Judge Reuben Davis: Cleared a broad path for others to follow.

Judge Reuben Davis once observed that when he first started practicing law in Monroe County, in 1955, there was only one other black lawyer and there wasn't a single black court reporter in the entire region.  

This greatly concerned Judge Davis and, at the time, he openly shared his belief that... "all ethnic groups should be represented at all levels of government."

That wasn't just Judge Reuben Davis' articulating the expectation he had for others, he was stating his own vocation.  

Consequently, shortly after arriving in Rochester, NY,  Reuben Davis, the attorney, worked tirelessly to remove unjust hurdles and to ensure that the path to government service was broad enough to accept the best and brightest that American diversity had to offer. 

For example, long before becoming a distinguished and well respected jurist, Reuben Davis served as the President of the Rochester, NY Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and he also Chaired the Monroe County Human Rights/Relations Commission.

His goal, as he served in these positions, was to ensure that "...everybody was given a chance to develop his own potential without the irrelevant distractions of race, color, creed or sex."

By the time Judge Davis retired from his position in the Appellate Division Fourth Department in 1996,  things had changed dramatically in terms of diversity.  This mosaic portrait provides evidence of just how significantly more diverse the courthouse has become since 1955.

If you stand at a distance, this portrait, created from a photograph taken in the 1990s, clearly shows a distinguished Reuben Davis standing in front of his law library.  

But as you walk closer and closer to the portrait, what comes into view are the images of hundreds and hundreds of black public servants, often times photographed standing side by side with their colleagues from other races and ethnicities, who all benefited by the path that Judge Davis cleared during his forty plus years of service to our community.