In 1910, Lee Andrew (L.A.) Davis came to Plano from south Texas and found work as a sharecropper. Over the years he became a community leader and business owner, investing in stocks and real estate. Under Jim Crow laws and segregation, African Americans found it difficult to buy property in Plano, so Davis used his financial clout to purchase a large section of property in Plano's Douglass Community and then sold lots to local African Americans. In 1945, he also bought a plot of vacant land and established the L.A. Davis Cemetery as a burial site for African Americans in the Douglass Community.