NEW CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD HOPES TO BRING HIS LEGACY OF ACCOMPLISHMENT, ADEPTNESS AND AGILITY TO NEW ROLE
By Rori Francis Blakeney
Flash Forward ttorney Willie J. Davis ’56, the newly elected chairman of the Morehouse Board of Trustees, is affectionately known as “Flash.” He came by the name honestly enough as a track star; but the striking, affable former athlete just might be a real-life version of the comic character Flash Gordon—an all-American athlete who becomes a hero by displaying extraordinary courage. Whether he was excelling in the classroom, shattering records on the track, serving his nation in the military or amassing a no-loss record in the courtroom, Davis’s list of accomplishments pushes him over the line of mere success to undisputed heroism. While serving a two-year stint in the United States Army, Davis, a Morehouse two-letter sports star who had initially wanted to be an FBI agent, heard the call to be an advocate. A fellow draftee asked Davis to represent him before a panel of three officers in a special court martial. That experience was the beginning of Davis’ illustrious career in the courtroom, which has culminated in the building of a successful law firm, Davis,
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Robinson & White L.L.P., in Boston. “I found [the courtroom] to be interesting and fun,” Davis said. “Being in the courtroom is like being in sandlot football, I love the action in the courtroom. I decided that I was better in the courtroom than arresting people.” Just as Flash Gordon used his athletic prowess and courage to defeat the vicious tyrant Ming the Merciless in the comic series, Davis uses his tools, which include a political science degree from Morehouse and a law degree from Boston’s New England School of Law, to fight society’s evils. As an assistant attorney general for Massachusetts, he prosecuted criminal cases and handled post-conviction cases. A Boston barrister known for winning, Davis was successful in all but one case: Commonwealth v. Donald Painten, in which the defendant argued that he was a victim of illegal search and seizure. The case led to his first appearance before the United States Supreme Court, where he was second chair to Eliot Richardson, then-attorney general for the state of Massachusetts. (The Supreme Court ruled against the