France Davis: An American Story Told - Tapa dura

"A story worth telling."--Salt Lake City Weekly "Davis provides, without a doubt, significant information and details about who he is, not merely as a public figure but, perhaps more important, as a private man who is pastor, teacher, son, husband, father, and grandfather. Significantly, in the process he reminds us of where he came from. A candid portrait of an individual who is most complex, committed and spiritual. A compelling, moving, painful, and in the end, celebratory life. The book's strength is that it is well-written."--Utah Historical Quarterly

As I was coming up, it was painful to me not to have been given my own nickname. It made me feel different, or rather that I was being treated differently from other family members. I wondered why everybody else was spoken to in terms of their identity, their character, their behavior, and I was simply identified by the 'tag, ' my given name. But then, when I read in a book that France meant free, I began to think of it as imbuing me with a sense of flight, of movement. Ultimately, I came to believe my name spoke for itself and that I did not need any other.'--from the book Imbued with rich detail of family life in a rural community, as well as a system of values at a time of transition in American history, this is the life story of France Davis, the dynamic pastor of the Calvary Baptist Church in Salt Lake City. It is an engaging story of courage and vision that describes coming of age in the segregation-era South, of dreaming, enduring with honor, and living at the forefront of major issues within the United States. Recorded and skillfully written by Nayra Atiya, France Davis: An American Story Told, is an oral history, ethnography, memoir, perhaps even a life-enhancing sermon delivered with the strong voice of a preacher. The gathered strands of a life lived with conviction and grace will appeal to a broad spectrum of readers from the curious to those seeking inspiration. Winner of the Utah Book Award in Nonfiction.