The Tribune

MARJORIE Davis was a pioneer in education, demonstrated in her educational achievements from high school to university and in her career as an educator of many decades. Education was a lodestar for her, her siblings and their offspring.

In the late 1940s she attended the University of Toronto (U of T), where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in General Studies. In 1950 she obtained a Teacher’s Certificate from the Ontario College of Education.

Originally known as King’s College, U of T was founded by royal charter in 1782. It was the first institute of higher education in Upper Canada. The public research institution ranks as one of the best global universities and as one of the top public universities in North America.

Its graduates include at least 12 Nobel Laureates, among them literature prize winners William Faulkner and Nadine Gordimer, as well as Lester Pearson who served as Canadian Prime Minister from 1963 to 1968. Three other Canadian prime ministers and three of the country’s governors general attended the University.

Noor Hassanali, President of Trinidad and Tobago from 1987 to 1997 and Dame Eugenia Charles, Prime Minister of Dominica for 15 years, both attended the University of Toronto.

Several other Bahamians, including the late Dr. Eugene Newry and Eugene Dupuch attended university in Canada around the same time as Ms. Davis. Canada was less racially pernicious and segregated than the United States.

It was not until 1964 that the U.S. Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibiting “discrimination on the basis of race, colour, religion, sex or national origin.”

Twenty years earlier in 1944, according to the Canadian Encyclopedia, [the Province of Ontario] “enacted the Racial Discrimination Act, which prohibited the publication or display, of any notice, sign, symbol, emblem or other representation on lands, premises, by newspaper or radio, that indicated racial discrimination.

“Three years later, the city of Toronto passed an anti-discrimination law that prohibited places that required city licences to operate from practising racial and religious discrimination, or their licences would be revoked.

“In 1951, Ontario passed the Fair Employment Practices Act to target discrimination in hiring practices and workplaces by establishing fines as well as a procedure for complaints. At the federal level, the Canada Fair Employment Practices Act became law in 1953.”

Women like Marjorie Davis and others in the region and around the world, including women of colour, inhabited a social world with entrenched inequality, which some of them fought against through political activism. Others upended and resisted notions of inequality by force of intellect and educational and professional achievement.

She returned home to a Bahamas rife with racial and gender discrimination buttressed by a political system rigged to extend rule by a wealthy white male oligarchy.

Bahamian women fought to attain the right to vote which was achieved when legislation was passed in 1961 enabling them to vote and to sit in parliament. In 1962 women voted for the first time in a heavily gerrymandered election.

Though the PLP won the popular vote, with most women voting for the party, the UBP won the majority of seats.

The diabolical lie at the putrid core of racism and misogyny is the supposed superiority of whites and men and the supposed inferiority of blacks and women. Black women have had to fight a double lie.

While far too many Bahamian women and blacks succumbed to the quicksand of inferiority, quite a number of individuals and families never internalized the conceit of superiority others sought to impose.

Generations of black Bahamian women exposed and fought against the double lie through a fierce determination to excel and to contribute to national life in education, politics, business, community service and other fields.

These women had an innate sense of their personal worth and dignity, which they passed on to their sisters, daughters, nieces, cousins and other girls through Girl Guides and other voluntary associations.

Ms. Davis was part of a succession of women educators such as Dame Ivy Dumont and others who understood the power of education, which was a means to uphold and to promote human dignity and equality.

In addition to GHS, Ms. Davis taught English at the Aquinas Institute which was an evening school mainly geared toward young women to enhance their office skills enabling them to get jobs in banks and law and other offices. It was run by the Dominican Sisters who also ran St. Thomas More School.

In 1970, three years shy of independence, Ms. Davis moved from the classroom to the Ministry of Education, becoming a Senior Education Officer with responsibility for guidance and counselling. A professional, she did not succumb to the narrow partisanship and victimization by all too many in the public service at the time.

She was promoted to assistant director, eventually becoming senior assistant director with responsibility for all support services. In 1977, four years after independence, she became the first female Director of Education, a post she retained for 11 years.

In 1988, she accepted a five-year contract to co-ordinate the introduction of the Bahamas General Certificate of Secondary Education (BGCSE) examination.

Her influence in education and determination to ensure greater opportunity for more Bahamians included her service on the St. Augustine’s Board of Governors, the College of the Bahamas Council, the Screening Committee for the Lyford Cay Scholarship Awards, the Syntex Scholarship, the United World Colleges Scheme Committee and the Chamber of Commerce Education Committee.

Service, motivated by religious faith and genuine patriotism, was part of the lifeblood and at the core of the identity of the Davis family. Both Sir Cyrus and his brother Winston “Tappy” Davis received papal knighthoods as did Ms. Davis who became a Dame of the Pontifical Equestrian Order of Saint Sylvester in 2019.

She exemplified the Magis, which means “more” or “greater.” “It is related to ad majorem Dei gloriam, a Latin phrase meaning ‘for the greater glory of God’, the motto of the Society of Jesus. Magis refers to the philosophy of doing more for Christ, and therefore doing more for others.”

She served church and state and was recognized for her service including as a recipient of the Sir Victor Sassoon Heart Foundation Golden Heart Award.

Her compassion, empathy and ethic of care were demonstrated in a lifetime of civic engagement with numerous groups including: the Bahamas Association for the Mentally Retarded, the Bahamas National Trust, the Council for the Handicapped, the Advisory Committee on Tourism, the Women’s Advisory Committee, Zonta, Let’s Read Bahamas and the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas.

Ms. Davis accepted recognition with grace and humility. As Archbishop Patrick Pinder observed in his homily at her funeral mass, there is so much she did for others, which will remain anonymous, which is exactly what she would wish, as did her Aunt Monica, a saintly servant of others.

Marjorie Davis did not seek the limelight or recognition. Hers was a quiet piety, not a showy performance seeking the attention and approval of others. She was born on All Saints Day, November 2, bracketed by All Souls Day, November 1, and the Feast of St. Martin de Pores, November 3, one of the first black saints and a champion of the poorest.

Marjorie Davis is now in the company of the saints. Still, the titles she most preferred were “daughter”, “sister”, “aunty”, “friend”, “public servant”, “volunteer”, “patriot” and, perhaps above all, “Faithful Servant and Steward”.

In this she mirrors the mother of Jesus, whose Magnificat, Marjorie Davis knew by heart and by grace in English and Latin:

“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,for he has looked with favour on his lowly servant. From this day all generations will call me blessed: the Almighty has done great things for me,and holy is His Name. He has mercy on those who fear Him in every generation. He has shown the strength of His arm, He has scattered the proud in their conceit. He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,and has lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty. He has come to the help of His servant Israel for He has remembered His promise of mercy, the promise He made to our fathers,to Abraham and His children forever. Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.”