The Pastor Sammie Lee Davis, Sr., Dash (1927 – 2018)

My Day
By Dr. J. Ester Davis

Placing a brief note on social media about the death of Rev. Sammie I received several comments in forms of replies, emails and phone calls.  One friend wrote, “thanks for the brief history.  I am from Alabama and did not know him”. Mrs. Mertis Evans, community royalty, wrote “I remember him well”.  On the phone with Rev. CJR Phillips, Pastor, St. Phillips Baptist Church, he said directly “Sammie did it all, he was always busy.  It was an honor to have him preach at my church every year.  That was a tradition we started as young preachers-to-pastors years ago”.

The Rev. Dr. Ronald E. Jones, current Pastor of historic New Hope Baptist Church, Dallas, said “the Sammie Davis Pastorate and Ministry produced many , but three outstanding current leaders in the ministry and political arena.  Rev. Danny Davis, Pastor of Jordan Grove Baptist Church, Houston, Texas; Rev. Mark Davis, Pastor of St. Luke Baptist Church, Houston; and the noted Rev. Dr. Ronald E. Jones, first African American City Manager, Garland, Texas and Garland’s three(3)term first African American elected Mayor.

I last saw the dynamic seasoned pastor at the famous Luby’s Bill Blair Roundtable several months ago.

Sitting and calculating his approximate age, I asked ‘you are about 90 years old now, aren’t you’?  He replied yes.  He looked very well, of course, in a white monogrammed shirt.

Sidebar:  A monogram shirt is an etiquette code that makes social interactions run more smoothly.

While I was in the prestigious profitable law offices of Finch, Lockridge, Cunningham, back in the late ’60’s,  Pastor Sammie knew everybody in the community.  These offices were on Oakland Avenue, nee Malcolm X Blvd, surrounded by about 3,000 other African American businesses in South Dallas.

The mild mannered Pastor Sammie always had an obvious bold, straight forward agenda that made him famous to some, talked about by many and misunderstood by others.

Pastor Sammie organized and pastored the Fellowship Baptist Church for over 51 years.  He did amazing things and had unapologetic “big thoughts” for his neighborhood.  Through his church he organized the “War on Drug Program’ which was a Negro licensed hospital recognized by the State of Texas for those who had a drug problem.  He helped many people redirect their lives from drugs and crime to Christ.

Pastor Sammie was a consonant confident educator/lecturer.  The product of Dallas Public Schools, graduating from Lincoln High School, Pastor Sammie amassed quite an educational resume around the world.  From Bishop College in Marshall, Texas, to the University of Los Angeles onward to SMU’s Perkins School of Theology.  His whole life embraced education, entrepreneurship, vision and progress.

Pastor Sammie graced the halls of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Isreal, the University of Rome, Italy, Aswan University, Egypt.  And on April, 2013, he received his Doctor of Divinity Degree from St. Thomas Christian College and Seminary in Jacksonville, Florida.  In 2013 also, Pastor Sammie retired from active pastoring, and continued to preach the gospel in and around his beloved Dallas, Texas.

Thanks for the memories, Pastor Sammie.  Thanks for the many social interactions and sermons that will assist forever in our daily lives.