Photo courtesy of Belva Davis.

Earlier today, much of San Francisco’s political and journalistic elite gathered at Grace Cathedral to celebrate the life of Belva Davis, the legendary TV journalist, who died in September. She was 92.

Davis burst onto the scene in the Bay Area in 1966, when she became the first African American woman to become a television reporter on the West Coast.

Davis grew up poor in West Oakland and later Berkeley. She began her career as a freelance writer with African American publications before transitioning to radio and eventually television.

An Emmy Award-winning journalist, Davis reported on the Civil Rights movement, the Black Panthers, Jonestown as well as the AIDS and Crack epidemics.

During her career, she interviewed major figures, ranging from the Rev

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