Ellington

Leslie Gross Davis, Esq. Sounds pretty dynamic, doesn't it? Everything about Leslie Gross, who added the Davis on April 24 when she married Christopher, is dynamic—from her smile to her handshake, to her speaking voice, to her intelligence that radiates as she speaks to her commitment to make the world a better place.

Advocacy director for the Mississippi Center for Justice, Davis, 31, says, "This is really my dream job." Getting there wasn't the product of a dream, more like a vision.

Coming from a family with three generations of educators, some on both her mother's and father's sides, meant that early on Davis understood one important thing about her future: Learning was expected. It wasn't a question of what you would do with your life. It was more like where will you go—medical school, law school or graduate school? But, more importantly, it was: Now that you've got that degree, what are you going to give back to the community?

Her senior thesis at Howard University was about the anti-lynching campaign of black journalist Ida B. Wells. Her study of Wells and a New York Times article she had read in high school about Elaine Jones becoming the first woman to lead the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund made Davis aware of the possibilities she had. "I saw myself as an architect for social change, as one who could get information to the people, and it's those people who are the greatest catalyst for social change," she told me in her office on North Congress Street, in writer Richard Ford's old house, situated between Eudora Welty's grade school and the Mississippi State Capitol.

Davis graduated from law school in 1998. On her first job, it soon dawned on her that the work she was doing was "so removed from the people I was supposed to serve … in my first case, the lawsuit was older than I was—it was 30, I was 27."

Davis has been in Jackson since last August. "Liberty and justice aren't just abstracts here," she said. "I feel honored to work with Mississippians on these issues because these are the hardest-working, bravest, most resilient people I've encountered." Those who are here have decided to stay and work, she says, rather than taking the easy way out and running. As for herself and why she's here, Davis said, "I hope I'm part of the next generation coming back to continue the work that was so hard fought by our parents and grandparents."

In order to be a good attorney, Davis says one has to be able to do several things: read and comprehend large volumes of information, research thoroughly—check, check and double check—and think analytically, all of which leads to writing well. "I learned how to write from reading good writing," Davis stated matter-of-factly. She grew up reading the three newspapers her family subscribed to, and for fun, she read the encyclopedia.

While in law school, what she called a taxing exercise, Davis noticed that the older students were the best students—those who understood that every hour they spent in law school was an hour they weren't earning a salary, so they'd better do their best— a mother of three who used to be an electrical engineer, an emergency room doctor—people with life experience.

"I wish that more people would consider the law," Davis said, pointing out that you don't have to be a civil rights attorney to do good with your degree … all lawyers have the capacity to volunteer to make the world a better place."