By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on September 5, 2021 On October 22, 1995, God gave me the gift of the daughter I had always wanted. Her name is Claudia Rose Watkins. She is the youngest of my five children and my only daughter. Claudia is, and always has been, a beautiful person, inside and out. On Wednesday, September 2, 2021, Claudia gave me an early birthday gift (as my 73rd birthday is on Wednesday, September 8th). She had just finished emailing me before I called her in London. Claudia announced to me that she turned in her last paper that day and had finished all of her course requirements for the award of her Master's of Science degree in International Business from the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom (UK). Exeter, which is one of the UK's most prestigious universities, is located on the outskirts of London. This moment of pride and joy for Claudia was surreal for me. Susan, Claudia's wonderful, super smart, exceptionally brave, talented, and beautiful mother, had written me a letter a few days earlier to inform me that this event would occur soon. Still, I was overwhelmed with emotion while talking with Claudia. A Lifetime of Personal Responsibility and Scholastic Achievement While Claudia was speaking to me on the phone about this monumental milestone in her life, I was taking a mental flight back through time to reflect on her life, her upbringing, and her academic achievements since birth. Claudia has always been a wonderful, exceptionally bright, very focused, and highly responsible child, which I credit to Susan's outstanding parenting skills. Claudia was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama. She is a biracial woman whose mother is white and father is black. Throughout Claudia's life, she has had to deal with the small-mindedness and racism regarding mixed-race children that flourishes in many parts of Birmingham's white community. Additionally, as her father, I am viewed by many white Alabamians as a controversial civil rights attorney who used aggressive class-action litigation as an effective tool to chip away at the centuries-old racial status quo in a Deep South state that continues to brag that Alabama is the "Heart of Dixie" and "Cradle of the Confederacy." A plethora of barriers to full citizenship for African-Americans in Alabama remains to this day. For example, in 2021, Alabama still has an all-white Supreme Court, an all-white Court of Civil Appeals, and an all-white Court of Criminal Appeals, even though Alabama has a 26.8% black population. Additionally, Alabama is one of the leading states in the effort to roll back the gains African-Americans made under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968. Because of my 48-year-long legal career of advancing and protecting the civil rights of African-Americans, women, and gays in the state, many whites in Alabama hated me with a vengeance and projected this hatred on Claudia while she was growing up in Birmingham. With the help of a strong support system from Susan and me, as well as our respective families, Claudia weathered it all. Laying the Foundation for Success in International Business When Claudia was 13 years old, I took her with me on a business trip to London to expose her to the international world of business. She attended all of my meetings and took notes during the meetings, which we reviewed each night. Claudia met government dignitaries and business moguls from around the world. For the first time, Claudia realized that Birmingham's small-mindedness and white racism were absent in the international marketplace of business ideas. After all, London is a 2,000-year-old international commerce center where people from all nationalities and races come to conduct business in the global markets. I could see Claudia thriving in this kind of international environment. This trip was the beginning of her escape from the gravitational pull of the entrenched white racism in Alabama that marginalizes the legitimate successes of black entrepreneurs in mainstream business. Claudia's Road to Academic Success Claudia attended Shades Valley High School, a public school in Irondale, Alabama which had a 50% black and 50% white student body at the time. She also enrolled in the school's prestigious Finance Academy. In 2014, Claudia graduated third in her class with a 4.4 GPA and received multiple scholarship offers. Claudia attended the University of Miami during her 2014-15 freshman year. She transferred to the University of Alabama (UA) in the fall of 2016 and graduated from UA in the fall of 2018. Claudia spent the summer of 2017 in Rome, Italy studying Business Management at John Cabbot University. She spent the summer of 2018 in London studying Entrepreneurship and Social Innovations at the famed London School of Economics. In October of 2019, Claudia journeyed around the globe to acquaint herself with the best opportunities for women entrepreneurs pursuing international businesses. During this trip, Claudia strengthened her emerging business network with college friends and developed new global strategic alliances in the fast-paced world of international business. In spirit, I traveled with Claudia through each of the eight countries she visited. Upon her return to the United States, Claudia sent me a photo book of her global tour, which had me beaming with pride as her father. In October of 2020, Claudia started her Master's degree program at the University of Exeter and completed it on September 2nd. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, Claudia's formal "in-person" graduation ceremony has been delayed until June 2022. Headquartered in London Claudia now lives in the booming metro-London area. This is the place she has chosen to launch her entrepreneurial career in international business. Based upon her past track-record, I have no doubt that Claudia will succeed with each business venture she launches. I am very proud of my daughter. Claudia is a bridge-builder in the world of human relations and a mountain-climber in the world of global business. She is also the Watkins Family's newest ambassador to the international world. Claudia's four older brothers -- Donald Watkins, Jr., Light Watkins, Drew Watkins, and Dustin Watkins -- join me and the entire Watkins family in extending our heartfelt congratulations to Claudia Rose Watkins for a job well-done. She conquered racial hatred and adversity in Alabama with her overflowing reservoir of love, intellect, class, character, and grace. We love you Claudia, always and forever!

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) on March 9, 2017; Updated and Republished on April 3, 2018 Americans rarely see their schoolteachers as heroes. I do. They shape the lives of the children who determine our future. I attended K-4 grade school at Alonzo Lott, a small public elementary school in Memphis, Tennessee. From the fifth grade through high school graduation, I attended the Laboratory School on the campus of what is now Alabama State University. Both of these schools had all-black teachers and students. The Laboratory School had only one class of about 30 students for each grade. What these schools lacked in size and financial resources, they made up for in the heart, intellectual acumen, dignity, and high moral fiber of their teachers and students. By the time the Watkins family arrived back in Montgomery in 1959 to begin my father’s second period of employment at ASU, I had learned to appreciate the knowledge, skills and abilities of my teachers. They were super-smart educators and larger than life figures in my world. They demanded academic excellence from each student and spared no effort to prepare us for success in life. The educational preparation we received was intense, practical, and very forward-looking. These teachers produced an academic “dream team” every year. We never felt inferior to any ethnic group or competitor. Racism was never viewed as an acceptable excuse for failing to reach our goals in life. We were taught to treat racism like turbulent weather. It was real and pervasive, but we were trained to find a way around, under, over, or through racism in order to reach our destination in life. Our dedicated and caring teachers, along with our loving parents, synchronized our developing minds, growing bodies, and unconquerable spirit. They prepared us to become agents for the positive changes we sought in the world. Looking back on it today, these teachers were visionaries and unsung heroes. What they achieved in the field of education with limited segregation-era resources and unlimited creative genius was nothing short of a miracle. My friends frequently ask me why I love climbing the mountain of international business, especially since it is filled with daunting challenges and only occasional successes. I do it because I am a flag-bearer for my K-12 teachers. I climb the mountain for them. I will not stop climbing the mountain until I have exhausted every ounce of strength in my body and applied every modicum of knowledge my teachers gave me during the 1950s and 60s. I am the embodiment of their sacrifices, preparation, hopes and dreams. Only when I hoist the flag of excellence in their honor on top of the highest mountain peak of international business will my job be done. I want all of my readers to know who these unsung heroes are. I want their names and faces memorialized in the annals of recorded history. My heroes in elementary and secondary education were: (a) Messrs. W. J. Coston and Moses Clark, Laboratory School principals; (b) Mr. Thomas Robinson, assistant principal and woodshop teacher; and (c) Mrs. Sadie G. Penn, Mrs. Clara Davie, Messrs. A.C. Henry, Joseph Gilchrest, W.C Allmon, Tim Sanders, Charles Moss, R. Thomas, David Stott and Clyde Edmonson, Ms. Annetta Baugh, Mrs. Ollie Phillips, Ms. Murrillo Garner, Mrs. Etta Myrtle Alexander, Mrs. Faustine Dunn, Ms. Athalee Smiley, Mrs. Althea Thomas, Mrs. Mary Bell, Mrs. Mattie Gilchrist, Mrs. Evelyn Young, Mrs. Frizette Lee, and Mesdames M.G. Brown, C. Clark, S. Singley, C. Taylor, Draper, Rice and Sneed, all of whom were distinguished educators. We learned Latin, French and Spanish before we could drink from “Whites-Only” water fountains. We learned how to communicate orally and in writing from the best English teachers in America. Our math and science teachers contributed greatly to the success of those students whose algorithms would later transform the telecommunications and technology industries. We learned the countries and cultures of the world from brilliant geography teachers who rarely traveled beyond the state of Alabama. By the time we graduated from high school, these teachers had molded our will to win and given us all of the confidence we needed to achieve success against all odds. The students who were educated in this small all-black school in Montgomery went on to favorably impact every aspect of American society, including law, medicine, engineering, civil and criminal justice, science and technology, mathematics, education, business and finance, aerospace, energy, diplomatic services, and international relations. Our teachers were the best of the best. It is time for these fine educators to take their rightful place in American history. PHOTO: ASU Laboratory Class of 1966. PHOTO: The faculty at Lab High in the 1960s. PHOTO: Mr. W. J. Coston was my first principal. He was as solid as a rock. PHOTO: Moses Clark was my second principal. He was brilliant and strong. PHOTO: Donald Watkins receiving his high school diploma from ASU President Levi Watkins, Sr. (center) in May 1966, while Lab High principal Moses Clark (left) looks on.

By: Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on November 15, 2019 On January 1, 1804, Jean-Jacques Dessalines declared the independence of Haiti. This proclamation brought to an end the only successful slave revolution in history and transformed the French colony into the second independent state in the Western Hemisphere behind the United States (which declared its independence from Great Britain in 1776). With this act, Haiti arose as a symbol of humanity, liberty, and dignity for peoples of African descent, and it changed the course of world history. The momentousness of the Haitian revolution was matched only by the speed and efficacy with which it was marginalized and "forgotten" by the Western world. The exceptional nature of the revolution in a slaveholding world was surpassed only by the interest the colonial powers of Europe and the Americas had in suppressing the memory of it from public discourse, written and oral history, and news accounts following the declaration of Haiti's independence. The Haitian revolution was distinct for being the only one led by the subalterns and the human "property." In contrast, the American revolution decades earlier was led by white men who were property owners in a British colony. Hence, the Haitian revolution required an unusual degree of mass mobilization, as compared to the American independence struggle. When viewed through the lens of history in the Atlantic world, the revolution launched by the Haitians against colonialism, slavery, and the ideology of white supremacy has to be considered remarkable. As refugees of all colors flowed into North America from the 1790s into the early nineteenth century, the fear engendered in whites by a successful black slave revolution so close to its shores was remembered for generations in the United States. This is particularly true in the Antebellum South where it was held up as evidence that "race war would be the only result of the universal emancipation of the slaves." As a result, the Haitian revolution was suppressed in literature, political discourse, and French and American history books. All discussion about the revolution was "silenced." By March 2000, French president Jacques Chirac made a public statement that "Haiti was not, properly speaking, a French colony." Tragically, the French did not stop at this "silencing" treatment. Two decades after Haiti declared its independence, France forced Haiti into signing a trade treaty that obligated Haiti to pay a massive indemnity to France. The treaty is still in effect and has contributed greatly to the country's poverty. From 1804 through 1934, the United States, Spain, Great Britain, and France carried out a sustained campaign of commercial and political interference with the internal affairs of Haiti. These countries raped and pillaged Haiti's natural resources and financial assets and exploited its national economy. In 1915, the United States Army invaded Haiti, seized its national capitol, and took the gold from the country's national treasury. After 111 years of independence, Haitians no longer had a voice in the administration of their national affairs. The U.S. Army's armed occupation of Haiti ended on August 21, 1934. Fast-forward to February 28, 2004, 200 hundred years after Haiti declared its independence: French, Canadian, and U.S. forces backed an armed insurgency against the fledgling government of Haiti's first democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Described as a "humanitarian intervention," the armed overthrow of Aristide is one more example of the triumph of neo-colonialism over the political choice of a majority of the Haitian people. Unlike the white colonists in America, Haitians were never allowed to thrive in their nation. America and European nations recognized that a successful revolt by slaves and the indigenous people of Haiti had to be minimized and marginalized in the Western Hemisphere at all cost and at all times. At the end of the day, race has always made a difference in what is perceived as "good" and "bad" in the Atlantic and European Worlds. [Editor's Note: For more information about the cultural legacies of the Haitian Revolution in the Atlantic World, read Tree of Liberty, edited by Northwestern University Professor of French and noted author, Dr. Doris L. Garraway, University of Virginia Press, 2008.]

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on May 8, 2020 Most Americans do not realize that the U.S. Constitution permits one form of legalized slavery in the country. The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which was ratified in 1865, expressly authorizes the enslavement of human beings as punishment for state and federal crimes. As a nation, we institutionalize these individuals in state and federal penal colonies called "correctional institutions." In penal slavery, prisoners may be required to work on public or private property for pennies per hour; they may be required to work longer than 40 hours per week whenever they are directed to do so by prison officials; they may be compelled to perform hazardous duty work without the proper safety training and equipment; they are jammed into substandard dormitories and/or prison cells without adequate temperature controls; they may be punished by prison officials without just cause; they may be placed in dungeons and isolation units called "Special Housing Units," and they are subjected to the lowest standards of nutrition, personal hygiene, and healthcare in America. A Time When Nobody Cared I didn't realize the true nature and scope of penal slavery until I became a lawyer. One of my first cases was the effort in 1974 to secure a full and unconditional pardon from the state of Alabama for Mr. Clarence Norris, the last known surviving "Scottsboro Boys." This case involved nine teenage black boys who were arrested in 1932 and falsely accused of raping two white prostitutes on a freight train passing through the Paint Rock community near Scottsboro, Alabama. The Boys were tried three times and eight of them were sentenced to death each time, even though one of the women recanted her testimony and the doctor who examined them when the Boys were arrested told the trial judge James Horton the women were not raped. The U.S. Supreme Court saved the Boys from execution at the last minute each time they were convicted and sentenced to die. In November 1976, the Alabama Pardons and Parole Board, with the concurrence of Gov. George C. Wallace, awarded Mr. Norris the first pardon ever issued to a death row inmate based upon a showing of "innocence." Mr. Norris's pardon ended a 45-year legal battle to clear the names of the nine Scottsboro Boys. During my representation of Mr. Norris, I reviewed decades of court files and prison records in his case. The prison records revealed unspeakable acts of the inhumane treatment inflicted upon the Boys while they were in Alabama's penal colony. For example, white guards repeatedly whipped the Boys with thick leather straps for no apparent reason. These guards spat on them, urinated on them for fun, and dared the Boys to complain about this conduct to their New York lawyers. The Boys were constantly placed in solitary confinement. The guards repeatedly tortured some of the Boys in a futile effort to extract confessions out of them. After Alabama Supreme Court justices upheld their convictions and the governor signed their death warrants on three separate occasions, the Boys were required to make their own coffins and lay in them for hours. Guards then urinated on them while they laid in their coffins. I have never spoken or written about the other unspeakable acts of inhumane treatment to which the Boys were subjected because I don't want to inspire hatred by one racial group of Americans against another group of Americans. Instead, I have always focused on the heroic acts of their lawyers, one trial judge (James Horton), and the U.S. Supreme Court Justices who stepped up to save the Boys' lives, even when it meant putting their own lives in jeopardy and careers at risk. In the 1950s, Mr. Norris escaped his imprisonment in Alabama and fled to New York. He was a fugitive from Alabama-style "justice" when I met him in 1974. State prison officials demanded that Mr. Norris return to prison in Alabama and resume his life as a penal system slave before his petition for a pardon would be considered. I refused this demand. Mr. Norris' formal emancipation from penal slavery in Alabama occurred two years later. Court-Ordered Prison Reform America's system of penal slavery underwent a fundamental and positive change from the inhumane conditions of slavery that existed from 1865 through the 1960s. In the early 1970s, a couple of courageous federal judges in Alabama -- Chief U.S. District Court Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr., in Montgomery and U.S. District Judge Virgil Pittman in Mobile -- ordered substantial prison reforms for city and county jails and state prisons in Alabama. Their prison reforms later became national standards for penal colonies across America. Judges Johnson and Pittman stopped Alabama prison officials from: (a) operating a dual system of penal colonies that provided separate but unequal prison facilities and treatment for white and black inmates, (b) denying prisoners nutritional meals and adequate medical attention, (c) administering beatings to black male and female inmates with straps and paddles, (d) torturing black inmates, (e) forcibly sterilizing poor female inmates of both races, (f) conducting human experiments on black inmates, (g) performing lobotomies on inmates in mental institutions, (h) ignoring the constitutional rights of inmates to freedom of speech, family visitations, and basic educational opportunities, (i) forcing prisoners to urinate and defecate in cans, rather than in toilets, and (j) confining inmates for long periods of time in small, cramped, dirty, isolation "Holes" without toilets, lights, or windows. In essence, these two brave federal judges imposed a minimum standard of human decency for the operation of Alabama prisons. They were severely ostracized by Alabama's white community and media for many years for doing so. The social mores and racial attitudes of the 19th and 20th centuries inevitably bled over into the operations of federal penal colonies. For decades, prisoners in these colonies suffered inhumane treatment in all aspects of prison life. Later on, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons became an integral part of the Department of Justice's formal COINTELPRO program to discredit, harass, and imprison civil rights activists on trumped up criminal charges during the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. An informal version of this COINTELPRO collaboration has continued for decades. After Judges Johnson and Pittman died, their prison reform standards remained intact for nearly two decades following their deaths. Eventually, the cases that produced these landmark prison reform court orders were closed, thereby paving the way for a renaissance of old-fashion penal slavery practices. The Penal Slave Trade is Thriving Today, the overwhelming majority of judges on the federal bench call themselves "strict constructionists" of the U.S. Constitution. For the most part, they do not share Johnson's and Pittman's commitment to prison reform. These judges do not demand the strict enforcement of minimum standards of decency in state and federal penal colonies. In fact, many of these federal judges viewed themselves as "strict constructionists" and they use this ideological stance to justify their rollback of penal conditions to pre-1865 enslavement standards. What is more, they enthusiastically drive the slave trade of inmates into the federal penal colonies. The slave trade between so-called "law and order" judges and penal colonies in the U. S. is big business. As a result, there is always a steady stream of new slaves coming into these penal colonies. The federal penal colonies, alone, hold 175,000 inmates and receive about $39,000 per year from the federal government to house, feed, clothe, and care for each inmate. A huge chuck of this money goes to support a unionized workforce in federal prisons and to purchase cheap Commissary goods from China for resale to inmates at jacked up prices. With new inmates coming into state and federal prison colonies every day, there is no real incentive for these colonies to provide anything beyond the bare minimum in living conditions and healthcare to inmates. Regardless of what status an inmate held in the free world and whether he/she was rightly or wrongfully convicted of the charges against him/her, he/she is a slave in America's penal colonies. Today, it appears that the novel coronavirus is changing everything in penal colonies. State and federal prisons are releasing inmates in record numbers in response to the highly contagious, sweeping, and deadly virus. It took a global pandemic of Biblical proportions to serve as the new agent of change in America's prisons. Non-violent, first-time offenders who should have been released from captivity years ago are now going home because of an "Act of God" that is killing more than 2,000 Americans a day, with no end in sight. The coronavirus may be the force that finally curbs legalized slavery in America's penal colonies.

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on September 17, 2018 The little girl in the beach resort picture is Claudia Rose Watkins. She is my daughter. This photograph was taken on a vacation trip we took to Amelia Island Plantation resort on Amelia Island, Florida. Claudia was nearly six-years-old when this picture was snapped and I thought it was time for her introduction to an important part of African-American history. While touring Amelia Island, I showed Claudia an area called American Beach. I explained American Beach’s remarkable history in American society. American Beach is a pristine 33-acre beach front area located between the Summer Beach resort, a 450-acre complex that includes homes, a Ritz-Carlton Hotel, and seven condominium buildings to the north and Amelia Island Plantation, a 1,330-acre resort and residential community that includes a hotel and two condominium buildings to the south. Abraham Lincoln Lewis, a black entrepreneur and insurance company owner, developed American Beach for African-Americans during the era of Jim Crow racial segregation. At the time, beaches across the South were designated “For Whites Only” because white men did not want black men and boys to see white women and girls clad in swimsuits. Any black man or boy who looked at a white woman or girl clad in a swimsuit was at risk of being lynched. This history of American Beach is chronicled in BlackPast.org. “American Beach, the only beach in Florida that welcomed black Americans and offered safe, secure overnight accommodations during Jim Crow segregation, was founded in 1935 by the Afro-American Life Insurance Company (AALIC), which was established in 1901 to provide the Jacksonville, Florida black community with life insurance.  The firm’s Afro-American Pension Bureau purchased a 33-acre piece of property at the beach on nearby Amelia Island, partly as an investment but also to provide it as a resort area for black Floridians who had been excluded from other beaches.  Abraham Lincoln Lewis, the President of Afro-American Life, ironically named the area American Beach because he and others felt that in the United States beach access should be open to everyone. Lewis and his partners envisioned a resort that would signify success, self-sufficiency, and respectability for middle-class African American families from Atlanta and Savannah, Georgia.  In addition to having beach access, the planned community also allowed for the building of resort and retirement homes.  Surveyed and platted on March 12, 1936, the original section of the beach property was added to the US National Register of Historic Places on January 28, 2002 as being worthy of historic preservation and marker designation. Florida’s first black millionaires and largest landowners established homes there and encouraged other blacks to build homes and create the small businesses that they often dreamed of owning.  Between the late 1930s and the 1950s, tourists traveled for miles to frequent this black-owned oasis, passing dozens of resorts that were off limits to them, as made evident by the “For Whites Only” signs. Eventually, prominent entertainers made their way to the famous seaside pavilion that, over the years, hosted musicians like Cab Calloway, Ray Charles, and Duke Ellington.  For nearly three decades, American Beach thrived as an all-black recreational beach resort whose population swelled greatly in the summer months. With the advent of integration, the beach lost customers to other resorts that were now open to African Americans.  Nature, however, played a role in American Beach’s decline as well. In 1964 Hurricane Dora destroyed many homes and businesses and owners either would not or could not afford to rebuild.  Consequently, like similar resorts across the nation, American Beach residents often abandoned or sold their properties—or, if they were not property owners, simply stopped visiting. Nonetheless a small loyal group of multigenerational American Beach families kept their properties and, by the 1980s, attracted a new wave of prominent owners including tennis star Leslie Allen, TV actress Barbara Montgomery, and Emory University professor Eugene Emory.  Prominent educator Johnnetta Cole also encouraged the revival of the resort.  She and her sister, MaVynee Betsch, known locally as the Beach Lady because of her long residence in American Beach, have established the A.L. Lewis Historical Society (as a tribute to their great-grandfather who is the founder of the community) and have developed the American Beach Museum to preserve the beach community’s unusual history.” Today, Claudia is a grown woman with an international circle of friends and a bright future in global business. Remarkably, American Beach still exists, but it is experiencing a transition. The modest vacation homes from the 1930s share space with vacant lots, abandoned buildings, and newer, more elegant structures. Though small in area, American Beach continues to play an important role in African-American history. PHOTO: Donald V. Watkins and Claudia Rose Watkins vacationing on Amelia Island, Florida. (Circa Summer of 2000)

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on July 29, 2019 In the Watkins family, we have known what real love is for five generations. It all started when William Carmichael, who was born on December 5, 1838, met and fell in love with a beautiful “mulatto” girl in Mississippi named Olivia Williamson, who was born on April 20, 1847. Oliva and William married in Crawford Station, Mississippi, on March 25, 1865 -- about two weeks before General Robert E. Lee surrendered his 28,000 confederate troops to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox. Their love for each other was more powerful than the entrenched racial customs in Mississippi at the time. It has inspired five generations of true love within the entire Watkins family. As a family, we have been too busy loving each other to hate on others. If you want to know what love is, click on the video in this article and feel it for yourself. I am sharing this special video on familial love with my readers because so many of you have supported us through our most difficult days. I hope you enjoy it. We certainly did. https://video.wixstatic.com/video/851524_b5bd2b415a374d76943f41dcbbeea14b/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

By: Donald V. Watkins © Copyrighted and Published on December 10, 2019 White supremacy groups in the United States have terrorized African-Americans for over a century. Their hatred of blacks resulted in the lynching of thousands of innocent black victims, the widespread and unprovoked killings of innocent black citizens, the savage beatings of tens of thousands of blacks, the burning of black men alive, hundreds of church and home bombings, the destruction of entire black communities in Oklahoma and Florida, the physical castration of thousands of black men, and other senseless forms of unimaginable violence against black men and women. Throughout much of this dark period in American history, white supremacy groups found sanctuary within local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies and judicial bodies. From 1956 to 1971, the Federal Bureau of Investigation collaborated with hordes of white supremacists who were embedded in state and local law enforcement agencies, as well as news media organizations, under a formal program called COINTELPRO. This program was designed to discredit reputable black civil rights activists like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, and thousands of others. The FBI labeled Dr. King as the "most dangerous Negro in America" because he could speak and write well and he could mobilize the masses of black people. The FBI successfully demonized Dr. King to 75% of white Americans by portraying him as a "thug," a "filthy animal," and an "evil, abnormal beast." Even though centralized COINTELPRO operations ended in 1971, decentralized COINTELPRO programs at the FBI field office level continued unabated in Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Florida, Louisiana, and Georgia, albeit in a more discreet and politically acceptable fashion. Standing Down Thanks to today's right-wing Justice Department and ultra-conservative federal judiciary, the traditional white supremacy groups can now stand down. Their services are no longer needed. Fortunately for these hate groups, their ideological twins have once again successfully infiltrated the ranks of the U.S. Justice Department and federal bench. These twins have mastered the public relations skills that were sorely lacking in groups like the Ku Klux Klan, the skinhead organizations, and the American Nazi Party. These twins are highly educated, polite, mannerable, masters of deception, and appropriately dressed for all occasions. They have found community acceptance within the traditional pillars of white society. They even profess to have black friends who, like Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, are safe, non-threatening "Negroes." Unfortunately for the African-American community, these ideological twins are far more dangerous than traditional hate groups because they are cloaked with important-sounding titles, they act under the color of law, they enjoy a presumption of legitimacy, and they operate from a national platform that carries with it the federal resources necessary to implement and perpetuate an insidious white supremacy agenda in the name of law enforcement. These twins have the ability to articulate their racism in a philosophical way that convinces the white community that they are merely enforcing federal laws as prosecutors and conservative jurists. In fact, they are simply targeting black activists and dissidents for criminal investigations, trumping up criminal charges against them, home cooking them in federal courtrooms, and incarcerating them in record numbers. The racial disparity among adults serving time in the nation's prisons reflects a clear race-based bias against black defendants. According to an April 2019 report issued by the U.S. Bureau of Statistics, black men are incarcerated at nearly six times the rate of white men, while black women are incarcerated at nearly double the rate of white women. While blacks make up 13% of the U.S. population, they account for 37.5% of all inmates in federal prison. The federal judiciary that produces this result consists of a body of magistrates, trial judges, and appellate judges that is 80% white. Alabama, for example, did not get its first black federal judge until 1980. Even then, this judge's presidential appointment was vigorously opposed by the Alabama and American Bar Associations. The numbers don't lie. Either blacks are nearly three times more likely than whites to commit federal crimes, or they are the victims of a federal law enforcement apparatus that is engulfed in white racism. The objective evidence demonstrates that a modern-day, turbo-charged version of the FBI's centralized COINTELPRO is running at full speed. Blacks no longer need to fear the men and women in white robes. Today, it is the ultra-conservative men and women in black robes who present a clear and present danger to African-Americans. The ideological twins in black robes are the ones who are aggressively dismantling black America and its substantial achievements in the face of unbearable racial discrimination, and they are doing it with glee.

By: Donald V. Watkins © Copyrighted and Published on January 20, 2020 The Judicial Lynching of Isaac Culver A Record of Service to Community and Country Isaac Culver is a longtime native of Macon, Georgia. Culver, an African-American, is an electrical engineer. He was also the CEO of PCTI (a private Georgia corporation founded by Culver) and the former Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce for Macon-Bibb County. Culver, a married father of two daughters, was educated at Mercer University. Serving on over a dozen community boards and agencies, he was well-respected in his Macon, Georgia community. Culver had never been in trouble with the law. Isaac Culver comes from an iconic civil rights family in Wheeler County. His father was the president of the local NAACP for 45 years. His father was also the first African American school board member, the first black city councilman, and the first African American county commissioner in Wheeler County where Culver grew up. When Culver's father passed in 2013, his mother succeeded him as a county commissioner. PCTI had been in business for nearly thirty years. The company was a major federal government contractor and carried a designated "Top Secret" Department of Defense Facility Clearance. Complex, multi-year, multimillion-dollar technology contracts were PCTI's enterprise zone. One contract that PCTI performed for nearly 6 years resulted in savings for the U.S. Air Force of $80 million a year, totalling nearly a half billion dollars in all. PCTI reviewed technical drawings for the U.S. Army, designed and installed wiring harnesses for Air Force cargo planes, and designed and developed USA staffing for the Office of Personnel Management. For nearly 30 years, PCTI received stellar performance reviews by various federal government agencies, including the Department of Defense. The Mechanics of a Judicial Lynching In 2017, Isaac Culver's world was turned upside down when he was indicted by federal prosecutors for wire and mail fraud in connection with the delivery of high quality, state-of-the-art computer equipment that was specifically requested by the local system and delivered pursuant to a duly executed purchase order. To secure Culver's indictment for fraud, federal prosecutor Elizabeth Howard falsely represented to the grand jury that PCTI signed a contract banning the company from rendering vendor services to the local school system, including selling the system computer hardware for a profit. The contract contained no such prohibition. In fact, none of the charges presented by Ms. Howard to the grand jury were, in fact, contained in the final contract executed between PCTI and the school system. The indictment presented to the grand jury alleged that PCTI, Culver, and Dave Carty (the company's vice president) sold fraudulent, non-working equipment to the local school board using a straw-man company to hide the fact that PCTI was the actual seller of the equipment. This was a blatant lie. Superintendent Romain Dallemand and IT Director Tom Tourand both were informed of the exact nature of using the General Services Administration schedule as a pass-thru to obtain the devices. The government's own witness, Chandler Newell, an expert in Information Technology, had purchased the same devices at the same time for a neighboring school system. This prosecution witness, who happens to be white, attested to the high quality and efficiency of the new computer devices at trial by exclaiming, "These devices are amazing!" The indictment returned by the grand jury alleged that PCTI, Culver, and Carty violated the terms and conditions of the PCTI written contract, despite the undisputed fact that the school system's general counsel, Randy Howard, specifically reviewed all provisions in the contract and all aspects of the procurement process for this computer equipment before approving the transaction evidenced in the purchase orders. Mike Reeves of Friend Hudak (PCTI's counsel) reviewed the contract, the procurement process, and transactional documents, as well. Both lawyers are well-respected in the legal community and are above reproach. The defendants pleaded "not guilty" to the government's charges. Prosecutors Ran the Courtroom At the beginning of the trial, Judge Marc Treadwell, who was a former insurance defense lawyer, pointed out that allegations involving contract violations were a civil matter, not a criminal one. Judge Treadwell, who is white, initially stated that he must dismiss the case. However, prosecutors Elizabeth Howard and Danial Bennett, both of whom are white, protested such a dismissal and proceeded to change the prosecution's theory of the case by stating that she would "no longer talk about the contract." After these prosecutors barked at Treadwell, he backed down. During the pretrial phase of the case and unknown to Isaac Culver, defense counsel filed a motion to continue the trial on the Friday before the commencement of the trial, which was scheduled for the following Monday. Counsel stated that he "would be ineffective and could not provide adequate representation" for Culver because of two unexpected events beyond defense counsel's control. First, the lead counsel was gravely ill. Second, at the request of the government, Culver's case had been severed from Carty's at the last minute, thereby destroying the defense's year-long joint-defense trial strategy. In an usual move, the judge denied counsel's motion to continue without a hearing. As such, the case was defended by an inexperienced attorney who had suddenly been catapulted to lead attorney for trial purposes. Then, the jury foreman, who is white, sent his wife to the prosecutor right after jury selection to inform her that "we are praying for you and will help you get him." Judge Treadwell denied the defense's motion to interview the juror saying, "I don't have to let you interview him so I'm not going to." The defense found out about this illegal contact only when a local newspaper reporter contacted defense counsel to ask him what the judge decided about the juror speaking to the prosecutor. The prosecutor never volunteered the information. The jury foreman and his wife then proceeded to give the prosecutor a gift after the conviction they assured. Because Isaac Culver entered a trial without his lead counsel and co-defendant Carty, who actually oversaw the school system project, most of the evidence and testimony prepared over a year was not presented to the jury. The superintendent testified during his grand jury testimony that he knew that PCTI was the seller of the computer equipment, but he was stopped in the midst of this testimony by the prosecutor. Furthermore, the school system's IT director actually directed the company's senior project manager on the project to obtain the devices from PCTI using a GSA vendor for better pricing and to expedite the acquisition process. In the end, the school system retained and used a lot of the computer equipment, which was brand new. Federal Prosecutors Engaged in Selective Prosecution Based Upon Culver's Race Federal prosecutors Howard and Bennett made a criminal case against Culver out of no case. To do so, they had to “twist” evidence and engage in selective prosecution. In fact, during one of the pretrial hearings, the FBI acknowledged that the agency only conducted its investigation after Culver’s indictment and that the FBI found no criminal acts committed by Culver, Carty, or PCTI. Even though Judge Treadwell was shocked when he was told in court that the FBI investigation yielded nothing on the defendants, he did not dismiss the case. It should be noted that the local district attorney and the Georgia Attorney General both reviewed Culver's case based upon the same evidence presented in the federal case. After their review, both prosecutors declined to charge Culver with a crime because they considered it to be a local school board policy and contract matter. They viewed this as a civil contract matter, not a criminal case. Additionally, there were seven vendors providing $40 million worth of information technology services and goods to the Bibb County School District during the time period of 2012. Culver's contract was worth $3.7 million. Of the seven vendors, only one company, PCTI, was black-owned. The other six companies were white-owned. None of the seven IT vendors had a written contract that was presented to the Bibb School Board for approval and/or ratification in 2012. After whites seized control of the superintendent's office and school board's chairmanship in 2013, the board proceeded to ratify its purchase of goods and services with the white vendors on an ex post facto basis, while refusing to ratify Culver's computer contract and purchase orders. Interestingly, one of the white vendors whose contract was ratified was paid for purchased equipment even though it was not delivered until a year later. By 2017, federal prosecutors in Macon elected to prosecute the sole black IT vendor and its executive officers for purported violations of the contract. Although the school board had constructive knowledge of all IT vendors by virtue of their budget review process and the vendor's dealings with the superintendent (the school system's chief executive officer), the final charge against Culver was that the school board had no knowledge that PCTI was the vendor. Under Georgia law, the superintendent had the legal authority to bind his/her school district when purchasing goods and services. As a matter of law, knowledge of the CEO's authorized executive actions is automatically imputed to the board. Epilogue The jury found Culver guilty, and Judge Treadwell sentenced him to 84 months in prison. After Culver's conviction, Culver and his company lost all of their government clearances; they were banned from competing for federal contracts for life, and PCTI was forced to dissolve because of the penalties imposed by Judge Treadwell. Culver's conviction arose from a local school board contract that was funded with a local special option sales tax. There were absolutely no federal funds or agencies involved. Culver's co-defendant, Dave Carty (who is black) was found guilty of one charge out of thirteen six months later. The evidence presented by the prosecutor was so weak that Carty's counsel elected to not even present a defense. It's obvious that Carty was found guilty of one charge out of thirteen only because Culver had been previously found guilty. Isaac Culver has appealed his conviction and sentence. His appeal is pending. More details about Mr. Culver's "trial" are available at: www.maconfactcheck.com Tomorrow, we will examine the "Railroading of Alabama Attorney Chris Pitts" in "God Wears a Robe" - Part 3.

By: Donald V. Watkins © Copyrighted and Published on January 21, 2020 Railroading Alabama Attorney Christopher Pitts Christopher Pitts is a native of Auburn, Alabama. He is the son of legendary civil rights leader, Barbara Pitts. Along with civil rights icons Rosa Parks, Johnnie Carr, Maggie Bozeman, Julia Wilder, and a host of other brave women in the Alabama civil rights movement, Barbara Pitts became a COINTELPRO target of law enforcement officials who opposed the desegregation of public schools and public accommodations in Alabama. As a teenager in the 1960s, Ms. Pitts, her sisters, and their classmates at J.F. Drake High School organized lunch counter sit-ins and other civil rights protests in Lee County, Alabama. They were jailed on more than one occasion for challenging the status quo of racial segregation in the county. Because she never stopped fighting for equal justice, Barbara Pitts rose in the ranks of powerful African-Americans in Alabama. She became the first black voter registrar in Lee County. Ms. Pitts was the Alabama G-O-T-V coordinator for Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman to run for President of the United States. Ms. Pitts was the Alabama G-O-T-V coordinator for Jessie Jackson's 1988 presidential campaign. She was the first female president of the Alabama New South Coalition, a powerful political organization in Alabama during the 1980s and 90s. Ms. Pitts spent her entire life fighting to improve the quality of life for African-Americans in Alabama and across the nation. She raised her son, Christopher Pitts, to continue this fight with the same vigor. Chris Pitts' Emergence As a Political Force in Alabama After graduating from Jones Law School in Montgomery, Chris Pitts was admitted to the Alabama Bar Association in 2000. Eventually, Pitts became a powerful political figure in the state, as well as a highly successful real estate attorney. At every step along the way, Pitts practiced the politics of inclusion for African-Americans in the political arena and in business. Pitts took his mother's civil rights activism to a higher level. Pitts rose to power and influence from an entry level position as a legislative clerk in the Alabama Senate to Legislative Director for Lt. Governor Don Siegelman. While serving as Siegelman's Legislative Director, Pitts tracked and killed regressive voter identification bills that were designed to hinder black voter turnout; he killed anti-voter registration legislation that was designed to slow the enrollment of new black voters and remove black registered voters from voter rolls in Alabama counties; he killed abortion bills that attacked Roe v. Wade; and he killed the then-popular "three strikes" legislation that was designed to imprison black offenders for life if they were convicted of three felony offenses. When Siegelman became governor, he appointed Chris Pitts as Director of Community Relations and Assistant Director of the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs. Pitts was the first African-American to hold these positions. This is where Pitts learned the power of money. At ADECA, Pitts worked hard to make sure state grant money flowed to African-American communities in Alabama which had been historically neglected. He made a lot of powerful enemies in the white community in the process. Pitts' Economic Empowerment Program Made Him a Modern-Day COINTELPRO Target When Siegelman left office, Chris Pitts began to focus on his legal and business career. He built a successful law practice growing to three offices (Montgomery, Birmingham, and Huntsville, Alabama) with a focus on real estate, public finance, bankruptcy, and personal injury. Pitts was one of the few African-American attorneys in Alabama who served as a bond attorney on borrowing transactions by government agencies. In 2005, at age 35, Chris Pitts became the first African-America in the country to win a contract to close real estate transactions for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development ("HUD"). Over the next three years, Pitts closed more than 5,000 real estate transactions for HUD totaling about $200 million. No black man in Alabama's history ever processed $200 million in real estate transactions for any government agency. Pitts' block of business with HUD had the potential to increase into the billions of dollars with his planned expansion into neighboring states. After Pitts closed $200 million in HUD real estate transactions, he became the target of modern-day COINTELPRO FBI agents who began a criminal investigation of Pitts for wire fraud. The sheer size, nature and scope of Pitt's real estate closings work was too much for the "Good Ole Boys" network in Alabama to handle, and it brought him squarely within the crosshairs of federal agents and prosecutors in Montgomery, Alabama -- the "Cradle of the Confederacy" and "Heart of Dixie." In February 2016, the gutless federal prosecutors who used a "too big to prosecute" rationale to avoid prosecuting hundreds of white Wall Street bank CEOs and executives who (a) caused the Great Recession of 2008, (b) cooked their companies' financial books to hide their distressed condition, and (c) caused American investors to lose $13 trillion in wealth came after Pitts with a vengeance. They indicted Pitts on wire fraud charges over a $1,090,888.53 shortfall in the trust accounts Pitts maintained for his HUD transactions. That's right; federal prosecutors focused on $1 million of the $200 million in HUD transactions Pitts had handled. The $13 trillion in lost American wealth was not important enough for federal prosecutors to lodge criminal charges against the army of white Wall Street executives who crashed the global economy. Those offenders were rewarded with taxpayer "bailout" money, from which they promptly gave themselves bonuses. Additionally, federal prosecutors did not charge the scores of white Wells Fargo Bank executives who perpetrated a bank fraud scheme that involved the creation of two million unauthorized Wells Fargo bank accounts between 2012 and 2016 across the nation for the sole purpose of bilking unsuspecting bank customers out of unearned bank fees. No, federal prosecutors wanted Chris Pitts. He was more important to them than all of the crooked Wall Street bankers and Wells Fargo executives combined. It is important to note that prosecutors did not claim that Pitts used the unaccounted for $1,090,888.53 for his personal living expenses, or that he lied to investigators regarding the whereabouts of this money, or that he failed to declare all of his taxable income in any given year, or that he failed to pay taxes on his declared income. Instead, the prosecutors claimed that Pitts: (a) developed the $1,090,888.53 shortfall over a three-year period as his real estate closings quickly mushroomed to more than 5,000 transactions, (b) commingled lender funds within his HUD trust accounts, (c) failed to alert HUD of the growing shortfall while continuing to service the HUD contract, and (d) knowingly submitted fraudulent documents (i.e., unreconciled transactional statements) to HUD to obscure his alleged fraud scheme. At most, Pitts' conduct evidences understandable accounting mistakes that are typically associated with a rapid surge in business activities, not a crime. Like their 1960s-era COINTELPRO predecessors, federal prosecutors in Montgomery threatened to charge Pitts' mother and his wife, who is a professionally trained chemist, with fraud even though they had no signatory authority on his HUD trust accounts. The act of making hostages out of innocent relatives is a favorite tactic of COINTELPRO prosecutors. It is designed to put the maximum pressure on the defendant. Under the (a) duress of an eight-year investigation by HUD and the FBI, (b) stress of an Alabama Bar Association license suspension (c) financial devastation from the loss of his law practice and HUD contract, and (d) imminent threat of danger to his mother and wife, Chris Pitts negotiated and accepted a plea agreement that left him with what he believed was an opportunity to escape imprisonment if a forensic audit could establish that the missing $1,090,888.53 was not the result of a criminal act. A forensic audit was commissioned by Pitts. The cause of the shortfall was found. Fifteen (15) of the 5,000 closings did not receive the funds that were due to HUD from mortgage giants Washington Mutual, Inc. and Countrywide Financial. With the onset of the 2008 Recession, these giant mortgage lenders struggled to fund scheduled real estate closings for their customers. They eventually collapsed before they could send the missing $1,090,888.53 to Pitts' trust account for the benefit of HUD. Unaware of an impending collapse of the global economy, Pitts closed these 15 real estate loans from available funds in his trust account with the expectation that the funds from Washington Mutual and Countrywide would eventually be received by his office. This money never came. The mystery of the missing $1,090,888.53 was solved, or so Pitts thought. Like millions of Americans who lost money during the Great Recession of 2008, Chris Pitts was a "victim" of Wall Street's collapse. He was innocent of the government's fraud charges, as he had claimed all along. As expected, federal prosecutors took no criminal action against the white senior management executives of Washington Mutual and Countrywide who failed to fund the $1,090,888.52 shortfall in Pitts' HUD trust accounts. Likewise, neither federal prosecutors, nor HUD took the administrative action necessary to collect the $1,090,888.35 from the insurance policies Pitts bought to cover this kind of accounting mistake. One problem remained -- the prosecutors on Pitts' case did not care about the truth regarding the shortfall. This was never their motivation for targeting and prosecuting Pitts. They wanted to take Chris Pitts down. Federal Judge L. Scott Coogler, a pro-prosecution trial judge based in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, refused Pitts' multiple requests to withdraw from his plea agreement after he was cleared by the forensic audit, stating in one of his orders that "the government would be prejudiced, because at trial Pitts would likely be found innocent." As expected, Judge Coogler, who enjoys a well-known reputation for his open hostility toward black civil and criminal defendants in his courtroom, used self-serving and creative ways to discredit the forensic auditor and two audit reports. Like the COINTELPRO prosecutors in Pitts' case, Judge Coogler was also on a mission -- Jail Chris Pitts at all cost. After denying Pitts' motions to withdraw from the plea agreement, Judge Coogler sentenced Pitts to 37 months imprisonment. Pitts has appealed Judge Coogler's denial of his motions to withdraw from the plea agreement, as well as his conviction and sentence. Meanwhile, Chris Pitts has lost his HUD contract, his law license, his businesses in Alabama and Atlanta, his home and other properties, and his freedom. The only thing prosecutors were not able to take from Pitts was his manhood. That's a credit to how Barbara Pitts raised her son. Louis Franklin, the chief prosecutor in the criminal division of the Montgomery U.S. Attorney's Office, was rewarded for taking down Chris Pitts when President Donald J. Trump appointed him as U.S. Attorney in Montgomery in 2017. Even though Franklin is black, his presence on the scene does not sanitize the racially motivated railroading of Pitts. It only makes the prosecutorial mistreatment in Pitts' case more sickening. Epilogue Chris Pitts is in prison for the same matter that the Alabama State Bar reviewed and categorized, at most, as mere "negligence" at the conclusion of a 2010 hearing. Pitts was disbarred only after his conviction in 2019. Pitts was represented in the Alabama State Bar hearing by Attorney George Beck, who argued that Pitts had "committed no crime" and that his "actions were honorable." After Beck was appointed U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Alabama in 2011, his office indicted Pitts on the same HUD shortfall issue Beck represented Pitts on in front of the Alabama Bar Association. Christopher Pitts is the first and only person in the history of the American legal system to be both defended and later prosecuted for the exact same legal issue by same attorney in both matters. The Department of Justice's blatant racism and selective prosecution in Chris Pitts' case is unforgivable. Tomorrow, we will present the case of "Dr. Mbanefo, a Victim of Xenophobia" in "God Wears a Robe" - Part 4.

By: Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on June 30, 2020 The imprisonment of those who challenge the status quo is a practice that dates back for thousands of years. The history books are filled with stories of revolutionaries and dissidents who were falsely accused of crimes against the state, tried in front of biased tribunals, convicted, and imprisoned. The best known victims of this practice were Rosa Parks, Ralph David Abernathy, Nelson Mandela and Marcus Garvey. They were perceived “enemies of the state” and branded as “criminals”. Prison seems to be a natural stage in the life of an effective activist for social and economic justice. Imprisonment by the old regime for one’s beliefs is a de facto recognition that these beliefs are dangerous and the person who holds them is a worthy enemy. The imprisoned activist is automatically elevated in stature and respect. In 1963, Dr. King was labeled by the FBI as the “most dangerous Negro” in America because he was well-educated and because the masses of black Americans respected his leadership of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950’s and 60’s. When he was assassinated in 1968, 75% of white Americans disliked Dr. King. Today, he is a national hero whose memorial graces the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Local, state and federal agencies in the American South have long favored the criminal process as the primary means of neutralizing regime change and socioeconomic progress. They know that most Southern whites are predisposed to view blacks in a negative light. Since the days of the FBI’s COINTELPRO program, all a law enforcement agency had to do was declare the targeted African American a “criminal” and most of the support for his/her freedom would dissipate in the white community as well as a large segment of the fragile and afraid black community. The best example of this truism is the “Scottsboro Boys” case in which nine black teenage boys were falsely accused of raping two white prostitutes on a freight train passing through Paint Rock, Alabama in 1931. The “Boys” were tried in Alabama courts three times and sentenced to death each time. The U.S. Supreme Court saved their lives each time. Because the “Boys” dared to defend their names and innocence, they were declared “enemies of the state”. In 1976, some 45 years after their arrests, the state of Alabama finally declared the Scottsboro Boys “innocent” of the rape charges when it issued a full and unconditional pardon of the last surviving “Boy”, Mr. Clarence Norris. I was the lawyer who won Mr. Norris’s pardon. Today, I am imprisoned in a federal prison in Talladega, Alabama and cut off from the outside world. My world has been reduced to a small, dingy dungeon that I share with Keith Barnhart, a former Army intelligence officer. I wrote about Barnhart in my May 3, 2020 article titled, “My Journey to Hell on Earth”. Barnhart and I are locked in this 40-year-old cell 24 hours per day. We share a toilet that must be flushed from the outside by passing guards. We are totally dependent upon guards for everything. My “home” is the top bunk-bed. I eat every meal whether I like it or not. My incoming and outgoing mail is monitored and read. I have no access to email, the Internet or the Law Library. I am barred from watching the news. Even in the “Hole”, I still find reason for joy. Inmates I have helped since my arrival at the Talladega facility have been experiencing successful outcomes with their cases. To date, five of them have had their sentences reduced and are on their way home. Several others should win their freedom in the coming months. Since May, I have watched numerous elderly inmates with underlying health conditions transferred to home confinement. I noticed that the U.S. Bureau of Prisons used its discretion to place Trump ally Paul Manafort on home confinement for 7 1/2 years. Like me, Manafort is 71 years old; he has underlying health conditions, as established by the BOP; and he is a member of the highest at-risk group for severe illness if he contracts the COVID virus. Yet, Manafort is at home and I am in the Hole. Therein lies the difference between an imprisoned inmate and a dissident/activist. Regardless, I am thankful for the little things in life – bottled water, toilet paper, a plastic fork, stamps, envelopes, the ability to read and write, and an imagination that has allowed me to successfully achieve my biggest goals in life. Meanwhile, God has placed me in prison for a purpose, and it has nothing to do with criminality. He will release me when that purpose has been served. To follow Donald Watkins on Facebook please visit: https://www.facebook.com/donald.v.watkins

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on November 1, 2020 I met Benjamin Johnson (Reg, No. 71301-019), a 58-year-old African-American inmate at the Talladega Federal Prison Camp, shortly after I arrived in August 2019. Ben is a tall, distinguished looking man who was popular within the Camp. He worked in the maintenance department as a painter. Ben painted my cubicle and locker a couple of months after I moved in. Over the next 5-6 months, I noticed that Ben had two passions – watching current events on the TV news and reading the Bible. Our friendship began discussing news events. Ben had an encyclopedic knowledge of historical events and news stories. The Atlanta native and 11th grade dropout could discuss politics, business, or religion on any level I wanted to go. Ben’s intellect amazed me. This man was smart. I wanted to know more about him as a person, especially since he never hustled me for anything. It became clear that Ben was a “giver” and not a “taker”. I learned that Ben had dropped out of Carver High School in Atlanta to help his single mother, Rose Mae Thomas, raise his 5 younger siblings. In time, Ben helped his adopted mother, Joyce Praylor, as well. Family meant everything to him. He would do whatever it took to keep his family together and healthy. Ben worked roofing, landscaping, heating and air conditioning, and recycling jobs to help his family eat and pay bills. Georgia Tech and Atlanta Housing Authority were among his employers. He also ventured out into the auto repair and salvage business. No job was too small or big for Ben. After all, he was feeding and sheltering his family. Along the way, Ben became a father of five children himself. He loves the ground these three girls and two boys walk on. He beamed with pride when talking about his children. Ben found God with the help of Rev. C. E. Maddox, his friend, teacher, pastor, and spiritual advisor at St. James 1st Baptist Missionary Church, 104 McDonough Blvd, SE in Atlanta. Ben regularly spoke to Rev. Maddox as an inmate. They would have Bible study on the prison phone on a regular basis. In 2016, Ben’s girlfriend was killed. She had four children from another relationship. Ben took all of them in and cared for them as if they were his own children. When Ben entered prison in 2019, he was housing, clothing, feeding, and educating nine children with passion, pride and love. His daughter, Quinetta Johnson, has now taken over this role until Ben is released. When I was removed from the Camp on May 12, 2020 and placed in the “Hole” on a bogus contraband charge that was designed to derail my transfer to home confinement due to COVID-19, I discovered that Ben was in the “Hole” as well. In mid-September, Ben was placed in the cell next to me. He shared a cell with Gary Bryon Gibbs, an inmate from Soldier, Iowa. I was in a cell alone. From mid-September until October 19, 2020, Ben made it his mission in life to keep my spirits up. We talked through the wall. Ben checked on me throughout each day. He sent me postage stamps, food, handwritten daily prayers, a Bible, and a dictionary. We held regular discussions about Biblical passages. In turn, I read my new articles to Ben before I mailed them out for publication to my website. Ben shared his life’s story with me. It made me proud of what he did for both mothers and his deceased girlfriend’s children. He talked about each child with extreme parental pride. Ben checked on them each week, even from the “Hole”. He was parenting – from the “Hole”. I was impressed. Like the other Camp inmates, Ben recognized that I am a “political” prisoner and that different and harsher rules applied to me. He was already aware that an officer “planted” the contraband in my locker at the direction of his supervisor. This was the only way to block my release in May. I like men who are great fathers. I had the best father. A man like Ben, who is parenting nine children, deserves recognition and blessings. I am proud of his love for his children. I wish all black men would show their children love and support – even from prison. Ben saved his money and his children are financially secure. Ben left the “Hole” on October 19, 2020 at 3 a.m. He was transferred to another facility. He had been in the “Hole” for 5 months, even though his disciplinary sanction, like mine, was for 30 days only. I wished Ben well. I promised Ben I would tell his story to the world. He is an incredible man. May God continue to bless you and your children, Ben! I kept my promise. I still feel your humanitarian spirit in the “Hole”.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on October 25, 2020 I first met Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth in May 1988 when he came to Birmingham, Alabama to meet with then-Mayor Richard Arrington, Jr. regarding a proposed civil rights museum the city wanted to build. Shuttlesworth worked on the project over the next four years. It was during this period that I learned the man, his contribution to the civil rights movement in Birmingham, and the price he paid for his manhood. Despite fierce opposition from Birmingham’s white community and a spirited effort by local U.S. Attorney Frank Donaldson to derail the project, the new civil rights museum opened in November 1992. Standing at the entrance to the museum is a life-size statue of Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth. The inscription reads: “With singular courage, he fired the imagination and raised the hopes of an oppressed people.” No truer words have ever been spoken. In my view, Shuttlesworth was the heart and soul of the civil rights movement in Birmingham during the 1950s and 60s. The forces that supported Birmingham Public Safety Commissioner Eugene T. “Bull” Connor, a diehard segregationist, hated Shuttlesworth. This hatred was fanned by frequent news articles and editorials in The Birmingham News that painted Shuttlesworth as an “outside agitator” and “troublemaker” who was “neurotic, undemocratic, and willing to do almost anything to keep the spotlight on himself”. In reality, Fred Shuttlesworth was a man of God who always stood up for the “least of these” and who paid a heavy personal price for doing so. Shuttlesworth arrived in Birmingham from Selma in 1953. He became the pastor of Bethel Baptist Church in North Birmingham’s Collegeville community. During his tenure as the clear leader of the Birmingham civil rights movement, Shuttlesworth’s church was bombed three times. His home was bombed on Christmas night in 1956. He was attacked and beaten by an angry white mob in September 1957 as he attempted to enroll his daughters in the all-white Phillips High School. State and local officials arrested Shuttlesworth numerous times causing him to spend 810 days in jail and to pay $2,400 in fines. Montgomery Public Safety Commission L.B. Sullivan named Shuttlesworth (along with Reverends Ralph Abernathy, Joseph Lowery, and Soloman S. Seay) as a defendant in his landmark libel case against the New York Times. Before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Shuttlesworth and the other defendants in 1964, Alabama court officials had already seized their automobiles and personal property to satisfy two $500,000 judgements in the consolidated libel cases. All of these events were occurring while the state of Alabama was arresting, jailing and prosecuting Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on a number of criminal charges, including tax evasion. Simultaneously, the FBI was pressuring Dr. King to kill himself. The FBI portrayed King as a “filthy, evil beast”. When the weight of Shuttlesworth’s activism became too much for his church to bear, he accepted a pastorate in Cincinnati in 1961. Shuttlesworth continued his activism unabated until his death in 2011. Shuttlesworth’s remarkable life is chronicled in Andrew M. Manis’s book, “A Fire You Can’t Put Out”, The University of Alabama Press, 1999. Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth understood the price he had to pay if he wanted to be a man in the Deep South. He willingly paid that price. God surrounded him with guardian angels, which enabled him to escape serious bodily injury and death on numerous occasions. To Shuttlesworth, the “order of the day” in Birmingham during the 1950s and 60s was “out of order”. He led by example. Shuttlesworth and his family suffered personally from his unrelenting civil rights activism. He was a truly great man. His respect for humanity was second to none. The names and faces of the people who opposed the civil rights movement in Birmingham are now in the dustbin of history. Fred Shuttlesworth’s name, face, and legacy will live forever. A piece of Shuttlesworth lives within me. Whenever I think my life is difficult, or unfair, I reflect on the hell that Fred Shuttlesworth, Martin Luther King, Ralph Abernathy, Rosa Parks, Nelson Mandela, Fannie Lou Hamer, and thousands of other civil rights activists endured. All of them are gone now. I am one of the few survivors – an aging warrior with a fire you can’t put out. 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