NC county’s new agricultural center to honor Black extension agent who broke barriers
 "Bonnie B. Davis")
As school districts and communities across North Carolina remove names rooted in white supremacy from public spaces, Orange County is naming its new agricultural center for a Black woman who broke racial barriers while working to improve the community.
On Tuesday, county commissioners voted unanimously to name a new Environmental and Agricultural Center in honor of Bonnie Bedal Briley Davis. Davis was Orange County’s first Black agricultural extension agent and a community builder who spent her 40-year career and her retirement helping county residents have better lives, friends said. Davis died in 2018 at the age of 92.
A ribbon-cutting at the Bonnie B. Davis Environmental and Agricultural Center, which is being built on U.S. 70 west of Hillsborough, is expected in the spring, commissioners Chair Renee Price said.
Davis’s grandson Rashid Neighbors thanked the commissioners Tuesday for “recognizing my grandmother’s contributions, love and commitment.” The family is working with the Cooperative Extension Service to revive his grandparents’ 1-acre garden and lease it for free to Orange County’s 4-H junior gardening club, he said.
“We are very proud of the legacy of her life work and the impact she made on Hillsborough and Orange County,” Neighbors said.
Friends said Davis carried herself with a calm, stately stature.
“She was really humble in her own way,” said Rev. Sharon Freeland, executive director of Orange Congregations in Mission. “She never wanted the praise or the thank you. She liked to see a job well done. She liked to put people together and make things happen.”
Freeland was one of several people who worked with Davis or were influenced by her who wrote letters to the county in support of the honor.
The county’s policy allows the board to name buildings and other public property for living or deceased people who have given large contributions or made another “significant contribution” to improving Orange County residents’ lives.
Only one other county building is named for a Black person — the Whitted Building in Hillsborough, named for former Commissioner Richard Whitted.
Basketball, raising a family
Davis faced difficulties when she started working for the county, said Fletcher Barber Jr., county extension director from 1988 to 2009.
In 1950, Davis was hired as the first Black agent at the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service in Orange County. The cooperative extension building, like most public places, was segregated, and Davis used an outhouse because only white employees could use the bathroom.
Barber remembered her as a friendly woman who got things done when she saw a need. She pushed for equal access, including for similar kitchen facilities for Black extension clubs and agents in 1956 that were used by white clubs and agents.
When the county offered a renovated storage room instead, she pushed back. In 1963, the county added space for the cooperative extension in Hillsborough that included separate kitchens.
“There was no more deserving person I could think of than Bonnie B. Davis to have a facility named after,” Barber said. “Of course, we are all disappointed that she’s not here to see it, but she really gave 100% of herself to the citizens of Orange County — both the northern and the southern part of the county.”
As one of eight children growing up on a family farm in Robersonville, Davis was “a top student and basketball star” at W.C. Chance High School, her obituary said. She attended Shaw University in Raleigh, where she played center on the basketball team and was inducted into Shaw’s Basketball Hall of Fame.
In 1949, she married Tarleton Davis, a math teacher at Central High School, then Hillsborough’s all-Black K-12 school. He became principal later at the integrated Cameron Park Elementary School.
The couple settled in the rural Mars Hill community in northern Orange County and raised a daughter, Bonita. They became active in public service as founding members of Orange Congregations in Mission. Davis also was a founding member of the Friends of Department of Social Services and the Women of Distinction club.
She was former chair of the Orange County Board of Social Services and a member of several other community groups. She remained a lifelong member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. and the Links Inc.
In 2000, Orange County recognized her with the Pauli Murray Human Relations Award.
Helping families during segregation
Davis’s greatest impact may have been when she was forced to live under the most restrictions.
Armed with a map, Davis would drive her Buick around the county, visiting families and teaching women how to better sew, cook nutritious meals and safely can vegetables for the winter. Her extension office partner, Sherman Shelton, taught men about agricultural improvements.
People who knew Davis then said she nurtured their talents, giving them opportunities to go to new places and to do new things. Davis “set such a great example for young people,” said Freeland, who recalled Davis urging her to get involved and “speak my truth.”
“I think she did that for a whole lot of people,” Freeland said.
District Court Judge Beverly Scarlett wrote a letter of support to the county manager. Scarlett said Davis regularly visited her family and formed the Eno Home Economics Club with her mother to offer cooking and sewing classes. Her mother later formed the Eno 4-H Club, as Davis urged all of the clubs to make the transition.
Davis also helped with their 4-H sewing projects, and she encouraged Scarlett, who was “painfully shy in my youth,” to join a 4-H speaking contest, she said. Davis helped her improve the speech’s delivery, Scarlett said.
“I cannot think of a person more deserving of such an honor as I would not be who I am without Mrs. Davis’ influence,” Scarlett said.
Davis’s reputation and thoroughness preceded her, Barber said. He noted that she won every extension service award by her retirement in 1990, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s highest-level Distinguished Extension Award.
Davis would carry a yellow pad and pencil, writing down ideas and information. She never wore a watch, he said, “because she didn’t want time to inhibit her when she was working with a client,” and she knew how to talk to people.
“She was a strong advocate for bringing people together, and I think because of her calmness, her stature and her way of strategizing, she was really able to bring the races together,” he said.
