In 1961 , Davis became an on-air interviewer for KSAN , an AM radio station broadcasting in San Francisco . She made her television debut in 1963 for KTVU , a Bay Area television station , covering an African American beauty pageant . She worked as a disc jockey for KDIA , a soul-gospel radio station based in Oakland , California , when the 1964 Republican National Convention , located at the Cow Palace in nearby Daly City , California , inspired her to become a reporter . According to Davis ' account , while she was covering the convention with Louis Freeman , the two were chased out of the Cow Palace by convention attendees throwing food at them and yelling racial slurs . It would not be the last time she encountered racism on the job : In 1987 she covered a march during the Civil Rights Movement in Forsythe County , Georgia , and attempted to interview a white woman who spat in her face
1964 Republican National Convention
1964 Republican National Convention
Belva Davis