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Troubles for Davis did not end there. Several integration opponents convinced leading local blacks that integration would mean no black teachers could teach and that the black children would not get modem schools.
Before, the law had been ‘separate but equal’,” said Mrs. Davis. “Now, anyone with two eyes could look at the black schools and see that they weren’t equal. When integration became a threat, the county pushed for equal facilities and promised the black children a new, modern centralized school. So the black community opposed George’s efforts, too.”
Time went by and the crisis eased a bit. Rappahannock did integrate with no violence except the troubling experiences of the first few black chidren.
“In fact, the county was integrated before it was publicly known,” Mrs. Davis said. “George had begged the Rappahannock News not to make anything of it, so there was no public outcry at first.” Mrs. Davis credits the dedicated career teachers with making integration work as well as it did here.
With that battle fought and won, a new issue prevented the commonwealth attorney from returning to normal routine. A subdivision with no possible plan for water or sewage on Chester Gap prompted Davis to take on the issue of zoning. “This was a really unpopular stand at the time,” Mrs. Davis said. “But George’s interest came because he was sure the county would be sued because of the health hazards there.” Davis pursued the matters of zoning and subdivision ordinances for two difficult years before the county’s present regulations were hammered out. At the beginning, it seemed that no one else cared, but eventually other influential citizens joined Davis in his concern. Mrs. Davis said he had a few lucky breaks - one was the construction of the power line which showed the need for some regulation. “And one time, George was trying to convince the judge of a ridiculous subdivision proposal and the road was so bad that the judge got stuck on his site visit.”
Mrs. Davis remembered another humorous anecdote:, “George used to go to the scene of the crime with Pete Estes when he was sheriff. Between the two of them they made sure the prosecution had the very best and most proper evidence. Well, they both visited the scene of a murder in Huntly - a case that has never been solved. Well, the grounds were searched with a fine-tooth comb after George and Pete left and the dogs came up with only two clues: George’s cigar tip and Pete’s sunglasses!”
The commonwealth’s attorney’s pet peeve was using the courts for personal vendettas, Mrs. Davis remembers. “George was anxious that the courts not be used for revenge,” she said. “If some said the words, ‘I just want to put them to the trouble,’ that was enough to make him refuse a case. And when he handled divorces, he’d counsel both the parties and charge them twice as much if they did get a divorce. He had his own way of doing things.”
George Davis died in 1982, shortly after assisting in the successful defense of the largest civil case the county has ever tried. The land use control ordinances he struggled to develop have been tested but never broken in a court of law.
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