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

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on August 21, 2025 Former Baltimore state's attorney Marilyn Mosby (left), New York Attorney General Letitia James (center), and Federal Reserve Board Governor Lisa D. Cook (right). An Editorial Opinion   In the interest of full disclosure, I am not a fan or supporter of Joe Biden.  I am familiar with Biden’s political career in Washington, and I have a very low opinion of him.   Biden has always been dumb, weak, and compromised.  During his early days in the U.S. Senate, Biden peddled a racist agenda with respect to school desegregation and the criminalization of federal drug offenses.   As Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1991, Joe Biden had an opportunity to kill Clarence Thomas’ nomination to a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court, but he refused to do so. This single failure of leadership harmed tens of millions of women, racial minorities, and LGBTQ Americans over the next three decades.   Barack Obama picked Biden as his vice president because he knew Biden was a non-threatening white man who would never usurp his authority or spotlight as president.   By the time Joe Biden ran for president in 2020, he was old, weak, senile, and useless.  I opposed Biden’s candidacy at the time .     Biden’s Department of Justice Paved the Way for Trump to Persecute Two Black Woman of Power   Joe Biden picked Merrick Garland as his Attorney General.  Garland was a weak, useless, pathetic, crybaby in the job.  Garland's incompetency in leading the Department of Justice (DOJ) contributed to Donald Trump's rise in political popularity between 2022 and 2024.   In 2022, Biden’s DOJ indicted Baltimore, Maryland state’s attorney Marilyn J. Mosby on trumped up mortgage fraud and perjury charges. Between 2023 and 2024, Mosby was tried and convicted on both charges. Mosby was innocent of the charges against her, but this did not matter to Biden’s prosecutors.   Federal prosecutors in Maryland have a long, documented, and ugly history of politically-motivated prosecutions .  It is one of the few jurisdictions where a sitting U.S. Attorney (i.e., Thomas M. DiBiagio ) was fired by a sitting president (i.e., George W. Bush ) for engaging in such prosecutorial misconduct. No one in Biden's DOJ attempted to stop the impermissible targeting and persecution of Marilyn Mosby.  From Merrick Garland on down, they all marched in goose step to lynch her.   Even though 60 members of the Congressional Black Caucus signed a March 2024 letter asking Biden to pardon Mosby, he refused to do so.  Yet, Biden did not hesitate to pardon his worthless, dopehead, grifting son Hunter Biden, who was convicted in Delaware on federal gun possession charges and pleaded guilty in California to federal tax evasion charges in 2024.   Trump is Using Biden’s Mortgage Fraud Playbook to Go After Letitia James and Lisa D. Cook.   Donald Trump is using Joe Biden's mortgage fraud playbook to go after New York Attorney General Letitia James and Federal Reserve Board member Lisa D. Cook.  Trump's appointee at a federal housing regulatory agency referred each woman to the DOJ for an investigation into allegations of mortgage fraud and a criminal prosecution.   Trump’s DOJ is expected to indict both women on bogus mortgage fraud charges because Trump seeks revenge against them.  James obtained a $527 million judgment against Trump and his sons, which was reversed on appeal today.  Cook is one of the Federal Reserve Board members who is aligned with Board Chairman Jerome Powell, whom Trump despises and wants to replace.   DOJ is seeking Cook’s immediate removal from the Board , citing its criminal investigation of her.   Letitia James and Lisa Cook will go through the hell of fighting Trump’s weaponized DOJ, which is using Joe Biden’s mortgage fraud playbook against them in every public arena.  If their cases go before a Trump-appointed federal judge, these women will likely be railroaded in court and convicted.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on August 18, 2025   American History ---   Thomas Henry Hayes, Jr .  (1902 to1982), was a Negro American League baseball executive who served as owner and president of the   Birmingham Black Barons  baseball team from 1939 to 1952.   Hayes is perhaps best known for selling a then-19-year-old Willie Mays to the New York Giants.   Born on November 20, 1902, in Memphis, Tennessee, Thomas Hayes, Jr., was son of Thomas Hayes, Sr., and his wife, Florence Hayes.  Thomas, Sr., owned and operated T.H. Hayes & Sons Funeral Home, the oldest Black-owned business in Memphis until it closed in 2010. Sons Thomas, Jr., and Taylor Hayes worked in the business. From left to right: Thomas Hayes, Jr., Florence Hayes, Thomas Hayes, Sr., and Taylor Hayes pose in front of their funeral home. After attending Atlanta University, Lincoln University and the University of Illinois, Thomas Hayes, Jr., returned to Memphis to help run the family funeral home by the mid-1920s.   He co-founded the Union Protective Life Insurance Company in 1933, and also operated hotels, restaurants and nightclubs in Memphis. Hayes was also a trustee at Metropolitan Baptist Church -- the Watkins family's church home in Memphis. The Hayes family advertised its highly successful funeral business on a button. Taylor Hayes was president of the National Funeral Directors and Morticians Association and President of the Cotton Maker's Jubilee. Taylor's wife Frances, earned her funeral director's license and became one of the first licensed black women in the profession.  Frances, who was one of my mother's best friends in Memphis, ran the funeral home for almost 70 years. Frances Hayes on her 103rd birthday in 2010. Business Networking Among Families is an Important Ingredient to Success The Hayes family was friends with the Rev. Willie L. Varnado (my maternal grandfather), Rev. Samuel Augustus Owen (pastor of Metropoltitan Baptist Church), and my parents, Levi and Lillian Watkins, when we lived in Memphis during the late 1950s.  The conversations around our dinner table on Sunday afternoons with Watkins, Varnado, Owen, and Hayes family members usually focused on business, civil rights, education, and the winds of political change in Memphis.    My first exposure to professional sports centered on Thomas Hayes, Jr.'s 13-year ownership of the Birmingham Black Barons and the business and finance of professional sports teams.  I was fascinated by the business aspects of sports and was learning from one of the country's most successful black businessmen and a former sports team owner.   All but one of the Negro American League Baseball teams were owned by successful black businessmen. The League was formed at a time when every aspect of life in America was racially segregated by Jim Crow laws or social custom.   Sitting around our dinner table on a weekly basis were the most powerful back preachers in Memphis, the oldest and most successful black business family in the city, the former owner of the Birmingham Black Barons, and my father, who was the founding president of Owen Junior College in Memphis.    Looking back on it today, our Sunday family dinners with community leaders and business icons served as an incubator for forming my business goals and aspirations in life.  One of them was ownership of a major league professional sports team.   Professional Baseball Team Ownership   Thomas Hayes, Jr., purchased the Birmingham Black Barons in December 1939. He also served as vice president of the Negro American League .   During his ownership of the Black Barons, Hayes began a partnership with Abe Saperstein (owner of the Harlem Globetrotters), who oversaw the clubs promotions and venue booking while Hayes retained ownership and handled player signings and negotiations.  During Hayes' ownership, the Black Barons also won Negro American League pennants in 1943, 1944 and 1948.   In early 1949, Hayes sold Willie Mays, at the time 19-years-old, to the New York Giants for $10,000.  Hayes reportedly gave Mays a $6,000 cut of the sale.  Hayes had originally signed Mays the previous year from the Birmingham Industrial League.   By January 1952, the Black Barons had fallen into financial difficulty, with Hayes ultimately selling the club to Baltimore Elite Giants owner  William Sousa Bridgeforth  in February 1952.   Becoming a Majority Owner of a Major League Sports Teams Today   “ If you can see it, you can be it ,” was one of the mantras my parents and community instilled into my siblings and me as children.   Growing up in Montgomery, Alabama and Memphis, Tennessee, we were lucky enough to meet and learn from the strongest and most successful black business, community, civi rights, and ministerial leaders of the 1950s, 60s, and 70s.  I did meet an “Uncle Tom” Negro until I started practicing law in Alabama in 1973.  Today, the black community is saturated with "Uncle Toms" and most of them are striving for Jackanapes status.   One of the hardest goals I am striving to achieve in life is the majority ownership of a National Football League team.  I have no interest in becoming a limited or minority partner in one of the 32 NFL teams.  I want to own 100% of the team like Stan Kroenke owns 100% of the L.A. Rams.   I competed for the Anaheim Angels in 2002, but the Disney Company sold the team to Arturo Moreno.    In 2008-2009, I competed for the St. Louis Rams , but the majority owners (two Rosenbloom family members) eventually sold their 60% equity stake in the Rams to the team's 40% limited partner, Stan Kroenke.   Each time I competed for an ownership opportunity of a major professional sports team, I learned more and got better at it.   Today, I am using all of the business education and financial lessons I learned from Thomas Hayes, Jr., and New York business oil and gas business icon Charles Wallace to prepare myself to compete again for the sole ownership of an NFL team.  The quest to own a major professional sports team began as a child in Memphis and is now one of the last two goals in business I seek to achieve.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on August 17, 2025 Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) meets President Donald Trump in Alaska. An Editorial Opinion   Donald Trump is a well-known Vietnam-era draft dodger, who avoided the military draft 5 times. On Friday, he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin to broker a peace deal in the three and a half-year Ukraine-Russia war. It is an established fact that Trump lacks a spine and “balls” in his dealings with three foreign leaders: Vladimir Putin, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Chinese President Xi Pinping.     Last Friday, Trump gave Putin, a designated war criminal , a meeting on U.S. soil. The other designated war criminal who was welcome by Trump this year on U.S. soil is Benjamin Netanyahu .   Trump has an affinity for war criminals and dictators.  They can easily seduce Trump into "bellhop" status by merely stroking his oversized ego. Nothing more is required.   Trump promoted his 3-hour meeting with Putin as the “Alaska 2025 Summit” on the Ukriane-Russia war.  When the Summit was over, there was no peace deal brokered between Trump and Putin and no cease fire achieved.  What is worse, Putin disrespected Trump by killing Ukrainians while he was stroking Trump’s ego during their closed-door meeting.    Putin gave the world a master class in how to "de-nut" Donald Trump. He also declared that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s absence constituted proof that he and Trump considered Zelensky an illegitimate president. Trump did not dispute Putin's assertion in this regard.   Now, Trump says it’s up to Zelensky to make peace.   Trump was not allowed to acknowledge that Putin’s forces invaded Ukraine, in violation of the the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances . Signed in 1994 between Ukraine, the U.S., Russia, and the United Kingdom, the memorandum committed the signatory parties to defending Ukraine’s sovereignty if Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons, which it did.   Instead of defending Ukraine, Trump wants to give the Russian invaders whatever Ukrainian territory Putin seeks, no questions asked. Trump's Word on Ukraine Sovereignty is Worthless   Trump’s word on defending Ukraine’s sovereignty is as worthless as Trump’s word was to his tens of thousands business partners, vendors, and employees over the past four decades.  Trump has a long and distinguished track-record of stiffing those who have been the most loyal to him. Here are some notable examples of Trump's practice of stiffing his business partners, vendors, employees, and others: Trump University: A for-profit educational enterprise offering real estate training, it closed in 2010 after facing lawsuits alleging fraudulent practices. Trump Casinos: Several of Trump's Atlantic City casino ventures, including the Trump Taj Mahal, Trump Plaza, and Trump Castle, went bankrupt and were eventually closed or sold off to other companies. The parent company of these casinos, Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts (later Trump Entertainment Resorts), also went bankrupt multiple times. Trump Mortgage: Launched just before the 2008 housing market collapse, it failed to gain significant traction and folded within 18 months. Trump Steaks: This line of steaks, sold through retailers like Sharper Image and QVC, was discontinued due to low sales. The Trump Network: A multi-level marketing company selling wellness products and at-home vitamin tests, it shut down quietly in 2012. Trump Vodka: This liquor venture, launched in 2006, failed to compete with established brands and was out of business by 2011. Trump Shuttle: An airline shuttle service purchased by Trump in 1989, it struggled with debt and labor issues and was absorbed by competitors within three years. GoTrump.com : An online travel booking website launched in 2006, it failed to attract enough users and was shut down within a year. Trump Ice: This luxury bottled water brand, launched in the early 2000s, faded out of production by 2010. Trump Home: A line of luxury furniture, its sales declined and retail partnerships were severed, leading to its eventual phasing out. Trump Fragrances: Several colognes and perfumes were sold under the Trump brand but were eventually dropped by retailers. Trump: The Game: A board game released in 1989 (and re-released in 2004), it underperformed both times and was discontinued. Trump Magazine: A lifestyle publication launched in 1997, it ceased operations in 2009 amid the recession and dwindling ad revenues. Trump Institute: Similar to Trump University, this venture offering real estate seminars and workshops also faced controversies related to plagiarism and misleading practices. Trump Communications (Trumpet): A planned telecommunications venture that stalled before launch and folded without ever serving a customer. The Donald J. Trump Foundation: Trump's New York-based tax-exempt private foundation formed in 1988 was dissolved by court order in 2018 after facing legal scrutiny and allegations of various violations. Trump was also forced to pay $2 million for misusing charitable funds for his own political gain   Trump Can't Be Trusted to Safeguard Ukraine's Security Assurances Donald Trump reminds me of the weak-kneed, wimpy, court-appointed attorneys who sell out their hapless clients to hardnose prosecutors before they even meet them.  Personally, I would NEVER have Donald Trump negotiate any kind of peace deal for me.  He doesn't have the backbone needed for dealing with war criminals. Trump is only good at running roughshod over the rights of women, Blacks, Spanish-speaking Americans, defenseless Muslims, migrants of color, LBGTQ Americans, veterans, poor Americans, homeless people, and domestic political enemies. Based upon Trump's history in business and politics, he is completely untrustworthy and his reputation for truth and veracity is sorely lacking.   In the wake of the tens of thousands of loyal Trump partners, vendors, and employees who have been betrayed and hurt by him over the decades, it is clear to me that the only interest Trump advances and protects in any situation is his own grifting.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on August 14, 2025 Donald Trump and serial sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell were once party pals. An Editorial Opinion   President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice (DOJ) has waived key Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) regulations to make convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell immediately eligible for 30-day furloughs, home detention, and early release from BOP custody. Trump was creative and deceptive in his moves to free Maxwell. He successfully hoodwinked the mainstream media and members of the public with his bold plan to free Maxwell. First, Trump made Maxwell eligible for immediate placement in a minimum security federal prison camp. Second, Trump changed Maxwell's custody classification to "out-custody" status. Third, Trump made Maxwell immediately eligible for 30-day, unsupervised furloughs to visit family, friends, and others of her choosing. Fourth, Trump made Maxwell eligible for home detention as an "out-custody" prison camp inmate. Fifth, Trump made Maxwell eligible for early release from her 20-year sentence. There is no longer any need for Trump to "pardon" Ghislaine Maxwell. She is practically "out the door" after serving only 4 years of her 20-year sentence. Waiving the Barriers to Maxwell's Early Release   Trump's most important waiver effectively vacated the BOP’s prior determination that Maxwell, as a convicted sex offender, posed a threat to the public’s safety.  News of this waiver was broken by Allison Gill in an exclusive August 11, 2025, article published on her Mueller, She Wrote blog.    By administrative fiat, Trump's DOJ declared that Maxwell no longer posed a threat to public safety.  DOJ gave no explanation whatsoever for flip-flopping overnight on this critical public safety assessment.   As an “out-custody” inmate, Maxwell is free to leave the prison camp for a variety of reasons, including work assignments and continuous, unsupervised, 30-day, warden-approved furloughs. BOP Program Statement 5280.09, Section 570.33.   Home Detention is Maxwell's Next Stop, Followed by Freedom by Christmas Trump’s next move will be Maxwell's placement on home detention on or before August 31, 2025.  Maxwell's warden can accomplish the same result by simply giving her low-visibility, continuous, 30-day furloughs, as permitted by the regulations. Maxwell will be freed from BOP custody altogether on or before Christmas Day 2025. She will celebrate New Year's Eve in freedom.   In exchange for her silence about Donald Trump’s involvement in Epstein’s dalliances with underaged teenagers, Trump's DOJ waived all BOP inmate regulations that served as a barrier to Maxwell's expedited release from prison.  No other serial sex offender in the history of the BOP has been the beneficiary of such generous accommodations, unexplained waivers, and special DOJ treatment. Epstein's Crime Victims are Royally Screwed, Again   More than 1,000 underaged teenagers were the victims of child molestation, child rape, and child pornography in the Epstein/Ghislaine sex trafficking case.  The pedophiles who harmed these victims are known to DOJ.  Yet, they remain free. Maxwell will soon be free to reunited with these pedophiles. She can also get her passport back and travel the world in search of her next prey -- all thanks to Donald Trump. None of the 1,000+ victims in Epstein's case was afforded an opportunity to object to Trump's freedom plan for Maxwell, as required by DOJ regulations.   After Maxwell is released from BOP custody, no one will be imprisoned for the thousands of heinous crimes Epstein and Maxwell committed against vulnerable underaged teenagers.  Trump Says Epstein's Sex Trafficking Case is a "Hoax" Of course, Donald Trump says the entire Epstein sex trafficking case is a “ hoax ” and “ total bullshit. ” Childless Attorney General Pam Bondi, whom conservative MAGA journalist Laura Loomer calls " Scam Bondi " and a " Bimbo ," apparently agrees with Trump. When Epstein's 1,000+ victims were being molested, raped, and posed for pornographic videos, it did not feel like a " hoax " and " total bullshit " to them. With Trump's expedited release of Maxwell, via administative fiat, these sexually abused crime victims have now been victimized twice.   Of course, Trump’s loyal MAGA cult is okay with his fast-tracked deal to free the only pedophile who was convicted in the Epstein sex trafficking case.  This why Trump’s MAGA Republican Party has rightfully earned the title, "Guardians of Pedophiles."

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on August 3, 2025 An Editorial Opinion Donald “ Grab Them by the Pussy ” Trump had no qualms on January 20, 2025, about pardoning a rapist of a 7-year-old girl, a demonic beater of a 3-year-old boy, a vicious wife-beater, an indicted pornographer of a prepubescent minor and a child under the age of 12, and a rapist of women. Trump called these criminals " patriots " and said, " Fuck it; Release 'em all ."   Trump, who lusted after his daughter Ivanka when she was a teenager, has NEVER shown any empathy, sympathy, or support for the victims of child molestation, child rape, and child pornography. What is more, Trump has been found liable in court for sexually abusing one woman (E. Jean Carroll) and he has been accused of sexually abusing two dozen other women and teenage girls. Of course, Trump has repeatedly denied all allegations that he sexually abused women or female teenagers.   Trump’s track-record of pardoning Republican-affiliated child molesters, child rapists, child pornographers, wife beaters, and rapists of women, without any consultation with their crime victims, is well established. For reasons that have never been fully explained, Trump has shown an affinity for this particular category of dangerous criminals.   The Child Rapist   Theodore Middendorf is a convicted child rapist.  He pled guilty to the predatory sexual criminal assault of a 7-year-old girl in Illinois.  Middendorf, who was 31 at the time of his sex offense, raped this girl by penetrating her vagina.  He was sentenced to 19 years in a state prison.   Before Middendorf entered prison to serve his sentence, he went to Washington to participate in the January 6, 2021, insurrection and riot at the National Capitol. He was convicted on federal charges arising from the riot at the Capitol.   On January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump called Middendorf a “ patriot ” and pardoned him on his federal charges. Trump did not have the power to pardon Middendorf on his state charges. The Demonic Child Beater   On the same day, Trump also pardoned Matthew Huttle.  Trump also called Huttle a “ patriot .” Several days later, Huttle was shot and killed by law enforcement in Indiana during a traffic stop altercation and confrontation.     Huttle had an extensive criminal history.  In one incident, " Huttle spanked his 3-year-old son so hard that he left bruises all over the child's backside and the child's neck, and the child had such extreme pain on his backside that he could not sit properly for a week ,” said prosecutors.     Huttle was sentenced to 2.5 years of imprisonment for this violent crime against his son.   The Wife Beater   Trump “ patriot ” Peter Schwartz had a " jaw-dropping criminal history of 38 prior convictions going back to 1991 " when he assaulted Capitol police officers with pepper spray on January 6th, according to federal prosecutors.   In one incident, Schwartz assaulted his wife " by biting her on the forehead and punching her multiple times ," according to court records.   Schwartz, who is obviously a career criminal, was sentenced to 14 years for his role in the Capitol riots. Trump proudly freed Schwartz after he had served four years of his sentence.   The Child Pornographer   January 6th rioter David Daniel of Mint Hill, North Carolina was  charged  with " Production of Child Pornography " and " Possession of Child Pornography ," which allegedly " involved a prepubescent minor " and a child under the age of 12.   Trump did not care about Daniel’s pending child pornography felony charges. He called Daniel a " patriot " and pardoned him on federal charges of assaulting police officers during the Capitol riot.   The Rapist of Women   Kasey Hopkins is a January 6th rioter who " has a lengthy and troubling criminal history " including a 2002 conviction for " forcible rape ," which resulted in a seven-year prison sentence.   " The defendant had forcible intercourse with the victim, choked her to the point of impairing her vision, banged her head into a wall, and urinated into the victim's mouth to humiliate her ,” said prosecutors at Hopkins’ sentencing. " When the victim attempted to flee, naked, the defendant caught up to her and threw her down ."   After calling Hopkins a " patriot ,"Trump pardoned him without any regard to his “ lengthy and troubling criminal history ” or the forcible rape and humiliation of his female victim. Hopkins' actions in choking, beating, and urinating into this victim's mouth meant nothing to Trump. The GOP has Become a Sanctuary for Sexual Predators, Abusers, and Enablers.   Today's MAGA-controlled Republican Party has become a sanctuary for men who rape and sexually abuse children, who rape and sexually abuse women, who beat and torture children and women, and who give comfort and protection to child pornographers.  These sexual predators and abusers of women and children flocked to the Republican Party after Trump became president in 2017.. The Daily Kos has documented 4,000 prominent " Republican Sexual Predators, Abusers, and Enablers ," between October 23, 2018 and June 19, 2025. Based upon our independent verification process, the list and summary of incidents appears to be accurate in all material respects. A comparable list of "Sexual Predators, Abusers, and Enablers" who are Democrats has not been compiled or published. Whenever such a list is compiled by a credible news source and independently verified, we will publish it.   Not surprisingly, Donald Trump, the man who bragged about grabbing women "by the pussy," now presides over the GOP’s protective kingdom for pedophiles and sex abusers of women and children. Trump was also best friends and party pals with the world’s most infamous pedophile – sex traffickerJeffrey Epstein.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on August 13, 2025   An Editorial Opinion The race for president in 2028 has started.  President Donald Trump's victory in 2024 showed us the importance of campaigning 2 to 3 years early for the job. Trump has changed the America political landscape forever. Wimpy is "out" and macho is "in."   My group of independent voters has begun to evaluate potential presidential candidates.  We are seek these qualities in a candidate: A person who is accustomed to making tough, high impact, executive decisions on a daily basis. We desire a candidate who possesses a "conqueror's mentality." A person who is strong enough to end America's $310 billion "gravy train" of economic and military aid to the anti-Christian, genocidal nation of Israel, immediately upon taking office. Right now, Israel is the only nation America funds that is led by a declared war criminal who is subject to an outstanding arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. A person who will: (a) roundup Trump's cadre of arrogant and lawless Cabinet Secretaries, White House staffers, agency heads, and Wall Street collaborators (b) charge them with crimes against humanity for their mistreatment of migrants of color, public corruption for their unbridled grifting, stock market manipulation, tampering with government records, perjury, and obstruction of justice, and (c) put them on trial before a specially empaneled Nuremberg-style tribunal. A person who will order an immediate Department of Justice criminal investigation into “pay-to-play" allegations swirling around U.S. Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.” A person who is committed to changing the lifetime tenure of Article III federal judges to a single 10-year term in office, with no possibility of reappointment to another federal judgeship. A person who demonstrates a mastery of current events, world history, American history, domestic affairs, global economic issues, climate change, and foreign affairs. A person who will restore domestic tranquility and reclaim America’s leadership role in the free world. A person who will order the immediate arrest and prosecution of Jeffrey Epstein's and Ghislaine Maxwell's well-known army of rich, powerful, and politically connected child molesters, child rapists, and child pornographers. A person who will honor America’s written and verbal commitments to its foreign allies and military alliance partners, and treat them with respect. A person who will tax super-rich Americans so they will finally pay their fair share of taxes.   That said, we are not interested in supporting any career politician who ran for president in 2016, 2020 and 2024.  They are simply too weak, incompetent, compromised, and/or reluctant to use the full powers of the presidency to effectuate our 2028 presidential agenda.  Furthermore, their weaknesses, incompetence, and detachment from political reality in America paved the way for an unhinged Donald Trump to win the presidency in 2024 .   We do not want a candidate who merely lusts for presidential pomp and circumstances, White House parties and perks, and joy rides on Air Force One.  Those people need to run for homecoming king and queen at a local college.  We want a candidate who is highly skilled and effective at kicking the asses of his/her adversaries in the political arena.   Finally, presidential candidates who accept AIPAC money that is drenched in the blood of Palestinian genocide victims in Gaza should leave us alone. They can go and suck up campaign money from the newly discovered reservoir of genocide-loving Americans.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on August 10, 2025   An Orthodox Jewish mohel in New York City sucks the penis of a male baby during a metzitzah b'peh ceremony. This ritual is permitted in the U.S. because of Israel's considerable political clout in Washington. An Editorial Opinion Since 1948, the United States has provided Israel with over $310 billion in total bilateral assistance, including both economic and military aid.  This makes Israel the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign aid.    American aid makes it possible for Israelis to enjoy government-sponsored universal healthcare, an extremely low-cost college education, modern infrastructure, a well-armed military, nuclear weapons, and the many conveniences of modern life – all courtesy of America taxpayers.  For all practical purposes, Israel is an American created, financed, and protected enclave within the country that was formerly known as Palestine (prior to 1948).   Israel keeps American taxpayers hitched to its wagon by: (a) blackmailing a seemingly endless cadre of compromised American political figures and corporate leaders who become ensnared in “honey trap” operations like the one convicted child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein ran in New York, Palm Beach, and the Virgin Islands for Mossad (Israel's national spy agency), (b) buying U.S. presidents and members of Congress of both political parties with campaign money that is funneled through a Jewish-American political action committee called " AIPAC ," and (c) smearing media critics who dare to criticize Israel and problematic Jewish conduct, at home and abroad.   Israel also uses its considerable political clout in Washington to afford Orthodox Jews with the legal protection needed to engage in a ritual that is unthinkable for most Americans. Specifically, Orthodox Jewish circumcisers (mohels) in America are allowed to suck the penis of male babies in public ceremonies as part of a ritual called metzitzah b'peh (direct oral suction). Israel is a Sanctuary Country for Fugitive Pedophiles   Many American pedophiles flee to Israel to escape criminal prosecution in the U.S. and other countries. They take full advantage of Israel’s Law of Return, which grants automatic citizenship to Jewish individuals and their families, with minimal barriers. This law typically provides fugitive pedophiles with a safe harbor from the American criminal justice system.  Many of these pedophiles go on to abuse children in Israel, as well.   These sex offenders, including Malka Leife r , find refuge in ultra-Orthodox settlements in the West Bank.  Over 700,000 Israeli settlers reside in these areas, occupying Palestinian land in 150 government-supported settlements. Government funding also extends to unauthorized outposts, allowing convicted sex offenders and fugitive pedophiles to live with minimal interference. As a result, West Bank settlements have become hotbeds for child sex abuse, including rape and child pornography.   One of the most prominent cases involves a Jewish settler, Uriah Assis , facing numerous sex crime charges, including rape and sexual harassment, with 105 victims, primarily underage girls. The perpetrator used multiple aliases to target and exploit young girls and women, with charges including rape, sodomy, sexual harassment, and possession and production of obscene materials.   One-third of prisoners convicted of sexual offenses in Israel have declined to participate in mandatory rehabilitation programs, and 75% were released early.  Additionally, nearly 90% of sexual offense cases involving Israeli army officers were initially opened but subsequently closed without charges.   On many occasions, the victims of pedophilia in Israel are Palestinian children, who are molested and raped by civilians and soldiers alike.  These children are also bought and sold in the sex trafficking marketplace.  These children are also used as a supply source for Israel’s growing organ harvesting trade and commercial body parts market. My interest in this subject is simple: I protect children from physical and sexual abuse. I don't care if the abuser is a U.S. President, a Speaker of the House of Representatives, a U.S. or state senator, a New York socialite, a Catholic priest , a member of the Amish community , a Hollywood celebrity, a music mogul, a corporate CEO, a Mossad "access agent," or a cult leader. Throughout my career, I have done everything within my power to protect innocent children who have been targeted for sexual abuse by a growing army of rich, powerful, and politically connected pedophiles. Children don't have powerful politicians, prosecutors, high-price criminal lawyers, judges, and Washington lobbyists in their back pockets. Pedophiles do. As a follower of Jesus Christ, I serve a God who loves children. In fact, throughout His time on earth, Jesus spoke extensively about protecting, loving, and welcoming children into His kingdom. Jesus has a tender, protective, and relentless love toward children, and so do I. Children must depend on those of us who are dedicated to protecting them from sexual predators, abusers, and enablers, without hesitation or reservation. Otherwise, the growing legion of sexual perverts will steal their joy. No one is entitled to rob young children of their innocence and joy by molesting and raping them, or exploiting them for pornographic videos. No one's position of power, political affiliation, demagoguery, or money can make me look the other way while pedophiles molest, rape, and abuse innocent children in pornographic videos, without fear of criminal consequences. For me, this is not a political issue. It is a religious and human rights issue. Finally, those who condone pedophilia by their deliberate silence in known cases of sexual abuse are just as bad as the perverts who engage in it.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on August 7, 2025 The image of a young cancer patient whose funding for medical care has been cut by Donald Trump and Congress to provide tax breaks for the rich. An Editorial Opinion President Donald " Grab Them by the Pussy " Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance, MAGA Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, and Deputy Attorney General (and Trump's former felony criminal attorney) Todd Blanche have been busy since May concocting various strategies for perpetuating a Department of Justice coverup in the infamous Jeffrey Epstein child molestation, child rape, and child pornography case.  Judging by their actions/inaction, none of these MAGA public officials gives a damn about the emotional pain and suffering experienced by Epstein’s 1,000+ crime victims.  These officials are morally bankrupt protectors of an army of rich, powerful, and politically-connected Epstein pedophiles.   The one person who was convicted in Epstein's sex trafficking case – Ghislaine Maxwell – is about to be set free by one of Epstein's bosom buddies and partying pals – Donald Trump. Maxwell is currently relaxing in the lap of luxury as an "out custody" inmate in a minimum security federal prison camp. Her every wish is being accommodated by Trump's coverup sycophants.   Yesterday, Trump dismissed the Epstein scandal with this gaslighting statement to his devoted MAGA cult followers: Triggering God's Wrath, Again Even though Trump believes the trauma suffered by Epstein’s 1,000+ sex crimes victims is a " hoax " and “ total bullshit ,” there is another Trump-inspired political event against innocent children that is far worse. This event is depicted in the image of the young cancer patient who is featured at the beginning of this article. Money for her medical care has been cut to provide tax breaks for the rich. As a person of faith, I believe this event has provoked the anger of a force far more powerful than Trump and his MAGA government.  I predict that this event will subject Trump and his MAGA cohorts to a type of "vengeance" they have never experienced.  Likewise, the suffering visited upon America from this "vengeance" will be unrelenting and unimaginable. We have been here before. On November 26, 2018, I posted the commentary below after Trump authorized America troops to tear gas young migrant children at the southern border: "This is Donald Trump's version of America. It takes a special kind of soldier who is willing to tear gas small children in diapers in the name of defending America. Move over George Wallace and Bull Connor. You have a sitting U.S. President who is willing to inflect more evil on innocent children than you ..... This is not who we are as a nation. This is who we have become under Donald Trump." Fifteenth months later, God unleashed the COVID-19 that killed 1.1 million Americans and 7 million people worldwide. America has only 4.2% of the world's population. Yet, this country suffered 15.7% of the COVID deaths worldwide. We should remember the image of the young cancer patient who is featured in this article.  Those of us who know God understand exactly what this image symbolizes and why God’s wrath will strike Trump and his MAGA empire with far greater force the next time.  God is angry with America right now. The mercy He showed us when He ended COVID-19 in America was NOT appreciated. We are back to Trump's old ways, with far greater cruelty and disrespect for humanity. In their obedience to Trump, MAGA Americans have mocked the teachings of Jesus Christ in the book of Matthew 25: 40-45. There will be no mercy shown to MAGA America because Trump's offenses against humanity are worse this time than they were before. Finally, there is no power greater than the power of God! Only a wilfully ignorant fool believes that money on Wall Street and political power in Washington can shield Americans from the wrath of God.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on June 22, 2025   Dr. Levi Watkins, Principal of the Douglass School for Colored Students in Parsons, Kansas (1940 to 1949). An Editorial Opinion Sontana “Tana” Johnson was waiting for me at the airport in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  She drove me to Parsons, Kansas last Wednesday. Tana is the well-known, much-respected, community activist in Parsons who invited me to come back home for the city’s 2025 Juneteenth Celebration. This year's celebration honored my father, Dr. Levi Watkins. Sontana "Tana" Johnson, respected Parsons, Kansas community activist and distinguished head of the SEK Juneteenth Foundation. I have lived in many places during my 76 years in this world, but Parsons is the only place I have called my “home.”     My birth certificate notes that I am the fifth child of Levi and Lillian Watkins, who were 37 and 31 when I was born.  The certificate also states that my father was “Principal, Douglass School.”  At the time, Douglas was the premier elementary and junior high school for “Colored” students in America.     In 1940, the Douglass junior high division was the only accredited four-year separate junior high school in Kansas.  In 1946, the Douglas junior high division became the home to Chapter No. 446 of the National Honor Society, commencing with seven honor students.  By 1947, Douglass students outperformed their peers in Parsons’s ten public schools.   Black Life in the "Free State" of Kansas   On January 29, 1861, Kansas was admitted to the Union as a “free state."  Whites in Kansas voted against becoming a slaveholding state.  That vote favorably impacted the lives of Blacks in Kansas for over a century.   The Kansas legislature never mandated racial segregation in housing, education, and public accommodations.  Segregation existed, but it was mostly a byproduct of social pairings among ethnic communities.   The Black community in Kansas, which was 16,250 residents in 1870 (the first time the U.S. census counted Blacks as citizens), rose to 168,279 residents (or 10% of the state's population) by 1950. The state's Black community was hard working, fiercely independent, courageous, deeply religious, and very committed to the education of its children.  Between 1881 and 1949, Blacks in Kansas litigated 11 equal education cases all the way up to the Kansas Supreme Court and won an affirmance of the state's "equality mandate" in public education each time.    By the time the U.S. Supreme Court decided Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas in 1954, Blacks in Kansas were proficient in litigating and winning education-related cases that benefitted “Negro” students.     The Douglass School was an Early Model of Education Innovation   The Douglass School in Parsons, Kansas opened in 1908.  By 1940, Douglass had earned a national reputation as the most advanced “Colored” school in America.    When longtime Principal A.E. Clark announced his retirement in 1940, Parsons school superintendent Rees H. Hughes conducted a nationwide search for his succesor.  Hughes, who also founded Parsons Junior College, sought the "most promising young Negro educator” in America for the job.   Dr. Rees H. Hughes, Parsons Superintendent of Schools (1922 to 1942). Dr. Harold Fawcett, a professor of education at Northwestern University identified Levi Watkins as that person and recommended him to Hughes. Watkins earned his Master's degree from Northwestern in Fawcett's Education Administration and Leadership program. Armed with Fawcett's recommendation, Hughes drove to Clarksville, Tennessee, where Dad was working as a teacher and assistant principal, and personally recruited him for the Douglass School principalship.   Hughes described a comprehensive support system for Douglass School that was unmatched in other school systems in America.  Douglass operated in an ecosystem that rested upon five pillars of strength: (a) a first class faculty and staff, (b) strong, entrenched, and persistent community activism, (c) support from the local chapter of the NAACP and the Parsons Community Services Fund, (d) Blacks in Parsons had perfected the use of court litigation to advance and protect educational opportunities for their children, and (e) the school made the relentlessly pursued educational excellence its standard operating procedure.    In the 1940s, no other “Colored” school in America operated with this paradigm of collective advantages.   At 30-years-old and married to my 24-year-old mom, with no children of their own, Dad accepted the job. He served as the principal of the Douglass School for 9 years.     In April 1947, Dad organized, wrote, and published a " Parsons, Kansas Directory of Negro Residents and Organizations ." In the Directory, Dad described Parsons this way:   “Parsons, with an estimated 15,000 population, is . . . . a First Class city offering excellent schools, good churches, fair employment opportunities, and fine people with pleasant racial relations.”   According to the Directory, Blacks accounted for 1,284 of the city’s population. Parsons had 603 “ Negro families who maintained 403 homesteads ”  This meant that 403 of the Black families owned their home. Only 28% of the families were headed by females. Sixty-nine percent of these families had telephone service in their homes.   Blacks owned and operated 42 thriving businesses in Parsons. Many of these businesses had White patrons. Blacks also held managerial jobs in the Parsons school system, at the M-K-T Railroad Company, the Kansas Ordnance Plant, and within the ranks of two large labor unions.   Levi Watkins Took the Parsons, Kansas Model for Black Upward Mobility to Montgomery, Alabama   Dad’s successful principalship at the Douglass School opened the door to three successful university presidencies in three different states. Alabama was one of them. In 1949, Dad brought the Douglass model for achieving academic excellence, fair employment opportunities, and social justice to Montgomery, Alabama. During his tenure at Alabama State College (ASC), Dad served in the following capacities: Veteran Affairs Officer, Assistant to the President, Business Manager, and President. Over time, Dad built the platform that was necessary to create, enhance, implement, and sustain the Douglass School model in Alabama.   In the 1950s, Dr. E.D. Nixon, the local chapter president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, and my Dad introduced a young Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. , to the art of organizing peaceful civil rights protests and using court litigation to advance educational opportunities for Blacks in Alabama.   In the 1960s, Dad helped to install ASC graduate Joe L. Reed as the young Executive Secretary of the 10,000 member Alabama State Teachers Association (ASTA). This organization, which merged into the 20,000 member Alabama Education Association (AEA) in 1969, litigated landmark civil rights cases for Blacks teachers (and others) throughout the state in the 1970s and 80s.  Dad also leveraged ASC resources to fund a social justice network that included the Johnnie Carr's Montgomery Improvement Association , the NAACP and SCLC , the Alabama Center for Higher Education, and Montgomery’s Black churches. Dad personally mentored Joseph Cole , a former SGA president at Alabama State University, in the use of effective community leadership skills. After graduation from ASU, Cole became the Gadsden, Alabama Chapter SCLC president. Cole single-handedly desegregated every government body and agency in Gadsden through fearless protests and aggressive federal court litigation.   Once this necessary civil rights infrastructure was in place, Dad used Joe Reed’s ASTA/AEA platform and its dedicated stable of skilled civil rights litigators to desegregate the faculty and staffs of nearly all of Alabama’s K-12 public schools in Alabama and all of the state-supported junior colleges and technical schools. In 1980, Dad organized, orchestrated, and launched the 25-year litigation that resulted in court-ordered doctoral programs, new undergraduate academic programs, and nearly $600 million in new funding (beyond the regular state appropriations), endowment money, and other tangible financial benefits for Alabama State University and Alabama A&M University. In 1981, Dad attacked and dismantled Alabama’s bogus and racially discriminatory teacher certification testing program.  University of Kansas testing expert, Dr. John Poggio , won this landmark case for the Black plaintiffs in the case. Three decades later, under Dr. Poggio's close scrutiny and diligent oversight, Alabama's discredited teacher testing program was replaced with a unlawful and properly validated one.   Unlike the “ pleasant racial relations ” Dad experienced during his civil rights activism in Parsons during the 1940s, he caught pure hell from the White guardians of the status quo in the "Cradle of the Confederacy" and "Heart of Dixie"for organizing, initiating, directing, and supporting the litigation that enhanced educational opportunities for Black public school, junior college, and university students and teachers in Alabama.   Epilogue   The Douglass School closed its doors in 1958.  The building and grounds were sold to a private company. In 1962, the school was demolished, along with all its contents.     Dad successfully transferred the Douglas School model of educational excellence to ASC’s Laboratory School and enhanced it with college-level course offerings for high school students. The Laboratory School closed in 1969 in the wake of federal court desegregation orders.   The spirit and soul of Douglass School now resides within the walls of the impressive and growing Valiant Cross Academy in Montgomery, which was founded in 2015 by brothers Anthony and Fred Brock . Anthony Brock graduated from Alabama State University with a Master’s degree in Educational Leadership and Supervision. Valiant Cross Academy students in front of the Alabama State Capitol in 2025 In 2023, Valiant Cross Academy was named the winner of the prestigious Yass Prize .  This award is often referred to as the "Pulitzer of Education Innovation." Along with national recognition, the Yass Prize included a $1 million cash award for Valiant Cross Academy. Valiant Cross Academy wins the $1 million Yass Prize in 2023. Last week, my Dad's work at the Douglass School was recognized and honored in Parsons by Tana Johnson , the SEK Juneteenth Foundation, Parsons School Board President Lou Martino and his wife Holly, Rees Hughes’s granddaughter, Megan Hughes , and a host of other community leaders and distinguished persons of interracial goodwill. The Watkins family proudly accepted this honor on behalf of our Dad, Mom, siblings, and all of the Douglass School faculty and staff members and students who made this small Kansas school one of the most iconic and transformative educational institutions in American history. Levi and Lillian Watkins with their children Marie, Pearl, and Levi, Jr., in front of the Douglass School.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on August 4, 2025   Child molestation, child rape, and child pornography must end, now. We must not sanction or normalize this kind sexual abuse of children by condoning presidential-level protectionism for an elite class of rich, powerful, and politically protected sexual predators, abusers, and enablers. An Editorial Opinion When I speak out about an issue of significant public interest on my digital media platforms, I do so out of a cherished family tradition of standing up for what is right. It has always been important for my family to be on the right side of history. This stance has contributed to our family's longevity, growth, and success in America. Today, the despicable conduct that thoughtful Americans must defeat is presidential-level protectionism for an elite class of rich, powerful, and politically connected child molesters, child rapists, and child pornographers who have found a staunch ally and self-proclaimed " Grab Them by the Pussy " comrade in the White House. We Have Always Stood Up for What is Right My family’s documented history in America started with my kidnapped teenage African great-great maternal grandmother’s arrival at a slave port in Charleston, South Carolina in 1830.  My Native-American ancestors were in America before the first European settlers arrived in 1612.  My maternal white ancestors arrived in America from Scotland in 1838.   The library of documents in our family’s private archives establish one simple, histotical fact: For 195 years, our family has been on the right side of history on the issues that mattered the most in America during the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries.  Here are a few of these impactful issues: Our white, black, and Native American ancestors, who were located in southern states opposed slavery in America. Our white maternal ancestors in Mississippi bought enslaved blacks just to set them free. Our paternal Cherokee Indian ancestors supported Native-American culture, traditions, and conflicts by resisting the 1830s movement of Indian Tribes on Trail of Tears to Oklahoma.  They escaped the dreadful Trail of Tears experience by finding refuge in a "triracial isolate" in rural Kentucky. My white great maternal grandfather and mulatto great maternal grandmother broke the color barrier in Mississippi by marrying each other two weeks before the Civil War ended in 1865. Our family supported economic empowerment during and after the Reconstruction era in the Mississippi by financing land purchases, homes, and businesses for freed slaves. In 1887, my great maternal grandmother broke the color barrier on inheriting property in her own name from her white Irish biological father in Mississippi. Our family opposed all Jim Crow laws, customs, and practices and openly supported various civil rights movements in America from the 1930s to the present. Our family supported the 19 th Amendment (1919), the Civil Rights Act (1964), the Voting Rights Act (1965), the Fair Housing Act (1968), the Equal Rights Amendment (1923 and 1972), and the Violence Against Women Act (1994). Since 1919, our family has given aid, comfort, funding, and other tangible support to civil rights and human rights leaders around the world. In 1976, our family joined the successful fight to end marital rape in Alabama . Between 1935 and 2005, our family waged a holy war to make sure that historically black public schools, colleges, and universities received their fair share of public education dollars.     For six generations, the Watkins family has realized that God heaps His greatest blessings on those who stand on the right side of history.  Political trends come and go, but standing up for what is right is always the right thing to do. Ending presidential-level protectionism for an army of rich, powerful, and politically connected child molesters, child rapists, and child pornographers in the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking case is the right thing to do! We fought pedophilia among members of the clergy within the Catholic Church . We fought it within the Amish community . Now, we are fighting against the inexplicable protectionism extended to an elite class of Epstein pedophiles by the President of the United States. Please join us in this worthy humanitarian fight! Your children and grandchildren are depending upon you to do so.

By: Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on May 9, 2019 The HeidelbergCement Company collaborated with Führer   Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany during World War II. Only one HeidelbergCement Group company manager/director resisted Hitler's campaign of death and doom that was perpetrated in a Holocaust that killed an estimated six million Black Germans, Jews, Gypsies, and Gay people. Now the concrete manufacturing giant, which operates through its Sherman Industries affiliate in Birmingham, is seeking to relocate a toxic concrete manufacturing plant to a stable black residential neighborhood on property that benefited from the city's redlining of residential neighborhoods and racially discriminatory zoning decisions in the 1930s. An Editorial Opinion Birmingham, Alabama residents never paid much attention to Sherman Industries, LLC, before the company’s name exploded in the local news last month after District 8 Councilor Steven Hoyt and former SCLC (Gadsden, Alabama Chapter) president Joseph Cole exposed the company’s plan to relocate its downtown concrete manufacturing plant to a site it has owned in a predominantly black residential neighborhood since the 1930s. These two “whistleblowers” have valiantly tried to avert a potential environmental disaster of massive proportions and deadly consequences. Their efforts may be too late. On January 24, 2019, Sherman Industries presented its relocation plan to Mayor Randall Woodfin’s Department of Planning, Engineering, and Permits (PEP). Woodfin, who is a first term mayor, blessed the plan without doing his homework on Sherman Industries and its global parent company, the HeidelbergCement Group. For the next four months, Sherman Industries and the Woodfin administration quietly worked together to facilitate the company’s concrete plant relocation to the Five Points West community. PEP officials kept Mayor Woodfin in the loop as the plan moved forward. From the beginning of their interaction with Woodfin’s team, Sherman Industries knew how dangerous and toxic its concrete manufacturing plant was. Woodfin did not know anything about these dangers. Sherman Industries and Woodfin were trying to accommodate the wishes of predominantly white residents in the booming downtown areas around Railroad Park and Regions Field. Like Sherman Industries, these downtown residents were well aware that concrete manufacturing facilities release toxins into the air, ground, and water that can be extremely dangerous to the health, safety and lives of humans in the surrounding communities. They wanted the concrete plant removed from their neighborhoods. Woodfin knew the company’s site in Five Points West was already zone for heavy industrial use. However, he did not know until recently that this zoning designation was made in the 1930s by an all-white Birmingham city government that forced its black citizens to live in neighborhoods that were sandwiched between properties that were zoned for hazardous waste and those that were zoned for heavy commercial and industrial use. The HeidelbergCement Group’s History of Collaboration with the Nazis The HeidelbergCement Group is no stranger to death and doom. Sadly, Woodfin did not know the following historical facts about the company that wants to manufacture concrete in a black residential neigborhood: Sherman Industries is an affiliate of German-based HeidelbergCement Grop. HeidelbergCement was founded in 1873 in Heidelberg, Germany. It is the world’s largest producers of cement and ready mix concrete. In 2018, the HeidelbergCement Group generated revenues of €17.3 billion Euros (or $19.3 billion U.S. dollars). The company has 59,054 employees who work in 3,000 locations in 60 countries. After the Nazis won political power in Germany, the Reichswirtschaftsministerium (i.e., Germany's national economy ministry) passed a law that automatically enrolled the HeidelbergCement companies and other German cement factories in the Deutsche Zementverband, the Nazis’ newly founded trade organization. During World War II, the HeidelbergCement Group and other German cement companies became a vital part of the Nazis’ war and death machine. During the Nazis’ reign, black Germans were socially isolated and forbidden to have sexual relations and marriages with Aryans by the racial laws. In continued discrimination directed at the so-called “Rhineland bastards,” Nazi officials subjected some 500 black German children in the Rhineland to forced sterilization.  Blacks were considered "enemies of the race-based state" along with Jews, Gypsies, and Gay people. The Nazis originally sought to rid the German state of Jews and Romani by means of deportation (and later extermination), while black Germans were to be segregated and eventually exterminated through compulsory sterilization. Prisoners of war (POWs) faced mistreatment at the hands of the Nazis, who did not uphold the regulations imposed by the Geneva Convention (the international agreement on the conduct of war and the treatment of wounded and captured soldiers). Black soldiers of the American, French, and British Armies were worked to death on construction projects or died as a result of mistreatment in concentration or prisoner-of-war camps. Others were never even incarcerated, but were instead immediately killed by the SS or Gestapo. Black prisoners received harsher treatment and less food than white POWs, and while most white POWs were imprisoned, many of the black soldiers either worked until they died or were executed. Decades before the Nazis turned to the Jews, German colonialists in Southwest Africa – now Namibia – dehumanized, built death camps for, and slaughtered tens of thousands of tribespeople in a systematic genocide .  After Germany's surrender, Allied troops occupied the partly-destroyed cement factories which were managed until 1948 by three trustees. One of them was Dr. Erhard Schott, who was one of the HeidelbergCement Group's top managers and the director of the Leimen, Germany factory. Dr. Schott was the only HeidelbergCement Group executive who was forced to resign after the Nazis won political power in Germany because of his “distant attitude” toward the Nazi regime. The other HeidelbergCement Group executives supported Adolf Hitler, the Nazis' war efforts, the Holocaust, and the mistreatment of black Germans and black POWs. Decades later, the HeidelbergCement Group acquired Lehigh Cement company in 1977. This acquisition gave this German concrete company a presence in the United States. Then the HeidelbergCement Group acquired U.S.-based Hanson PLC in 2007. Today, Sherman Industries is a Lehigh Hanson company , whose global parent is the HeidelbergCement Group. When he met with Sherman Industries, Randall Woodfin was woefully lacking in his knowledge of the HeidelbergCement Group’s role in facilitating death and doom in Nazi Germany. Woodfin was also unprepared to deal with a global concrete manufacturing company that collaborated in the systematic abuse, inhumane treatment, and killing of tens of thousands of black people (in Africa) and at least six million German Jews, Gypsies, and Gay people in Germany. A Black German (right) eats his bread in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II. Beyond that, Mayor Woodfin was not aware that the City of Nashville, Tennessee had stopped a similar concrete manufacturing plant relocation plan by Nashville Ready Mix (which is NOT a HeidelbergCement Group company). In 2015, Nashville Ready Mix presented Nashville officials with a plan to relocate its concrete batch plant to another site the company owned in northeast Nashville. Residents in the affected community protested the planned relocation of the toxic concrete plant and super-prepared city planners recommended that the Metro Planning Commission disapprove construction. The company withdrew the plan before the Planning Commission voted on the plan. The HeidelbergCement Group Knows How to Fight Local Governments and Win After Woodfin signed off on Sherman Industries’ relocation plan in January, the company quickly and quietly applied for an Air Permit from the Jefferson County Department of Health (JCDH) to operate its toxic concrete manufacturing facility in the Five Points West community. This is the same JCDH that has issued Air Permits for notorious polluters in the North Birmingham area of the city. As expected, Sherman Industries did not engage the Five Points West community or District 8 Councilor Steven Hoyt (who represents the residents of that area). Instead, Sherman Industries got the JCDH to post the company’s application for an Air Permit on the JCDH website on April 14, 2019, along with an abbreviated public comment period which ended on April 30, 2019. The HeidelbergCement Group has plenty of experience in getting concrete manufacturing facilities permitted for commercial operation. The company has permitted concrete plants in 3,000 locations worldwide. Woodfin has NO prior experience in stopping this kind of environmental permitting activity by a global giant in the concrete manufacturing business. According to confidential and reliable industry sources, the HeidelbergCement Group plans to outthink, outwork, outspend, and outmaneuver Mayor Woodfin at every turn. They do not respect Woodfin as a mayor and fell betrayed by him now. The HeidelbergCement Group hoodwinked Woodfin once and it believes the company can hoodwink him again. What is more, the HeidelbergCement Group has NOT directed Sherman Industries to withdraw the company’s relocation plan because: (a) Sherman Industries has already agreed to sell its downtown site for $3,375,000 to a Colorado-based mix-use property developer named Residential Ventures; (b) Sherman Industries believes it has a “lock” on the JCDH Air Permit application process; (c) the HeidelbergCement Group has all of the technical documentation Sherman Industries needs to secure approval for the company’s state and federal environmental permits (especially in the era of President Donald Trump’s deregulation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Governor Kay Ivey’s “benign neglect” of the Alabama’s black community); (d) the HeidelbergCement Group knows the Woodfin administrative team lacks the technical expertise and backbone to withhold the issuance of the necessary construction and operating permits for the relocated concrete manufacturing facility; and (e) the HeidelbergCement Group knows that any attempt by the city council to rezone its Five Points West property at this time will likely be struck down by the courts as an unconstitutional ex post facto law. Mayor Woodfin Woke Up Too Late and is Doing Too Little Unfortunately for the residents of Five Points West, Mayor Randall Woodfin woke up to what is happening in this matter too late to stop Sherman Industries’ relocation plan. The HeidelbergCement Group has shown throughout history that it will do whatever it takes to win. They demonstrated this commitment when the company collaborated with the Nazis during World War II and they are demonstrating it today by ramming the concrete plat down their throats of Five Points West residents. Meanwhile, Mayor Woodfin has engaged the services of a couple of local “political hustlers” in a feeble attempt to rehabilitate his “street" credibility. They are NOT fighting the HeidelbergCement Group or Sherman Industries. Instead, they are attempting to battle the media fallout from my investigative reports. Woodfin has also attempted to pass off the responsibility for this self-inflicted mess from his office to a “do-nothing” city council in the hopes that the council can kill Sherman Industries’ concrete plant relocation plan through a zoning change that will likely be defeated in court. This is viewed as wishful thinking. Meanwhile, the HeidelbergCement Group has sized up Mayor Randall Woodfin and the Birmingham city council, as a whole. The HeidelbergCement Group does not believe that this body of weak, unprepared, naïve, inexperienced, and lazy public servants is capable of protecting the Five Points West neighborhood from the dangerous toxins that will surely but slowly poison these residents. When one considers the HeidelbergCement Group’s assessment of the Woodfin administration, which gave Sherman Industries a four-month head-start on the unsuspecting residents of the Five Points West community who are opposing the relocation plan, the 142-year-old concrete manufacturing company just may be right. Unfortunately for the West Points West neighborhood residents, the Woodfin administrative team does not know history and does not value institutional knowledge.