Yana Davis

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Samuel Dale "Yana" Davis (born 1950; died July 2020 in Birmingham) was a public radio executive, political candidate, newspaper editor, and history teacher.

In late 1960s, Davis was an organizer for the Southern Student Organizing Committee. As a student at UAB he was one of the first editors of the Kaleidoscope newspaper. In 1970 he co-founded the Southside Rag alternative weekly.

From 1979 to 1985 Davis was promotions director and assistant director of development for WBHM-FM. He chaired the Alabama Libertarian Party in the 1980s, and campaigned as that party's candidate for U.S. Senate in the 1984 general election. He and the party were plaintiffs in an unsuccessful federal lawsuit challenging Alabama's ballot access laws. He garnered just over 10,000 votes in the race, which was won by Democratic Party incumbent Howell Heflin.

That same year, he produced a a weekly economic commentary from Auburn University's Ludwig Von Mises Institute at WBHM, which was distributed on the American Public Radio Network.

Then, from 1986 to 1988 he served as managing editor of the newly-launched Birmingham Business Journal. After that he became an account executive for J. Cunniff & Associates, and then executive director of the Foundation for Women's Health

In 1991 Davis left Birmingham to work as corporate support manager at WSIU-FM in Carbondale, Illinois. In 1996 he was hired as development director for WUOT-FM in Knoxville, Tennessee, and in 1998 and 2001 moved into similar roles with KRCU-FM in Cape Girardeau, Missouri and WYSO-FM in Yellow Springs, Ohio. From 2005 to 2008 he was director of sponsor communications for the Washington D.C.-based libertarian think tank, The Cato Institute.

He completed his master's in English and history in 2012, researching the spread of Lotus School Buddhism from India to the United States. He taught classes in U.S. history and western civilization as an instructor and adjunct instructor at UAB and Jefferson State Community College. He consulted with numerous organizations, and volunteered his skills as a grant researcher and fund raiser for Ruffner Mountain Nature Preserve in the late 2010s.

Beginning in 1974, Davis was a long-term practitioner of Buddhism in the Nichiren Shōshū tradition, and was an active member of the Soka Gakkai International lay organization (which was banned by the Nichiren Shōshū temple in 1991).

Davis resided at the Sheraton Apartments on Highland Avenue. He died from cancer in 2020, and is memorialized with a bust of Buddha outside of Rojo restaurant.

References

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