Belva Davis

Belvagene Davis ( Melton; October 13, 1932 – September 24, 2025) was an American television and radio journalist. She was the first African-American woman to become a television reporter on the U.S. West Coast. She won eight Emmy Awards and was recognized by the American Women in Radio and Television and National Association of Black Journalists.

After growing up in Oakland, California, Davis began writing freelance articles for magazines in 1957. Within a few years, she began reporting on radio and television. As a reporter, Davis covered many important events of the day, including issues of race, gender, and politics. She became an anchorwoman and hosted her own talk show, before retiring in 2012.

Early life Belvagene Melton was born in Monroe, Louisiana, on October 13, 1932, to John and Florence Melton. She was the oldest of four children. Her mother was 14 years old at Belva's birth, and Belva spent her early years living with various relatives. Davis later said about her youth, "I learned to survive. And, as I moved from place to place, I learned to adapt. When I got older, I just figured I could become whatever it was that I needed to become." She went to work as a typist at the Oakland Naval Supply Depot, earning $2,000 a year. It would not be the last time she encountered racism on the job: In 1967 she covered a march during the Civil Rights Movement in Forsyth County, Georgia, and attempted to interview a white woman who spat in her face. She spent the next three decades working in Bay Area television, first for KPIX (becoming an anchorwoman in 1970), and a few years later moved to what was then the local NBC affiliate, KRON-TV.

Davis hosted "This Week in Northern California" on PBS member station KQED, starting in the 1990s. She retired in November 2012. Davis and Moore lived in the San Francisco neighborhood of Presidio Heights, and later lived in Petaluma, California. Belva Davis, a private person, separated her personal life from her professional life for most of her journalistic life. In 1975, Davis allowed an African-American woman and American Women in Radio and TV member, Kathleen H. Arnold (today anthropologist Kathleen Rand Reed), to produce Belva Davis – This is Your Life. Davis mentored Reed for decades.

Davis served on the boards of Museum of the African Diaspora, the Institute on Aging, and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

Davis died in Oakland, California, from a long illness on September 24, 2025, at the age of 92.

Honors Davis won eight Emmy Awards from the San Francisco / Northern California chapter. She was an honorary member of Alpha Kappa Alpha. She received lifetime achievement awards from the American Women in Radio and Television and National Association of Black Journalists.