Praise for Never in My Wildest Dreams

“I was not asked to write a blurb for Up from Slavery, War and Peace, or The Fire Next Time, but gladly I can say Never in My Wildest Dreams is a very important book. No people can say they understand the times in which they have lived unless they have read this book.”

—Dr. Maya Angelou

“Never in My Wildest Dreams is the fascinating account of a pioneering black woman and her tumultuous but triumphal march through a turbulent era. Overcoming one obstacle after another, Belva Davis covered some of the most explosive stories of our era—and became one of most trusted news professionals in the business. Her story is a unique version of the American Dream, and her book is an honest, insightful, and utterly riveting memoir of a shared and personal journey.”

—Senator Dianne Feinstein

“Never in My Wildest Dreams shows what it really takes to succeed as a black woman in the journalistic world in America. A must read.”

—Willie L. Brown, Jr., Chairman and CEO, Willie L. Brown Institute

“Belva Davis has lived this country’s history as only a brave black woman could and has witnessed it as a journalist with a world-class head and heart. I don’t think it’s possible for anyone to read her words in Never in My Wildest Dreams without becoming a better and braver person.”

—Gloria Steinem

“After a friendship of over 30 years, it’s astonishing to find from this revealing, heartbreaking, and inspirational book that I knew so little about the profound and historic forces that shaped Belva’s life.”

—Phil Bronstein, Editor-at-Large, Hearst Newspapers

“The remarkable odyssey of Belva Davis is a compelling testament to tenacity and truth. As a pioneering black journalist, she was determined to tell the stories that mainstream news outlets had ignored for too long—and she devoted her career to ensuring that the voices of all Americans became part of our national conversation. This fiercely honest memoir reveals that her struggle was never easy, but helping change the world never is.”

—Andrew Young, Former Ambassador to the United Nations, Chairman of GoodWorks International, LLC

“Risk-averse people do not make good journalists. Belva Davis entered the profession during the 1960s when virtually every good story required risk-taking. Belva has lived on the edge of history over the last fifty years in some of its most dangerous places. And she got the stories, including her own. Never in My Wildest Dreams is the chronicle of her march through the second half of the twentieth century as a great black woman journalist.”

—Howard Dodson, Director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

“Good writing is a combination of two things: good thoughts and good prose. Belva Davis tops that. She gives us tough journalism clothed in the tender lyricism of a true poet who journeys to the depth of the human heart.”

—Abigail Rosen McGrath, Founder of Renaissance House

“An engrossing account of triumph over adversity. Never in My Wildest Dreams is a valuable contribution to the pre- and post-WWII history of blacks in the Bay Area and a fascinating exploration of the determination that carried Belva Davis far beyond her impoverished childhood and local reporting work to the ranks of the nation’s most respected journalists.”

—Jewelle Taylor Gibbs, Professor Emerita, University of California at Berkeley