By Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on September 24, 2018; Updated on February 21, 2023 Dr. Isaac Scott Hathaway (1872–1967)...

The kindness of a stranger gave me enduring hope for a better world.

On August 28, 2019, Donald Watkins walked into the Federal Prison Camp at Talladega, Alabama as Inmate No. 36223-001. He was the camp's only political prisoner. Today, Watkins walked out of the Federal Prison Camp at La Tuna in Anthony, New Mexico as a free man. This article tells the story of Watkins' journey to the other side of midnight.

This article discusses the Watkins family's Native-American heritage through the lens of my paternal grandmother, Sallie Watkins. Sallie's mother, Sallie Brown Cooper Darden, and her lineal ancestors were members of the Cherokee Nation. The Cherokees were one of what white colonists called the "Five Civilized Tribes" -- Choctaws, Chickasaws, Cherokees, Creeks, and Seminoles -- that were located in the Southern part of the United States from the East Coast to the Mississippi

Sallie Emma Darden Watkins and her Indian heritage are discussed in this article.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on March 14, 2021 I loved them with all my heart. I received my winning lottery ticket...

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on July 31, 2019 On July 21, 2019, I published an article titled, “ Watkins Men Never...

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on July 29, 2019 In the Watkins family, we have known what real love is for five...

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on July 25, 2019 Last week, Alabama Media Group reporter/columnist Kyle Whitmire...

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on July 21, 2019 During our highly publicized trials and tribulations over the past few...

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on July 20, 2019 State and federal agencies have used every resource at their disposal in...

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on July 17, 2019 Kyle Whitmire hates the Watkins family and what it has achieved in...

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on July 14, 2019 My sentencing hearing is scheduled for Tuesday morning at 9 a.m. CST in...

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on June 27, 2016, Updated on June 27, 2019 Three years ago today, I drove to Montgomery,...

Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr., was the most hated man in Alabama’s white community in the 1950s, 60s, and early 70s. This is his story.

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on June 16, 2019 My father was Levi Watkins. He was president of Alabama State...

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on May 28, 2019 On May 29, 1966, The Tennessean (Nashville, Tennessee) published an...

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on May 10, 2019 Lillian Bernice Varnado Watkins, the matriarch of the Watkins Family, was...

March 26, 2019 Dear Wallace Family Members, Many things have been written and said about former Alabama Gov. George Corley Wallace, Jr. ...

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on March 9, 2019 Yesterday, a federal jury in Birmingham, Alabama convicted me on all ten...