50 OCTOBER 2024 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Ghana’s Independence Day celebrations on March 6, 1957. He was one of only 20 photographers in the world granted official credentials to cover this historic event. Arguably, his most famous photograph was of the unexpected first meeting of Richard Nixon and Second Lady Patricia Nixon with Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King at one of the Independence Day receptions. (Davis and King had grown up together in Atlanta.) Having ended the Montgomery Bus Boycott only a few months before, the Kings were invited to the Independence Day celebrations by Prime Minister Nkrumah. It was the first trip to Africa for both couples. The U.S. government banned the photograph from being publicly published due to the volatile nature of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement at the time. Work in Education During the Biafran War in Nigeria (1967-1970), Davis assisted the federal and regional ministries of education in utilizing radio and television for educational purposes. He served as the deputy chief education officer of USAID/Lagos, which coordinated U.S. technical assistance to joint U.S.-Nigeria education projects and the restoration of the eastern region education facilities destroyed by the war. He also encouraged the emerging film industry of Nigeria through his friendship with pioneer and legendary Nigerian filmmaker Francis Oladele, founder of Calpenny-Nigeria Films. Between 1973 and 1983, Davis was assigned to USAID’s Washington headquarters, where he directed the Information, Education, and Communication Branch of the Office of Population, which backstopped family planning programs worldwide. This assignment expanded his impact beyond Africa. Approximately 1,500 foreign nationals from 102 countries were trained in U.S.-based summer workshops and MA and PhD degree programs, principally held at the University of Chicago under the direction of Donald Bogue. Davis managed all of these workshops and programs for USAID. He was nominated by President Ronald Reagan to the U.S. Foreign Service rank of Counselor, which was ratified by the Senate in the congressional record of Sept. 26, 1981. He retired from the Foreign Service in 1985. Vice President Richard Nixon and Second Lady Patricia Nixon unexpectedly meet Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King, for the first time during independence ceremonies in Accra, Ghana, on March 6, 1957. Griff Davis took this famous shot. The photo is included in the newly released 2024 official biography, The Mysterious Mrs. Nixon: The Life and Times of Washington’s Most Private First Lady, by Heath Hardage Lee and remains in the archives of the King Center in Atlanta, Georgia. ©GRIFF DAVIS/GRIFFITH J. DAVIS PHOTOGRAPHS AND ARCHIVES
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