David A. Shaw was born in Nashville, Tennessee on May 22, 1979. David’s father, Albert A. Shaw, was the second of seven children, born and raised in east Nashville and attended Meigs School, Pearl High, and graduated from Tennessee State University where he participated in the first downtown Nashville sit-ins in the 1960s. His mother, Vickie J. Shaw, was the first of five children, born and raised in south Nashville and attended Cameron High. A member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority, she also graduated from Tennessee State University. It was there, at Tennessee State University, where his parents met after a Tennessee State vs. Florida A&M football game.

David's father Albert helped to de-segregate the faculty at John Trotwood Moore as their first African-American teacher. He taught math and science and coached both wrestling and baseball in Metro public schools at Washington, J.T. Moore, East, and Pearl-Cohn where he put into practice the ideas of team work and leadership before he retired with over 35 years of service. David's mother Vickie was the associate director and investigator for the Metro Human Relations Commission for 17 years where she put into practice the ideas of community activism and involvement and is also an accomplished award winning journalist.

David and his sister Sa Cara grew up in north Nashville, attended First Baptist East, and both public and private schools. In 1984, at the age of 5, David attended a rally with his mother at what is now the Onyx Room for Jesse Jackson's presidential campaign. It was there that he heard the speech that would influence his life forever. That night on the ride home he told his mother he wanted to be a "peacemaker" like Martin Luther King and Jesse Jackson and nothing was ever the same. At an early age David was exposed to the risks and realities of becoming a community leader. At age 10, while battling the influence of drug dealers in their neighborhood David and his family were terrorized by having their home completely covered in spray paint with messages of hate. Other events would soon follow like drive-by vandalism and neighborhood threats. That is when he learned not everyone wanted to be a peacemaker. This only encouraged him more so his solution was to write a letter to the Tennessean and President Reagan why college "should be free". The letter stated that if college was free it would give young kids hope to turn to education instead of drugs and vandalism. They would believe their future was bright. The letter was published by the Tennessean and received a response letter from President Reagan. David graduated from Martin Luther King Jr. Magnet High School for Health Sciences and Engineering at Pearl High.

Today David attends Friendship Missionary Baptist (Rev. Janiro Hawkins) and still believes in the importance of math and science, arts and music, the vocational, and spiritual whole education of a child. As a working student at Tennessee State University David has also taken time to pursue real world experiences by joining the NAACP, participating in multiple conferences at the United Nations and working, volunteering, and consulting with such leaders and groups as the United Nations delegations from the Pacific Islands, Malta, and Kazakhstan, former vice-president Al Gore, presidential candidate General Wesley Clark, U.S. Senator Barak Obama, U.S. senatorial candidate Joyce Washington, U.S. Representative Jim Cooper, State Senator Thelma Harper, Vice-Mayor Howard Gentry, Robert Chavez and the late Greg Rodrigez former presidents of the Hispanic chamber of commerce.