[2] Davis was born in 1898 in Newport, Rhode Island and began studied at Harvard University prior to the outbreak of World War I.
Instead of fighting, he left Harvard and volunteered with the recently formed American Friends Service Committee.
In 1934, he graduated from Columbia University with a Ph.D. Leaving Columbia for Brazil, Davis moved to São Paulo from 1933 to 1934 and taught at the Fundação Escola de Sociologia e Política, which later became part of the University of São Paulo before returning to the United States.
Six years later in 1953, the anti-communist United States Senate Subcommittee on Internal Security subpoenaed Davis to testify because of suspected membership in Communist Party USA.
Like his father, he also refused to testify when he was called before House Un-American Activities Committee and spent six months in prison.