Check Out Our Podcast: The Verdict
What if your most painful moments were shaping someone else’s future, even generations down the line? In part six of our conversation with Dr. Lowell Davis, the Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs at the University of Texas at Arlington, we reflect on family, faith, and the invisible hands that guide our lives.
Daivs shares powerful stories of loss, resilience, and what it meant to watch his mother overcome segregation-era limitations to pave a path that would lead her son into university leadership. He strongly believes people are placed in our lives because of an aunt who was the heart of the family, to students and strangers who shaped his life’s calling, With honesty, vulnerability, and deep hope, he reminds us that helping others — especially when we don’t have to — may be the most sacred thing we ever do.
Here’s what we discuss in this episode:
🕊️ How a mother’s sacrifice changed the future for her family
📚 The power of generational breakthrough through education
💔 Processing the sudden loss of a beloved aunt
🌟 Why faith means seeing beyond what we can explain
🙌 Giving back with no strings attached — just heart
Resources for this episode:
About our guest: https://resources.uta.edu/student-affairs/vice-president.php
Faith, religion, god, Lowell davis, disabilities, catastrophic injuries, services, north Carolina, family, support system
Learn more about how Speaks Law Firm can help you: https://www.speakslaw.com/
Schedule your FREE case review: https://www.speakslaw.com/our-team/r-clarke-speaks/#contactFormTarget
Find us on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3R40YMP
00:00
I'm Clark, speaks the catastrophic injury lawyer. Welcome to the verdict. This is catastrophic comeback. So I have this aunt, and she was the person who was the fun person in the family. We always had special holidays at her house. We had Christmas at her house. We had
00:23
Thanksgiving at her house. We would she would make everything so fun. You'd walk in and there'd be music playing And unbelievably, unbelievable decorations, and she was just she was the glue that kept our family together. And that's what we did for vacations, right? We didn't go to Europe or whatever. We went to to see my aunt, to visit my aunt or my grandmother, and she was always so instrumental in bringing everyone together, and she was such a big, big, big part of our family. And then, like, 10 years ago, she she dies of breast cancer, very quickly, very suddenly. There's just nothing anybody could do. And I'm just like, this is just wrong. You know, this is not the way this is supposed to and I'm an optimist. I'm always like, hey, things are going to get better. And I just couldn't get my I'm like, it wasn't my mother, but I was really close to her. And I'm thinking, God, where are you in that, in this? But when you describe your vision of how all this works together, and how really to look at it as like, Okay, this life was cut short. That seems like it's short sighted in your view that that actually you're the human experience, and for Christians, is actually much longer and and it can be just a more fulfilling experience, if you look at it like that, I think about just go back on.
01:39
And I always talk about my mother, so one of nine kids in a one lane town, born in the 1940s dealing with World War Two, growing up in a segregated society, could only go to historically black university. Could not apply. Well, possibly could apply, but no would know that she would be denied admission at a predominantly white institution
02:05
to then raise two kids and one who becomes a vice president at a predominantly white institution. And maybe one of those institutions could have been one that would not allow her to attend.
02:21
To me, there's nothing but faith.
02:24
As a kid, she always talked about, we're from Texas. She wanted to go to Texas Tech, but she knew in 1962 Texas Tech would not allow black kids to enroll. But to know that she has a son that could one day be a vice president, or maybe at this point, a president of a school that would have denied her admission solely because of her race. I just can't explain that like I my dissertation, I looked at African American women who went to grad school on state aid acts, and these are women who wanted to seek graduate education, usually in their home state, but the state said, rather than to integrate these schools, we will pay for you to go to school that will offer you admission. So these are people who ended up getting degrees from Columbia and Yale, Indiana institutions that would allow black people admission.
03:14
And so you one of my subjects was a state delegate floor credit, and who ended up becoming a state delegate to pass legislation against a state that would not allow her to enroll in graduate education. That, to me, just doesn't happen like
03:33
I am ambitious, and I went to school and I got the degree, and I've done everything I need to do. I've tried to do the professional development, I've tried to treat people right, but for things to just align the way that they've aligned. I just don't think that that simply happens.
03:49
And I could be wrong, and you can call me foolish, or whatever you want to. I just believe that there is someone, somewhere, working, supporting, helping the stars to align. So you mentioned throughout your talk today about
04:09
your passion for helping others, whether they're students, whether they're your friends and family that you've described, whether they're students that you don't even know yet that might come behind you at an institution that you are currently leaving. So
04:27
how does your faith play a part in reaching out and helping others that you know and in some cases, that you don't even know? So you know, you grow up in church and you your parents make you go, even when you don't want to go, and I don't, honestly, I didn't even understand, like I just went and you say, Okay, I guess I should get baptized. Just I didn't understand. And then probably when I got to college, it kind of flipped a little bit, because as a teenager, I didn't think my parents knew anything. They know what the hell they were talking about. Like I knew everything. I.
05:00
And then when I got to college, I started to realize, like, wait, I think they do know what they're talking about. And I think
05:08
this church thing is actually real, like, there's something to it. There was a kid I went to John 23rd Catholic school in Dallas as a small kid. I don't even think the school's still around. And my mother was a teacher at Harry stone Middle School, and there was a kid that would walk from the area of John 23rd to Harry stone, and she would take him to school, because that was probably thinking about it, four miles like it was far,
05:38
and he was murdered in the early 1980s
05:44
I'm really aging myself now, but I was a kid.
05:49
Maybe I'm not even sure I was. I mean, five or six was young,
05:56
and my mother not only went to the funeral, she, as we say, a phrasing kind of our community, she pressed some money in his mother's hand and wrote our home phone number, because cell phones were not the thing then, and said, Whatever you need. Let me know.
06:14
School teacher who, at that time, maybe making, what, $20,000 a year, you know, like, this is like, I don't know what the salaries were then, but it most definitely was not a lot of money, but took what she had to give to someone else. And you don't realize that stuff when you're five or six, but as you get older, you reflect on those things. Of I went to school and there were students who had to stand in the line for financial aid. I didn't
06:40
have to do that.
06:43
My mother worked three jobs, so I wouldn't have to stand in
06:48
line like you. You just, what? Where else does that happen? You know? So it's my things just kind of aligned, and my my
07:01
I saw her pour so much into other people, I've decided to do the same thing. I'm a licensed foster parent. The State of North Carolina. Just always had a desire to want to give back. And I would say that I give back unapologetically, regardless of your race, your gender, your sexual orientation. I don't care. I just want to help someone. I just I if I can make a difference in your life, and whether that's through advice, whether that's whatever it is, I want to try to do it. Thank you so much for being here. Dr Davis, thank you for sharing this with us. I really appreciate it, and I think it's going to be very beneficial to the people who listen to it. So. Dr Davis, thank you again for being here. Thanks so much. Thanks for joining us. Don't forget to subscribe and follow us to stay up to date with our weekly episodes. We'll see you next time you.
00:00
I'm Clark, speaks the catastrophic injury lawyer. Welcome to the verdict. This is catastrophic comeback. So I have this aunt, and she was the person who was the fun person in the family. We always had special holidays at her house. We had Christmas at her house. We had
00:23
Thanksgiving at her house. We would she would make everything so fun. You'd walk in and there'd be music playing And unbelievably, unbelievable decorations, and she was just she was the glue that kept our family together. And that's what we did for vacations, right? We didn't go to Europe or whatever. We went to to see my aunt, to visit my aunt or my grandmother, and she was always so instrumental in bringing everyone together, and she was such a big, big, big part of our family. And then, like, 10 years ago, she she dies of breast cancer, very quickly, very suddenly. There's just nothing anybody could do. And I'm just like, this is just wrong. You know, this is not the way this is supposed to and I'm an optimist. I'm always like, hey, things are going to get better. And I just couldn't get my I'm like, it wasn't my mother, but I was really close to her. And I'm thinking, God, where are you in that, in this? But when you describe your vision of how all this works together, and how really to look at it as like, Okay, this life was cut short. That seems like it's short sighted in your view that that actually you're the human experience, and for Christians, is actually much longer and and it can be just a more fulfilling experience, if you look at it like that, I think about just go back on.
01:39
And I always talk about my mother, so one of nine kids in a one lane town, born in the 1940s dealing with World War Two, growing up in a segregated society, could only go to historically black university. Could not apply. Well, possibly could apply, but no would know that she would be denied admission at a predominantly white institution
02:05
to then raise two kids and one who becomes a vice president at a predominantly white institution. And maybe one of those institutions could have been one that would not allow her to attend.
02:21
To me, there's nothing but faith.
02:24
As a kid, she always talked about, we're from Texas. She wanted to go to Texas Tech, but she knew in 1962 Texas Tech would not allow black kids to enroll. But to know that she has a son that could one day be a vice president, or maybe at this point, a president of a school that would have denied her admission solely because of her race. I just can't explain that like I my dissertation, I looked at African American women who went to grad school on state aid acts, and these are women who wanted to seek graduate education, usually in their home state, but the state said, rather than to integrate these schools, we will pay for you to go to school that will offer you admission. So these are people who ended up getting degrees from Columbia and Yale, Indiana institutions that would allow black people admission.
03:14
And so you one of my subjects was a state delegate floor credit, and who ended up becoming a state delegate to pass legislation against a state that would not allow her to enroll in graduate education. That, to me, just doesn't happen like
03:33
I am ambitious, and I went to school and I got the degree, and I've done everything I need to do. I've tried to do the professional development, I've tried to treat people right, but for things to just align the way that they've aligned. I just don't think that that simply happens.
03:49
And I could be wrong, and you can call me foolish, or whatever you want to. I just believe that there is someone, somewhere, working, supporting, helping the stars to align. So you mentioned throughout your talk today about
04:09
your passion for helping others, whether they're students, whether they're your friends and family that you've described, whether they're students that you don't even know yet that might come behind you at an institution that you are currently leaving. So
04:27
how does your faith play a part in reaching out and helping others that you know and in some cases, that you don't even know? So you know, you grow up in church and you your parents make you go, even when you don't want to go, and I don't, honestly, I didn't even understand, like I just went and you say, Okay, I guess I should get baptized. Just I didn't understand. And then probably when I got to college, it kind of flipped a little bit, because as a teenager, I didn't think my parents knew anything. They know what the hell they were talking about. Like I knew everything. I.
05:00
And then when I got to college, I started to realize, like, wait, I think they do know what they're talking about. And I think
05:08
this church thing is actually real, like, there's something to it. There was a kid I went to John 23rd Catholic school in Dallas as a small kid. I don't even think the school's still around. And my mother was a teacher at Harry stone Middle School, and there was a kid that would walk from the area of John 23rd to Harry stone, and she would take him to school, because that was probably thinking about it, four miles like it was far,
05:38
and he was murdered in the early 1980s
05:44
I'm really aging myself now, but I was a kid.
05:49
Maybe I'm not even sure I was. I mean, five or six was young,
05:56
and my mother not only went to the funeral, she, as we say, a phrasing kind of our community, she pressed some money in his mother's hand and wrote our home phone number, because cell phones were not the thing then, and said, Whatever you need. Let me know.
06:14
School teacher who, at that time, maybe making, what, $20,000 a year, you know, like, this is like, I don't know what the salaries were then, but it most definitely was not a lot of money, but took what she had to give to someone else. And you don't realize that stuff when you're five or six, but as you get older, you reflect on those things. Of I went to school and there were students who had to stand in the line for financial aid. I didn't
06:40
have to do that.
06:43
My mother worked three jobs, so I wouldn't have to stand in
06:48
line like you. You just, what? Where else does that happen? You know? So it's my things just kind of aligned, and my my
07:01
I saw her pour so much into other people, I've decided to do the same thing. I'm a licensed foster parent. The State of North Carolina. Just always had a desire to want to give back. And I would say that I give back unapologetically, regardless of your race, your gender, your sexual orientation. I don't care. I just want to help someone. I just I if I can make a difference in your life, and whether that's through advice, whether that's whatever it is, I want to try to do it. Thank you so much for being here. Dr Davis, thank you for sharing this with us. I really appreciate it, and I think it's going to be very beneficial to the people who listen to it. So. Dr Davis, thank you again for being here. Thanks so much. Thanks for joining us. Don't forget to subscribe and follow us to stay up to date with our weekly episodes. We'll see you next time you.
