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.

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.

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.

This modest one-story home at 2401 Morgan Avenue in Parsons, Kansas, was the first launchpad for the children of Levi and Lillian Watkins.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on October 17, 2023 He was described as " one of the most promising young Negro educators...

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on August 3, 2023 We met in Atlanta for three days last weekend. It was a family...

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on July 3, 2023 Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court banned affirmative action for black...

By: Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on March 8, 2023 Lillian Bernice Varnado Watkins, the matriarch of the Watkins family,...

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on August 28, 2022 Rosa Parks visits Lillian Varnado Watkins in her Montgomery, Alabama home. They were best friends and sisters in the civil rights movement for life. Most readers know that I grew up in Montgomery, Alabama in the 1950s and 60s. Many of the people I looked up to were community leaders who had criminal records in Alabama's local, state, and federal criminal justice systems. My childhood church pastor, Sunday Sc

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and published on June 20, 2021 I get asked all of the time why I write and publish articles about the...

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 21, 2019 During our highly publicized trials and tribulations over the past few...

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 10, 2019 Lillian Bernice Varnado Watkins, the matriarch of the Watkins Family, was...