Harvard Law School graduate Seeking to Become the First Black Governor of Alabama

Artur Davis is a 42-year-old black congressman from Alabama. He is now serving his fourth term. Davis is a graduate of Harvard University and Harvard Law School.

But now Davis has his sights set on the governor’s mansion which nearly a half-century ago was home to archsegregationist George Corley Wallace.

Davis has a difficult task ahead of him. Blacks make up about 25 percent of the electorate in Alabama. And Barack Obama polled only about 10 percent of the white vote in the state.

Furthermore, the black political establishment in Alabama is backing Davis’ white opponent in the Democratic primary. Joe Reed, chair of the Alabama Democratic Conference, and former Birmingham mayor Richard Arrington do not believe Davis can win enough white votes to prevail in the general election. These same black leaders backed Hillary Clinton in the 2008 presidential primaries believing that Barack Obama would not be able to win the general election. Artur Davis was the Obama campaign chairman in Alabama.

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