Archival Resources

Davidson, Arlie Barber
Papers, 1925-1970

Arlie Barber Davidson was born in Cleveland, Alabama, in 1898. He graduated from Marion County High School in 1917, from Birmingham-Southern College in 1921, and received a B.D. degree from Emory University in 1927. From 1929 until 1938 he served as minister at the Pilgrim Congregational Church in New Haven Connecticut. While there, he attended Yale Divinity School and Yale University Graduate School for a period of five years. In 1938 Davidson was appointed a professor of sociology at Huntingdon College in Montgomery where he remained until his retirement in 1976. While teaching at Huntingdon, Davidson took classes and earned an LL.B. degree from Jones Law School in 1958. From 1942 until 1976, he was the author of "Living Today," a syndicated newspaper column appearing in the Montgomery Advertiser, the Decatur Daily, and the Tupelo Daily. During this time he also served as a counselor for prisoners and the impoverished. Following his retirement in 1976, Davidson and his wife (Mary LaVerne Lovelady Davidson) left Montgomery and moved to Birmingham, where Davidson served on the Board of Missions of the Trinity United Methodist Church. He was also a member of the North Alabama Methodist Conference. Davidson died in Birmingham in 1984.

Source:

American Men and Women of Science. 12^th edition. Social and Behavioral Sciences. New York: R.R. Bowker Company, 1973.

This collection includes diaries (1926, 1929, 1948-81), sermons (most written during the Depression), devotionals, law notebooks, religious poems and prayers, and journals and notes from the North Alabama Conferences of the Methodist Church (1925-1979). There are also papers concerning Methodist missions and issues facing the Methodist church. Davidson's career as a sociologist is represented in instructors' manuals, lecture notes, pamphlets, book reviews written by Davidson, and articles he collected. Many of these articles concern race relations in the South, especially in the wake of the Brown decision.

File level guide available in the Archives Department.

Clergy -- Alabama.
Davidson, Arlie Barber (1898-1984).
Methodist Church -- Alabama.
Methodism.
Southern States -- Race relations.

Collection Number: 1264

Size: 9 1/3 linear feet (10 boxes)

Restrictions: Standard preservation and copyright restrictions.