By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on September 11, 2025 Thomas C. Fugate, leads the federal agency that is charged with keeping America safe from terrorism and politically-motivated assassinations like the one that killed Charlie Kirk. Fugate is a 22-years-old Donald Trump appointee. An Editorial Opinion   One thing is clear about the assassination of Charlie Kirk -- it was a professional hit job by trained assassins.  It was planned and executed to perfection.  Kash Patel's FBI has no clue as to who assassinated Kirk and neither does Thomas C. Fugate, Donald Trump's 22-year-old Anti-Terrorism Chief.   A precision assassination like this one is indicative of a covert “hit job” by a foreign intelligence agency.  The team of assassins apparently prepared for Kirk’s assassination for weeks.  They obviously accessed computer records for detailed information relating to the logistical and security arrangements for Kirk’s speaking engagement at Utah Valley University.   A single bullet fired from 200 yards away killed Kirk. The assassins planned their escape.  They may be out of the country by now.   There are only two governments today that are killing people with impunity on foreign soil -- Russia and Israel.  Neither one of them can be trusted.  Both are murderous regimes.  Both are led by men who have outstanding warrants for their arrest that were issued by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity.   Russia is a Prime Suspect in Kirk’s Assassination   Kirk's assassination occurred after Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Donald Trump in the United States on August 15, 2025, to discuss a ceasefire in the endless Ukraine-Russia war.   During their meeting and unbeknownst to an embarrassed Donald Trump, Putin was bombing the hell out of Ukraine while they were meeting.    In hindsight, it became apparent that the sole purpose of Putin’s visit with Trump was for the Russian President to assess Trump’s mental acuity, physical and emotional strength, level of courage, and ability to be managed or snookered.     Putin did the same thing with Biden before he invaded Ukraine.  After Putin met with Biden and determined for himself that Biden was weak and senile, Putin invaded Ukraine. As Trump's chief social media influencer, if Kirk soured on Putin in the aftermath of Trump's failed Alaskan Summit, Trump would have to do so, as well.   Israel is a Prime Suspect in Kirk’s Assassination   Israel is notorious for carrying out assassinations of perceived enemies on foreign soil.  Benjamin Netanyahu is an unhinged genocidal maniac.  He is currently on trial in Israel for public corruption charges.  Netanyahu uses massive campaign contributions from a Jewish political action committee named “AIPAC” to control U.S. presidents and members of Congress of both parties.  After receiving AIPAC campaign funds, each recipient dutifully falls to his/her knees and administers political fellatio on Netanyahu for as long as he desires.  No recipient of AIPAC money dares to say “no” to Netanyahu.   Jeffrey Epstein was an “ access agent ” who ran a “honey trap” operation for Mossad, Israel’s national intelligence agency.  The “honey trap” used underaged girls and boys to entrap powerful Washington politicians and major corporate executives, who would later be blackmailed by Israel.  No U.S. president has felt free enough to publicly disclose this Mossad operation.  Two presidents – Bill Clinton and Donald Trump -- were entrapped in it.   Kirk was a staunch political ally of Donald Trump, but his support for Israel was waning. If Kirk ever abandoned Israel, Trump would have to do so, as well.   Did U.S. Intelligence Services Fail Charlie Kirk?   As was the case with 9/11, U.S. intelligence agencies missed every potential clue related to Charlie Kirk’s assassination.  They did not pick up any electronic surveillance or in-person chatter about the planned assassination of Kirk. Why?   Thomas C. Fugate, a 22-year-old former landscaper and grocery store worker with minimal national security experience, now leads the federal office charged with preventing domestic terrorism and targeted violence.   He is Trump's Anti-Terrorism Chief.  Fugate’s appointment sparked alarm among former officials and counterterrorism experts.   Fugate leads the Department of Homeland Security’s Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships, the agency’s flagship office for countering domestic violent extremism and politically-motivated assasinations.  Intelligence experts have compared Fugate’s hiring to "putting the intern in charge," according to  ProPublica .   Will Kirk’s Assassins Be Caught?   Considering the prime suspects in Kirk’s assassination and their highly suspect relationship with Donald Trump, it is doubtful that Kirk’s assassination will be solved while Trump is in office.  Kirk’s murder now falls within the same political quagmire as the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the murder of Jeffrey Epstein , and the release of the Epstein files.   Washington politicos may never be ready for the truth surrounding Kirk’s assassination.   Based upon its flip-flopping this year in the Epstein case, Kash Patel’s FBI has no credibility in a search for the truth about Kirk’s assassination.    Based upon Thomas Fugate’s failed leadership, the U.S. intelligence agencies probably will not find and report the truth, if it embarrasses Donald Trump.  The only expertise these agencies have exhibited to date is their ability to cover up the truth when they are pressured to do so by the White House. Who Can We Trust to Find and Report the Truth About Kirk's Assassination? We need Rep. Majorie Taylor Green (R-Georgia) to get to the bottom of Charlie Kirk's assassination. She is independent and strong enough to find and report the truth about this murder. Marjorie Taylor Greene was right about the Epstein files and the government’s mistreatment of the sexual abuse victims in Epstein’s case. She was right about America’s toxic relationship with AIPAC and Israel, as well as their control of Congress and the U.S. Presidency. Greene was right about Jewish attacks on innocent Christians in Israel. She was right about American tax dollars providing a quality of life for Israelis that is far superior to what Americans experience at home. Greene was right about the GOP’s treatment of women as second-class citizens. Greene was right about the existence of clandestine government and private sector weather modification programs that are causing hundreds of deaths and billions of dollars in property damage around the nation. Greene was right about America’s propensity to support and engage in foreign wars against any perceived “enemy” designated by Israel. Greene is one of the few members of Congress who acts based upon personal principles, as opposed to AIPAC campaign contributions. She has earned our trust on these sensitive political matters. Everybody else in Washington is busy covering their asses for their obvious failure of leadership in Charlie Kirk's assassination case.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on September 10, 2025 An Editorial Opinion   I met the pedophile depicted in this featured photo early in my legal career. He raped each one of his three daughters on the day they became a teenager.  With this incomrehensible act of incest, he killed their innocence.  I will not disclose the name of this pedophile out of respect for his victims, who are now adults.   In the early 1980s, this man was a powerful police lieutenant who was extremely popular in the local white community. None of his superiors in the police department wanted to believe what he did to his young incest victims.  At my insistence, a brave district attorney named Jimmy Evans listened to these young victims and believed their account of what happened.    Much to the consternation of higher ups in the police department, Evans indicted this pedophile, convicted him, and imprisoned him for a long time.  He died last year.   This man was the first of many elite pedophiles I would encounter during my 46-year legal career.  Based upon what I observed in this man’s child rape case and in many others, I learned how to investigate child molestation and child rape cases, how to track down and corner elite pedophiles, and how to imprison them.    Elite pedophiles are usually protected by the powerful forces that maintain the political status quo.  This automatic form of protectionism is a kneejerk reaction to the charge of pedophilia. These forces look for ways to support the pedophile and ignore the young sexual abuse victims.   I look for ways to bust elite pedophiles, protect the victims of their crimes, and imprison the men/women who sexually abuse children.  The job title, wealth, social standing, or political affiliation of an elite pedophile means absolutely nothing to me.    Pedophilia is NOT a political issue. It is a category of serious crimes that adults commit against innocent children. Pedophilia kills the innocence of a child. It scars the victim for life. Pedophilia results from our collective failure to safeguard and protect the most vulnerable members of society.   The character traits of an elite pedophile and his/her pattern of despicable behavior are always the same.  They are slimy, pompous, narcissistic, arrogant, empowered, compulsive liars who will say and do anything to cover up their sexual abuse of children.  When those of us who are specially trained to spot pedophilia look at the details of their behavior, listen to their words, pay attention to their actions, and place the relationships in question under heightened scrutiny, they are pretty easy to spot.   I have zero tolerance for pedophiles, whether they are the elite ones or not. People who coddle and support pedophiles are only prolonging the day when they are held accountable for their crimes. Nothing good comes from aiding and abetting a pedophile in the commission of his/her crimes, or in covering up their crimes.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on April 3, 2017 (via Facebook ) ; Republished on August 16, 2024 Russian Major-General Ibrahim Petrovich Hannibal, a/k/a Peter the Great's Negro. In an October 12, 2014, Atlanta Black Star article titled, “ Great Black Russians: Ibrahim Petrovich Hannibal and Alexandre Sergeivich Pushkin ," noted historian, anthropologist, and lecturer Runoko Rashidi tells the amazing story of two celebrated figures in Russian history. They were two great men of African descent in European history. Here is their story, as written by Rashidi: Major-General Ibrahim Petrovich Hannibal Born in Moscow on May 26, 1799, Alexandre Sergeivich Pushkin, the patriarch of Russian literature, was descended on his mother’s side from Major-General Ibrahim Petrovich Hannibal -- an African who became a favorite of Russian Czar Peter I (1682-1725). He would later be known as " Peter the Great's Negro ." By all accounts, Hannibal was an extraordinary figure and, from an African perspective, it is quite interesting that he assumed the name Hannibal -- himself an African as well as one of the great military commanders and strategists in history. In 1703, at the age of 7, Hannibal was taken to the court of the Ottoman Sultan at Constantinople. After spending a year in the capital, Hannibal was taken away by the deputy of the Russian ambassador Savva Raguzinsky, who was following the orders of his superiors (one of whom was Pyotr Andreyevich Tolstoy, great-grandfather of the great writer Lev Tolstoy). Hannibal was baptized in 1705 in St. Paraskeva’s Church in Vilnius, with Russian Czar Peter I (Peter the Great) as his godfather. In 1717, Hannibal went to Paris to continue an education in the arts, sciences and warfare. By then, he was fluent in several languages and knew mathematics and geometry. Hannibal fought with the forces of Louis XV of France against those of Louis’ uncle Philip V of Spain, and rose to the rank of captain. It was during his time in France that he adopted his surname in honor of the Carthaginian general, Hannibal. After completing his education in France, Hannibal returned to Russia, where Czar Peter met him in person just a few miles from Moscow. After Peter’s daughter Elizabeth became the new monarch in 1741, Hannibal became a prominent person in her court. He rose to the rank of Major-General and became governor of Tallinn, a position he held from 1742 to 1752. In 1742, the Empress Elizabeth gave Hannibal the Mikhailovskoye estate in Pskov province with hundreds of serfs. Hannibal retired there in 1762. Alexandre Sergeivich Pushkin Alexandre Sergeivich Pushkin has been identified as the "Father of Russian Literature." Alexandre Sergeivich Pushkin The most distinguished Russian writers offer Pushkin effusive praise. Feodor Dostoevsky wrote that, “ No Russian writer was ever so intimately at one with the Russian people as Pushkin. ” I. Turgeniev wrote that, “ Pushkin alone had to perform two tasks which took whole centuries and more to accomplish in other countries, namely to establish a language and to create a literature. ” According to N.A. Dobrolyubuv, “ Pushkin is of immense importance not only in the history of Russian literature, but also in the history of Russian enlightenment. He was the first to teach the Russian public to read. " A.V. Lunacharsky said, “ Pushkin was the Russian spring. Pushkin was the Russian morning. Pushkin was the Russian Adam. Pushkin did for us what Dante and Petrach did for Italy; what the 17th century giants did for France; and what Lessing, Schiller and Goethe did for Germany .” Pushkin clearly saw himself as a black man and closely identified himself with those Africans held in bondage in the Americas. In a letter composed in 1824, Pushkin wrote: “ It is permissible to judge the Greek question like that of my Negro brethren, desiring for both deliverance from an intolerable slavery. ” Pushkin died prematurely on January 29, 1837 at 2:45 p.m. resulting from wounds suffered defending his honor in a duel. Czar Nicholas I, who hated and feared Pushkin, called him “ the most intelligent man in Russia .” Allison Blakely has written that, “ Pushkin was truly the counterpart to Shakespeare .” Alexandre Pushkin was buried on February 6, 1837, in Svyatogorsk Monastery, near Mikhailovskoye, close to his mother and his great-grandfather Hannibal. Bronze statues of Pushkin can be found throughout Moscow and St. Petersburg. Russian cities, town squares and 20 museums have been named after Pushkin. His portraits are everywhere. Today, Hannibal and Pushkin are beloved national heroes in Russia. [Author's Note: The story of Major-General Ibrahim Petrovich Hannibal and writer Alexandre Sergeivich Pushkin is the subject of one of two TV documentaries I am co-executive-producing in California. The second documentray details the lives of Black Germans who were Holocaust victims in Nazi Germany during World War II. Unlike Jewish Holocaust victims, the story of Black German Holocaust victims has never been told in a documentary or motion picture. Both documentaries are worthy and exciting projects, and they represent the fulfillment of one of my life-long personal goals.]

By Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on September 8, 2025 New York Attorney General Letitia James (left) and Federal Reserve Board Governor Lisa D. Cook (right). An Editorial Opinion I first noticed the cowardice in 2002 when President George W. Bush's federal law enforcement posse lynched distinguished Baltimore, Maryland investment banker and University System of Maryland Board of Regents Chairman Nathan A. Chapman, Jr ., on bogus business fraud charges.   National Democratic Party leaders did absolutely nothing to protect an innocent Nathan Chapman from this lynching.   I witnessed this cowardice again when the federal law enforcement posse came for Baltimore state prosecutor Marylyn J. Mosby in January 2022.  In 2015, Mosby charged six police officers with criminal offenses ranging from false imprisonment, to manslaughter, to murder for the death of arrestee Freddie Gray in police custody.  Unfortunately, Mosby did not win criminal convictions in these cases. In the aftermath of the Freddie Gray-related trials, the local Baltimore law enforcement establishment turned against Mosby. With the blessing of the incoming Biden administration, the federal law enforcement posse opened an investigation into Mosby's home mortgages in March 2021 and charged her with bogus perjury and mortgage fraud offenses. No National Democratic Party leader came to Mosby's rescue to prevent her law enforcement lynching.   At the instigation of Donald Trump, the federal law enforcement posse came for New York Attorney General Letitia James in April 2025.  In February 2024, James obtained a $527 million civil fraud judgment against Trump and his sons. In August 2025, an New York state appeals court affirmed the jury's finding that Trump and his sons committed business fraud, but reversed the amount of the court judgment rendered against the Trump defendants.  James is now fighting for her career and freedom in a MAGA-controlled federal law enforcement system that is persecuting her and preparing to lynch her on bogus mortgage fraud charges.   In August 2025, Trump’s law enforcement posse came after Federal Reserve Board Governor Lisa D. Cook .  Like Letitia James, Cook is fighting for her career and freedom on bogus mortgage fraud charges in a MAGA-controlled federal law enforcement system that priorities the punishment of Trump’s political enemies and the protection of his army of rich, powerful, and politically connected pedophile friends, business associates, and investors. The National Democratic Party calvary is NOT coming to rescue Letitia James and Lisa Cook, who are awaiting their turn to swing from Donald Trump’s lynching tree on bogus mortgage fraud charges.  Trump's Disparate Treatment in Mortgage Fraud Investigations It must be noted that Trump Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer entered into two primary-residence mortgages in quick succession, including for a second home near a country club in Arizona. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has primary-residence mortgages in New Jersey and Washington, D.C. Lee Zeldin, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, has one primary-residence mortgage in Long Island and another one in Washington, D.C., according to loan records reviewed by ProPublica . Yet, Bill Pulte, the Federal Housing Finance Agency Director and MAGA political operative who made criminal referrals of Letitia James and Lisa Cook to Pam Bondi's DOJ, has not referred the three Trump-appointed Cabinet members to DOJ for a criminal investigation and prosecution on mortgage fraud charges. Likewise, Pulte has not investigated MAGA Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for mortgage fraud or referred his case to the DOJ for a criminal investigation and prosecution, even though Paxton claimed primary residences on three home mortgage loans. In law, Pulte's failure to investigate and refer Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Sean Duffy, Lee Zeldin, and Ken Paxton to the DOJ for a criminal investigation and prosecution, while investigating and referring Letitia James and Lisa Cook to the DOJ for a criminal investigation and prosecution on substantially similar claims of mortgage fraud is called "selective prosecution." Selective prosecution is unlawful. National Democratic Party Leaders Have Fallen Silent   Despite these blatant examples of disparate treatment and unlawful selective prosecution by Trump's law enforcement posse, there has been no outcry from Barack Obama, Kamala Harris, Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries, Nancy Pelosi, Al Sharpton, Ben Crump, or other Democrats with national stature about the impending DOJ lynching of Letitia James and Lisa Cook.  These Party leaders have been as silent as a church mouse on this issue. Callie House , the leader of the national movement for pensions for ex-slaves, had more national support from Black leaders than James and Cook enjoy today, and House’s law enforcement lynching on bogus federal fraud charges occurred in 1916. Callie House Why I fight for Lynching Victims   People always ask me why I fight so hard for Marylyn Mosby, Letitia James, and Lisa Cook when none of them fought for me during my Lawfare ordeal from 2017 to 2022.   The answer to this question is simple: I was specifically trained in the art of social justice warfare by my parents ( Levi and Lillian Watkins ), siblings (Marie, Pearl, Levi, Jr., Tina, and James), grandfathers ( Adam Watkins and Rev. Willie L. Varnado ), schoolteachers at Alabama State College Laboratory High School , community leaders ( Dr. E.D. Nixon, Ms. Rosa Parks, and Ms. Johnnie Carr ), and childhood church pastors ( Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rev. Ralph David Abernathy , and Rev. Samuel Augustus Owen ).   I knew when I entered the legal profession as a young civil rights lawyer in 1973 that the odds were very high that I would be killed or jailed because of my aggressive, successful, high-impact, landmark civil rights cases in Alabama -- "The Heart of Dixie" and "Cradle of the Confederacy."  However, it was a price I was willing to pay.    Alabama's white power structure began its Lawfare efforts to imprison me in 1975. Their racially-motived Lawfare campaigns continued on nine occasions over the next four decades.  My specialized training as a social justice warrior enabled me to survive and/or minimize the adverse impact of continuous, improper, COINTELPRO -like, Lawfare tactics, including a judicial lynching. Marylyn Mosby and Letitia James came out of law school a generation after me.  Lisa Cook does not have a law degree.  These women were not trained to deal with the Lawfare initiatives that targeted them.  What is old-school, COINTELPRO-like Lawfare to me is new to them. I fight for Mosby, James, and Cook in the court of public opinion because it is the right thing to do.  They are Lawfare targets, not criminals.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on October 10, 2021 Attorney Donald Watkins following the Richard Scrushy "Not Guilty" verdicts. An Editorial Opinion I knew they would eventually come for me. When I visited Nelson Mandela's prison cell on Robbens Island in 2012, I prayed in silence, alone, for about 10 minutes and asked God to give me the strength that he gave Mandela when they came for him. They had been trying to indict me on some charge -- any charge -- since 1975. They came hard and heavy at me in Birmingham in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Then, in 2013, they launched a Blitzkrieg that ultimately produced a law enforcement lynching of my oldest son and me. Through it all, my son and I maintained our innocence. To many of them, including a few federal and state court judges in Alabama, I am an uppity, arrogant, "nigger lawyer" (their words, not mine) and "trouble-maker who meddles in white folks business." Again, these are their words, not mine. Why They Came for Me My landmark legal cases since 1974 have desegregated a litany of federal, state, and local government bodies and agencies in Alabama. I also desegregated the faculties and staffs of 68 of the state's public K-12 school systems. My cases also desegregated all of the state's community colleges and technical schools. My 25 years of litigation against Alabama's system of higher education desegregated the state's 32 four-year public colleges and universities. This landmark case also resulted in an unprecedented award of nearly $600 million in state-funded educational enhancement funding and endowment money for historically black Alabama State University and Alabama A&M University, together with exclusive, first-of-their-kind PhD programs at these two universities. The litigation also increased the state's annual appropriations for the Alabama State's and Alabama A&M's operating and capital budgets. This case was met with massive resistance from state officials and torrid hate mail from whites in and around Alabama. For this, I knew they were coming for me. I cleared the names of the nine black teenage "Scottsboro Boys" who were arrested in 1931 and falsely accused of raping two white teenage prostitutes on a freight train passing through Paint Rock, Alabama. In November 1976, I won a full and unconditional pardon (based upon proof of innocence) for Mr. Clarence Norris, the last surviving "Scottsboro Boy." Mr. Norris' pardon ended the "Boys’" 45-year legal nightmare in Alabama's racially biased criminal justice system. Over the next fifteen years, I investigated and solved a record number of police shootings of innocent, unarmed black men in Alabama. More than two dozen white law enforcement officers were fired or forced to resign from police departments as a result of my investigations, published reports, and wrongful death lawsuits. I also forced the resignations of Montgomery, Alabama mayor Jim Robinson, Montgomery Public Safety Director Ed Wright, and eight police officers in 1977 for covering up the 1975 police murder of Bernard Whitehurst, an innocent, unarmed black man who happened to be in the wrong place, at the wrong time. The Washington Post called Whitehurst's murder and the subsequent police cover-up of his murder, " Alabama's Watergate ." For this, I knew they would come for me. I forced the resignation of Chief U.S. District Court Judge Mark E. Fuller (in Montgomery, Alabama) in 2016 by exposing his serial wife-beating conduct in an exclusive series of investigative articles I wrote and published in 2015 and 2016. While serving as a federal judge, Fuller, who was a married playboy, used his judicial position, his courtroom, and his judge's chambers to carry on extra-marital affairs with his married courtroom bailiff and a young, single, female law clerk. I also forced the resignation of two-term Alabama governor Robert Bentley in 2017 following my publication of two series of investigative articles ("Forbidden Love" and Executive Betrayal") in 2015 that exposed Bentley's "sex-for-power" and public corruption scandal with his married lover, Rebekah Caldwell Mason. Bentley, who was married while he carried on a torrid love affair with Mason, used taxpayers' dollars and campaign funds to finance his romantic escapades with her. A vindictive Bentley used his power as governor and influence as the "Chief Magistrate of Alabama" to encourage state and federal regulatory and law enforcement agencies to initiate civil and/or criminal proceedings against me. The Alabama State Banking Department (ASBD), the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Federal Reserve Board (FRB), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Alabama Department of Revenue (ADR), the U.S. U.S. Attorney's office in Birmingham, and the City of Birmingham obliged Bentley by opening regulatory and law enforcement investigations of me and my businesses. Bentley also pressured Alabama Law Enforcement Agency head Spencer Collier to open a criminal investigation of me without providing Collier any evidence that I had committed criminal activity. Collier refused to do so, and was promptly fired by Bentley. In 2017, Bentley pled guilty to ethics violations he committed as governor. For this, I knew they were coming for me. In 2016, I exposed the Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Department's cover-up in the July 2015 reported rape of University of Alabama honors student Megan Rondini. Rondini committed suicide after local law enforcement authorities refused to prosecute her accused rapist -- Tuscaloosa businessman, T.J. "Sweet T" Bunn, Jr. All of the parties that were complicit in obstructing justice in Megan Rondini's rape case and in contributing to her subsequent suicide eventually settled with her estate. I also exposed the murder of Northport, Alabama resident Adam Bailey by the adult children of well-connected families in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and broke open the subsequent police cover-up of Adam's murder. For this, I knew they were coming for me. On the political front, I exposed efforts by white Democrats in Alabama, various media pundits, and their black political "bellhops" in October 2016 to conduct a media and political lynching of longtime civil rights leader, Dr. Joe L. Reed. As an independent voter, I had some serious political differences with Dr. Reed at the time. Yet, I made it clear in an article titled, " There Will Be No Lynching of Dr. Joe L. Reed Today ," that "I will not allow the Democratic Party or anyone else who was missing in action during our long, hard, and difficult struggle to advance civil rights and equal opportunity in Alabama to politically lynch Dr. Reed without a fight." I also kept the forces that oppose civil rights for people of color and women in Alabama from sending former Birmingham Mayor Richard Arrington, Jr., former Chief U.S. District Court Judge U.W. Clemon (Birmingham), and former state Representative John F. Knight (D-Montgomery) to jail on trumped up public corruption charges. I knew that the contemplated criminal charges against these black civil rights leaders were bogus and that the law enforcement officials who were bringing them were media-savvy racists who had zero credibility in the black community. The misconduct committed by federal prosecutors in the Arrington and Clemon cases is set forth in published reports in the Congressional Record-Senate Journal. For this, I knew they were coming for me. In 2016, I solved the July 2005 murder of 19-year-old Army private LaVena Johnson, who was black, by four-star general Kevin P. Byrnes, who is white, on a U.S. military base in Balad, Iraq. I also exposed the Pentagon's subsequent cover-up of Private Johnson's murder. Within weeks of the murder, President George W. Bush was privately briefed at the White House on Private Johnson's death by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and the Central Commander for Iraqi war operations. After the briefing, Rumsfeld kicked Gen. Byrnes out of the Army -- approximately three months prior to his previously announced retirement date. Immediately thereafter, the Pentagon classified Private Johnson's homicide file as a "Top Secret" national security matter. Private Johnson's murder file remains sealed today. It can only be declassified and released to the media upon the issuance of an order personally signed by the Secretary of Defense and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. For this, I knew they were coming for me. In 2003, the U.S. Attorney in Birmingham indicted HealthSouth chief executive officer Richard Scrushy on 85 felony counts in a $2.7 billion accounting fraud scandal. If convicted, Scrushy faced up to 650 years in prison. In 2005, the Wall Street Journal characterized me as the " mastermind of the defense ." In July of 2005, following a six-month trial and 28 days of jury deliberations, Scrushy was found "not guilty" on all charges. Fortune magazine featured the successful outcome of Scrushy's trial in an article titled, " Donald Watkins: The Man Who Saved Richard Scrushy ." The stunning victory in Scrushy's case humiliated the SEC's trial counsel in the companion civil case against him. These same lawyers, who were blasted by the federal judge in the SEC's 2003 civil case for their lawlessness, would later bring a fabricated fraud lawsuit against me in a friendly Atlanta federal court venue in 2016. The white community's hatred towards me in Alabama was extremely vocal and hostile after the Scrushy "not guilty" verdicts. I was forced to move to Atlanta and Miami for my personal safety. Yes, I knew they were coming for me. And, they did. With a vengeance. They formed a lynch mob of federal and state law enforcement agencies and other support groups to hang me. A failed pizza restaurant operator, who was hired in 2017 as First Assistant U.S. Attorney in Birmingham, served as the ringleader of the lynch mob. His name is Lloyd Peeples. Tuscaloosa-based "dirty tricks" operator Joe Perkins also joined the lynch mob. U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), who single-handedly protected Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes from criminal prosecution for the murder of Private LaVena Johnson, coordinated the lynching of me from Washington. Using his four decades of seniority as a U.S. Senator and his leadership position on several key Senate oversight committees, Shelby, a Tuscaloosa native, made sure that each federal regulatory and law enforcement agency participating in the lynching had the direction and financial resources they needed to get the job done. Shelby's lynch mob participants included the SEC, FDIC, FRB, IRS, FBI, and the U.S. Attorney's office in Birmingham. Several local news reporters and columnists, who functioned in a modern-day COINTELPRO role, and the Alabama State Bar Association participated, as well. The ARD joined the lynch mob in late 2019. The site of the lynching was the U.S. District Courthouse in Birmingham. During my 48-year tenure as a lawyer, thousands of blacks litigants and criminal defendants have been judicially lynched or railroaded in this courthouse. Sen. Shelby worked there as a U.S. Magistrate during the heyday of these judicial lynchings. Furthermore, as a U.S. Senator, Shelby has determined who would serve as an Article III federal judge in Alabama for the past three decades. In 2015 and 2016, Mr. Andrew Kogan, chief of the Economic Crimes Division of the U.S. Attorney's office in New Jersey in 2015 and 2016, investigated the same "investor fraud" allegations against me that were used by Peeples to spearhead the Birmingham lynching. Mr. Kogan cleared me of all wrongdoing. To his credit, Mr. Kogan refused to participate in the Alabama lynching of my son and me that was led by Lloyd Peeples. All of my "sunshine" friends abandoned me. A few of them actually betrayed me. Many local white Alabamians and some misguided blacks cheered the lynch mob as they strung me up. I knew the cavalry was not coming to save me. For more than four decades, I had functioned as the cavalry -- the one who saved everybody else. I had to survive the lynching on my own. This is why the prayer at Mandela's prison cell held such special significance for me. In the end, God favored me . He blessed me with the strength that he gave to Mandela. I survived the lynching. Intact. With dignity. With new and true friends. With a bright future. And, with profound love in my heart for my family, my true friends, and the thousands of loyal supporters who comforted me along the long, difficult, and dark journey to the other side of midnight. I survived. IMAGE: Attorney Donald Watkins following the Richard Scrushy verdict. All articles are shared on Facebook and Twitter. If you would like to follow Donald Watkins, please click on these links and hit the follow button: https://www.facebook.com/donald.v.watkins https://twitter.com/donaldvwatkins

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on September 7, 2025 An Editorial Opinion Every coverup has a shelf-life. President Donald Trump's ongoing coverup in the Jeffrey Epstein child molestation, child rape, and child pornography case is coming to an end. This long-running child sex trafficking case is not a "hoax," as Trump has repeatedly declared. It's a national tragedy. The Department of Justice (DOJ) has acknowledged 1,000+ Epstein crime victims. We believe you! We are happy that you survived Epstein's horrible crimes. Donald Trump has threatened MAGA Republicans in Congress who seek the truth in your case. Many weak-kneed Republicans are terrified of him. Two of them are not -- Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia). Ignore the senseless ramblings of House Speaker Mike Johnson. He has NEVER adequately explained his so-called "adoption" of the young kid depicted in the photo below when Johnson was a single man. Whatever Johnson did to this kid while he was living with Johnson messed him up for life. We can NEVER depend on Mike Johnson to protect any child from pedophiles. Trump's aggressive level of obstructionism is the best evidence of his complicity in Epstein's sex trafficking crimes. Trump has ordered his MAGA cult followers to stop talking about the case. Trump's obstructionism has also made today's MAGA Republican Party a sanctuary for rich, powerful, and politically connected pedophiles. They are flocking to the Party in droves. To date, over 4,000 of sexual predators, abusers, and enablers have nested within the MAGA Republican Party, according to published reports in the Daily Kos . No child is safe when left alone with these MAGA-protected sexual predators. We believe there is an Epstein client list, as Attorney General Pam Bondi repeatedly acknowledged before Donald Trump muzzled her in July and forced the DOJ to close the Epstein case. The list was compiled by state and federal sex crimes investigators, dating back to the early 2000s. The list has NEVER been released to the public. We also believe Trump has compiled a list of presidentially protected pedophiles who are his business partners and investors. These pedophiles are untouchable because money has already changed hands between Trump and them. Stay the course! Truth crushed to earth shall rise again. "Good" always triumphs over"evil." God has your back.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on February 10, 2025 James Weldon Johnson wrote the "Lift Every Voice and Sing" in 1900 at the beginning of the Jim Crow era in America. The NAACP dubbed this song as the "Negro National Anthem" in 1919 , which was 12 years before "The Star Spangled Banner" was adopted by Congress in 1931 as the "National Anthem." An Editorial Opinion   On Sunday, Grammy Award-winning artist Ledisi sang the hymn “ Lift Every Voice and Sing ” ahead of Super Bowl LIX at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans.  Most black Americans regard this song as the " Negro National Anthem ."   Many white Americans have had the luxury of ignoring this song because they never knew the "Lift Every Voice and Sing" or never considered its importance in American history.   History of the "Negro National Anthem"   The “Negro National Anthem” was sung in every segregated black school across the U.S. each morning during the long, dark, and violent Jim Crow era in America.  The song was written by James Weldon Johnson in 1900 at the beginning of the Jim Crow era. The song was performed for the first time by a choir of 500 school children in Jacksonville, Florida not long after it was written. The NAACP dubbed “Lift Every Voice and Sing” as the "Negro National Anthem" in 1919 , which was 13 years before " The Star Spangled Banner " was adopted by Congress in 1931 as the " National Anthem ." The doctrine of " Separate but Equal ," as proclaimed by the U.S. Supreme Court, ruled in America from 1896 to 1964. There was a " White America " and " Black America " during this period that was sanctioned by law. The vestiges of this racial divided America are present today in every aspect of American society.   I sang “Lift Every Voice and Sing” every morning in my all-Black K-12 classes until I graduated from high school in Montgomery, Alabama in May 1966. When court-ordered desegregation occurred across the nation in the late 1960s and 1970s, most black public schools were closed.  White administrators who ran the nation’s school systems forbade black students from singing the "Negro National Anthem" at their newly assigned desegregated schools. Like so many positive aspects of black culture, the “Negro National Anthem” became a casualty of the school desegregation process. The same was true for academic awards and sports trophies earned by the men/women of honor at closed black high schools. The value of this black history and memorabilia has been completely disregarded by most white Americans, particularly in the Deep South.   The Song’s Lyrics are Powerful   Here are the lyrics to “ Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing :”   “Lift ev’ry voice and sing, Till earth and heaven ring, Ring with the harmonies of Liberty; Let our rejoicing rise High as the list’ning skies, Let it resound loud as the rolling sea. Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us, Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us; Facing the rising sun of our new day begun, Let us march on till victory is won.   Stony the road we trod Bitter the chastening rod Felt in the days when hope unborn had died Yet with a steady beat Have not our weary feet Come to the place for which our fathers sighed? We have come over a way that with tears has been watered We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered Out from the gloomy past 'Til now we stand at last Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast   God of our weary years God of our silent tears Thou who has brought us thus far on the way Thou who has by Thy might Led us into the light Keep us forever in the path, we pray Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee Shadowed beneath Thy hand May we forever stand True to our God True to our native land.”   The "Negro National Anthem" helped an entire race of downtrodden black Americans endure: (a) the suffocating oppression and sweltering heat of Jim Crow segregation laws in the Deep South, (b) the Ku Klux Klan lynchings, beatings, cross burnings, house and church bombings, and (c) the entrenched systemic racial discrimination against blacks in every aspect of society, from the "cradle to the grave."   This song encouraged us to lift our voices and sing until freedom rang out across America. It is as sacred to Black America as the “ Star Spangled Banner ” is to White America.    The "Negro National Anthem’s" Relevance Today   I realize that tens of millions of white Americans dislike the idea of America showing any respect for the "Negro National Anthem."   Ledisi's performance of the song during the pre-game activities has created a social media frenzy. Today, many white Americans in today's MAGA Movement simply don’t want to be bothered with learning anything related to black history and culture.  These whites characterize the singing of the "Negro National Anthem" as " wokeness ," which they view as another form of "evil" DEI policies and programs. I consider their aversion to learning black history and culture to be a form of willful ignorance and malicious disrespect .   I believe it is fitting and proper that the “Negro National Anthem” and “Star Spangled Banner” be sung at all NFL games. The NFL, which is comprised of 80% black players and 32 white NFL team owners , is paying its respect to both iconic cultures.   Right now, most white Americans know very little about black history, culture, and our positive contributions to American society.  As the ruling class in America for 400 years, white Americans have never had to know this information.     The only question I have for white Americans who were offended by Ledisi's singing of the "Negro National Anthem" is this:  Did your bloodline help to liberate my black ancestors from slavery, Black Codes , and Jim Crow laws, or was your bloodline part of the group that oppressed us?

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) on October 22, 2017; Republished on Memorial Day, May 28, 2018 The Blue Angels On October 21, 2017, I traveled to Rome, Georgia to watch the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels fly their F/A-18 Hornet jets in tight, precision formation. It was a spectacular airshow.  The awesome display of airpower and in-flight maneuvers was a visible reminder of America’s superior military might. The airshow was also a reminder to the crowd in attendance that all 325 million Americans live in the greatest nation the world has ever known.  Even with our flaws and imperfections as a nation, we are still blessed to be Americans. As a circumstance of birth, Americans start out in life in the top echelon of the 7.6 billion people who populate this planet.  America provides freedoms that many of us simply take for granted. She provides the best overall quality of life of any nation on the globe. And, the national security provided by our armed forces is second to none. Prior to the airshow in Rome, Georgia, I had only seen the Blue Angels perform once before. When I was a small boy in the early 1950s, I watched them perform their maneuvers from the “Colored Only” section of an airfield in Memphis, Tennessee.  In Rome, I watched the Blue Angels perform from a VIP box at the local airport. Nobody in attendance cared about my race or color. We were united for that moment in time in our feelings of extreme pride for the men and women who serve our nation in military uniforms. As the Blue Angels sent chills down my spine with their incredible flight formations and barrel rolls, I took a mental flight through my six decades in America. During my lifetime, I have personally experienced a host of positive changes in American society since the first time I watched the Blue Angels fly. These changes have allowed me to: (a) drink out of any public water fountain that worked, (b) use any public toilet that worked, (c) buy food at any restaurant that serves the general public, (d) attend a college that I was qualified to enter, (e) desegregate The University of Alabama’s law school, (f) practice law in courtrooms throughout Alabama and across America, (g) charter and operate a full service commercial bank in the “Heart of Dixie” and the “Cradle of the Confederacy” that serves a racially diverse customer base, (h) build and operate an international waste-to-energy company that received the 2015 Trade Excellence Award from an Alabama governor, (i) serve on the board of directors of a national insurance company, (j) engage in oil and gas exploration in Africa, and (l) develop a broad-based and very diverse readership for my online news articles.  These changes in American society occurred because ordinary Americans of interracial goodwill pushed for them to occur. They also occurred because America enjoyed strong and courageous moral leadership in its public officials during most of the past six decades. When I looked back through time during the airshow in Rome, Georgia, I saw an America that was full of promise and an America where all things are still possible.  There will always be occasional periods of retrenchment and small-minded people who will oppose our forward progress as a nation. Regardless of the politics and people who momentarily retard our progress, I am still very proud to be an American. God Bless America and the men and women in uniform who secure our freedoms every day!

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on April 9, 2018 My businesses work closely with the U.S. State Department in the international marketplace. Yet, prosecutors in Birmingham have withheld this pertinent information from a grand jury that is investigating my international business dealings. Yesterday, I published an article titled, “ The Life of a ‘Blitzkrieg’ Target .” The article describes the fifth investigation of my business and personal financial affairs since 2013. It is also the second investigation in the last three years that has been conducted by a federal grand jury on the same subject – baseless allegations of “securities fraud.” The current investigation is a blitzkrieg campaign that is designed to take me down. It has all of the trappings of the FBI's old COINTELPRO program. COINTELPRO was a centralized smear and harassment program operated by the FBI and other federal agencies from 1956 to 1971. Unofficial COINTELPRO activities continued in local FBI field offices after 1971, particularly in the South. Jay E. Town, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, is leading the current federal investigation. Town, who is assisted by prosecutors Lloyd Peeples, Xavier Carter and a special federal task force, is laser focused on my global waste-to-energy businesses activities. These prosecutors are using a federal grand jury process and negative stereotyping to paint a false and misleading picture of my businesses practices and me. Without saying it directly to grand jurors and business stakeholders, prosecutors have strongly suggested that my international energy businesses have no discernible market value. While prosecutors are completely wrong in this regard, the intent behind this suggestion is to make my business stakeholders feel "victimized." In order to smear my name in this manner, prosecutors had to suppress publicly available government records, scientific data, Wall Street investment bank assessments, insurance valuations, and other third-party documents that flatly contradict this false narrative. This investigation is one of the reasons why I never let my enemies define who I am. Their motivations are never pure. In contrast, my words, deeds and constellation of business documents speak for themselves. They define who I am. Listed below are a few examples of the exculpatory evidence prosecutors have withheld from Grand Jurors and my business associates: 1. On March 27, 2012, Nabirm Global, LLC, an energy services company I formed in 2011 with two business partners, was awarded a uranium concession by Epangelo Mining Company (Pty) Ltd., which is the Republic of the Nambia’s national mining company. The Namibian government lifted a national moratorium on uranium concessions for nuclear fuels so that Nabirm could compete for this concession against Iran’s state-owned Iranian Foreign Investment Company and others. Nabirm worked closely with the U.S. State Department to make sure that our American-based company had the best chance of winning this uranium concession and keeping this strategic asset out of the hands of the Iranians, who were desperately trying to develop a nuclear weapons program at the time. U.S. government records about this entire event have been available to Birmingham prosecutors. Yet, they have failed to provide this information to grand jurors and the Nabirm stakeholders who were interviewed by them. Prosecutors withheld this information because it spoke to my true character and commitment to patriotism. 2. In October 2015, independent and highly qualified geotechnical oil and gas experts concluded their data interpretation on Nabirm’s 2D seismic program for the company’s offshore oil block. A report authored by a world-class, Texas-based, geophysics firm confirmed the presence of six prospects with total Pmean unrisked recoverable resources of 522 million barrels of oil and total Pmean unrisked recoverable resources of 583 billion cubic feet of carbane methane gas . Despite the confirmed and quantified presence of unrisked oil and gas, Birmingham prosecutors and their team of investigators led Charles Barkley , a 20 percent economic participant in my equity portion of this Nabirm asset, to believe that he has lost his money in this venture. Birmingham prosecutors never corrected Mr. Barkley's mistaken impression because they wanted him to believe that he was a crime victim. 3. Prosecutors suggested to the Grand Jurors and certain Masada Resource Group, LLC, stakeholders that a November 8, 2012 Strategic Alliance Agreement between Masada, a waste-to-energy company managed by me, and the company’s Riyadh-based Saudi Arabian business partner, who is a bona fide member of the Saudi Royal Family, is somehow questionable because the Agreement involved a “Saudi Prince.” Despite their personal biases and limited international business experience, these prosecutors had an affirmative duty to inform Grand Jurors and the Masada stakeholders interviewed by them that the company’s Strategic Alliance Agreement was duly registered with the Saudi Arabian Foreign Ministry and U.S. State Department, as required by law. In fact, Secretary of State John Kerry signed the Certificate of Authentication for this Agreement on February 13, 2013 (Registration No. 13017063-1). Prosecutors withheld this exculpatory evidence from Grand Jurors, even though it was in their possession when this subject was covered in the Grand Jury proceedings. 4. In 2012, Masada worked with Senator Jeff Sessions and the State Department to address the spread of Iranian influence in Africa. As I departed Freetown, Sierra Leone on February 24, 2012, I witnessed the departure of an Iranian diplomatic mission at the airport and watched as the entire group boarded an Islamic Republic of Iran jumbo jetliner. To the outside world, Sierra Leone may be poor when judged by the conditions we see on the surface, but, like Namibia, Sierra Leone is very rich in strategic minerals and natural resources. The Iranians appeared to be offering much needed assistance to the national government of Sierra Leone in exchange for access to the country’s mined diamonds. Diamonds became Iran’s currency of choice after the U.S. blocked Iran from participating in the SWIFT system for international bank transfers. On April 30, 2013, I reported this diamond exchange to Senator Jeff Sessions’ office for an appropriate follow-up with the State Department. Prosecutors have documentation of this event in their possession, but they have not provided it to Grand Jurors. 5. From 2006 to 2008, Masada collaborated with Evergreen International Aviation in a deal to buy the cargo airline from Delford Smith, the company’s founder and owner. At the time, Evergreen was a contractor with several national security agencies, including the CIA. As part of the due diligence process, I met with the liaisons from the government agencies involved. When requested, Evergreen vetted Masada’s potential business partners in Central America. This collaboration was helpful to Masada and America’s national security interests. Birmingham prosecutors never shared this information with Grand Jurors, even though it was in their possession. This list of exculpatory information and evidence goes on and on -- for a 13-year period. Yet, prosecutors, who possess a mountain of such information and evidence, have withheld all of it from the Grand Jury. Why? My character and service to America is well documented. In the era of what President Donald Trump calls politically motivated “witch hunts” by federal prosecutors, I do not give any politically appointed federal prosecutor "presumed credibility." Each one must earned his/her credibility by acting fairly, objectively, and ethically in every case. After all, a federal prosecutor and/or investigator who deliberately withholds exculpatory evidence during a criminal investigation is a danger to all of us.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on August 30, 2025 An Editorial Opinion Potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidates, here is my simple Labor Day message for you:   If you are not publicly and consistently challenging Donald Trump's political agenda of government-sponsored terrorism, cruelty, and degradation of human rights every day with a full-court press, I am not supporting you. If you are on your knees administering political fellatio to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu until he ejaculates AIPAC cash into your campaign coffers, I am not supporting you. If you are unwilling to do whatever it takes to deliver Netanyahu -- a designated war criminal, genocidal thug, and fugitive from justice -- to the International Criminal Court at The Hague, I am not supporting you. If you are unwilling, as president, to convene immediate Nuremberg-like tribunals for the purpose of prosecuting Stephen Miller, Kristi Noem, Kash Patel, Tom Homan, Pete Hegseth, Emil Bove, Pam Bondi, Todd Blanche, Marco Rubio, Tulsi Gabbard, and other sycophants who aided and abetted Trump's reign of terror, lawlessness, and crimes against humanity, I am not supporting you. If you are unwilling to commence an immediate bribery and tax evasion investigation into Clarence Thomas's and Samuel Alito's long-running “pay-to-play” scheme at the U.S. Supreme Court, I am not supporting you. If you are unwilling to arrest and prosecute the army of known, rich, powerful, and politically connected Jeffrey Epstein child molesters, child rapists, and child pornographers, I am not supporting you. If you are a weak-kneed, made for TV, political eunuch, I am not supporting you. If you are incapable of leading decisively to get America out of the ditch that Trump's unhinged presidential joyrides drove her into, I am not supporting you. As an independent voter, I don't want or need a weak, pretentious, airhead representing my political interests. I want a proven, tough, moderate, effective, and sane leader in the White House.

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on June 26, 2019 Noted author Jessica Parr specializes in the Early Modern Black Atlantic World, with focuses on race, religion, memory studies, and digital history. American History --- I love studying history. When the topic of reparations for slavery flashed across the TV news last week, I did some research on the subject. I found Jessica Parr’s article on “ The Compensated Emancipation Act of 1862 ” to be very educational and fascinating. Jessica Parr is a Lecturer in History at Simmons College, and an Affiliate Assistant Professor of Women’s Studies at the University of New Hampshire at Durham. She specializes in the Early Modern Black Atlantic World, with focuses on race, religion, memory studies, and digital history. Parr is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and has received fellowships from the Boston Athenaeum, Duke University, the Congregational Library, Mystic Seaport, and the Gilder-Lehrman Institute. Parr is currently the Managing Editor for  The Programming Historian , and writes for  The Junto: a Group Blog for Early American History , as well as  Black Perspectives , the online journal of the African-American Intellectual History Society. Her first book,  Inventing George Whitefield: Race, Revivalism, and the Making of a Religious Icon   was published in 2015 by the University Press of Mississippi.  Here is what I learned about slavery-era reparations in America from Ms. Parr’s insightful article: “With a stroke of his pen, President Abraham Lincoln signed into law the Compensated Emancipation Act on April 16, 1862, officially ending slavery in Washington, D.C. The Act reflected a new direction in the longstanding debate over slavery and emancipation in the nation’s capital. While a far cry from full emancipation, it was an important step towards the abolition of slavery. The law ending slavery in the nation’s capital provided compensation for the owners of the roughly 3,185 slaves it freed. A three-person commission heard petitions of the former slave owners and made determinations on how much money they should receive for the loss of their human property. In the end, the total compensation amounted to nearly one million dollars. A second Compensation Act, which Lincoln signed into law on July 12, 1862, allowed former slaves to petition for reimbursement for their own value, so long as their former masters had not already been compensated. It also allowed former slaves who had purchased the freedom of family members to claim remuneration for the money they had spent to free loved ones. This corrected a flaw in the original Act. Under the original law, black claims were automatically discounted if challenged by a white petitioner. The revision required claims to be weighted equally, regardless of the petitioner’s race. While a number of states had ended slavery well before it was outlawed in Washington, D.C., these particular acts of emancipation—especially the first one– carried a lot of symbolism. As the nation’s capital, Washington, D.C. was a critical center of nineteenth-century struggles between northerners and southerners over slavery. At first, few white Americans questioned the institution of slavery in Washington, D.C. The growth of the city after its establishment in 1792 had called for considerable skilled and unskilled labor, and slaves had built more than a few of its buildings. The city was also central to the domestic slave trade. Until the middle of the nineteenth century, slave pens and auctions were a common sight. Hotels rented out basements for holding slaves prior to their sale, and local taverns and hotels around the National Mall frequently hosted slave auctions. Robey’s slave pen (currently the cite of the Federal Aviation Administration building) was among the most well-known of the pens. It stood near William H. Williams’s Yellow House, which served as a private prison for slaves. Robey’s slave pen was made famous by English visitor E. S. Abdy, a Fellow of Jesuit College, Cambridge, who chronicled his impressions during a visit in 1835. Abdy spared no words, calling the pen “a wretched hovel,” and noting that the “inmates” were exposed to the extremes of winter and summer climates. As D.C. grew, so did its population of free African-Americans, who found the city’s pro-slavery forces moving to place more and more restrictions on their movements, including strict curfews. Under these black codes, there were minimal distinctions between the treatment of free and enslaved African-Americans who violated curfews. And the black codes became even more restrictive as the nineteenth century went on. One 1821 black code required free African Americans to prove their free status by appearing before the mayor with documents signed by three white citizens of “good standing.” As with the enslaved, the mobility of free black Americans and even their very freedom was subject to the whims of white Washingtonians. The appalling practice of slave sales in the nation’s capital horrified observers, and the closing net around free black Americans worried people who feared that the principle of freedom itself was coming under siege. In 1828, anti-slavery activists unsuccessfully pressed for DC to end slavery. But the city’s status as the seat of national government made the prospect of emancipation particularly contentious, as everyone recognized that the status of slavery there symbolized its status in the nation. Washington, D.C. began to see more and more physical resistance to slavery. Slave ships regularly sailed along the Potomac, docking near the city’s slave pens. But those ships could be put to the opposite use, too. In 1848, 77 enslaved African-Americans escaped from their plantations and attempted to steal aboard and sail the Pearl up the Potomac to freedom. Slacking winds foiled their attempt, and the slaves and a handful of white collaborators were captured and put in the City Jail. The slaves were later sold south, but their attempt to escape inspired three days of anti-slavery riots, which prompted new congressional debates over slavery in the city. The crisis was not enough to end the institution there, but it did increase sentiments against human bondage. Only two years later, a provision of the Compromise of 1850 banned the slave trade in the city, though it was still legal to own slaves. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Washington, D.C. was on the front line, wedged between Maryland (a slave-owning border state) and Virginia. Tens of thousands of fugitive slaves flooded the city. Before the war, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 would have compelled government officials to return those slaves to their owners. But after 1861, they were refugees, their status dependent on the outcome of the war. In Washington, these refugees were in the forefront of the fight over slavery. Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s military strategy was to invade Washington, D.C., and force U.S. government leaders to sign a truce that would accept the establishment of the slaveholding Confederacy as a neighboring nation. Abraham Lincoln’s decision to sign the Compensated Emancipation Act into law in 1862, amidst an advance into Maryland by Lee’s troops, was deliberately symbolic. While slavery remained legal at the national level, abolishing slavery in Washington meant that the capital of the United States stood in stark contrast to Richmond, Virginia, the seat of the Confederacy. This implied (particularly to African Americans) that the Civil War was about freedom. Lincoln’s 1863 Gettysburg Address a year later confirmed the centrality of slavery as the cause of the Civil War. Reflecting back on the nation’s founding, Lincoln described the United States as “conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” As he dedicated the Soldiers National Cemetery at Gettysburg, he tied the veneration of the dead to a renewed “devotion” that “this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom.” Both Compensated Emancipation Acts set the a pattern of his administration’s commitment to ending slavery, a pattern Lincoln continued with the January 1, 1863, Emancipation Proclamation and with his commitment to ending racial slavery in America once and for all with the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution….”. The topic of debate today is this: Should the U.S. government provide slavery-era reparations to African-American who are the documented descendants of slaves in America (excluding the descendants of slaves who were compensated under the second Compensation Act of 1862)? If so, what is the appropriate form and amount of compensation for each descendant who qualifies for such compensation and who files a petition for reparations? Sound off!

By Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on August 25, 2022 Donald Watkins Freed! An Editorial Opinion On August 28, 2019, I walked into the Federal Prison Camp at Talladega as Inmate No. 36223-001. I was the camp's only political prisoner. Today, I walked out of the Federal Prison Camp at La Tuna in Anthony, New Mexico as a free man. My experience as Inmate No. 36223-001 was a long and hard one, but it was nothing compared to the hell that George Jones and I experienced when we desegregated the University of Alabama's law school from 1970 to 1973. The presence of God was with me on both journeys. I left about 200 fellow inmates at La Tuna who took very good care of me throughout my stay. They came from all ethnic backgrounds and walks of life. I drew upon their strength as much as they drew upon mine. As I departed La Tuna, I silently celebrated the 45 inmates I had freed during my three-years in captivity. At least five of these inmates were completely innocent of the criminal charges against them. Each one of the innocent inmates was a living example of the systemic failure of the federal criminal justice system. In each case involving the innocent defendants, the trial judge, prosecutor, and court-appointed lawyer were all paid from the same source (the U.S. Treasury).. The prosecutors had regular ex parte contact with the federal magistrates and trial judges, prior to and after the defendant's indictment. From the outset, the outcome in these cases was "rigged" in favor of the prosecution. These cases highlight the most glaring flaw in the American criminal justice system. Federal judges routinely shower prosecutors with gratuitous favoritism, while cleverly working to gut the constitutional rights of defendants for ideological and partisan reasons. I believe my "emancipation" work for these 45 prisoners establishes a new record in American jurisprudence for a single lawyer during a three-year period. I also proudly hold the record for defeating 85 felony counts in a single-defendant criminal case (i.e., USA v. Richard Scrushy , 2003-2005). I use the term "emancipation" to describe my work because state and federal inmates are legally and technically "slaves" under the Slavery Exception Clause of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. If there is any question about the status of prisoners in the United States, it was laid to rest in Ruffin v. Commonwealth , 62 Va. 790 (1871), when the Virginia Supreme Court affirmed their status as "slaves." Sadly, America is the only country in the Western Hemisphere that authorizes slavery in its constitution and practices it regularly in penal colonies. My tour of duty in prison passed quickly because I was busy, day and night, helping scores of deserving inmates secure the justice that eluded them from those who pretend to be the official guardians of justice in the federal system. In retrospect, this was my finest hour as a lawyer. The friendship bonds I formed with fellow inmates and staff members in prison will last a lifetime. My interaction with these inmates and staff members also increased my sphere of knowledge and influence on America's diverse ethnic, cultural, and political landscape. The Politicization of Injustice As an attorney who has been on the frontlines of the fight for the fair administration of justice for 48 years, I have seen case after case where federal judges with lifetime appointments in office have failed to administer fair justice. I have seen them use all of their brainpower to find new and creative ways to administer injustice with pride. The victims of this judicial abuse are usually people of color, poor people, gay people, Muslims, and women. The politicization of the federal criminal justice system is one of the reasons public respect for and confidence in the federal courts, from the U.S. Supreme Court down to trial courts, is at an all-time low. Today, less than 1 out of 5 Americans respect federal judges. Tragically, the federal judiciary has transformed itself from a revered institution of government into a den of mostly robe-wearing, political hustlers who pretend to be judges and justices. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' vote appears to be "for sale" to any right-wing advocacy group that is willing to hire his wife as a "consultant." In the Deep South, many federal judges have become more dangerous to our individual rights and freedoms than the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers, the Ku Klux Klan, and the White Citizens Council. I have seen their brand of injustice on an up-close and personal basis. Today, injustice is the rule of law, and not an exception to the rule. As a lawyer who has witnessed and experienced nearly a half century of suffering in the "halls of justice," I must fight against this injustice with every fiber in my body, everyday. Unfortunately, most of today's criminal lawyers do not have the knowledge, skills, ability, and backbone necessary to neutralize the myriad of ways the federal criminal justice system allows prosecutors to cheat their way to victory in cases involving people of color and other "undesirables." The "Way Maker" Made a Way Out of No Way There is a powerful song that I listened to often during my imprisonment. It is titled " Way Maker ," by REVERE, Darlene Zschech (Australia) and William McDowell (United States)(11:40 minute extended version). This beautiful and inspirational song describes how God is our Way Maker, miracle worker, promise keeper, and light in the darkness. I bear witness to the power of God in this regard. When I visited Nelson Mandela's small prison cell on Robben Island in 2012, I asked God to give me the strength He gave to Mandela during his 27 years in prison when it was my time to be imprisoned by the guardians of white supremacy in Alabama. The Way Maker answered this prayer when my time came in 2019. When local Birmingham bigot and federal prosecutor Lloyd Peeples asked the Court to sentence me to 18 years in prison for conduct that career federal prosecutors in New Jersey reviewed in 2015-16 and concluded was NOT a crime, the Way Maker said, "No." Instead, the Court imposed a 5 year sentence. Recent changes in the law allowed me to exit prison after only three years of incarceration. God kept his promise when he gave me the strength to get through my ordeal, while helping to free 45 deserving inmates in the process. This is why the Way Maker is my promise keeper. During my three years of imprisonment, I watched the Way Maker work his miracles for me. He protected me from a litany of acts by rogue prison officials that were calculated to expose me to an increased risk of physical harm and/or death. The Way Maker also protected me from the deadly coronavirus that swept through three of the prisons where I was held. The Way Maker was my light in the darkness. He was working on my behalf when I could not feel it and could not see it. He never stopped working. The Way Maker touched the hearts that needed to be touched. He healed every heart that needed to be healed. He turned the lives around that needed to be turned around. Today, the Way Maker escorted me from the "Lion's Den." Lessons Learned I learned several important lessons along this journey. First, I learned that freedom is never free. It is often paid for in the blood, sweat, and tears of "the least of these, my brethren" whose constitutional rights are trampled in the ordinary course of life by those who occupy the "pharaoh" positions in our society. Second, I learned that, in war, the most committed adversary always wins. And, victory is rarely won in the first round of battle. Often, it takes decades of struggle to achieve total victory. For example, in the famous case of the nine "Scottsboro Boys," it took 45 years (from 1931 to 1976) for the "Boys" to achieve vindication, and only one of the "Boys" lived long enough to "smell the roses" of victory. Third, I learned that the sun always shines on the other side of midnight. All of us can reach this destination if we navigate by the Way Maker's light in the darkness. Without the Way Maker's light, I don't know how anyone can get to the other side of midnight. Fourth, I learned that everybody who is your color is not your kind. This lesson is self-explanatory. Epilogue As I start the next chapter in my life, I want to thank my thousands of readers around the world who accompanied me on my three-year journey to the other side of midnight. The renegades who hijacked the Birmingham federal criminal justice system in my case did everything within their power to break the bond of friendship and respect between us, but all of their efforts failed. I do not view my imprisonment as a badge of shame. Many of my personal heroes were branded by the government as "criminals," starting with Jesus Christ, who was charged, tried, convicted, tortured, and executed for crimes he did not commit. Because of their work to liberate oppressed peoples around the world, political prisoners like Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Dr. Ralph David Abernathy, Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Toivo ja Toivo, Sam Nujoma, and Robert Mugabe spent far more time in jail cells than I did. These men were called "troublemakers," "thugs," "filthy beast," "animals," "scoundrels" and "common criminals" by the colonial powers of their times. Their suffering was far greater than mine. Thank you for standing steadfast by my side during the past three years! You never abandoned or betrayed me. I value your friendship and love, always and forever! Once again, I am taking my place on the frontlines of the raging nationwide battles for truth and justice in a very divided America. With the Way Maker as my protector, I will go forward with an abundance of love in my heart, a determination to conquer the injustices that plague the federal criminal justice system, and an unwavering commitment to improve the quality of life for all of God's children. All articles are shared on Facebook and Twitter. If you enjoyed this article, please click on these links to follow Donald Watkins: https://www.facebook.com/donald.v.watkins https://twitter.com/donaldvwatkins