This is the amazing story of how the educational journey of two generations within one family in laboratory schools on college campuses gave their progeny an enormous head start in academic competition over all students they encountered in the classroom -- regardless of the race or socio-economic status of competing students.

I talk to Doristine Watkins Minott every day.  The public knows her as “Tina Minott.” In our family, we call her “Teannie.” She is two years older than me. She is also my youngest sister. We are extremely close.  This article is my tribute to her.

Doris Lorraine Garraway, age 53, died from pancreatic cancer on October. 4, 2025. Doris’ death devastated the close-knit Watkins family.  We are still grieving.  Doris is gone now, but she will never be forgotten.

According to a compelling scientific study by the University of Cambridge, a child’s intelligence is passed down almost entirely through their mother’s genes. Researchers discovered that genes linked to cognitive function are found on the X chromosome, of which women carry two. And in the brain, maternal genes are more likely to activate where it matters most -- logic, memory, and learning.

Claudia was 7 years old when "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron" hit the theaters. Claudia and I watched this movie dozens of times. I wanted her to fully understand that we lived in a world where the free spirit of good people was often broken like the domesticated horses in the movie. I preached to Claudia how extremely important it was that she never allowed anyone to break her free spirit. I repeated this message every time we watched Spirit. I eventually gave her the

My two brothers were surgeons.  Most people are familiar with Dr. Levi Watkins, Jr., because he was the renowned heart surgeon who co-developed and implanted the first automatic defibrillator in a human patient at Johns Hopkins University Medical Center in 1980. This article tells the remarkable and more impressive story of Dr. James A. Watkins, who, along with his friend Dr. Robert D. Vaughn, Jr., started and grew one of the most successful surgical practices in Charlotte,

Capt. James Paul (U.S. Air Force, Retired) died today. He was one of my two best friends in Tuscaloosa, Alabama when George Jones and I desegregated our University of Alabama law school class from 1970 to 1973. Capt. Paul's Air Force officer's training helped us hold it all together under the most difficult of circumstances.  Because of Capt. Paul, all of us made it to the other side of midnight with our sanity intact, our heads held high, and our credentials in order.

Johnnie-Mae Shannon Watkins was a brave, strong, brilliant, unsung American hero. This Tupelo, Mississippi native was a trailblazing civil rights activist in Washington, D.C. during the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. Working together with her husband, Joseph T. Watkins, Johnnie-Mae changed the face of the federal workforce in Washington. This is her remarkable story.

The Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro American League baseball teams was owned by Thomas Henry Hayes, Jr., a Memphis, Tennessee businessman and Watkins family friend. My early exposure to this business icon fueled my passion as a child to own a major league sports team. "If you can see it, you can be it." This article tells the incredible story of the first professional sports team owner I met.

When I speak out about an issue of significant public interest on my digital media platforms, I do so out of a family tradition of standing up for what is right. Today, the despicable conduct that thoughtful Americans must defeat is presidential-level protectionism for an elite class of rich, powerful, and politically connected child molesters, child rapists, and child pornographers who have found a staunch ally and self-proclaimed "Grab Them by the Pussy" comrade in the Whi

This article is about the miracle of life -- my youngest son's life. It is also a love story that warms the heart. Finally, it is a testament to power of modern medicine and faith in God as a Way Maker, Miracle Worker, Promise Keeper, and Light in the Darkness.

When properly motivated, when exposed to competent and dedicated teachers, and when prepared as the "whole child" in the "whole school" and supported by the "whole community," Black public school students can outperform any group of students, intellectually and academically. This article explains how this remarkable feat was accomplished, twice, in a Kansas school system in the 1940s.

Educational excellence for Black school-age students is a realistic and achievable goal. It has been accomplished many times in the past, despite America's historical mistreatment of its Black citizens and other marginalized groups. It is more than possible to achieve this worthy goal, once again. This article explains what it takes to do so.

Next week, I am returning to the place where I was born for the first time since my family left in 1949. It's a trip to say "thank you" to a small Kansas city and a loving Black community that played a very big role in the Watkins family's development and growth in America.

Tomorrow, Levi Seth Watkins will graduate from Princeton University. He will be the first Watkins family member to graduate from Princeton. Seth is also the first family member who took courses at universities in Nanjing, China and Prague, Czechoslovakia. Since childhood, Seth has eyed the world as his opportunity zone. He joins the newest generation of Watkins family members who are truly global in every sense of the word.

An act of kindness by a stranger in Kentucky delivered a missing and cherished piece of history to the Watkins family. After 84 years, this priceless item found its way back home.

Yesterday, President Donald Trump gave some excellent advice to University of Alabama graduates during his special commencement speech in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.  After the political rhetoric is filtered out of his speech, each one of Trump’s 11 core tenets for success in life is sound, valuable, and practical.

I am a very spiritual person, but I no longer view the Modern Church as a spiritual home for me.  The Modern Church is often misaligned with the teachings of the Jesus I know. This article explains why.

Meet the people who fueled my knowledge and blocked for me on the playing field of life. All of them were/are super smart people.

Meet Arlam Carr, Jr., the brave 13-year-old black student whose federal court case desegregated the public schools in Montgomery, Alabama.