His picture has appeared numerous times in the past year on the front page or elsewhere in The Daily Iberian. A familiar-faced person might comically say, “Yes, you’ve seen my face on the post office wall,” but Donovan Davis couldn’t say it for fun. Referring to the old method of identifying lawbreakers and wanted criminals on posters or flip charts mounted on the post office walls was a way to inform the public about undesirables that might be living or traveling through communities at large. Fourteen incarcerations across the state of Louisiana made Davis a convicted offender. He might have a criminal past, but he is not shy about sharing the redeemed life he now leads in New Iberia.

Most recently his face was in a picture on the front page of The Daily Iberian as one of the volunteers helping to distribute 90,000 pounds of food donated to the Teche Area food pantries and residents in need following Hurricane Barry. You can find Davis in person Thursday afternoons in the studio at KANE Radio in downtown New Iberia recording a live gospel show that is broadcast every Sunday morning. In July they’re celebrating the first anniversary of its beginning.

He is the dark skinned, glasses wearing, bicycle rider, or walker, wearing a bulletproof vest over his shirt or under his dress coat, if seen in a church or professional setting, often sitting at city and parish council meetings learning about the community. He’s at all night prayer times or walks the streets with the New Iberia Police Department meeting residents and rebuilding trust with law enforcement.

He can come at you with so many thoughts in so many directions, he has had to work to focus and calm his actions so not to offend or confuse anyone about who he is when discussing important issues to the city, and to himself. He is a crusader. Having started out life on the streets in New Iberia, he knows the difference between right and wrong and now chooses to take the higher road.

“My cousin Kerry ‘Bumpy’ Provost was the first drug dealer in New Iberia,” said Davis. “That’s what I was exposed to early on. I had a fractured mind. My influencers were whoever I was around.”

Lucky for Davis, one of those was his grandfather, James Peter Boyancé, a hard worker that began teaching the young boy by example the results of hard work. Davis is quick to tell you of his other influencers like television shows and movies of the 1980s, the period of time his development began. A favorite movie is “The Cross and the Switchblade” about Rev. David Wilkerson in New York City.

Increasingly, the time spent talking with Davis these days shows a brilliant mind and character growth that comes only with time. His latest crusade will culminate in a big event Saturday, July 27 on Hopkins Street when he and others from the faith community join government officials to bring a message to others, like him, who made bad choices, paid their debt and are working to become viable citizens.

With that new model, New Chapter Transitional Aftercare and Mentoring Program and P.U.S.H. (Pray Until Something Happens), are dedicated to helping formerly incarcerated individuals, who have been walking a new path for a minimum of five years, to register to vote. Restoring responsibility and dignity are part of the reasons for their efforts.

“House Bill 636 sponsored by Patricia Smith passed this year giving formerly incarcerated individuals the right to vote, again,” Davis said. “It’s like the 1964 Freedom Summer, giving blacks the right to vote.”

Among the speakers Saturday will be U.S. veteran Fred Wesley of the Housing Authority of New Iberia, Bishop Darren M. Sophus, and Norris Henderson from New Orleans. He started the 1987 grassroots foundation, Voices of the Experienced. Henderson is another example of what it means to be rehabilitated. In a 2017 NOLA.com article by James Gill, Judge Calvin Johnson didn’t release Henderson because he thought him innocent, it was Johnson who confirmed Henderson’s guilt in a 1994 bench trial after his original conviction was overturned. Henderson was freed on grounds that his sterling work as a jailhouse lawyer on behalf of his fellow inmates indicated he was fully rehabilitated.

The event at the corner of Hopkins and Robertson is a family affair from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. with music, speakers, free food and fun jumps for the kids. It’s a time for testimonies and impartation of hope to bring new life to an area of New Iberia that has seen the worst of mankind — and is now hoping for the best. The public is invited.

For more information contact Rev. James Broussard at 256-6461, Rev. Wilford Johnson at 256-6856 or at ANew ChapterPush on Facebook.