Born on the campus of Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia on April 18, 1923 and raised on the campus of Spelman College, Griff Davis became the campus photographer as a student. He began his journey becoming a global citizen as a Buffalo Soldier* and photographer for the 92nd Infantry in Italy in World War II. As a self-proclaimed “Observer of Life”, Griff Davis went on to witness and document through his camera and typewriter key historic figures, cultural icons and events that shaped policy at the vortex of the dawn of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement and the Independence Movement of Africa.

Growing up in an African American U.S. Foreign Service family, Dorothy M. Davis unintentionally followed her father’s footsteps as a pioneer in the area of international development communications. Born in Liberia and raised in newly independent Tunisia, the Biafran War in Nigeria, Switzerland, and the U.S.A., Ms. Davis was shaped by the combined experiences of her parents and her own: https://About Dorothy Davis. Ms. Davis has a unique career path that thrives at the nexus of private, public and non-profit sectors through her company motto: Building Bridges Between People, Cultures and Business. The range of clients of her company, Dorothy M. Davis Strategic Global Consulting, include: Congressional Black Caucus Institute-Global African Diaspora Initiative (CBCI-GADI), Prosper Africa, The Andrew J. Young Foundation, Africa America Institute, and the wide spectrum of the United Nations system: UN Office of South-South Cooperation, UN-OHRLLS, IFAD, WHO, UNECA, UN Women, UNDP, etc.

Since Griff Davis’ death in 1993, Dorothy has promoted her father’s photographs and archives across diverse platforms to a wide spectrum of audiences across the globe. Building and leveraging her own diplomatic upbringing, global network and international development experiences, Ms. Davis bridges the past with the present by providing context and back stories to current events complemented by a cascade of 55,000 black and white rare and historic images.

Although his work spans Africa, Europe and the United States of America, his in-depth documentation of Liberia, Ethiopia and newly independent Ghana, Tunisia, Nigeria and the birth in Liberia of President Harry Truman’s Point 4 program (now known as the United States Agency for International Development -USAID) by pioneer African American Foreign Service Officers are particularly illuminating. Griffith J. Davis Photographs and Archives contains original documentation of the early history of these newly independent countries as well as the history of USAID during this era.

Griff Davis’ photographs are permanently installed at the Museum of Broadway in Times Square, New York City; the U.S. Supreme Court Archives at the request of Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer; and the U.S Embassy/Monrovia at the request of then-U.S. Ambassador to Liberia Linda Thomas Greenfield. Griff Davis’ 1948 photo of legendary painter Hale Woodruff is among Spike Lee’s collection of historical photos in his current exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum entitled “Spike Lee: Creative Sources”. Spike Lee is a Morehouse College Alumnus and recipient of the same Bennie Trailblazer Award from Morehouse College years after Griff Davis received his in February 1993.

Exhibitions, documentaries and magazine articles include: The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Harlem, New York; the National Steinbeck Center, Salinas, California; PBS-WEDU- TV Arts Plus segment “Griffith Davis” in Florida (August 2023); The Foreign Service Journal (2014 and 2022); PBS American Experience documentary segment on first African American Ambassador Edward R. Dudley in “The American Diplomat” (February 2022); “Jazz Power!” exhibition at Les Rencontres d’Arles International Photography Festival in France (Summer 2021) and “Ladies and Gentlemen": Dans Les Archives de Jazz Magazine" at Radio France (September 2023) and, currently “Jazz Story 1954-1974-Dans Les Archives de Jazz Magazine” at Le Kiosque in Vannes, France; "Stories from the Picture Press: Black Star Publishing Company and the Canadian Press" exhibition at The Image Centre at Toronto Metropolitan University in Toronto, Canada; auction houses of Bonham’s and Sotheby’s, Indiana University Press; Our State Magazine of North Carolina; University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum (2021); Florida Museum of Photographic Arts (2020); “Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers, 1840 to the Present”, Art & Activism Section, Smithsonian Anacostia Museum and Center for African American History and Culture Travel Exhibition in 10 cities across the U.S. for 3 years, (2000-2003). Curator: Deborah Willis-Kennedy.

Under Dorothy’s leadership, Griffith J. Davis Photographs and Archives has won several awards including: Best Documentary Short Award, Photos by Griff Davis.mp4 of 2023 Studio City International Film and Television Festival, Los Angeles, California; Tampa Bay Businesses for Culture and the Arts (TBBCA) Lifetime Achievement IMPACT Award to Griffith J. Davis (posthumously), Tampa, Florida, October 2020 and Second Place Winner, USAID/Frontlines 50th Anniversary People’s Choice Global Photo Contest, 2011 for his photograph of Liberian Woman walks alongside iron ore train in 1952.

Dorothy M. Davis is a former member of the National Board of Directors of UN Women-USA and member of the Advisory Board of GUBA Enterprises in Ghana. She received the 21 Leaders of the 21st Century 2015 Award from Womens eNews in the category of Seven Who Interrupt Legacy Narratives as a Transcontinental Developer of African Economic Justice. Ms. Davis received her M.S. degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and B.S. degree from Boston University College of Communications.