Never in My Wildest Dreams (eBook)

Description

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As the first black female television journalist in the western United States, Belva Davis overcame the obstacles of racism and sexism, and helped change the face and focus of television news. Now she is sharing the story of her extraordinary life in her poignantly honest memoir, Never in My Wildest Dreams. A reporter for almost five decades, Davis is no stranger to adversity. Born to a fifteen-year-old Louisiana laundress during the Great Depression, and raised in the overcrowded projects of Oakland, California, Davis suffered abuse, battled rejection, and persevered to achieve a career beyond her imagination. Davis has seen the world change in ways she never could have envisioned, from being verbally and physically attacked while reporting on the 1964 Republican National Convention in San Francisco to witnessing the historic election of Barack Obama in 2008. Davis worked her way up to reporting on many of the most explosive stories of recent times, including the Vietnam War protests, the rise and fall of the Black Panthers, the Peoples Temple cult mass suicides at Jonestown, the assassinations of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, the onset of the AIDS epidemic, and the aftermath of the terrorist attacks that first put Osama bin Laden on the FBI’s Most Wanted List. She encountered a cavalcade of cultural icons: Malcolm X, Frank Sinatra, James Brown, Ronald Reagan, Huey Newton, Muhammad Ali, Alex Haley, Fidel Castro, Dianne Feinstein, Condoleezza Rice, and others. Throughout her career Davis soldiered in the trenches in the battle for racial equality and brought stories of black Americans out of the shadows and into the light of day. Still active in her seventies, Davis, the “Walter Cronkite of the Bay Area,” now hosts a weekly news roundtable and special reports at KQED, one of the nation’s leading PBS stations,. In this way she has remained relevant and engaged in the stories of today, while offering her anecdote-rich perspective on the decades that have shaped us. “No people can say they understand the times in which they have lived unless they have read this book.” — Dr. Maya Angelou

About the Author

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Belva Davis is a history-maker, an award-winning journalist, and a pioneering feminist. She has traveled the world reporting on politics, terrorism, racial and gender issues, and the role of art and culture in increasing human understanding. From her hardscrabble beginnings in the Deep South during the Great Depression, she broke into journalism and made the move from segregated newspaper and radio work, becoming the first black woman hired as a commercial television news reporter on the West Coast. She has anchored at three major network affiliates—CBS, NBC, and PBS—and currently hosts a highly respected political affairs program on KQED-TV in San Francisco, the most watched public TV station in the United States. 

Vicki Haddock is a longtime Bay Area journalist. She was a senior writer for the “Insight” analysis section of the San Francisco Chronicle, as well as a reporter and later an assistant city desk editor for the San Francisco Examiner. Before joining the Examiner, she was chief political writer for the Oakland Tribune.

 

Praise for Never in My Wildest Dreams…

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"Davis is an engaging, likable personality with an inspiring story. Recommended for any reader interested in journalism, history, or gender and race relations in the United States."
—Library Journal, January 2011

"An engaging memoir that includes not only a fascinating childhood and coming-of-age in the deep south and the Oakland projects, but also involvement in some of the most important happenings of the mid-20th century." —School Library Journal, February 2011

“I was not asked to write a blurb for Up from Slavery, War and Peace, or The Fire Next Time, but gladly I can say Never in My Wildest Dreams is a very important book. No people can say they understand the times in which they have lived unless they have read this book.”
— Dr. Maya Angelou

“Never in My Wildest Dreams is the fascinating account of a pioneering black woman and her tumultuous but triumphal march through a turbulent era. Overcoming one obstacle after another, Belva Davis covered some of the most explosive stories of our era—and became one of most trusted news professionals in the business. Her story is a unique version of the American Dream, and her book is an honest, insightful, and utterly riveting memoir of a shared and personal journey.”
— Senator Dianne Feinstein

“Never in My Wildest Dreams shows what it really takes to succeed as a black woman in the journalistic world in America. A must read.”
— Willie L. Brown, Jr., Chairman and CEO, Willie L. Brown Institute

“Belva Davis has lived this country’s history as only a brave black woman could and has witnessed it as a journalist with a world-class head and heart. I don’t think it’s possible for anyone to read her words in Never in My Wildest Dreams without becoming a better and braver person.”
— Gloria Steinem

“After a friendship of over 30 years, it’s astonishing to find from this revealing, heartbreaking, and inspirational book that I knew so little about the profound and historic forces that shaped Belva’s life.”
— Phil Bronstein, Editor-at-Large, Hearst Newspapers

"Davis is an engaging, likable personality with an inspiring story. Recommended for any reader interested in journalism, history, or gender and race relations in the United States."
-- Library Journal Review, David Gibbs, Georgetown Univ. Lib., Washington, DC, January 2010

“An engaging memoir that includes not only a fascinating childhood and coming-of-age in the deep south and the Oakland projects, but also involvement in some of the most important happenings of the mid-20th century.”
-- School Library Journal, February 14, 2011