2022 Black Heritage Calendar - Presented by the Black Educators' Caucus Inc., of Hernando County

Sarah Davis
08/04/1929 - 05/13/2010
Sarah Fletcher Davis was a respected retired public-school educator and community-minded
matriarch of quiet strength and a firm resolve. She was a native of Brooksville, Florida, and
a member of Moton High School’s 5th graduating class, the class of 1946. She came of
age during the Great Depression, WWII, the Great Migration, and the advent of the
modern civil rights movement. After high school, Sarah followed her sister, Eddie,
to Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University in Tallahassee where she earned a
Bachelor of Science degree in elementary education science. In 1954, she
accepted a calling to return to her high school alma mater as an elementary
school teacher where she taught many first-generation high school students
whose parents moved to Brooksville from Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina
as sharecroppers, cotton pickers and field workers in pursuit of a better quality
of life. She managed the students’ different learning styles by separating them
into groups to provide each student with the necessary attention needed for their
academic growth and development. This was before Title I and other learning
assistance programs were made available to schools. Her students speak highly
of her as a teacher and the positive influence she had on their lives.
Even though she completed her 30-year career in education as a librarian at
Eastside Elementary School, she spent most of her career teaching during the era of
segregation when she was paid less than her White peers with similar experience
and credentials simply because of her race. She retired in 1984. Teaching was her
profession, and building and maintaining a healthy community was her vocation.
As a retiree, she began another career working with the Hernando County Sheriff's Office
manning the South Brooksville Substation and coordinating a community watch initiative. She was
admired, respected, and received praise and awards in appreciation for her 15 years of service with the department. She
was actively involved with the NAACP, a founding member of the Black Educators’ Caucus, Inc., of Hernando County, the
South Brooksville Revitalization Task Force, and Bethlehem Progressive Baptist Church. She was a member of Moton High
School Reunion 50th Anniversary Celebration 1939-1989’s Steering, Alumni, and Finance Committees. Sarah represented
the best of what it means to be a woman, human and African American.
Sarah was a 2003 recipient of Pasco-Hernando State College’s Center of Excellence Drum Major for Justice Award. She will
always be remembered as Mrs. Davis. Her family sponsored a plaque that is mounted on the office wall at Mid-Florida
Community Services Head Start, formerly Moton High School on School Street and the county also renamed a street, Sarah
F. Davis Street in remembrance of her.
She was married to Mack Davis, Jr., for 58 years, and she loved her family. She was the eighth of ten children born to Rosa
Senda and Captain Phelix Fletcher. She was a lifelong resident of Brooksville. Mrs. Davis is survived by her son, Dr. Mack
Davis, III, Ph.D.; daughter, Angela Collins.
Sponsors: Dr. Mack Davis, III, Ph.D. and Angela Collins
"You don't make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make
progress by implementing ideas.” – Shirley Chisholm