Capt. James Paul (USAF Ret.) Died Today

By: Donald V. Watkins

Copyrighted and Published on September 28, 2025

Capt. James Paul (U.S. Air Force, Retired).

A distinguished American died today.  His names is James Paul.  I knew him as Capt. James Paul, United States Air Force. I always called him Capt. Paul.

I first met Capt. Paul, a Tuskegee University graduate and commissioned Air Force officer, when my former wife DeAndra and I moved to Tuscaloosa, Alabama in August 1970 to start my participation in the NAACP's campaign to desegregate the University of Alabama’s law school.  Capt. Paul, his wife Al’Verita, and daughter Karen arrived on campus at the same time.  So did Moses and Lena Prewitt, together with their son Kenneth.  Dr. Lena Prewitt was the first African American female professor hired by the University.

Dr. Lena Prewitt, the University of Alabama's first black female professor.

All three couples lived in the Rose Towers residential apartments on campus. 

Capt. Paul was desegregating his graduate school classes.  I was desegregating my law school classes, along with Miles College graduate George Jones.  Lena was desegregating the ranks of university professors.

Our desegregation missions, coupled with the daily grind of "in-your-face" white racism on campus, brought us closer together.  We formed an extremely tight friendship bond with each other that lasted a lifetime.

I looked up to Capt. Paul because he was three years older than me, he had a commanding presence about himself, he was a Tuskegee University graduate, he was confident in his mission, he had a backbone of steel, and he was supersmart. 

Capt. Paul was from Brewton, Alabama.  He attended the Southern Normal School, the oldest historically black private boarding school in America.  In 1997, the school became known as the Southern Normal Academy of Alabama State University. Even though the Academy closed in 2015, Alabama State still owns the valuable 378-acre, timber-rich, Southern Normal School campus.

Capt. James Paul and Moses Prewitt, who worked as Director of Alumni Affairs at Stillman College, were my two best friends during my three years in law school.  Those years, from 1970 to 1973, were the longest and loneliest three years of my life.  

Moses, Capt. Paul, and I leaned on each other daily as a source of strength to get through the thick, nasty, and undiluted white racism on campus.  We socialized on Stillman’s campus across town because it was a safe environment for the small group of black UA graduate and law school students.

Throughout our ordeal, Capt. James Paul was a consummate leader, a great friend, an unselfish protector, and a first-class military officer.  I credit Capt. Paul's Air Force officer's training for helping us to 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.

Moses Prewitt died on February 15, 2010, at 75. 

Moses Prewitt, Director of Alumni Affairs at Stillman College, with Claraette Moore, assistant marketing and co-campaign director of the United Negro College Fund, circa April 2006.

Dr. Lena Prewitt died on February 14, 2024, at age 92.

Capt. James Paul died peacefully in his suburban community near Los Angeles, California, at age 80.

DeAndra and I will miss Capt. James Paul, always and forever! It is up to us to safeguard Capt. Paul's legacy and his rightful place in American history.