Rev. Abraham Lincoln Davis
*Abraham Lincoln Davis was born on this date in 1914. He was a Black minister and Civil Rights activist.
Abraham Lincoln "A. L." Davis was born in Bayou Goula, Louisiana, and moved to New Orleans in 1930 to live with a sister and attend high school. Davis graduated from McDonogh 35 High School, received his B. A. degree from Leland College, and his theological degree from Union Baptist Theological Seminary. He became the pastor of New Zion Baptist Church in 1935, where he became known as the Rev. A. L. Davis. He served as pastor of New Zion for forty-three years.
In 1957, Rev. Davis and a group of civil rights activists met at New Zion to organize the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and he was the first black city councilman in New Orleans. The SCLC group chose Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Rev. Davis became its first vice president. In 1975, he was elected to the City Council. Rev. A. L. Davis died on June 25, 1978, at 63, of pancreatic cancer and is buried in Bayou Goula.
