25 years later: Michael Davis' hazing death had far-reaching consequences

Michael Davis was punched, slapped, slammed and caned for days before he died 25 years ago today, the victim of a brutal fraternity hazing ritual at Southeast Missouri State University.

The deadly attack had far reaching consequences. The incident drew national media coverage and focused the spotlight on the culture of hazing on college campuses.

More than a dozen men associated with Kappa Alpha Psi, a traditionally black fraternity, were prosecuted in connection with the hazing, including seven who were charged with involuntary manslaughter. Sentences ranged from probation to incarceration.

The fraternity was banned from Southeast. The Missouri Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the state's anti-hazing law when one of the fraternity members appealed his conviction.

The case prompted later legislative changes elevating serious hazing incidents to felonies.

Michael Davis

In 1996, the Kappa Alpha Psi national organization, in response to a civil suit, paid $2.25 million to Davis' parents.

A quarter-century after Davis' death, the horrific hazing has faded into the background of campus history.

Most of today's college students weren't born when Davis died.

But for Tamara Zellars Buck, a faculty member in the mass media department at Southeast, the event is a personal tragedy.

Buck knew Davis. They were both students at the time. They worked together on the campus newspaper. The newspaper office was located in an old house.

"He lived a short distance away, in an apartment around the block," she recalled.

She recalled hearing the news of his death from fellow students in the newspaper office. The staff was stunned. "We were sitting here trying to process that our friend was dead," Buck said.

"I was shocked," she said

Buck said she knew Davis was pledging the fraternity.

He had been missing classes. But she "had no clue that it (the hazing) was to that level," she said.

Buck said she also had friends who were members of the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. "We ran in the same circles," she said.

Davis was their friend, too. "It just got out of hand," she said.

Their lives were changed, too, Buck said.

One fraternity member, who was not involved in the hazing, received death threats. "He had to withdraw from school," Buck said.

Buck said the fraternity members who engaged in the hazing of Davis rightly were punished. "Retribution was quick, and it should have been, because they killed somebody," she said.

"At the end of the day," she said, "these people's lives were changed, and Michael's life was ended in the name of brotherhood, and that just makes no sense."

Davis died from internal bleeding on Feb. 15, 1994, after collapsing a day earlier during a violent hazing session at the university's track and field complex.

An autopsy showed Davis had fractured ribs, a torn right lung and liver, a lacerated kidney, a bruised and bleeding heart, and hemorrhaging up and down his spine.

Fraternity members drove Davis home to his apartment after he collapsed. The next day, a fraternity member called 911 after Davis began throwing up. He was pronounced dead at Saint Francis Medical Center a short time later.

Over the years, Southeast has worked to educate fraternity and sorority members about the dangers of both mental and physical hazing.

Most incidents never rise to the level of criminal cases. The university handles the student-code violations of hazing through its own judicial system.

Sanctions for violating the code range from warnings and probation to suspensions and expulsions.

Annual Davis Lecture

The university established a Michael Davis Lecture in 1997 in memory of Davis as part of the school's Black History Month activities. The annual lecture recognizes the contributions of African-Americans in media.

More than 150 faculty, staff and students regularly attend the annual event, school officials said.

Sonia Rucker, dean of students and assistant to the president for equity and diversity at Southeast, said school officials make it clear to today's students hazing won't be tolerated.

The university has a policy against any form of hazing.

"We talk about the history of hazing on this campus," she said.

She said she tells students "we are a campus that has experienced the worst consequence of hazing, so we are going to be extremely vigilant."

As a black student at the University of Central Missouri, Rucker remembers the news of the deadly hazing at Southeast spread quickly.

She said it "seemed very personal" to her.

A friend of Rucker's was pledging the same fraternity on the Central Missouri campus at the time. "What if this had occurred to one of my friends?" she wondered.

But today's Southeast students are far removed from the "emotion" of that incident, Rucker said. "I don't think they feel the impact the way we do."

The deadly hazing incident still impacts the campus, however.

Last August, the university opened the National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC) Plaza, dedicated to eight of the nation's nine historically black fraternities and sororities.

Six of those organizations have chapters now at Southeast.

Omitted from plaza

Kappa Alpha Psi is not represented in the plaza because of its involvement in Davis' death, Rucker said.

She added it was a "difficult decision" as to whether to acknowledge the fraternity. She said it was decided not to mention Kappa Alpha Psi, partly out of concern for the Davis family. "They are very much a part of our thought process," she said.

At a memorial service at Academic Auditorium in February 1994, Edith Davis, the victim's mother, said her son was kind. "He couldn't kill a spider," she told those in attendance, according to Southeast Missourian archives.

She said at the time the hazing incident was "cold blooded murder."

Rucker said, "When we talk about hazing, all of us definitely do not want to repeat that tragedy on campus."

Bruce Skinner, associate vice president for student life at Southeast, meets with members of all the Greek organizations at Southeast. He discusses the prohibition against hazing.

Students are required to sign an anti-hazing statement.

Skinner has a message for students. "There is no organization on campus worth being hazed over," he said.

There has been "significant progress" in reducing physical-abuse hazing, he said.

But he added hazing in any form is unacceptable.

He and other school officials said hazing still occurs, although not to the brutal level of the Davis case, and not just in Greek-letter organizations.

Over the past six years, students were found to have violated the anti-hazing policy in four cases, according to the university's website.

One of those was Phi Beta Sigma, a traditionally African-American fraternity.

In 2015, its charter was suspended for three years. Details of the violation were not disclosed.

Xavier Payne helped restart the fraternity. He said he doesn't know the details of the hazing. He wasn't a member then.

Payne, who is president of the fraternity's Southeast chapter, joined the organization last April.

He said the national Phi Beta Sigma organization requires its members to watch a 20- to 30-minute video about hazing each semester.

Still, the death of Michael Davis is "not one of those things" often talked about by students, Payne said.

Hazing, he said, means different things to different students.

But Payne said Davis' death should send a message that students should never accept abuse to join an organization. "It is not worth it," he said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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