Uncrowned Community Builders

Educational pioneer and trailblazer, Nancy Randolph Davis, took a brave and courageous step when she paved the way for future generations of African Americans and other students of color to enter Oklahoma's Higher Education System. Against a national, historical backdrop of legalized segregation, Davis became the first African American enrollee at Oklahoma State University (OSU) in 1949. While being admitted to OSU, Davis was confronted by unequal treatment when she was not permitted by Oklahoma Law to sit in the same classroom with White students. Her seat was placed in the hallway or, at times, she was permitted to sit in the back of the classroom. After making the second highest score on a test, her White classmates complained to the professor about the Oklahoma law that required her to sit separately from them. The professor, then, allowed Davis to sit in the back of the classroom on the condition that she would return to the hallway should a higher ranking University official come in the classroom.

When asked how she developed patience to embark upon this path at a time in America when African Americans were being lynched, beaten, and denied basic human rights, Davis said the she received encouragement from the United States Supreme Court's groundbreaking decision in the Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher case which allowed her to enter the University of Oklahoma School of Law. Prior to the Sipuel case, African Americans in Oklahoma who wanted to attend white colleges and universities had to leave the state. Of her history making venture, Davis recounts," I was not trying to make history. I merely wanted an education. After receiving my bachelor's degree at Langston University, I wanted to attend OSU for my master's degree, since OSU had one of the best Home Economics programs in the state. I didn't feel that I should have to leave the state to accomplish that. I knew that God was on my side, and that with hard work and perseverance, I would prevail.

A great granddaughter of slaves, Nancy Randolph Davis is a native of Sapulpa, Oklahoma. Her parents, the late Ed Napoleon and Ernestine Randolph instilled in her and her five siblings, at an early age, the necessity for Blacks to empower themselves by obtaining an education. Davis graduated from Sapulpa's Booker T. Washington High School in 1944. She received her B.S. degree in Home Economics from Langston University in 1948. She was employed at Dunjee High School for 20 years. During that time she matriculated in the summers to OSU which she earned her Master's degree in 1952. She then became a Home Economics teachers and Child Care Instructor at Star Spencer High School for 23 years before retiring.

In 1999, Oklahoma State University honored Davis by bestowing upon her one of its coveted "Distinguished Alumnus" awards. In 2001, OSU name one of three of its newly built apartment facilities, "DAVIS HALL" in honor or Nancy Randolph Davis. OSU offers three scholarships bearing her name. The Nancy Randolph Davis Scholarship of an entering OSU student, The Nancy Randolph Davis Scholarship for a continuing OSU student and The Nancy Randolph Davis Scholarship for a Graduate student. Governor David Walters appointed her first Lay Member to the Oklahoma Board of Nursing in 1991.

In 1999, the Oklahoma Legislature honored her for Educational Contributions to the State of Oklahoma. She is an advisor to the Oklahoma City N.A.A.C.P. Youth Council, Life Member of Langston University Alumni Association, Life Member of Oklahoma State University Alumni Association, Life Member of Oklahoma State University Black Alumni Association, Golden Soror and Life Member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, Member of the Urban League, YWCA, National Education Association, Oklahoma Vocational Teachers Association, Oklahoma Retired Teachers Association, Oklahoma Historical Society, Amigos Club, and Plant and Garden Club of Spencer, Oklahoma. She is and Advisory Member of Dunjee Alumni Association and Advisor to Star Spencer High School PTSA. Davis has been a member of True Vine Ministries in Spencer for over 50 years. She is the wife of the late Fred C. Davis and the mother of Calvin O. Davis, Esquire, Esquire, Legal Counsel for the Small Business Administration (SBA) in Lubbock, TX, Nancy L. Davis, J. D., who is an English Instructor at Douglass High School and Adjunct Professor at Langston University Urban Center, Oklahoma City and stepdaughter, Freddye M. Davis, retired teacher in Kansas City, Kansas.