SAN ANTONIO — San Antonio Express-News reporter Vincent Davis can be found all over town with his 4x8-inch reporter notebook in his back pocket and a ballpoint pen in his hand.
Although it’s his name that is seen in the newspaper, Davis says he’s just one of many vital pieces in the creating a print story.
“The story wouldn’t even be there in the paper without the editor, copy editor, the designers, photographers,” Davis says. “So it’s not my story, it’s our story.”
The Nebraska native is well known in San Antonio because of the way he builds genuine relationships with the communities he writes about. He frequently visits Panchos and Gringos, a Mexican restaurant on San Antonio’s Eastside, and has coffee meetups with sources just to check on them. Davis has his own column every Monday in the newspaper, highlighting ordinary San Antonians. He says he doesn’t take the people’s trust for granted.
“For instance, we parachute into a person’s life, no matter what they are going through, their highs, their lows,” Davis says. “We may be with them for an hour, a day, a week, but eventually we go and these folks live with that story.”
Davis lives by a motto: "Write to express, not impress."
He learned these values in the late '90s at San Antonio College (SAC) at the tender of age of 40 after he retired from the Air Force. He started out as an illustrator at the The Ranger newspaper but started writing because the program wanted to challenge him. He became an editorial assistant at the Express-News and was taught an important lesson.
“You are too old, man, but you are never too old. That’s one thing the folks that I came in with taught me,” Davis says. “They were like, ‘The only thing stopping you really is you.’”
Davis knew how powerful and vital it was to have a Black voice, like his own, at the largest newspaper in San Antonio.
“I try to bring all facets of who I am to the story — I’m African American, I’m a military veteran, a father, I’m a brother,” Davis says.
Davis says that non-Black reporters should also be in touch, educated and covering issues on the Black community. In his 20 years at the Express-News, he’s felt that the newspaper has made it a point to have each reporter be well versed in all types of coverage.
“They be on the West Side one day, Southside the next day, Northside, East Side - everybody should be able to do any story on any side of town,” Davis says.
He doesn’t hoard this wisdom for himself; rather, he shares it with journalists in college and even in high school.
“Each one, teach one - back in the day we used to say that we opened the door for someone the same way they opened the door for us,” Davis says.