Ethel May Caution-Davis (April 18, 1887[1] – December 18, 1981) was an American poet, social worker, and educator associated with the Harlem Renaissance.

Her grandmother, Julia C. Collins, was a teacher and the author of a published novel, The Curse of Caste, or, The Slave Bride (1865).

[3] Both of her parents died when she was a small child; she moved to Massachusetts to be raised by a relatives there, but after another death, Caution and her siblings were surrendered to an orphanage.

[8] She later spent a summer studying in Paris, and earned a master's degree at Columbia University in 1928.

[15][16] She was a caseworker for the New York City Department of Welfare, and director of "Club Caroline", a housing program for Black girls, later in the 1920s.