John Aubrey Davis Sr. (May 10, 1912 – December 17, 2002) was an African-American political science professor and activist of the Civil Rights Movement.
He served as the head academic researcher on the historic Brown v. Board of Education (1954) case, in which the United States Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation of public schools, including universities, was unconstitutional.
He later was selected for a position as a full professor in political science at Lincoln University (Pennsylvania), a historically black college.
[6][5] In 1953, Marshall appointed Davis to head the academic research task force for the historic Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka case.
Working with a team of more than 200 scholars, who included Horace Mann Bond (father of Julian Bond, a future NAACP president), historian C. Vann Woodward, William Robert Ming Jr., Alfred Kelly, and historian John Hope Franklin, Davis compiled the factual evidence that was presented in Marshall's arguments against the "separate but equal" doctrine, proving that the Fourteenth Amendment prohibited racial discrimination.
[8] As president of AMSAC, he served as vice chair of the United States Committee for the First World Festival of Negro Art (1966).