1st African-American female television reporter on the U.S. West Coast passes

Belva Davis, born Belvagene Melton on October 13, 1932, in Monroe, Louisiana, was the eldest of four or five children to John Melton, a carpenter and sawmill worker, and Florence Howard Melton, a laundress and railroad employee who was only in her early teens at the time of Davis’s birth. Her family faced significant hardships, including poverty and racial threats; after her uncle was threatened with tarring and feathering, the family relocated west when Davis was eight years old, settling in a crowded two-bedroom apartment in West Oakland, California, where 11 relatives lived together. By the late 1940s, they moved to a house in Berkeley. Davis graduated from Berkeley High School in 1951, becoming the first in her family to earn a high school diploma. Accepted to San Francisco State University, she was unable to attend due to financial constraints and instead worked as a typist at the Oakland Naval Supply Center.
Davis’s journalism career began in 1957 with freelance writing for Jet magazine, a publication focused on African-American issues, where she earned $5 per story as a stringer without a byline. She soon contributed to other Black-owned newspapers, including the Sun-Reporter and Bay Area Independent, covering social news. In 1961, she transitioned to broadcasting as an on-air interviewer at San Francisco’s KSAN radio station, becoming the first Black woman there; she read newspaper clippings and hosted segments. She later moved to KDIA, where she hosted a two-hour radio show featuring music, interviews, and political coverage. Her television debut came in 1963 at Oakland’s KTVU, but her breakthrough occurred in 1966 when she joined KPIX-TV (CBS affiliate in San Francisco) as a reporter, making her the first African-American woman to work as a TV journalist on the U.S. West Coast.Career
Over nearly five decades in Bay Area broadcasting, Davis worked at KPIX, KRON-TV, and KQED (PBS affiliate). She co-created and hosted All Together Now, one of the nation’s first prime-time public affairs programs focused on ethnic communities, starting in the 1970s at KPIX. As a reporter and anchor, she fearlessly covered pivotal events, including the Free Speech Movement protests at UC Berkeley, the 1978 assassinations of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, the AIDS and crack epidemics, civil rights demonstrations, and political issues related to race and gender—often facing hostility from authorities, such as the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department. She hosted her own talk show and remained a prominent figure until retiring in 2012. Davis won eight Emmy Awards for her work and received honors from the American Women in Radio and Television and the National Association of Black Journalists. In 2010, she published her memoir, Never in My Wildest Dreams: A Black Woman’s Life in Journalism, with an introduction by Bill Cosby, reflecting on her trailblazing role and the barriers she broke for women of color in media.
Davis married Frank Davis, an Air Force officer and government worker, on January 1, 1952; they had two children, Steven and Darolyn, and a granddaughter, but divorced around 1959. In 1963, she married Bill Moore, a photographer she met at KPIX in 1967, and they resided in San Francisco. Her daughter Darolyn has reflected on Davis’s influence, noting how she instilled fearlessness in her family while navigating racism and sexism. Davis was known for her poised on-air presence, often preparing meticulously—teasing her hair into a bouffant and applying subtle makeup—before transforming into the authoritative “Belva Davis.”
Davis’s career opened doors for journalists like Soledad O’Brien and Robin Roberts, providing visibility for Black women in media during an era of limited opportunities. She emphasized survival and resilience from her youth, once stating, “I learned to survive.” Davis passed away on September 24, 2025, at age 92, leaving a profound legacy in Bay Area journalism. Tributes have highlighted her as a “legend” who broke color barriers in radio and TV.