President

In speaking with Brother Davis about his passion for religion as a Christian Educator, he often states that “Christian Education is not an option, it is an order; it is not a luxury, it is a life.  It is not something nice to have, it is necessary to have.  It is not a part of the work of the church, it is the work of the church.  It is not extraneous, it is essential.  It is our obligation, not merely an option.”

Davis is an active member of the St. Mark African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, Durham, North Carolina, the church of his birth and nurture, where his love for the denomination has grown beyond words with celebrated joys, accomplishments and challenges as a Connectional, Regional, Conference, District and Local officer of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church universal.  He and the immediate family are descendants of the Founders of the St. Mark African Methodist Episcopal Church in Durham, North Carolina.  His leadership has been chronicled and spans as an elected and/or appointed official in Christian Education Ministry and administrative leadership in many recognized capacities for the denomination.  Davis served as the 5^th International President of the Assembly of Christian Educators of the denomination, a post elected to in which he provided stellar and consistent leadership internationally from 2010 to 2018 for thousands of its members, now President Emeritus of the organization.  Davis was elected as the 2^nd International President (11^th General President) of the Connectional Lay Council of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in 2021 in Atlanta, Georgia.  Additionally, he has served as the Durham District Director of Christian Education Ministry and the District Director of Men’s Ministry, (Sons of Varick) for Durham District AMEZ Churches, appointed by the Right Reverend Kenneth Monroe, then, Presiding Bishop of the Eastern North Carolina Episcopal District of the denomination, “The Freedom Church.”  Davis has also served as Chairman, Vice Chairman and Secretary of the Board of Trustees at St. Mark and serves the Finance Committee of the District and the Annual Conference.  He is also the recipient of the very First Bishop Herman Leroy Anderson Laity Service Award of Central North Carolina, the highest award bestowed upon the laity in the State of North Carolina for the Eastern North Carolina Episcopal District.  In 2023, leading the Connectional Lay Council in donating $25,000 to the Western West Africa Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, the newly constructed X-Ray and Imaging Wing of the Janie Angeline Griffin Speaks Hospital in Ghana, Africa bears his name, the Joseph King Davis, Jr, X-Ray and Imaging Building dedicated and officially opening in 2023.  Also in 2023, he was nominated and subsequently appointed to the Board of Directors of the World Methodist Council, as part of the delegation representing the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. His awards, citations, and recognitions within the AMEZ Church and ecumenical circles are extremely numerous and noteworthy.

Professionally, he has over 47 years of educational experience as a teacher, coach, Interim Principal, Assistant Principal, Athletic Director, Central Office Administrator/Staff Director in the Durham Public School’s Physical Education, Health and Driver’s Training Education Department.  A 1977 Magna Cum Laude graduate of North Carolina Central University, also attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the area of Administration and Supervision of Educational Programs. Davis retired from full time service from Hillside High School as Chairman of the Science Department, now employed at the James E. Shepard International Baccalaureate Magnet Middle School.  His name is entered in Who’s Who Among American High School Teachers and the Hall of Fame of the National Alumni Association of Hillside High School, the highest award presented to a Non-Alumnus of the school.  The Joseph King Davis Biological Science Award and Joseph King Davis, Jr. Science Scholarship are named in his honor.  Davis was also inducted as a member of the Livingstone College Leader’s Hall of Fame, Salisbury, North Carolina, sponsored by the UNCF.

Brother Davis has rendered faithful, conscientious and valuable services to several civic and community affairs and organizations in the Durham and surrounding communities.  He is former Chairman of the Advisory Board of Directors of the Salvation Army Boys and Girls Club of America, and former Dean of Students for several Summer Enrichment Residential Academic Programs at North Carolina Central University, Durham, North Carolina, his Alma Mater.

Davis has an extensive history of fraternity involvement and leadership.  He was initiated into the North Carolina Central University Chapter, the Alpha Kappa of Kappa Alpha Psi in 1976.  He is a Life Member of the Fraternity and has served the Durham (NC) Alumni Chapter as Keeper of Records, Historian, Undergraduate Chapter Advisor and Member of the Alumni Chapter’s Board of Directors.  He is founding Secretary of the Kappas of Durham Foundation, Incorporated, and now serves as a Foundation Board Member of the Chapter.  He is a founding member of the newly formed Alpha Kappa Foundation Board of Directors (his Undergraduate Chapter) of NCCU and has served as Secretary and Vice Chairman.  Davis served as is the Middle Eastern Province Chaplain for over 25 years and has served as Alumni Province Board Member, Province Keeper of Records and Exchequer (State Secretary/Treasurer).  Additionally, he was named Durham (NC) Chapter Kappa Man of the Year twice and twice as Middle Eastern Province (the State) Kappa Man of the Year.  Nationally, he has chaired the National Protocol and Etiquette Committee and the National Charles Rodger Wilson Leadership Training Cluster, along with several other National Commission and Committee appointments through the years. He was honored by the Middle Eastern Province Achievement Commission to receive the Lifetime Fraternity Achievement Award in 2021-2022.  The fraternity’s Annual State Undergraduate Leadership Conference is named in his honor (The Joseph King Davis, Jr. Undergraduate Leadership Summit).  Davis was State President (19^th Middle Eastern Province Polemarch) of the Fraternity from 1993 – 1999, serving the entire State of North Carolina and Southern, West Virginia with distinction.  To his credit, he is the recipient of numerous fraternal awards, honors, recognitions, and citations from many organizations representing public service, civic, community, fraternal and religious venues, and duly acknowledged for his rich and substantial contributions and generosity.  Brother Davis has over 44 years of uninterrupted service to his Fraternity as an elected or appointed officer.  Most recently, he received the 2^nd Highest Award given internationally to a member of the Fraternity, the 113^th Elder Watson Diggs Award in July 2021 in Phoenix, Arizona at the fraternity’s National Grand Chapter Conclave.  Davis lives honestly by John 9:4 which so eloquently reveals… “I must work the works of Him who sent while it is day.  The night cometh, when no man can work.”