L. Clifford Davis

2025 - 2025

L. Clifford Davis

October 12, 1924 - February 15, 2025

Fort Worth , Texas - L. Clifford Davis, esteemed Judge, acclaimed and historical attorney in civil rights and desegregation litigation, Family and Civil Law practitioner, enduring advocate for public service, community and civic engagement, dedicated family man, faithful parishioner, church leader and Mentor of many, passed beyond the Vale of Tears on February 15, 2025 at 100, leaving a legacy of service and dedication.

CELEBRATION OF A LIFE WELL LIVED:

11 a.m. Tuesday, February 25 at Saint Andrews United Methodist Church, 522 Missouri Ave, Fort Worth TX 76104, Carol Grant Gibson, pastor

WAKE and OMEGA SERVICE: 5 to 7 p.m. Monday, February 24, 2025 at St Andrews UMC

LYING IN REPOSE: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday, at St. Andrews UMC

Davis was born in 1924 to the parentage of Augustus and Dora Davis , in Wilton (Little River County), a farm community in southwest Arkansas. His parents owned a small farm and rented additional land to cultivate. The children were taught Christian values, to work, manage their time, income and assets, and to love and to support each other. With parents as role models, Davis and his siblings learned about an entrepreneurial mindset and self-sufficiency. Their parents were advocates for education; due to restrictions on secondary education for African Americans in the County, they ultimately rented a home in Little Rock, Arkansas so that the children could go there, live together and attend high school, with the supervision of their fraternal Aunt, Mary Kelley. Six of the seven children finished Dunbar High School in Little Rock and with Davis the youngest of the seven, he also moved there in his teens to complete his high school years at Dunbar. All his beloved siblings have preceded him in death.

Davis graduated from Dunbar in January 1942, and Philander Smith College in May 1945 with his bachelor's degree. He entered the illustrious Howard University Law School the year 1945-46 then attended Atlanta University to study economics 1946-47 while he sought admission to the University of Arkansas Law School. During this period, when the law school considered his conditional admission based on discriminatory financial requisites and separate instruction practices, Davis declined the offer yet set in motion opportunity to crack open the door for admission of blacks to the university's various professional schools without court litigation. He returned to Howard in the fall of 1947, graduated in June 1949, and was admitted to the Arkansas Bar in July 1949, to start his legal practice the next month. Under the tutelage of Attorney Harold Flowers in Pine Bluff, Davis began to focus his early career on civil rights and desegregation litigation.

In 1952, Davis moved to Texas and taught business courses at Paul Quinn College in Waco while establishing residency in Texas to take the Texas Bar. He was admitted to the Texas Bar in 1953, came to Fort Worth to practice in 1954. He opened the first solo practice for a black lawyer, in the historic downtown 9th Street business district, as a branch office partnered with Dallas legal trailblazers C.B. Bunkley and Louis A. Bedford.

Davis was married to his striking, dear wife, Ethel R. Weaver Davis for 59 years who proceeded him in death in 2015; to this union two daughters, Avis and Karen were born.

Judge Davis' preeminent marker on the North Texas community was in the pursuit of equality, where he played a pivotal role in desegregating the public schools of Mansfield and Fort Worth Independent School Districts.

He had been an active advocate for civil rights, in Arkansas and Texas working for integration in the public schools, opening wider job opportunities, elections participation and holding public office among minorities, as well as for open housing and 'civil responsibility' for the greater good and welfare of our communities' total population. Elected as the first black judge of a (state) district court Tarrant County in 1984, he served two decades as a District Judge, including service as a Senior Visiting Judge before retirement.

Judge Davis has garnered several dozens legal, civic, and community service awards. His 100th centenary year in 2024 was marked with dozens more "Lifetime Achievement" and "Legal Legend" awards. Culminating on his birthday, October 12, 2024, the greater DFW community applauded wildly his commitment, contributions, and community spirit.