with the government in Ghana, in Tunisia, and he was very well respected there.

And parallel with this, he had a very close relationship with poets and writers and actors who represented the top of intelligence in Afro-American culture.

Typically, people who have these artistic connections are not very much connected with politicians.

And so this opened his horizon to photography journalism that is unparalleled by any different journalist.

- As someone growing up with a photographer father, it was a pain in the neck because every five seconds is another photograph, right?

So I now understand he was using me and then my brother as subjects to figure out the lighting and the this and the that.

So he did take me to different settings and I did meet a whole lot of different celebrities, I guess you would call them, or historical figures.

But I didn't know that they were historical figures.

I just thought, "Oh, that's dad's and mom's friend."

That's it.

- There's a photograph of Sidney Poitier with Griffith Davis standing next to him.

And what's so magical about it is that it is the presence of two men of African descent standing proudly and powerfully in their craft.

So you get an idea of the influence of Griffith Davis because, at that point, Sidney Poitier had an acting career and was being recognized as a great actor.

- The winner is Sidney Poitier- - And there he is side by side with Griffith Davis.

It was a great moment to capture.

- [Zora] His work was very pioneering.

I think that now is the perfect time to bring it back to our attention.

- We need to be informed about our history, and sometimes that information is uncomfortable, but it's also important.

So in the case of Griffith Davis, what's so wonderful is that he fills in the blanks.

- He is bringing light to our existence in a multi-dimensional way, and I think he's, like, painting us back into the picture.

(soulful piano music) (bright music) - [Host] To learn more, visit griffdavis.com.