Milton Carver Davis is an African American lawyer who researched and advocated for the pardon of Clarence Norris, the last surviving Scottsboro Boy

Scottsboro Boys

The Scottsboro Boys were nine black teenage boys accused of rape in Alabama in 1931. The landmark set of legal cases from this incident dealt with racism and the right to a fair trial...

.

Davis graduated from Tuskegee University

Tuskegee University

Tuskegee University is a private, historically black university located in Tuskegee, Alabama, United States. It is a member school of the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund...

 in 1971 and received his law degree in 1974 from the University of Iowa College of Law

University of Iowa College of Law

The University of Iowa College of Law is one of the eleven professional graduate schools at the University of Iowa, located in Iowa City, Iowa. Founded in 1865, it is the oldest law school in continuous operation west of the Mississippi River. The law school was ranked as the 27th best law school...

. He was an American Political Science Foundation Graduate Fellow, a Ford Foundation Graduate Fellow and a Herbert Lehman Foundation International Scholar.

He gained international acclaim when as the Assistant Attorney General

State Attorney General

The state attorney general in each of the 50 U.S. states and territories is the chief legal advisor to the state government and the state's chief law enforcement officer. In some states, the attorney general serves as the head of a state department of justice, with responsibilities similar to those...

 for Alabama

Alabama

Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...

 he partnered with Donald Watkins

Donald Watkins

Donald V. Watkins of Birmingham, Alabama is an African-American lawyer and entrepreneur. He is the father of four adult sons and a teenage daughter. Watkins was married to DeAndra Y. Johnson. The couple divorced in 2004...

 to research and advocate for a full pardon of Clarence Norris, the last known surviving Scottsboro Boy on the basis on innocence. Governor George Wallace

George Wallace

George Corley Wallace, Jr. was the 45th Governor of Alabama, serving four terms: 1963–1967, 1971–1979 and 1983–1987. "The most influential loser" in 20th-century U.S. politics, according to biographers Dan T. Carter and Stephan Lesher, he ran for U.S...

 granted the parole in 1976 as the first time in the state’s history that a pardon had been granted based upon innocence.

Davis was the 29th General President of Alpha Phi Alpha

Alpha Phi Alpha

Alpha Phi Alpha is the first Inter-Collegiate Black Greek Letter fraternity. It was founded on December 4, 1906 at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Its founders are known as the "Seven Jewels". Alpha Phi Alpha developed a model that was used by the many Black Greek Letter Organizations ...

, the first intercollegiate organization

Fraternities and sororities

Fraternities and sororities are fraternal social organizations for undergraduate students. In Latin, the term refers mainly to such organizations at colleges and universities in the United States, although it is also applied to analogous European groups also known as corporations...

 established for blacks

Black people

The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...

. Davis created the fraternity's World Policy Council

World Policy Council

The World Policy Council of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity is a nonprofit and nonpartisan think tank established in 1996 at Howard University to expand the fraternity's involvement in politics and social and current policy to encompass important global and world issues...

 in 1996 as a think tank

Think tank

A think tank is an organization that conducts research and engages in advocacy in areas such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, and technology issues. Most think tanks are non-profit organizations, which some countries such as the United States and Canada provide with tax...

 to expand the organization's involvement in politics and social and current policy to encompass important global and world issues. The World Policy Council has published white papers on the Politics of Nigeria

Politics of Nigeria

Nigeria is a Federal Republic modeled after the United States, with executive power exercised by the president and with influences from the Westminster System model in the composition and management of the upper and lower houses of the bicameral legislature. However, the President of Nigeria is...

, War on Terrorism

War on Terrorism

The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...

, Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...

, Millennium Challenge Account, and Extraordinary Rendition.