A Look Inside Viola Davis’s Difficult and Painful Childhood
Viola Davis’s life story is one of grit, perseverance, and ultimate victory. The only known photograph from her childhood is a kindergarten picture, a stark and unsettling reminder of a little girl who learned very early what it meant to live with almost nothing.
Now 59, Viola Davis stands as one of the most formidable talents of our generation. When people talk about truly great acting, her name is impossible to ignore. I always believed she radiated beauty and depth, but understanding the pain and struggle she endured growing up makes her success feel even more deserved.
A childhood defined by struggle
Viola Davis was born on August 11, 1965, in St. Matthews, South Carolina. Nearly six decades ago, she came into the world in a tiny, single-room shack on her grandmother’s land, property that once formed part of a plantation.
Her earliest memories were shaped by extreme hardship.
Her mother worked as a domestic worker and was also deeply involved in the Civil Rights Movement. When Viola was just two years old, she was taken to jail with her mother after her mother was arrested during a civil rights protest.
Later, the family moved to Central Falls, Rhode Island, hoping to escape the conditions they had known in the South. But the move did not bring the relief they had imagined. Poverty followed them north, along with racism and discrimination, continuing to shape Davis’s early life in profound and painful ways.
In a town that covered only 1.29 square miles, Davis grew up in an environment where racism remained deeply rooted, even after the 1964 Civil Rights Act had been passed and Jim Crow laws were officially outlawed.
“People wouldn’t use the same water fountain after we did,” Davis has said. “There was constant name-calling and hateful language.”
Viola was the second youngest of six children. Her two oldest siblings stayed in South Carolina for several years, raised by their grandparents while the rest of the family moved north.
In Central Falls, the family lived in a condemned building with no heat, no functioning plumbing, and a relentless problem with rats. They depended on food stamps that rarely lasted the entire month, and hunger was a daily reality.
“Here’s the truth about poverty,” Davis once explained. “You become invisible. No one notices you. You have no access to anything. You are not part of any demographic.”
Struggling to survive
For Viola and her siblings, school lunches were often the only meals they could count on. She gravitated toward classmates whose homes always had food, spending as much time there as she could.
At just nine years old, Davis was caught stealing food from a store, an experience that stayed with her for a long time.
“The owner yelled at me to leave and looked at me like I was nothing,” she later shared.
That same year, Viola says she went through a deeply emotional turning point. One night, her parents’ arguments became so intense that she completely broke down.
“I started screaming at the top of my lungs and couldn’t stop,” she recalled. Her older sister, Dianne, tried to pull her inside so no one would notice, but the pain she was carrying was already overwhelming.
She ran inside the house, locked herself in the bathroom, and sank to the floor, screaming uncontrollably. In that moment of pure desperation, she cried out with everything she had, begging, “God, if you’re real, if you love me, take me away from this life. I’m going to count to ten, and when I open my eyes, I want to be gone. Do you hear me?”
She prayed with absolute belief, counting slowly and carefully. “One… two… three…” When she finally reached ten and opened her eyes, nothing had changed. She was still there.
Looking back, Davis says God did not remove her from that life. Instead, He left her where she was. “He kept me there so that when I gained vision, strength, and forgiveness, I would remember,” she explained. She remembers the hunger, the trauma, the poverty, and the hopelessness that surrounded her. “I remember what it’s like to be a child who dreams but sees no physical proof those dreams can come true. I remember because I lived it. I was there.”
Believed her future was already decided
Growing up in deep poverty, Davis felt as though her life path had already been chosen for her. She and her siblings often went to school wearing clothes that were dirty, worn out, and unchanged for days.
“I knew I was going to be a maid,” she once said. “My mother was a maid. My grandmother was a house slave.”
Her mother had worked as a maid in the South, and Davis later reflected that this reality was shared by many Black women of that generation. “That was the work available to us,” she said. “That was it.”
But when it came to Viola’s future, that assumption would prove wrong. And school became her lifeline.
She did well academically, but it was her involvement outside the classroom that truly gave her a sense of escape. Sports, drama, and music became outlets for her and her siblings, and despite everything they were dealing with at home, they rarely missed school.
Her love for performing started young. At seven years old, she and her sisters entered a local talent show, writing their own skits and creating costumes themselves. Later, she joined the Upward Bound program, designed to help students from low-income families prepare for college. That opportunity led to a scholarship at Rhode Island College, where she majored in theater.
Acceptance into an elite institution
Davis’s talent quickly stood out. One professor famously described her as “a talent that doesn’t come along very often.” After college, she auditioned for Juilliard, one of the most prestigious performing arts schools in the world, and was accepted as one of just 14 students chosen from more than 2,500 applicants.
Juilliard alumni include names like Robin Williams, Christopher Reeve, Aretha Franklin, Val Kilmer, Miles Davis, Kelsey Grammer, and Kelly McGillis, highlighting just how rare that opportunity was.
Attending Juilliard marked a major turning point in Davis’s life. Her skills sharpened, her confidence grew, and she began to build the foundation for her future.
Soon after, she started gaining recognition in theater. At 29, she earned her first Tony Award nomination for her role in August Wilson’s Seven Guitars. She remembers opening night vividly. “My mom and dad were in the audience, and my dad cried,” she said. “I thought, ‘I’ve made it. This is real.’”
Hollywood recognition and historic achievements
Not long after, Hollywood took notice. Davis transitioned into film and television, delivering performances that deeply moved audiences. She received her first Oscar nomination in 2008 for Doubt, followed by another nomination in 2011 for The Help.
In 2015, she made history as the first Black woman to win the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for How to Get Away with Murder. Two years later, she won an Academy Award for her role in Fences (2016), solidifying her place among the most respected actors of her generation.
She is one of only three African American actresses, alongside Whoopi Goldberg and Angela Bassett, to receive Oscar nominations in both the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress categories.
Beyond acting, Davis has consistently used her voice to advocate for social change, particularly in addressing childhood hunger and poverty.
Given her own experiences, her involvement was deeply personal. Through her work with the Hunger Is campaign, she helped raise more than $4.5 million to provide meals for children in need. “This is the richest country in the world,” she said. “There’s no reason children should be going to school hungry.”
Growing up without love or safety
In her memoir Finding Me, Davis speaks openly about the trauma of her early years and the shame she carried for a long time.
“What I felt was a complete absence of love,” she wrote, describing how deeply she longed for the stability and care that others often take for granted.
She also shared painful truths about her father, who worked as a horse groomer and struggled with alcoholism, infidelity, and abusive behavior toward her mother and their six children.
Despite everything, Davis has turned her pain into purpose. Her advocacy work has made a lasting difference in Central Falls, where she grew up. She has become a symbol of hope and a powerful reminder of why stories like hers need to be told.
Family, healing, and coming full circle
Today, Viola Davis has achieved not only extraordinary professional success but also the personal life she once dreamed of.
She is married to actor and producer Julius Tennon, and in 2011, they adopted their daughter, Genesis.
In 2020, on her 55th birthday, Davis completed a deeply meaningful chapter of her journey by purchasing the South Carolina home where she was born. She shared a photo of the house on Instagram, writing that she now owned the very place where her life began.
Reflecting on her past, Davis often speaks about healing the child she once was. “That little girl follows me everywhere,” she told People. “I feel like I always have to go back and take care of her.”
From extreme hardship and pain to love, stability, and gratitude, Viola Davis’s life is a powerful example of resilience and perseverance. She remains not only an inspiration to those who share her struggles, but also a fearless voice for change, dignity, and empowerment.
