Passport Re-Issued: I Am Ready to Travel the World, Again

By: Donald V. Watkins

Copyrighted and Published on May 25, 2024

An Editorial Opinion

On December 13, 2018, I voluntarily surrendered my U.S. passport at the federal courthouse in Birmingham as a requirement of my pretrial release on bond in a bogus criminal "fraud" case brought by local federal prosecutor Lloyd Peeples a month earlier.

Peeples, the owner of a pizza store in Birmingham that failed 11 months after it opened, is well-known for his hostile views toward blacks and women. He even sports a skinhead look.

IMAGE: Lloyd Peeples dressed in his pizza store uniform in 2017.

Peeples' hostile and agressive actions towards me were motivated, in part, by my award-winning achievements in the field of international business. Despite being the beneficiary of Southern white male privilege since childhood, Peeples could not run a simple pizza restaurant in a successful manner.

Peeples's documented history of opposing the rights of black Americans and women to participate in American society as equal citizens dates back to his tenure as a student editor of his college newspaper. For example, in a November 1994 article, Peeples railed against his university’s efforts to create “more programs and workshops about date and acquaintance rape.” He claimed that “courses on women’s studies, . . . . more aggressive hiring of female faculty and administrators, . . . . are going too far.” Peeples complained that “[t]he school should not feel that it has to provide every single thing that women and minorities claim would make them happy.” (Pages 6-7).

Peeples' article accompanies an article written by Doug Burns, Ray Craig, and Jeffrey Laborde titled, “White Males: The Label, The Dilemma.” The article’s promotional tag line claimed that, “[t]he civil rights movement has gone astray and has created a very hostile environment for white males.” (Pages 15-18).

Peeples' expressed hostility towards blacks and women was a major factor in his selection for a prominent supervisory role within the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Alabama in October 2017.

Aided and abetted by others federal law enforcement officials with similar regressive views, Peeples used the power of his office to disrupt my international business operations from November 2018 to August 2022.  Despite Peeples' intense efforts to undermine my ongoing international business enterprises, his attempts were ultimately unsuccessful.

In one African nation where I work, Peeples and the criminal case he brought against me were viewed as a modern-day example of colonial-era white supremacy. As such, Peeples' efforts to sabotage my business in that country failed miserably.

President Joe Biden has chosen to keep Lloyd Peeples as a senior federal prosecutor, despite his documented hostility towards blacks and women. Peeples, a former First Assistant U.S. Attorney, currently serves as the head of the Criminal Division at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Birmingham.

What is more, President Biden also retained Peeples' boss -- Donald Trump-appointed Republican U.S. Attorney Prim Escalona. This move keeps Trump-era federal law enforcement policies in place in the Northern District of Alabama.

After a two-year quest to regain my passport and right to travel around the world, I finally received my new U.S. passport yesterday.  I am ready, willing, and able to resume my international business travels.  Although Lloyd Peeples' racial hatred was meant to hurt me, it only made me stronger.

This is an exciting time to be working in the international energy business.  I look forward to rejoining my business partners in South Africa, Namibia, and Morrocco on my first business trip.  But first, I plan to visit my son and life-coach, Light Watkins, in Mexico.

No matter what naysayers may say about you, always remember this truism: God is a Way-Maker, Miracle Worker, Promise-Keeper, and Light in the Darkness. With God in your life, all things are possible.