Article takne from ELLE.
Davis spoke toPeoplesThe Jess Cagle Interviewshowin 2016 about how she grew up unaware of the plantations grim history.
I wasnt on it long, because I was the fifth child, and so we moved soon after I was born, she started. I mean, I went back to visit briefly but still not aware of the history. I think I read one slave narrative of someone who was on that plantation, which was horrific. 160 acres of land, and my grandfather was a sharecropper. Most of my uncles and cousins, theyre farmers. Thats the choice that they had. My grandmothers house was a one room shack. I have a picture of it on my phone because I think its a beautiful picture.
Despite the poor living conditions, Davis said she and her family still found joy living there. [There was] no running water. No bathroom. Its just an outhouse, she said. But my mom says that the day I was born, all of my aunts and uncles were in the house, she said, everyone was drinking and laughing, and having fun. She said she ate a sardine, mustard, onion, tomato sandwich after I was born.
I love that story, Davis said. Its a great story to me. Its a great story of celebration in the midst of what you would feel is a decimated environment, but you could see the joy and the life that can come out of that, because its not always about things, you know.