Performances In the early 1880s, Davis began elocution and dramatic art lessons under the tutelage of Marguerite Saxton of Washington. On April 25, 1883, she was introduced by Frederick Douglass before a distinguished integrated audience. She appeared in performances in New London, Connecticut; New York state, Boston, Massachusetts; and "more than a dozen of the larger cities of the Eastern and Middle States". During the summer of 1883, Davis (under the management of James Monroe Trotter and William H. Dupree) made a tour of Boston, Worcester, and New Bedford, Massachusetts; Providence and Newport, Rhode Island; Hartford and New Haven, Connecticut; and New York City and Albany. During this time she continued perfecting her craft under Professor Edwin Lawrence of New York and Rachael Noah of Boston. She also attended the Boston School of Oratory. Her performances consisted of performing a diverse spectrum of works: from Paul Laurence Dunbar's Negro dialects to such plays as Romeo and Juliet, As You Like It; "Mary Queen of Scots"; "Cleopatra's Dying Speech"; "The Battle" by Friedrich Schiller; and "How Tom Sawyer Got His Fence Whitewashed" by Mark Twain. She is considered the first African American after Ira Aldridge to have successfully performed Shakespeare. On January 17, 1884, she appeared before a crowded house in Melodeon Hall, Cincinnati, Ohio. From 1884 to 1886, she appeared in various Shakespearean and classical tragedy roles with John A. Arneaux's troupe in New York City. In 1893 Davis started her own company in Chicago, traveled to the Caribbean, and collaborated on writing Our Old Kentucky Home with distinguished journalist and future Garveyite John Edward Bruce. Throughout her entire career, Davis only performed in four full-length productions: Damon and Pythias (1884), Dessalines (1893), Our Old Kentucky Home (1898), and Henri Christophe (1912). Political Activism Davis was a supporter of the Populist Party. Later she backed the Socialist Party. UNIA-ACL Leadership 1919-1920: Founding of the Organization While traveling in the Caribbean, Davis learned of the work of Marcus Garvey, a Jamaican immigrant to the United States who founded a Pan-African movement. On June 15, 1919, she was among the guests who spoke at a meeting of the UNIA held at the Palace Casino in Harlem, New York City. She performed a rendition of "Little Brown Baby With Sparkling Eyes" by Paul Laurence Dunbar. As part of her presentation, she held an African-American doll, one of the earliest manufactured. Her prop had