An office worker at a naval supply center, Davis unexpectedly fell into journalism when she tried getting charity events mentioned in Black-owned newspapers and wound up freelancing for Jet and Ebony magazines. Her move into radio led to covering the 1964 Republican National Convention, where she was verbally and physically assaulted. By 1967, Davis joined the CBS affiliate in San Francisco as the first Black female TV reporter in the western United States.
Davis eventually anchored the news there and for affiliates of two other networks. She has covered Vietnam War protests, the rise of the Black Panthers and the assassinations of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk.
