“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”— Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Houston-Harris County Retired Teachers Association was founded by William Leonard Davis in 1951. During this time, segregation was still the law of the land in Texas.
Davis had spent his entire life dedicated to public service, and in the twilight of his life, he saw a need for black retired educators to have an organization that would advocate for their improved benefits. Thus, along with six other teachers (Azores O. Dotson, W.L. D. Johnson Sr., Mattie Ellen Martin, Melissa A. Price, Pearl W. Sanders, and W.J. Smith, Sr.), Houston-Harris Co. RTA was formed. According to the Texas Retired Teachers Association’s history, “They desired to continue to share their expertise in promoting community, civic, and religious activities within a unified structure.”
Davis was born in Lavaca County, Texas on Jan. 6, 1873. Throughout his youth, he attended public school before entering Paul Quinn College in Waco, Texas. He finished his education and professional training at Prairie View Normal and Industrial Institute, in Prairie View, Texas.
From there, Davis became a teacher in rural schools and was promoted to principal at Hempstead City School. Davis continued his rise to prominence in 1914 when he was elected President of the Teachers State Association of Texas.
Davis ran unsuccessfully for the Senate in 1920. In 1921, he, along with Charles N. Love, filed an injunction to test the validity of a white primary. This case made its way to the Supreme Court but was ruled against Davis.
Davis also filed a lawsuit against The Houston Informer in 1927 when an editor sought to harm his reputation. Davis was serving as Principal for Gregory School, an elementary school in Houston, and the editor for The Houston Informer said the school’s conditions were “deplorable.” Additionally, the editor claimed that Davis had tried to coerce the Gregory School teachers into signing a letter that they “were perfectly satisfied” with the conditions. Davis emerged victorious in his libel case against the newspaper’s editor.
Davis has an entry in “The National Cyclopedia of the Colored Race,” which reads as thus:
“RACE advances only as far as its individuals. The colored people have been held down by the masses, because of their ignorance and their indifference to all the detail that make for a higher civilization. Very rapidly now this condition of affairs is being changed. This is being done through the schools, the churches and the fraternal organizations as well as through the influence of the better homes. One man who has done his share of this work in all of these lines is William Leonard Davis, of Houston, Texas.”
Davis had the foresight to help found the Houston-Harris Co. RTA because he, as well as the six teachers that joined him, saw the need to create a black teachers organization. Houston-Harris Co. RTA was recognized as one of the six “founding units” by the Texas Retired Teachers Association in 1997.
Today, Houston-Harris Co. RTA has more than 300 members. Faye Moseley has been a member of the chapter for more than 20 years. She believes the story behind Houston-Harris’ founding is important because, “During segregation, we were denied so many things. And I was just proud of Mr. Davis for getting a group of teachers together to organize a professional organization for our people.”
Moseley said that the chapter represents “a group of people who are still interested in the welfare of the children,” and that she is “really proud” of the outreach and community her chapter has produced. She’s excited for the future of the chapter because of “the new teachers that are coming in and doing a great job.”
Though Davis passed many years ago, it’s easy to see that Houston-Harris Co. RTA’s present mission is right in line with his original goal which was to “help make life pleasant for friends.”
Learn more about Houston-Harris Co. RTA here!
