He was involved in supervising education programs for African Americans and promoted well maintained manual labor colleges for them.
[1] He helped develop the Jeanes Foundation's Supervising Teacher Program, leadership of the General Education Board in New York City, (later part of the Rockefeller Foundation), and participation in the planning which led to the formation of the United Negro College Fund which helps support students attending historically black colleges and universities in the United States.
[3] The Jackson Davis Collection of over 5,000 photographs and numerous manuscripts and documents housed at the University of Virginia is one of the more comprehensive archives available for research on the topic of minority education during the Jim Crow era in the southern United States.
In 1908, he became professionally involved with another Virginian, Virginia Estelle Randolph, who was also to become well known in African-American education as they led Henrico County's role in beginning the work of the Jeanes Foundation.
If she could, she wanted to help "the little country schools", and set aside $1 million from her family inheritance to establish a fund called the Jeanes Foundation.
With the freedom to design her own agenda, she shaped industrial work and community self-help programs to meet specific needs of schools.
[6] Their work together with the Jeanes Foundation development project helped both Davis and Randolph to commit the rest of their lives to rural and African American education.
Serving from 1910 to 1915, during this time, he traveled extensively around Virginia, visiting communities, meeting teachers and pupils, and inspecting facilities.
His surviving collection of photographs provided vivid graphical impact to accompany his reports from this period of the racially-segregated schools in Virginia.
[12] For 30 years, Davis specialized in education and interracial problems in both the Southern United States, and in Africa, notably Belgian Congo and Liberia.
[12] Dr. Davis was also a trustee of the Phelps-Stokes Fund, an organization devoted to African-American education and race relations both in America and in Africa.
"[13] Early supporters of the UNCF included President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and John D. Rockefeller Jr.[14] He was also a frequent contributor to educational journals.
[12] In 1915, Davis was appointed as the field agent for the General Education Board, an NGO set up by John D. Rockefeller.