MPR’s Cathy Wurzer interviews W. Harry Davis, prominent local civil rights activist and educator, about his autobiography, entitled "Overcoming." In it, he describes growing up in poverty, helping found the Minneapolis Urban Coalition, running a local Golden Gloves Boxing organization and serving on the Minneapolis School Board for 20 years.

When he was born in 1923, north Minneapolis was a very different place than it is today, especially for an African American. Davis grew up in a segregated community and spent most of his adult life working to change that through the civil rights movement. Davis says his youth was shaped by the people he met at a gathering spot for African Americans called the Phyllis Wheatley Community Center.