THURSDAY LUNCHEON GROUP

In celebration of Black History Month, the Thursday Luncheon Group would like to recognize the
trailblazing efforts of Senior U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Foreign Service Officer
(FSO) Griff Davis. Full feature available on the AFSA website (https://afsa.org/through-his-lens-legacy-
pioneering-us-foreign-service-officer-griff-davis) with excerpts below.

Prior to becoming a senior USAID FSO, Griff Davis freelanced for Black Star editing Liberia’s first
promotional film, Pepperbird Land (1952) and building a professional friendship with President of Liberia William V.S. Tubman. John W. Davis (not related), first director of the Point Four program of the U.S. diplomatic mission there, encouraged Davis to join the foreign service. It was the fourth point of
the Point Four program that established the forerunner of USAID.

After passing the Foreign Service exam in the summer of 1952, Griff Davis and his newlywed wife, Muriel Corrin Davis, returned to Liberia that November. As the first information officer and audio/visual adviser of the U.S. embassy in Monrovia, he became one of the pioneers of President Truman’s program for foreign aid. Under the initial leadership of the first African American ambassador, Edward R. Dudley, the program was established worldwide during the Jim Crow era, in part due to their efforts. In this capacity, Davis ultimately became a trailblazer for Black Americans in the U.S. Foreign Service.

Before ending his tour of duty as a Foreign Service officer in Liberia, Davis was assigned by U.S.
Information Service headquarters in Washington, D.C., to be the official photographer for the U.S.
delegation led by Vice President Richard Nixon to Ghana’s Independence Day celebrations on March 6,
1957. He was one of only 20 photographers granted official credentials to cover this historic event.
From 1952 to 1985, Griff Davis worked in many capacities for USAID including as an adviser to African
governments such as Liberia, Tunisia, and Nigeria, and to the Bureaus for Africa and Population and
Humanitarian Assistance. He also repeatedly traveled to more than 25 of Africa’s then 51 countries, and to several European countries, during his career.

In 2012, U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield permanently installed photographs taken by Davis in the new U.S. embassy she christened that year. In attendance, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf reflected: “Most Liberians have fond memories of Muriel and Griffith, who did so much to promote the historical memories of Africa’s first independent nation through Griffith’s remarkable photography.”