Թ State Professor Emerita of English, Laura Davis, Ph.D., was recently named a “,” through the Women’s History Project of The Summit County Historical Society. Established in the early 1980s, this award was established to recognize women in the community for the exceptional contributions they make.
Alison Caplan, director of Թ State’s May 4 Visitors Center nominated Davis for the honor. She said that the Summit County Historical Society recognizes that the events of May 4, 1970, in Թ were more than a Summit County story. “It obviously is something that has impacted every aspect of our region and the globe,” Caplan said.
Caplan said that after working as the director of the May 4 Visitors Center for two-and-a-half years, “you really understand the kind of perseverance that digging into the story of May 4 – and getting things done – requires, especially on a university campus and in academia. It takes a special kind of person.”
“A special kind of person,” and perseverance. Caplan said that in choosing a Woman of the Year honoree, the historical society considers different attributes like initiative, pioneering, inspiration, imagination, faith, creativity and perseverance. “It’s the perseverance required to build something like this,” she said. “It’s part of the May 4 story, the national historic site, the outdoor tour, the steps taken over 40 years to keep the story alive. That kind of perseverance.”
“Laura experienced May 4 firsthand but also has her career roots here and was the person who was able to accomplish this along with Carole,” she said. Carole Barbato, Ph.D., was an educator and researcher in Communication Studies at Թ State at East Liverpool. She and Davis were the co-founders of the May 4 Visitors Center in 2012. Barbato passed away in 2014.
Fall 1969: A ‘Very Shy’ Freshman Arrives at Թ State
Arriving on Թ campus for Fall Semester 1969 was a defining moment for Davis. She was 17 years old and describes herself as “very shy” and “very quiet.” But Davis saw her transition from high school to college as “the beginning of finding a way toward doing something important, because that’s what I was really looking for.” She said, “I wanted to be here because I wanted to be with people who were concerned with things that mattered. That’s what I thought.”
Davis said that even though she was shy and quiet “I did have the kind of alertness and was searching for something, searching for meaning and trying to learn more about the Vietnam War.” While growing up in Youngstown, she said that before coming to Թ State she had closely followed news about the war, and the civil rights movement, reading anything she could find in the newspapers that came to her home and LIFE Magazine. “I wanted to learn the things that I needed to know about that so I could understand it, know what I was talking about, and be clear on ‘why’ if somebody asked me why I was opposed to the war,” Davis said. “I wanted to be able to explain that.”
Remembering Her First Protest
When she speaks with people about getting involved and becoming active in their community, she encourages people to “take that first step.” Davis’s “first step” came just five days after she arrived on campus when she heard about a planned march that was going to gather on the Commons behind what was then the Student Union (now Ritchie Hall).
“I walked down to the Commons by myself,” she said. “There was already a long line forming already. They were gathering there and then they were going to head downtown.”
“I went to the end of the line, and it just so happened that it was where the veterans – the veterans who had just come back from Vietnam – were already organizing,” Davis said.
At the time, the veterans on campus had a small office in the Student Union, near the university bookstore. “You would see these guys, they wore the green army jackets, and they were the people who would become the Vietnam Veterans Against the War. They weren’t called that yet, but they were the makings of that group,” she said.
Other anti-war organizations at Թ State had been dissolved when the university banned the Students for Democratic Society (SDS), one of the strongest student activist groups on campus. Davis said that the veterans at Թ State became the foundation of a new kind of organization. “I went to the end of the line, I could tell that the people were those veterans that I had seen before, and one of the guys gave me a bandana with a stamp on it,” she said. “I stepped into the line behind them and that was the first protest I participated in. It was only five days after I got to school.”
From Spring 1970 to the Opening of the May 4 Visitors Center
Davis was an eyewitness to the events leading up to the tragedy of May 4, 1970, at Թ State. Like everyone on campus that day, the experience stayed with her and fueled her drive to find a way to preserve that history for future generations.
After she completed her undergraduate studies at Թ State, she continued her studies to earn her master’s degree and then her doctorate. She joined Թ State’s faculty, teaching May 4, 1970, and Its Aftermath with Barbato. Davis also collaborated on numerous publications about May 4, including “,” and “”
Davis was working in the Office of The Provost at Թ State when she began working on creating the May 4 Visitors Center. In her position in that office, she felt she was in the right place to undertake the task. “There were so many things that were in my purview,” Davis said. “I knew everybody who had to be contacted and also what it would take.”
Finding the Right Space
One of the first steps to creating the May 4 Visitors Center was finding a space to house it. Davis said that process took about two years in moving people and offices in a way that would be agreeable to everyone. There were two options for the location of the center; one at the front of Taylor Hall and the other in the location that it is now.
“Everybody was super happy,” she said. “Everyone working toward a May 4 Visitors Center was really happy. And I really felt honored and amazed that I was going to be in the place where the student journalists had been and that made it seem so appropriate.”
When Davis visited Washington, D.C. and toured the Holocaust Museum, what she saw there reinforced the choice of the visitor center’s home. “At the end of the Holocaust Museum the end you walk out in into large, quiet space, feeling very charged in the moment,” Davis said. “And because of that it’s a place for reflection.”
“That silence allows you to reflect on what you’ve learned, what you’ve witnessed,” she said. “And I realized from that feeling - the spaces – that was something that was really important.”
“And I realized that if we had this location in Taylor Hall, then somebody could go out the door and go to the memorial right there and that would be our open space, for reflection,” Davis said.
The visitor center project gained momentum around the 40th year commemoration of May 4 in 2010. Davis said that she and Barbato were waiting and working through all starts and stops along the way. While working on her doctoral degree, Davis said she learned that you have to work on these kinds of large projects for a long, long time and that’s where perseverance becomes important.
The Need for Perseverance
Davis sees the echoes of May 4 in the recent protests and deaths in Minnesota. She talked about this when she addressed the Portage County Historical Society after receiving their Woman of the Year Award. She talked about events from America’s history as a nation, that were the prelude to May 4, like the Boston Massacre of 1770 and other historical connections. She also talked about the importance of communities.
“What we have to do is not just protest, but we need to support the community that we’re in and other communities, because if we want to make positive change in our world with our protest, then we’re going to have to do it together,” Davis said.
She said that she felt “energized” to see large numbers of people involved in the “No Kings” protests and said that people seeking to promote positive change don’t need to travel to Washington, D.C. for every protest but can work in their communities at a grassroots level. “I know that perseverance is going to have to be part of the process,” said Davis.
‘We Need to See the Pattern That We Have in Our History.’
“It’s incumbent upon us, and this comes from the national historic landmark wisdom – we need to see the pattern we have in our history,” said Davis. “We have to support our community, and we have to be alert. We have to look for that pattern.” The pattern, she said, are the injustices that keep happening, looking back through history, all the way back to the Boston Massacre. She said, “If you don’t understand history, it will repeat,” Davis said. “We must remember and we must carry on."
Davis said getting involved all begins with that first step, like that first step when she joined the end of the line before that protest march in September 1969.
“I would encourage anybody to take that step. If you have been thinking about something or if it just happened right then and you want to do something positive in your world, whatever it is - do it - because there are a lot of things that need to be worked on,” she said.
“Just take that first step; figure out how to take that first step and then take that first step.”
Storyteller’s note: I’ve known Laura Davis for more than 15 years and I am as much in awe of her spirit, perseverance, and accomplishments as I am happy to call her a friend. Thank you, Laura.