Belva Davis to Speak about Her Amazing Life and Times

One of Berkeley High School's most famous graduates, the iconic Belva Davis broke barriers as the first black TV journalist in the West.

On July 10, she will speak about her five decades covering some of the most explosive and transformative events of her times in a program of the Commonwealth Club in Lafayette.

In her book "Never in My Wildest Dreams: A Black Woman’s Life in Journalism," (Berrett-Koehler, 2011), born to a teen mother during the Great Depression, Davis fought racism and hostility as she forged a career as a TV journalist. including the Berkeley student protests, the rise of feminism, the birth of the Black Panthers, the Moscone/Milk murders, the onset of the AIDS epidemic and the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

She has anchored at CBS, NBC, and PBS, and hosts "This Week in Northern California," a public affairs roundtable on KQED-TV featuring Bay Area journalists. She has won eight local Emmys and numerous lifetime achievement awards.

Belva Davis speaks in a Commonwealth Club event at the Lafayette Library and Learning Center, 3491 Mt. Diablo Blvd. in Lafayette. Check-in is at 5:45 p.m., program begins at 6:30 p.m. Admission is $12 for members, $22 for nonmembers, and $7 for students (ID required).

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