Davis, Richard

Part 1 was recorded via Zoom on September 14th, 2020. It covers the following themes:

b. 1943 

  • Father’s life in Florida, employment, education emphasis, family. 

  • Richard’s childhood in Miami, Florida. Race in southern Florida. College expectations and athletics. 

  • Air Force enlistment and Cuban Missile Crisis. 

  • Conversations about racism with Davis’ father. Father’s experience voting in Florida. 

  • Air Force service at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson. 

Part 2 was recorded via Zoom on September 16th, 2020. It covers the following themes:

  • Davis-Monthan experience continued. Boneyard work. Social life and athletics on base. 

  • Race and places to socialize off base. 

  • First impressions of Tucson in 1961. Black neighborhoods, with a long description of South Park. The activism of Quincy Douglas and creation of LIFTS (later Van Tran and Sun Van). Walking and transportation challenges. Sense of community. Creation of Kino Parkway through South Park neighborhood and displacement. Dispersion of Black communities. 

  • Close-knit Black communities in 1950s Miami and 1960s South Park. Black Masons. 

  • Dating. Downtown destinations. Concerts and the El Casino Ballroom. 

Part 3 was recorded via Zoom on October 8th, 2020. It covers the following themes:

  • Undergraduate studies at University of Arizona, 1965-1969. Athletic scholarship at UA, taking classes and academic experience.

  • Getting recruited for the UA Law School by dean Chuck Ayers. 

  • Experience as one of very few Black students at the UA. First Black student union. Founding Alpha Phi Alpha chapter. New Start Program. Positive and negative experiences at UA.  

  • Vietnam War and protests. 

  • Protest against BYU basketball team for discrimination in Mormon Church. 

  • Civil Rights on UA campus. Watching Civil Rights protests in the South on television. 

  • Vietnam protests. 

  • Football at the UA in the sixties. Changes in professional athletics. Decision to stop playing after a year. 

Part 4 was recorded via Zoom on November 10th, 2020. It covers the following themes:

  • University of Arizona law school in late 1960s/early 1970s. Legal specialization. Employment opportunities for Black lawyers in the early 1970s. 

  • First job for law firm Chandler, Tullar, Udall, and Richmond. Experiences with racism from clients. 

  • First big case: defending the City of Tucson in a water quality lawsuit. 

  • An aside about becoming a partner at C, T, U, and R.  

  • Water quality and copper pipes, continued. City acquisition of private water companies.  

  • Water as tool to keep Tucson small in the 1970s/1980s. 

  • Central Arizona Project. 

  • Changing attitudes towards water use in Tucson over Davis’ career. 

Part 5 was recorded via Zoom on January 12th, 2021. It covers the following themes:

  • Civil defense work on behalf of insurance companies and medical providers. The decline in civil jury trials and rise in arbitration over Davis’ career. 

  • Changes in legal billing, legal costs, and contingency fees over Davis’ career. Municipalities and hospitals becoming self-insured. 

  • Experience of trying injury cases in the 1970s.  

  • Selecting juries and witnesses. Race in the courtroom. 

  • Choosing which cases to try. 

  • Reasons for staying in Tucson rather than taking early job offers in Washington, D.C. and Phoenix. 

Aengus Anderson