McKinley “Deacon” Davis
History
McKinley Davis was born in Freeport, IL on August 3, 1932. He graduated from Freeport Senior High School where he played on the 1951 State Championship basketball team. That same year, he was recognized as a member of the all-state basketball team. Following a harrowing high school basketball career, he went on to University of Iowa where he was named the 2nd team All-American and 1st year in the Big Ten Conference. He graduated in 1955 earning a bachelor’s in political science and went on to sign with the Harlem Globetrotters.
As a Harlem Globetrotter, he traveled around the country and studied the conditions of high schools in his downtime. During that time is when he saw firsthand the racial segregation and extreme poverty that Martin Luther King, Jr. and other black leaders were fighting to change. It was at this time that he decided to leave the Globetrotters and do something more than just entertain people. He wanted to help them.
Determined to join the battle against the social and economic inequities plaguing black communities, Davis began work in 1958 as director of Washington Park Community Center in Rockford. He spent roughly 8 years at the park district in a number of roles. After leaving the park district, Mr. Davis went on to be the executive director of the Booker Washington Community Center where he successfully led that organization for 10 years. He helped thousands of people, mostly children, in the Rockford area neighborhoods achieve greater prosperity.
In 1968, he took a position with Northern Illinois University to direct special projects as the university was facing racial challenges. While at NIU, Mr. Davis accomplished his greatest contribution as he developed and led the CHANCE Program which is still running to this day. The CHANCE Program is designed to help minorities and underrepresented individuals get into college and successfully graduate. The program focuses on counseling and providing help and assistance to individuals that may typically be written off or didn’t do well on their ACT’s to be successful and complete their degree. To date, the program has assisted over 15,000 minority young adults in achieving their academic goals.
McKinley Davis died on March 20, 2003 and is survived by his wife Lily Davis, and children Carmen, Connie, and Randy.
Impact on Youth
When Washington Park Community Center opened in 1958, Davis and a gentleman by the name of Norman Flachs were the first two leaders at the center and served 3,000 people, 900 of them children in the local area. The community center was a safe place in the neighborhood for families and children to recreate and socialize. It had a gym, meeting rooms and staff that were attentive to help children with schoolwork.
Additionally, the center provided a charm school for teenage girls, movies, athletics, dances for teens, along with family events and adult classes. In the first week, attendance reached over 1,000. The center had such a positive impact under Mr. Davis’ leadership that the Rockford Register Star reported in September of 1959 that youth delinquencies were down by more than half.
Awards and Recognition
2000 Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Iowa
1981 Inductee to the Illinois Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame
Words of Wisdom
When asked why crime in the area of Washington Park Community Center had gone down, Davis once said, “Kids and teens have a feeling of being a part of something, they feel this is their place.”