1910 a young African American man came to Plano, Texas. Lee Andrew (L.A.) Davis left his home in South Texas to find work as a sharecropper. Over the years Mr. Davis would become a prominent leader in the Douglass Community, Plano’s historically African American neighborhood.
At this time in history, African Americans dealt with strict Jim Crow laws, rare economic opportunity and harsh discrimination. Under Jim Crow laws, black citizens were expected to eat at separate restaurants from white citizens, drink from separate water fountains, use separate restrooms and attend separate schools. Racial discrimination also made it very difficult to acquire property.
Armed with an innate sense of enterprise, Mr. Davis became quite the business man. Over time he accumulated wealth through stocks and real estate.
Because of Mr. Davis’ financial clout, he was able to purchase a large section of property in Plano’s Douglass Community. He then sold plots of his property to local African Americans. In 1945 Mr. Davis also bought a plot of vacant land and established a burial site, the L.A. Davis Cemetery, reserved for African Americans from the Douglass Community