Belva Davis Honored

The San Francisco Labor Council and the NorCal MLK Foundation honored Belva Davis, renowned broadcast journalist and longtime SAG-AFTRA Board member, with the inaugural 2015 Willie B. Kennedy Service Award. The award was presented on Jan. 19 at the annual Martin Luther King Day Labor and Community Breakfast hosted by both organizations.

The event marked the 50th anniversary of the seminal civil rights marches from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, that launched the passage of the Voting Rights Act. The program featured a news piece produced by Davis for the KRON series, About Race. Civil Rights Anniversary 2000 documented Davis’ personal and moving pilgrimage to Selma and Montgomery.

The Willie B. Kennedy Service Award recognizes Davis for her civic service via her work in Bay Area media for over half a century. 

The first African-American woman television reporter on the West Coast, Davis is best known for her groundbreaking stories on race, gender and politics, including the Berkeley student riots, the assassinations of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, and the mass suicide-murders at Jonestown. She was a longtime news anchor at both KPIX and KRON, and hosted the KQED program This Week In Northern California for more than 19 years. She is lauded for the balanced, calm and unique perspective she has brought to stories and interviews with historical luminaries such as Martin Luther King, Bobby Kennedy, Fidel Castro, George H. W. Bush, Malcolm X, Huey Newton, Muhammad Ali and Maya Angelou. Davis is the recipient of the prestigious AFTRA George Heller Memorial Gold Card for her significant and long-term service to the union. In addition, an award presented at SAG-AFTRA's national convention, the Belva Davis Broadcaster Award, was named in her honor.

Throughout her career, she has advocated for women and minorities, and she served as the AFTRA National Equal Employment Opportunities Chair for more than 12 years.

“I am proud to have been named as the award’s first honoree,” said Davis. “Important to being nominated was my work with AFTRA on its [equal employment opportunities] efforts over a few decades. It has been an honor and a privilege to have served my union for so many years.”

This item was originally featured in the August 2015 local newsletter.