Colleagues, friends and family of the late Anita Davis gathered Saturday, Feb. 5 in front of the Jake Gaither Golf Course. They were there to dedicate a tree in her honor.
Leon County had never had a black commissioner before Henry Lewis was elected to represent the new District One in 1986. He credited Anita Davis who was then the local NAACP president and had sued to change the commission's structure.
"By her taking on the county commission and changing the at-large system to single-member districts, it allowed people like me to represent the people who had not been represented prior to then," he said.
But Davis was also a happy warrior who preferred persuasion rather than confrontation. Her niece, Kim Williams, said that approach is needed today more than ever.
"And we should be happy and glad and proud of our community. And I think if we did that, more people would get out and work with each other. We don't need to be afraid of each other; we need to be working with each other."
Anita Davis, who also went on to her own term on the Leon County Commission, died last year at the age of 84. Her memorial tree stands a few blocks from her long-time home on Bragg Drive.
