The Russell C. Davis Collection includes correspondence, minutes, speeches, reports, and other documents concerning Davis' terms as mayor of Jackson, Mississippi, his terms as a state representative from Hinds County in the Mississippi State Legislature, his campaigns for political office, and various community activities. Most of the collection relates to his years as mayor, 1969-1977, a period of much growth and change in Jackson. During the Davis administration the Jackson city government consisted of Mayor Davis and two city commissioners, Ed Cates (1969-1973), Tom Kelly (1969-1977), and Doug Shanks (1973-1977). In addition to the daily administration of Jackson, the papers also concern relief efforts to aid the victims of Hurricane Camille, the activities of the Republic of New Africa, and the killings at Jackson State College (now Jackson State University), in which members of the Jackson Police Department and the Mississippi Highway Patrol opened fire on a group of students during a fiery riot on campus, leaving two students dead. Among notable correspondents are former Mississippi governors J.P. Coleman, Ross Barnett, Cliff Finch, John Bell Williams, and Paul B. Johnson, Jr., Mississippi’s first female lieutenant governor Evelyn Gandy, former United States presidents Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, Dwight Eisenhower, and Richard Nixon, former U.S. Senators Thad Cochran, James Eastland, Trent Lott, and John C. Stennis, former U.S. Representative G. V. “Sonny” Montgomery, and former Alabama governor and U.S. presidential candidate George C. Wallace.