Rev. Davis admitted, “I had in mind to serve the Lord. But to become an activist, no.” Still, he has been repeatedly called “one of [St. Petersburg’s] foremost civil rights activists.” He remained a firm advocate for nonviolence in acquiring equal rights. With the help of Rev. Davis, this St. Pete church assisted the community both socially and spiritually as they fought against Black discrimination and stigma. The extent of St. Petersburg segregation should be further explained. Under the laws and regulations of the time, "every aspect of African American life in Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota and their surrounding cities was segregated." Black students were forced to attend different schools than white students, and they were severely underfunded. In fact, "Blacks could only be cared for at “Black only” hospitals, and other public and private establishments like restaurants and beaches were often segregated – if blacks were allowed in at all." During this same time, St. Petersburg was gaining fame as the tourist location with the green benches. up to 7,000 green benches were in public areas of the city and offered a social location for people to congregate . In modern St. Petersburg, many establishments are named after this iconic bench. However, these benches were notoriously for whites only. The Police "kept black residents off the benches." These are the discriminations faced by the black community that Enoch Davis advocated against . In addition to ending bus and school segregation and employee discrimination, Davis worked to win voting rights for blacks, open the city's beaches and public pools to the black community, and he led his share of sit-ins at lunch counters and theaters. Particularly noteworthy are his involvements with the Freedom Riders and the local sanitation workers’ strikes. When the Freedom Riders came to Florida in the late 1950s to protest interstate segregation laws, Rev. Davis allowed them to stay in his home and to use the church as headquarters, and with the help of his brother, the police and several neighbors, he offered them protection from agitated segregationists. He earned several threats on his life for his civil rights work. On an interview in 1984, he said, “I didn’t think about the risks then. Just the right.”
