Walker Milan Davis was born in Okolona, Mississippi, 14 December 1908, the fifth son of Geroge Milan Davis and Leean (aka Leann) Johnson Davis, Mississippi farmers. In 1932, he graduated from Alcorn A & M College with a B.S. in Agriculture. A year later he earned an M.S. in Economics and Sociology from Iowa State College (1933). During his time at Iowa State, Davis resided at 1204 3rd Street (the home of Iowa State alumnus Walter G. Madison, Sr. (fall 1932), and at 208 ½ Main Street, (winter 1933). He also pursued Ph.D. coursework in Rural Sociology at the University of Wisconsin, never completing the degree.
Though the timeline for his employment is not clear, Davis seems to have held a series of temporary positions between 1933 and 1940 while also employed full-time at Okolona College as Dean and Registrar of the college. He worked for a semester in the Fisk University Social Science Department, a semester at Tuskegee Institute, for a time at Rust College, and for at least two semesters teaching sociology at his alma mater, Alcorn A & M College. Davis’s World War II draft card shows him employed in 1940 at the Ministerial Institute and College in West Point, Mississippi, where he held the position of business manager in 1942-43. That year, Davis took over the Presidency of Okolona College, a post that he held until his death in 1960 at age 51. He was buried in the college cemetery.
Iowa State College Dissertation Title: Alcorn College and its graduates : a case study in Negro leadership, 1933
Iowa State University Catalog Record:https://iowa-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/f/12tutg/01IASU_ALMA21186415450002756
Sources
Photo Credit University of Okolona
Biography available at HBCU Connections at Iowa State University : Walker M. Davis ( http://hbcuconnections.iastatedigital.org/Walker_M._Davis )
