Belva Davis

Belva Davis, a trailblazing Bay Area journalist whose calm rigor and on-air grace reshaped local news, died Sept. 24, 2025. She was 92.

Born Belvagene Melton in Monroe, Louisiana, on October 13, 1932, she moved with her family to Oakland, California as a child and graduated from Berkeley High School in 1951. Those early years in the East Bay rooted a lifelong connection to the communities she would later cover.

Davis began in print, freelancing for Jet in 1957 and writing for the Sun Reporter, before breaking into Bay Area radio. She moved to television in the mid-1960s and, in 1966, became the first Black woman hired as a TV journalist on the West Coast when she joined KPIX-TV.

Her career spanned nearly five decades at KPIX, KRON and KQED. She reported and anchored through periods of intense social change, covering the Free Speech Movement, the Black Panthers, Jonestown, the Moscone-Milk assassinations, the AIDS crisis, and hard politics at every level. At KQED, she hosted "This Week in Northern California" and "KQED Newsroom," becoming a trusted guide to Bay Area civic life.

As a young reporter at the 1964 Republican National Convention at the Cow Palace, she endured racist harassment that deepened, rather than deterred, her resolve. She later recalled being chased out of the room by people throwing debris.

Davis won eight Emmy Awards from the San Francisco/Northern California chapter and received lifetime honors from the National Association of Black Journalists and American Women in Radio and Television. Colleagues lauded her fairness, context, and insistence on dignity.

Her memoir, "Never in My Wildest Dreams: A Black Woman's Life in Journalism," published in 2011, traced a path from Jim Crow-era Louisiana and West Oakland housing projects to the anchor chair and national recognition.

Beyond the studio, Davis served her community. She held leadership roles in AFTRA, helped raise funds for the Museum of the African Diaspora, and lent her credibility to institutions across the region. Her professional creed, often quoted, was "Don't be afraid of the space between your dreams and reality. If you dream it, you can make it so."

Davis is survived by her husband, William "Bill" Moore; two children, Darolyn Davis and Steven Davis; and her granddaughter, Sterling Davis.

By Legacy News Staff

(Image: Steve Jennings/WireImage for Conde Nast media group)