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starting with sweet. She told me that when she first came to K P I X, she was the butt of many jokes because she tends to take things seriously and sometimes literally, she says. People, we're always playing a little tricks on her and having fun. Mhm.

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She remembers that finally, How do you remember when she first came to K P I X? Well, I think I remember Belle Voce starting at K P X as a I think it's fair to say she was frightened. A Zai Waas, too. I started just a

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bit before her, and she was a scared young woman and not knowing anything about television broadcasting. She had had some experience in radio. She was naturally frightened, and it showed. But she was also fiercely determined to make a success of this new career she had started

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on and she was competent and she photographed well and she got out there and swam. There were some rough times, and then those times, we kind of Boyd each other. We used to take lunch together and map our defenses and are offenses against the forces that

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seemed to be a raid against two blacks in television at that time. We were there alone at one station. No other station had any blacks at that time. And Bellevue would say, What do you think about this? And I'd say, Yeah, well, this we auto handle

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that in this way and we would I can't think of any specifics right now, except that we had some very disagreeable writers on some of the technicians at the station at that time were terrible, um, race wise, we would hear offhanded jokes and so on. But

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for the most part, most of the people who are very supportive and we were lucky enough to be hard to work with. One of the great guys of television. Fred's Ender, who was not only intelligent but supportive and was only interested in the product we produced.

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And for that we could take comfort. He was great. He was the news director. Yes, he was a news director, getting ready to retire himself. Yes, I've heard he's going to retire on put out to Pasture, but he'll be busy because he's that kind of a

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guy. He's got his little newspaper. Yes, I heard that it is, but he's gonna He's gonna be working on. Yeah, So I'd heard for I talked to Bill more, huh? He said in those days you go out and the other reporters would be allowed into a

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press box or be allowed into a crime scene. And And if he working as a Cameron for KTV you. Belleville is a reporter for K P I X. Sometimes just they didn't get the tips. They didn't get the courtesy. They weren't allowed close. Sometimes sometimes he

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says, Bell, Va um, official wouldn't even talked about that. She talked to the cameraman. But talkto Velva, Well, that was exactly my experience to when I when I first started, I remember going to a news conference. For some reason, I forgot now, but I went to

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this news conference on Nob Hill at the Mark Hopkins Hotel, and we went up to the floor where it was to be held, and the person who was hosting it looked around me when I walked into the room and told the cameraman that it's going to

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be over here and my name is such and such, and the principal party will be here at such and such. And I said Well, wait a minute. I forgot to take this down, And, uh, it was a woman. She had to turn around and repeat all

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that I made her repeated to May I had heard it all, but But that was that was not at all unusual because, uh, we were just the new commodities in the field and talking now specifically about Velva. But through your own your own experience as well,

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um must have must have felt you had each other. You talked about the lunches, but it must have been sort of an isolating experience. A lot of times it was very isolating at times. But as I said we were We were fortunate to work in an

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environment of just about everybody was supportive. That is, in our immediate newsroom. Some of the technicians were not so supportive, and some of them made the ugly jokes that we all know about, but they could be overlooked because they weren't really important. Belt and I were

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kind of pair two people against the world we kind of considered ourselves. And we mapped our plan of attack and our plan of defense, uh, for the forces that didn't want to see us succeed. We mapped those together, and we were such a pair that even

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today I'm I'm sometimes called Ben Davis. And, uh, when did you I saw your wife on television last night and that sort of thing because everybody associate ID one with the other because we both worked at the same station and it was kind of funny in

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a way. You know, I often wondered if Belleville was ever called Belleville. Williams e was was called Ben Davis. Many, many times. Uh huh. Uh, I'm gonna roll. There were there were any number of times when one of the bad things about being the only ones

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there That is the only two black reporters at one station in the business. In fact, in the Bay Area, we were the only two black reporters, and there was no training period. The more or less threw you out there and said swim. And that's what happened

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to us. And when you made a mist ake thousands of people saw it and a Zai Look back. I can't remember too many of the mistakes, but they say hindsight is kind. You know, I probably made a number of them. And Belleville probably did, too. But

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nobody remembers in a great full pots. Yeah. Do you consider yourselves pioneers? Oh, there was no doubt about it. It hadn't been done before. Uh, both of us coming into television. Raw, new, untrue. I'd in the field on both to have made very long careers in

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that feel that I'm surprised, actually, I had a newspaper background. Velva had a broadcast background, but it was in radio, and she was just a young, frightened woman when she came in. And And look how long she has lasted because she demonstrated a fierce determination to

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succeed. And she did and has, um, can think of is ID like Thio. Wish our success, of course. And to ask her if Bill more ever was jealous that we were so close together. And that and I was called Ben Davis and I was hoping she

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would sometimes be called Belleville Williams. And if that matter to Bill, that's the kind of thing I would like to say. Were you shooting shooting that? But if you wanna do it direct into the camera Yeah, and you say she's not retiring situation, So if you

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want to say something directly into the camera. I'd just like to say Belvin, sweetheart, take that semi out from the from the in front of retirement. It's time for you to retire. You've done it all. You've been a success at it all, and it's time to

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take it easy. Give Bill some of your time and, you know, frankly, if you would retire, people would stop calling me Ben Davis. Uh huh. Yep. Yeah, Belvin. I came into television and what the pundits called the best of times and the worst of times. It

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was the worst of times for social upheaval and sit ins and riots and and disturbances of all kinds. And it was the best of times to be in the news business. It was it was work that you would do for nothing if they ask you to.

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I left home running in the morning, and so did Bell Va. And we stayed late without complaint, and we made it through the Free Speech movement and the Black Panther Party and the anti war movement and all of the movements on the college campuses and the

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tear gas and disturbances of every kind. We made it. So now you wanna be ready to take your leave after doing after doing it so long and being such a success at it, I'm sure Belda has a room full of citations and awards and trophies and

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so on. What else can she dio? But I know she won't give it all up because she's a workaholic. She won't ever stop when you another of the things that we had to overcome was the fact that much of the civil strife disturbances, sit ins and

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so on involved people of color involved black people. And because that was a fact, we had to sensitize the decision makers to these stories. We had to sell a lot of stories and convince a lot of people that this should be covered, that we should go

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to the Fillmore district more often. We should go to Hunter's Point more often, and a certain story in Hunters Point that would be phoned in or given one of us would be given a tip about. We would have to sell that story, too, the producer of

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the six o'clock news. Before that, we would be permitted to handle it. Onda, Of course, we brought to those kinds of stories, I think a certain sensitivity that the other reporters did not have. And for that I think there was a service performed that would not

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have otherwise been performed. Those communities were largely invisible. Yes, they were. And unhappy and even dangerous at times. Uh, but it was that they say you are. You perform the best service when you tell the community what is wrong with it, not what is right with

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it. And today it doesn't seem that long ago in 1966 is not that long ago. And yet change today for the better things that still need to be improved. Any comments on Oh, yeah. There are many things need to be improved right now. The city of

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Oakland is having strife because of the school situation and a new regime and city hall that people are unhappy with because of the disparities, uh, that they see in the treatment of certain communities. So there are lots of things still, uh, to be corrected to be

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worked on. And there always will be, I'm sure. So I guess my question would be without a bell. Va. Davis is that. Is that a loss in terms of a journalistic? Oh, absolutely. Bell Va had connections that that CIA, which they had. Belda had many connections

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in the black community, especially, but in the whole community that other people did who didn't work as hard could not hope to have on DFA that reason she was able to do a lot of good, especially for the black community. Now some people might criticize and

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say, Well, she was so close to cease Williams or Willie Brown or Dianne Feinstein. You're so close to these people. You know, I had a real report and intimacy, friendship, And how could she be a good reporter and be so close to? Well, it's just like

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Sam Donaldson being close to Stephanopoulos or some. Bella was a good reporter, and she needed. These were not just close friends. These were also sources valuable sources of information and reporters are no good without sources. And she was close Thio France or Terry Francoise. She was

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close to Dr Goodlett. She was close Thio. Every mover and shaker in the town knows the name Belvin Davis, and for that reason she not only has a source but she has an entree when she needs it and support when she needs that to. I think

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she was a tough report. Oh, yeah, she was. You can see the tenacity and that fragile little lady, you know, with the tinder voice. But there's a toughness under that that that is very visible If you just scratched the surface. Obviously had to be for her

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the last 33 years in a tough profession. It is. It is a tough profession. But she made the most of it. Could take that. Yeah, frame. So you blast. Yeah, but he was congenial toe at times. For most of the time.

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I should say he was that, I guess.