New NBA president: a crusade for equality in law schools and firms; Houston attorney is 3rd woman to head Black bar group - National Bar Association, Algenita Scott Davis

Ebony, April, 1991

NEW NBA PRESIDENT

FOR most of Houston-bred Algenita Scott Davis' early life she wanted to be a mathematician, however, a friend at Howard University convinced her to go into law. Today, the former math whiz is the third woman to head the National Bar Association, the Black lawyers' bar group. But she still has a keen eye for numbers, particularly where equity is concerned.

"There are an estimated 20,000 to 22,000 African-American lawyers in the U.S.," Davis says. "If we were just given a fair shot we would be in more corporations, yet our largest firms do not have fair numbers. The largest firms have one or two of us out of some 400-plus attorneys."

As head of the lawyers group that presently represents a little more than half of all Blacks practicing law in the United States, Davis definitely wants to see racial imbalances corrected in law firms. However, she is just as concerned that more Blacks be given the opportunity to become lawyers. "Black lawyers represent less than 3 percent of all attorneys," she says. "We need more inner-city law schools, and as a bar association we need to make sure we are doing everything we can to provide and keep avenues open."

Davis' philosophy for the NBA is a reflection of her own personal motto. At 40, this wife, mother of two and vice-president of the Texas Commerce Bancshares, lives by the credo: "Do all that you can do."

Her colleagues refer to her as "tireless," and her optimistically long list of goals for her 12-month term as president confirms it. When she was elected head of the NBA, she placed the need for increasing membership and greater visibility for the NBA at the top of her list of priorities. At 13,000, membership is up by 1,000 lawyers, but Davis' target is 3,000 more.

Service seems to b esynonymous with work for Davis. She was an active member of the NBA board 12 years before her presidency, and was recently elected chair of the Houston Downtown Management Corporation.

"The most important aspect of my background was my role in the church," says Davis in regard to the importance leadership and service have played in her life. "My mother was the pianist and my brother the organist. The people who were active always encouraged us and allowed us to lead, to speak, to participate."

In her crusade to improve conditions, Davis relies heavily on a strong belief in God's power and her family. She admits that the little time she once had for herself now belongs to the NBA. However, she makes it a point to find time for her children, even if it means taking them and the rest of her family to an NBA Convention, which for Davis, is the closest thing to a vacation.

"They are wonderful," she says of John IV, 4, and Marthea, 11. Her husband, John Whitaker Davis, a real estate attorney, is as busy as she, so Davis has entrusted her mother, a former teacher, and her grandmother with part of the responsibility of rearing her children. "I could not be active without them--without them I would be in serious trouble."

With her self-confidence and sense of support rooted in what she refers to as a "totally Black environment" of segregated Houston, Davis came North to Washington, D.C., and Howard University in the mid '60s for her college education. The determined scholar earned a bachelor's degree in business and then went on to law school. Her advanced education supported by a minority scholarship program, Davis graduated from law school in 1974.

Having been a student whose opportunities were broadened because of minority scholarship, Davis was doubly incensed by the government's recent attack on race-based college scholarships. The NBA sent a letter to President George Bush, declaring the move both morally and legally wrong. "The clarification is also legally wrong," says Davis, her dander obviously rising. "It is ridiculous. There is no reason at this time when there are fewer Blacks headed to college for the administration to attack minorities, specifically African-Americans."

With her fiery passion for justice, it is difficult to imagin Davis in a profession other than law. As a corporate lawyer with the largest bankholding company in Texas, she is quick to admit it wasn't an interest in banking that lured her to her present position. "I grew up in the inner-city, never lived outside of the Loop," she says. It is only natural that I would be interested in what will make the inner-city a better place."