Davis wrote "A Mason-Dixon Memory", one of the chapters in the book Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul, about the racism that he experienced while growing up.

He was raised in Mastic, New York, and he is a graduate of Pine Forge Academy, a Black boarding school operated by the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

The following year, he served as standby for Al Freeman, Jr. in the short-lived Broadway play Look to the Lillies, followed by a featured role in The Engagement Baby.

[4] He created the role of Valentine in Galt MacDermot and John Guare's musical Two Gentlemen of Verona, based on the eponymous Shakespeare comedy.

[12] He has amassed several Off-Broadway credits as well, including How to Steal an Election (1968), Horseman, Pass By (1969), Lorraine Hansberry's To Be Young, Gifted, and Black (1969), Do It Again!

[13] He starred as barber Clifton Curtis in the mid-1970s television show That's My Mama with Theresa Merritt, Theodore Wilson, and Ted Lange.

Later he made a guest appearance on the third episode of the first season of The Bobby Vinton Show in September 1975, singing "I've Got the Music in Me" and "Never Can Say Goodbye".

From 1986 to 1991, Davis co-starred with Sherman Hemsley and Anna Maria Horsford as the Reverend Doctor Ruben Gregory in the sitcom Amen, which ran for five seasons.

Davis also hosts an annual celebrity golf tournament in Elizabeth City State University, where he served as its vice chancellor for Institutional Advancement.

Since the end of 2005, Davis has held the position of executive director for Welcome America, a non-profit organization located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which hosts the largest Fourth of July celebration in the nation each year.