CAMP W.B. DAVIS
1932-1944
Camp Davis was a segregated Scout camp operated from 1932 to 1944. It was named after W.B. Davis, D.D.S., a district chairman. The camp was located on South Chickamauga Creek off Highway 58. In 1939 it was described as being "nine miles out on the New Silverdale highway." The camp was described as being on "Hawkins Farm" and "on Silverdale Road." One article refers to the camp as "Camp Hawkins," perhaps a reference to Hawkins Farm, and says the camp is "east of Missionary Ridge."
In James R. Mapp, "Chance or Circumstance?: A Memoir and Journey through the Struggle for Civil Rights" (2016) (ISBN 9781491780329), Mapp recalls riding the east Chattanooga streetcar to the end of the line to go to Hawkins Farm on Highway 58. "We hoped that the white boys were not around, because they would make us run to protect ourselves." He recalls, "When we arrived at the farm, we would swim in the nearby creek and camp out."
In 1935, a "national training course for leaders of Region 5" was conducted at Camp Davis under the direction of Stanley Harris, national chairman of interracial affairs.
Camp W.B. Davis should not be confused with the Camp Davis that the Nashville Council operated for black Scouts. In 1943, the Nashville Council purchased fifty-five acres off Couchville Pike at the confluence of Bryant’s Creek with Stone’s River as a summer camp for black scouts which opened in 1944 as Camp Davis, named after Dr. E.A. Davis. Charles M. Cooper, a native of Chattanooga and graduate of Tuskegee Institute, was field executive in Nashville. He directed the 1944 summer session at Camp Davis. Wilbur F. Creighton & Leland R. Johnson, Boys Will Be Men: Middle Tennessee Scouting Since 1910 at 109 (1983).
Location
Sources
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1932-06-26 - Camp Moved to Hawkins Farm
1932-07-10 - Negro Scout News
1933-06-11 - Negro Scout News
1933-07-16 - West Elm grove camp and Camp Davis
1933-07-23 - Camp Davis and Camp O'Neal
1933-07-30 - Camp Davis and Camp O'Neal
1933-08-06 - Camp Davis and Camp O'Neal
1933-08-20 - Camp Davis and Camp O'Neal
1934-07-01 - Negro Scout News
1934-07-22 - Negro Scout News
1934-09-02 - Negro Scout News
1935-06-02 - National Training Course of Leader at Camp Davis
1935-08-18 - Camp Davis Certificates
1936-06-28 - Negro Scout News
1937-08-01 - Cub Camp at Camp Davis
1938-07-29 - Negro Boy Scouts Enjoy Camp Davis
1939-07-02 - Help Boy Scouts Off to Camp
1939-07-16 - Scouts Go To Camp
1939-07-23 - Colored Scouts Enjoy Camp
1940-07-14 - W.B. Davis Seeks Camp Fund
1940-08-09 - Negro Boy Scout Camp Honors its Benefactor
1940-08-11 - 88 Negro Scouts Attending Camps
1940-06-14 - Camp Area Given to Negro Scouts
1941-07-18 - Negro Boy Scouts Plan 2-Week Camp
1941-08-12 - Negro Scout Camp Hawkins
1944-06-29 - Camp Site Leased for Negro Scouts
1982 History of Scouting in the Cherokee Area Council.
1945 Article Mentioning Camp Davis (Nashville)