LIVICATION TRIBUTE TO LADY HENRIETTA VINTON DAVIS

MONDAY – AUGUST 25, 2008

TRIBUTE TO

LADY HENRIETTA VINTON DAVIS

A MEMORIAL ON THE OCCASION OF LADY DAVIS’ 148^TH EARTHDAY

10:00AM Livication Service at National Harmony Memorial Park 7101 Sheriff Road Largo, MD 20792

3:00PM -6:00PM Program at Martin Luther King Library room A-4

7:00PM Rally at UNIA Liberty Hall

Lady Henrietta Vinton Davis

Shakespearean Actor, Elocutionist, Dramatic Reader, UNIA International Organizer, Black Star Line Vice President

Henrietta Vinton Davis born August 25, 1860 Baltimore, Maryland, joined the ancestors on November 23, 1941 in Washington, DC.

An only child, her father, Mansfield Vinton Davis was a musician who passed away when she was very young. Her mother Mary Ann Davis married influential Baltimorean George Alexander Hackett. Hackett passed away when Davis was 9 years old. She and her mother then moved to Washington, DC.

Davis schooled in Washington until the age of 15. She became a schoolteacher in Maryland. Eventually, she went to work at the DC Recorder of Deeds in 1878 before Frederick Douglass.

Her desire for a theatrical career inspired her to study under Miss Marguerite E. Saxton. April 25, 1883 Miss Davis was introduced in her debut as an actor by Frederick Douglass. For over thirty-five years she was the premier African-American woman of the stage performing “Shakespearean Delineations”, original plays and dramatic readings throughout the USA, Caribbean and Central America.

In 1919 her career took a dramatic turn when Lady Davis joined the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League headed by Marcus Garvey. Initially chosen as International Organizer, she eventually held positions as Assistant President-General and Vice-President of the Black Star Line. On Black Star Line flagship SS Frederick Douglass’ maiden voyage, she was the ranking member of the UNIA and the Black Star Line as it carried its cargo worth upwards of $5,000,000 to Cuba.

After leaving Jamaica where she continued supporting Garvey, she returned to the USA. There she joined the UNIA, Inc. headquartered in NY city. In 1934 she was elected President-General of that group.

At the age of eighty-one she joined the ancestors. Having been divorced, without children of her own and livicating her life to bettering the condition of her people, she was buried in Harmony Cemetery in Washington, D.C. without a marker for her grave.

HTTP://WWW.LADYDAVIS.ORG

The Henrietta Vinton Davis Memorial Foundation

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REPORT FROM THE UNIA HIGH COMMISSIONER TO GHANA

Click here to visit The Negro World Newspaper online REPORT FROM THE UNIA HIGH COMMISSIONER TO GHANA by Hon. Nana Kwabena Prempeh June 10th 2008 was a “Great Garvey Day” as the UNIA-ACL High Commissioner Nana Prempeh met with Ambassador DR. Erieka Bennett, Head of The Diaspora African Forum Mission in Accra, Ghana. Dr. Bennett is also the Diaspora representative from Ghana to the AfricanUnion (AU) and was on her way to the AU Conference now taking place in EGYPT. The definition of Diaspora – according to the African Union is as follows: (i) Africans taken from Africa as a part of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade (ii) Continental Africans that leave Africa living, working & studying abroad. The UNIA High Commssioner in Ghana discussed with Dr. Bennett her upcoming input at the AU meeting and she assured him of a briefing upon her return. Ghana, under President Koffour is an active participant in the AU. Dr. Bennett informed the UNIA High Commissioner of some current historic moments in Africa. In February of this year Nana Kweku Primpa Kalachuri II, her son, was en-stooled in the village Bono Manso, in the Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana. The People of Bono Manso have dedicated 25 Acres of Land to the Ancestral Memory of African American Heroes and Heroines. UNIA-ACL High Commissioner to Ghana Nana Prempeh recently visited the historic site.and noted that it is the poeple of this area who have built these monuments to our ancestors with the hope of enlightening the youth about the greatness of our race. The site consist of 4 monuments & allocated Land. 10 Acres for the Rt. Excellent Marcus Mosiah Garvey + pedestal & Bust; 5 Acres for El Hajj Malik El Shabazz (Malcolm X) + pedestal & Bust; 5 Acres for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. + pedestal & Bust; Coretta Scott-King & Rosa Parks have pedestals with full color pictures; 5 Acres for our Ancestral Kings and Queens of West Africa. The UNIA-ACL in Ghana intends to continue building on the Garvey Site. On Sunday August 17TH, 2008 the UNIA & ACL in conjunction with the Caribbean Association and the Rastafarian Association along with the African American Association of Ghana – will have a “Great Garvey Day” celebration at Bono Manso site. At that time we will raise the “Red, Black, and Green” flag of the UNIA and the Ghanaian national flag with the Black Star of Garvey, since this is the only site in Ghana with a monument to the Rt. Excellent Marcus Garvey. The UNIA in Ghana has also proposed to build a Garvey Hall to house a Museum, Book-brary, as well as a Gift Shop & Restaurant. Monuments to Amy Ashwood & Amy Jacques Garvey are also in the plans.

IN ALL HER GLORY: The Honorable Henrietta Vinton Davis, Lady Grand Commander Of the Nile

IN ALL HER GLORY: The Honorable Henrietta Vinton Davis, Lady Commander Order of the Nile

“WE MUST CANONIZE OUR OWN SAINTS, CREATE OUR OWN MARTYRS AND ELEVATE TO POSITIONS OF FAME AND GLORY BLACK WOMEN AND MEN WHO HAVE MADE THEIR DISTINCT CONTRIBUTION TO OUR HISTORY.”  AFRICAN FUNDAMENTALISM BY MARCUS GARVEY

The Honorable Lady Henrietta Vinton Davis was a Shakespearean actor, elocutionist, dramatic reader, and public speaker. She was proclaimed by Marcus Garvey to be “the greatest woman of the [African] race”. She is currently lying in an unmarked grave in National Harmony Memorial Park in Largo, Maryland. The Henrietta Vinton Davis Memorial Foundation is committed to increasing the general public’s awareness and erecting a memorial to the life and legacy of the Honorable Henrietta Vinton Davis, Lady Commander Order of the Nile. In addition to raising funds for a fitting memorial to her life, we also intend to sponsor performances of a play entitled “Shero: The Livication of Henrietta Vinton Davis” written by Actor Clayton Lebouef, produce a biopic on her life and publish her biography.  Hopefully, after reading this brief synopsis of her life you too will be inspired to add your name to the list of those who consolidated their resources in order to bestow a fitting memorial upon her. Nothing less is due a woman of her stature.  You may make donations via our website at WWW.LadyDavis.org –The Henrietta Vinton Davis Memorial Foundation.

The Holy Piby Speaks of Henrietta Vinton Davis

The Holy Piby Speaks of Henrietta Vinton Davis

In the Holy Piby Henrietta Vinton Davis is identfied as one of the “Apostles” apointed to “to save Ethiopia and her generations from everlasting downfall” with Marcus Garvey and Robert Lincoln Poston.

CHAPTER 7

MARCUS GARVEY

Therefore, Athlyi yielded him a copy of the map, and declared Marcus Garvey an apostle of the Lord God for the redemption of Ethiopia and her suffering posterities.

THE THIRD BOOK OF ATHLYI NAMED
THE FACTS OF THE APOSTLES

Now when Marcus Garvey, God’s foremost apostle, heard the voice of his colleague, apostle Robert Lincoln Poston, preaching in the city of Detroit, Michigan, United States of America, he knew that this was his colleague for the lord God hath revealed, notwithstanding the three apostles had met in the spirit before they came to administer the law Gospel for the full salvation of Ethiopia’s posterities.

…

Now when the amalgamation of their apostleship was verified, apostle Poston came to New York City, United States of America, and then teamed with apostle Garvey in the work for the redemption of Ethiopia and her trodden posterities, whom through the oppression of the nations and the ignorance of the Negro ministers of Christian faith, were hanging over the bridge of death, both body and soul.

CHAPTER 2

GOD SPOKE TO HIS APOSTLES

“Moreover, behold at thy side is the noble woman Henrietta in whom the whole heaven adore because of her greatness of faith and the loyal way in which she fights to save Ethiopia and her generations from everlasting downfall. Place her at the side of thy colleague, for great is her wisdom, saith the Lord, and send ye also another that they go and prepare a home for mine anointed.”

HENRIETTA VINTON DAVIS AND THE GARVEY MOVEMENT by William Seraile

Historians study the past with its emphasis on personalities and events. Sometimes the great doers of past decades are remembered. More often, men and women of achievement, while important in their own times, are overlooked by historians. Such a person is Henrietta Vinton Davis who made a name for herself not only as a major elocutionist but as a leading exponent of Marcus Garvey’s “race first” concept.

Davis, who was born in 1860, was the daughter of Mansfield Vinton Davis, a talented musician, and Mary Ann (Johnson) Davis. As a young woman, she studied under Marguerite E. Saxon of Washington, D.C., Edwin Lawrence of New York City, and Rachel Noah of Boston, where she attended the Boston School of Oratory. During her late teens she taught school in Maryland and Louisiana. In 1878 she became the first black woman to be employed by the Office of the Recorder of the Deeds in the nation’s capital. It was in this capacity that she met Frederick Douglass who held the position of Recorder from 1881 to 1886.1