By: Donald Watkins Copyrighted and Published on May 1, 2021 Evangelical Christians have been a faith-based community in America for a very long time. This community encompasses denominational and non-denominational religious faiths. In Deep South states, the Evangelical Christian churches were racially segregated until the 1980s and Evangelical Christians exhibited open hostility to members of the Jewish faith throughout most of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. As of today, Evangelical Christians continue to struggle with their acceptance of members of the Islamic, Hindu, and Buddhist faiths. Finally, the Evangelical Christians I know despise agnostics and atheists. I am a Southern Baptist. My maternal grandfather, Rev. Willie Varnardo, was an iconic Baptist minister in Jackson, Mississippi and Memphis, Tennessee. He was the person who explained Evangelical Christians to me, as he knew them from the late 1800s to the early 1960s. He knew them well. Some of these Christians left church on Sunday in a rural community near Canton, Mississippi and headed to a huge gathering of white men, women, and children to watch and participate in the festive activities surrounding the lynching of my grandfather’s cousin in the 1920s for a rape he did not commit. After the Christians left, Rev. Varnado and other family members were allowed to recover his cousin’s burned, mutilated, and hung body. No Evangelical Christian on the scene tried to stop the lynching like Jesus did when he intervened and stopped the stoning death of a woman who was accused of adultery. John 8:3-11 My childhood pastor at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., talked to me about Evangelical Christians as a young boy in the 1950s. He taught me to love everybody. Repeatedly, Dr. King would read Matthew 5:44 to us: “[L]ove your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.” I did not fully understand this verse until I was much older. While I was in the 9th grade, Dr. King wrote his famous April 16, 1963 “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”. The letter addressed his fellow white clergy – evangelical Christian ministers in the South – who were critical of his non-violent civil rights movement in Birmingham, Alabama. They chastised Dr. King as an “outsider” who was fomenting racial conflict between white and black citizens in the South and the nation. Even as Dr. King was being persecuted by segregationist Birmingham Public Safety Commissioner Eugene “Bull” Connor for protesting against Jim Crow laws across the South, he acknowledged that his critics were “men of genuine goodwill” and that “their criticisms [were] sincerely set forth”. Members of the Jewish, Islamic, Buddhist, Catholic, and other faiths supported Dr. King’s non-violent civil rights movement, but white Evangelical Christians in the South, for the most part, did not. They wanted Dr. King and African Americans to submit to Bull Connor’s authority and obey Jim Crow laws. They often cited Romans 13:1-2 and 1 Peter 2:13-17 as Scripture for their religious views. Dr. King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” tactfully addressed the role of the Church in times of great morale crisis in a way that left these Evangelical Christians with a modicum of dignity and legitimacy. Christianity and Politics Today, Evangelical Christians nationwide have evolved into a major political force. They seek to impose Biblical doctrines on the national government. Even though America was founded as a democracy where white men only made all of the decisions for government for nearly 300 years, Evangelical Christians seek to advance a political agenda that would convert America into a theocracy where their interpretation of Scriptures drives the creation and enforcement of our laws, as well as the way our national government serves its citizens. White Anglo-Saxons came to America to escape religious persecution in Europe. They were welcomed by Native Americans who occupied the lands. During the next 300 years, these settlers massacred an estimated 60 million Native Americans as they populated America from coast-to-coast. They also brought millions of Africans to America during this period to serve as slaves. Evangelical Christians approved of slavery because it is blessed in Leviticus 25:44-46. They believed homosexuality was an “abomination” that was punishable by death. Leviticus 20:13 and Romans 1:26-27. They believed that slaves should obey their masters. 1 Peter 2:18-20. They also believed that women were “weaker vessels” and should be submissive to their husbands. 1 Peter 3:1-7 and Ephesians 5:22-23 This is why commercial slavery existed and thrived in America from 1612 to 1865. Penal slavery under the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution still exists today. This is also why state laws were passed that gave men the legal right to beat their wives. This is why homosexual acts of sexual intimacy were classified as “sodomy” and criminalized. Today’s Evangelical Christians overwhelmingly supported Donald J. Trump in the 2020 presidential election. Most Americans regard Trump as the most divisive president in modern history. Yet, Evangelical Christians completely disregarded the Apostle Paul’s admonition in Romans 16:17-18; when it came to Trump. Paul said: “now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them. For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple.” I write this article in the spirit which Dr. King wrote his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” 57 years ago. As fellow Christians, we should act as Jesus taught us in the Beatitudes. Matthew 5:1-10. We should love one another, as Jesus loved us. We should honor the Ten Commandments, which are the laws God wrote with his own hands. We should say the Lord’s Prayer each day, and mean it. Matthew 6:9-13. We should respect men, women, and children of all faiths, for Jesus preached to Jews and Gentiles, alike. Matthew 15:21-28. We should protect young children from clergy sex abuse, and teach them the way of the Lord. Matthew 19:13-14. We should feed the hungry and give the thirsty something good to drink. We should take strangers in from foreign lands and welcome them as brothers and sisters. We should clothe the naked. We should heal the sick, whether they have health insurance or not. We should visit those in prison and make sure they are treated humanely. Matthew 25:31-46. In other words, we should treat the “least of these My brethren” as we would treat Jesus. This is not happening today, even though God has commanded it. If Jesus walked the earth today, Evangelical Christians would probably declare him a “Communist” and “Marxist”. They would likely insist that Christ be prosecuted for practicing medicine without a license, parading without a permit, making wine without a liquor license, distributing food to the masses without a restaurant license, teaching law without the proper certifications, trespassing and destruction of property in the gaming houses, consorting with known prostitutes, loitering, disorderly conduct, obstruction of justice, and vagrancy. The way Jesus answered questions using parables would make him a criminal suspect, especially since he was born in the Middle East and had color in his skin. As for me, I find it fascinating that the best known man in human history never hated any person for any reason, never used his divine powers to harm or kill another human being, never sought riches for himself, never proclaimed his greatness, never disrespected men, women, or children, never condemned homosexuality, never restricted the institution of marriage to the union of a man and a woman, never prejudged a man’s reason for celibacy, never limited his healing powers to Jews only, never defended himself against false accusations, never distanced himself from Mary Magdalene even though Peter disliked her, never exacted revenge for Herod’s beheading of John the Baptist, never advocated using the death penalty for any offense (in fact, he stopped the stoning death of an accused adulteress), and never sought to glorify his own ministry. Today’s Evangelical Christians would do well to model their behavior after Jesus Christ. Dr. King said as much in 1965 and I am saying it today.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on May 23, 2021 Thanks to former President Donald Trump, Republicans have formed a circular firing squad that is killing Republicans only (politically speaking). These killings are senseless and are occurring with the ruthlessness that has become the hallmark of Trump's brand of political terrorism. Meanwhile, after more than 100 days in office, President Joe Biden's administration has lived up to the traditional political weaknesses that have defined modern-day Democrats since the days of Bill Clinton. Biden is trying to navigate in the post-Trump political paradigm by using pre-Trump political strategies, operational tactics, and leadership decorum. In the process, nothing of substance for Biden's core base of voters is getting done in Washington. The GOP Firing Squad Appeases Trump's Ego While Destroying Mainstream Republicans The National Republican Party is executing any Republican who (a) acknowledges that Joe Biden legitimately won the 2020 election and (b) condemns the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the Capitol where Trump supporters trashed the Halls of Congress, paraded inside the Capitol with Confederate flags, smoked marijuana inside our National Capitol, caused a Capitol police officer and three others to die, injured other police officers, attempted to inflict bodily harm on Vice President Mike Pence, and attempted to stop the Senate's certification of the 2020 election results. A Republican Congressman from Georgia has described the tragic events of January 6th as a normal tourist visit of the Capitol. In truth, Biden won the 2020 election by more than 7 million votes with a landslide victory in the Electoral College. Trump lost the election because he mishandled the COVID-19 public health crisis, which resulted in the needless deaths of more than 500,000 Americans on his watch. Last week, Mike Pence's own brother, Indiana Republican Congressman Greg Pence, voted against a House resolution to form a bipartisan Congressional Commission to investigate the violent January insurrection and prevent it from happening again. The Commission proposed in the resolution is modeled after Congress' 9/11 Commission two decades earlier. Also, House Republicans purged conservative Wyoming Congresswoman Liz Cheney from her Party leadership position in Congress solely because she refused to peddle Trump's "Big Lie" that the 2020 election was stolen from him. To this day, Trump's campaign has not produced one iota of credible evidence that the election's outcome was the result of widespread election fraud. In fact, more than 60 federal and state court judges have ruled against Trump's false claim that the election was stolen from him. Many of the federal judge's who ruled against Trump were his presidential judicial appointees, including all three of his U.S. Supreme Court nominees. Furthermore, Trump's own Departments of Justice and Homeland Security affirmed on the record that the 2020 election was free of massive voter fraud. Additionally, Sidney Powell, Trump's high-profile election contest attorney, stated in court filings that no "reasonable" person would ever believe the hyperbole and false statements she made in the aftermath of the 2020 election about massive voter fraud and the election being stolen from Trump. By innuendo, Powell is actually claiming in court proceedings that any Trump supporter who believes the false election fraud narrative is not a "reasonable" person. Lyn Wood, Trump's other high profile election contest attorney, had his mental capacity openly questioned by the Georgia Bar Association, which suggested in a Bar complaint against Wood after the election that he seek mental health counseling. Wood may face disbarment for his false and misleading judicial claims of election fraud. Democrats Continue to Exhibit Weak Political Leadership Meanwhile, President Joe Biden has allowed Trump loyalists to remain in key government positions where they continue to carryout Trump's political policies. One glaring example of their weak political leadership involves the Biden administration's continued employment of Michael Carjaval as the Director of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons (BOP). Carvajal is former Attorney General William Barr's BOP flunky who lacks the objective qualifications for the job. Carvajal does not even hold a four-year college degree in the administration of correctional institutions let alone any post-graduate coursework in the field. In addition to hoodwinking the Democratically controlled Congress in April 2021 about the true conditions federal inmates experience within the BOP, another one of Carvajal's primary missions is the protection of the North Carolina-based Bob Barker Company's seventy-seven sole-source multi-million dollar product acquisition contracts that inject a steady stream of high-priced, cheap-quality, foreign-made products into the BOP's 122 correctional facilities each year. It should be noted that senior management employees and other significant stakeholders directly affiliated with the Bob Barker Company are major campaign contributors to the Republican Party, former president Donald Trump, and Trump's loyal political cronies in Congress. While Biden's Department of Justice (DOJ) has flexed its muscle in high-profile state and local cases involving the use of excessive force by police officers, the DOJ continues to provide refuge for modern-day COINTELPRO prosecutors who were hired by the Trump administration and whose sole function is the harassment and persecution of innocent black civil rights activists and black business men and women. For example, Lloyd Peeples, who served as "de facto" U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama from 2017 to 2020, is still employed in a position of influence in the Birmingham U.S. Attorney's office. Any competent background investigation of Peeples would have revealed the following: (a) Peeples was born and raised in a family that practiced racial discrimination against blacks on a regular basis, (b) Peeples attended private academies that were founded by southern white segregationists to accommodate white-flight from public school desegregation orders, (c) Peeples published comments in his college newspaper that attacked racial and gender diversity in his university's college admission program, (d) Peeples reportedly used racially derogatory language in private conversations with the whites he trusted, (e) Peeples despised Judge U.W. Clemon (who is black) when Clemon served as the Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court in Birmingham, Alabama, and (f) Peeples failed to prosecute a white Hoover police officer for the 2018 fatal shooting of an unarmed and innocent black man in the crowded Galleria Mall in Hoover, Alabama. Under the totality of circumstances, Lloyd Peeples fits the profile of the white federal law enforcement agents who attended the openly racist and now-disbanded "Good Ol' Boys Roundup" from 1980 to 1995. Yet, the Biden administration continues to employ Peeples as a federal prosecutor in Birmingham. Biden has also failed to dismantle the only form of legalized slavery and involuntary servitude authorized in the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution. Both of these inhumane conditions are practiced in 2021 on a daily basis within the federal government's prison system. Just because the pre-1865 institutions of slavery and involuntary servitude were preserved in the 13th Amendment for state and federal prison systems does not mean they should be practiced within Biden's Bureau of Prisons in the 21st century. Republicans openly support the 13th Amendment's authorized penal slavery and involuntary servitude, while Democrats are seemingly indifferent to it. Biden's benign neglect on eradicating this practice of modern-day slavery and involuntary servitude, which adversely and disproportionately impacts Americans of color, speaks volumes about who he really is. Finally, it appears that Biden is doing more for deceased blacks, particularly those unarmed blacks who are killed in confrontations with police officers, than he is for the living blacks who voted for him. For example, none of Biden's multi-trillion dollar economic stimulus proposals awards black Americans an equitable piece of the stimulus pies. Furthermore, qualified black businesses are still locked out of federal contracts that are awarded on a sole-source basis to tens of thousands of white contractors across all federal agencies. Yet, it was the black vote in states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Georgia that made it possible for Biden to be president. Epilogue For all intents and purposes, Trump functions like a political suicide bomber who has attached himself to Republicans around the nation. Trump has hijacked the Party's faithful and his political zealots will try to destroy the political viability of any Republican officeholder who does not worship Trump as his/her political god. Meanwhile, Joe Biden will not be effective until and unless he purges the diehard Trump holdover appointees from his administration and changes his soft-shoe, back-slapping style of governance to the strong hand that is needed to lead in the post-Trump era of circular firing squads. So far, this has not happened. Fortunately for Americans, Trump is not a deity. Like all egotistical maniacs and autocratic despots, Trump's political shelf-life will expire soon. He is a failed, one-term president who is out of office. Trump is also the ultimate sore loser. I predict Rep. Liz Cheney will emerge as the new leader of the National Republican Party in 2022. Ms. Cheney is a solid conservative who showed courage within the Party's leadership ranks when courage counted. She placed our country over partisan politics, and she never backed down from doing so. I also predict that Ms. Cheney will faceoff against Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential race. It will be the first presidential race in U.S. history where two highly qualified females are their parties' nominees, and they are battling for the presidency. All articles are shared on Facebook and Twitter. If you would like to follow Donald Watkins, please click on these links and hit the follow button: https://www.facebook.com/donald.v.watkins https://twitter.com/donaldvwatkins

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on November 22, 2018; Republished on May 3, 2021 [Author's Note: On April 6, 2021, Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Tracie Todd was temporarily removed from her judgeship by the Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission (JIC) following a 100-page complaint filed against her by this judicial oversight body. While gift-wrapped in nice-sounding legal platitudes, the JIC's complaint was the state of Alabama's way of using its judicial billy-club to beat a black state court judge into submission for following the mandates of the U.S. Supreme Court on cases involving the death penalty, as opposed to the all-white Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals' and Alabama Supreme Court's judicial opinions that have historically sought to eviscerate the U.S. Constitution and U.S. Supreme Court's mandatory requirements for fairness and impartiality in the administration of the death penalty. This JIC beating is Alabama's modern-day version of the infamous 1991 Rodney King beating by racist police officers in Los Angeles. It is designed to frighten and intimidate all of Alabama's duly elected African-American state court judges. Like Judge James Horton in the Scottsboro Boys case in the 1930, Judge Todd chose an alliance to the U.S. Constitution over the traditional acceptance of the systemic racism that is embedded in Alabama's disparate administration of the death penalty. Judge Horton lost his judgeship due to the virulent reaction exhibited by white racists to his fair administration of justice in overturning the convictions in the Scottsboro Boys' capital rape case. Judge Todd lost her judgeship due to Alabama's racially-motivated reluctance to embrace the fair administration of the death penalty. Finally, any court of appeals or supreme court in an Old South Confederate state that has a 25% or more black population AND all-white judges on the bench in 2021 lacks the integrity and credibility necessary to instill public confidence on judicial decisions involving racial matters. What is more, the entrenched all-white status of Alabama's high two courts of appeals and state supreme court is a far greater danger to the fair administration of justice in the state's court system than any judicial action taken by Judge Todd in a death penalty case. Yet, the Alabama State Bar Association, the JIC, the Alabama Court of the Judiciary, the Administrative Office of the Courts, and Alabama's mainstream media organizations are silent on this matter. Why? Because racism is white-hot and sizzling in Alabama. Now, please read the article below about Judge Tracie Todd -- a judge with high moral character, an abundance of personal and professional integrity, and a healthy respect for the Supreme law of the land.] On March 3, 2016, Jefferson County, Alabama Circuit Judge Tracie A. Todd issued a landmark ruling declaring that Alabama's capital murder sentencing scheme, which allowed a judge to override a jury recommendation of life without parole and instead impose the death penalty, was unconstitutional. Based upon a thoughtful and scholarly opinion about the influence of partisan politics and its potential for bias in the judiciary in Alabama death penalty cases, Judge Todd barred the death penalty in the cases of four men charged in three murders. Judge Todd is a super-smart and highly respected jurist. A Birmingham native, Judge Todd is fluent in Japanese and worked in Japan prior to assuming her judgeship. She is a graduate of Dillard University and The University of Alabama School of Law. She is also a former Jefferson County deputy district attorney. Judge Todd’s ruling acknowledged what many criminal defense attorneys and judges have whispered at cocktail parties throughout my 45-year legal career – defendants who are convicted in capital cases usually receive the death penalty when they are poor and/or black. Additionally, many prosecutors, judges and governors who run in partisan elections on tough “law and order” platforms tend to seek, impose (upon a conviction), and uphold the death penalty, whether a defendant is actually innocent, or not. The “Scottsboro Boys” Were Sentenced to Death on Multiple Occasions In Alabama, race-baiting politicians have enjoyed a long and distinguished record of trying to put innocent criminal defendants to death for selfish political gain. The most famous case evidencing this truism involves the nine black “Scottsboro Boys” who were arrested in 1931 and accused of raping two white women on a freight train traveling through Morgan County, Alabama. Due to extreme racial prejudice, political expediency, and the inflamed passions of an all-white criminal justice system, eight of the Boys were nearly executed on multiple occasions. Only Limestone County Circuit Judge James E. Horton, Jr., governed himself properly during the trials of the Boys. In 1933, Judge Horton set aside the jury’s guilty verdict in the retrial of defendant Hayward Patterson. Horton, a respected jurist, was soundly defeated by white voters when he ran for re-election after setting aside the verdict. All of the other State of Alabama trial and appellate judges who passed judgment in the Scottsboro Boys rape cases over the next two decades made a mockery of the criminal justice system, and did so solely for political reasons. They took pride in imposing and upholding the death sentences in the Boys cases. This group of judges included the all-white Alabama Supreme Court, which upheld the death penalty for several of the Boys on multiple occasions. Forty-five years later, the State of Alabama issued a full and unconditional pardon to Clarence Norris, the last living Scottsboro Boy. For the first time, the State acknowledged what the Scottsboro Boys claimed during the entire 45-year ordeal -- they were innocent of the crimes for which they had been charged and nearly put to death. The Tragic Case of Anthony Ray Hinton On April 3, 2015, Anthony Ray Hinton walked out of the Jefferson County Jail a free man for the first time in 30 years. Hinton is one of the longest serving death row prisoners in Alabama history and among the longest serving condemned prisoners to be freed after presenting evidence of innocence. Mr. Hinton is also the 152nd person exonerated from death row since 1983. Thirty-three years ago, Mr. Hinton was arrested and charged with two capital murders based solely on the assertion that a revolver taken from his mother’s home was the gun used in both murders and in a third uncharged crime. The Equal Justice Initiative, based in Montgomery, Alabama, engaged three of the nation’s top firearms examiners who testified in 2002 that the revolver could not be matched to crime evidence. State prosecutors, including Alabama Attorneys General Troy King and Luther Strange, never questioned the new findings but nonetheless refused to re-examine the case or concede error. Both ran for office as pro-death penalty Republicans. After 12 more years of litigation, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously reversed the Alabama Supreme Court’s ruling upholding the death penalty, and a new trial was granted. The trial judge finally dismissed the murder charges in 2015 after state prosecutors conceded that the crime bullets could not be matched to the Hinton weapon. Anthony Ray Hinton spent 30 years on death row for crimes he did not commit. The refusal of state prosecutors and appellate judges to set aside his conviction when the uncontradicted evidence showed he did not commit the murders was inexcusable. When confronted with a choice to do the right thing in the face of clear and convincing evidence of Mr. Hinton’s innocence, Alabama prosecutors and judges chose death for Mr. Hinton. This is exactly what Judge Tracie Todd was describing when she talked about the influence of partisan politics and the potential for bias in death penalty cases in Alabama. Punishing Judge Todd for Telling the Truth About the Death Penalty As expected, the all-white and all-Republican Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals was quick to punish Judge Todd, who is black, for telling the ugly truth about the imposition of the death penalty in Alabama. On October 18, 2018, the Court of Criminal Appeals asked the Judicial Inquiry Commission (“JIC”) to investigate Judge Todd to determine whether she violated ethical rules. The Court of Criminal Appeals said it was “troubled” by Todd’s “repeated failure to abide by controlling law and her seemingly cavalier disregard for the orders of this Court and the Alabama Supreme Court.” Todd’s actions “present questions of grave concern," said the Court of Criminal Appeals before sending the case to the JIC for the Commission to determine whether ethics proceedings should be initiated against Todd. The JIC investigates ethics complaints, and if necessary files charges, against judges. Those charges are then heard by the Court of the Judiciary, which could discipline or remove a judge from the bench. The Court of Criminal Appeals' action came 18 months after Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed a bill into law on April 11, 2017 that allows juries, not judges, to have the final say on whether to impose the death penalty in a capital murder case. Alabama was the only state in the nation that allowed a judge to override a jury's recommendation when imposing a sentence in a capital murder case. Epilogue Like Judge James E. Horton, Jr., in the Scottsboro Boys case, Judge Tracie A. Todd applied the correct constitutional standard to the facts in her capital cases, and did so without fear or favor. Unlike Judge Horton, Judge Todd won re-election to her second six-year term as a judge two years after her landmark ruling. Now, Judge Todd must defend herself against politically-inspired ethics charges because she stood up for the basic constitutional right of criminal defendants to a fair trial in capital cases before an impartial tribunal. This stance sounds like a simple and easy thing to do in principle. However, in Alabama, this courageous stance may result in a death sentence for Tracie Todd’s career as a respected trial judge. Whether it comes in the form of a lynching, police shooting, or judicially-imposed execution order, Alabama's ultra-conservative “Christian” politicians enjoy serving as drum majors for the death of poor and/or black criminal suspects/defendants. As demonstrated in Judge Todd’s case, anyone who rains on this political parade is at risk of substantial harm to his/her own career. This is the politics of death in Alabama. PHOTO: Jefferson County, Alabama Circuit Judge Tracie A. Todd (left) and Limestone County, Alabama Circuit Judge James A. Horton, Jr., (right). Both judges refused to participate in the ugly politics of death in their capital cases and were punished for it.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on April 25, 2021 Last week was an incredibly good week for me, even though I am confined as Inmate #36223-001 at the Federal Correctional Institution in LaTuna, Texas. God favored me in a big way in spite of the hatred of my enemies. In fact, last week was one of the best weeks of my life. Gospel singer, The Reverend Hezekiah Walker, wrote and performed a song that actually tells the story of how "God Favored Me" throughout my ordeal. Walker's words in this song ring so true in my case. I dedicate "God Favored Me" to all of those true Christians and people of faith who must constantly struggle under unrelenting persecution by their enemies and who must persevere under the most difficult of circumstances in life. Here are the lyrics to Walker's gospel classic, "God Favored Me:" [Click here to listen to Hezekiah perform this song as you read along] This is my testimony everybody, how God favored me in spite Of my enemies, and if God did it for me he'll do the Same thing for you. Don't worry about your haters your haters Can't do nothing with you. Listen to these words Love is patient, caring. Love is Kind. Love is felt most when It's genuine, but I've had my share of love, abuse, manipulated And it's strength misused, and I can't help but give you glory When I think about my story, and I know you favored me Because my enemies did try but couldn't triumph over me Yes they did try but couldn't triumph over me. They whispered, conspired, they told their lies (God favors me) My character, my integrity, my faith in God (He favors me) Will not fall, will not bend, won't compromise (God favors me) I speak life and prosperity and I speak health (God favors me) They whispered, conspired, they told their lies (God favors me) My character, my integrity, my faith in God (He favors me) Will not fall, will not bend, won't compromise (God favors me) I speak life and prosperity and I speak health (God favors me) They whispered, conspired, they told their lies (God favors me) My character, my integrity, my faith in God (He favors me) Will not fall, will not bend, won't compromise (God favors me) I speak life and prosperity and I speak health (God favors me) Say Yes (Yes), Yes (Yes), Yes (Yes) God favors me Say Yes (Yes), Yes (Yes), Say Yes (Yes) God favors me (God favors me) Repeat 2 xs I don't know what you're going through, but I want you to know tonight You got favor (God favors me) In your trial, in your test, in your hard times don't worry (God favors me) Attack your character, attack your integrity don't worry no no (God favors me) Touch your neighbor, encourage the person next to ya Tell em I got it, Tell em I got it, and I can say yes (yes) Say ya will (yes) Because I got favor (yes), favor (yes) I got it, (yes) I got it, I got it, I got it (God favors me) I got it (yes) and the Lord gave it to me (yes) ) don't you let the evilness of your haters bring you down (God favors me) No matter what hell we experience in life, please remember this: God is always stronger than our enemies. During our darkest hour, God will always guide us to the other side of midnight. All we have to do is believe in Him and receive His unconditional love.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on April 21, 2021 From injustice for Bernard Whitehurst's 1975 murder by a Montgomery, Alabama police officer to justice for George Floyd's 2021 murder by a Minneapolis, Minnesota police officer...This has been a long and difficult struggle for African-Americans. Yet, we have seen amazing progress along the way. Derek Chauvin's criminal conviction yesterday was a transformational moment in American history. It made me extremely proud of Black Lives Matter's non-violent protests and the brilliant legal work of my good friend and mentee in police misconduct law, Florida Attorney Benjamin Crump. In America, positive change for African-Americans is an evolutionary process, not a revolutionary one. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, once said, "The arc of the moral universe is long but it always bends towards justice." We saw this statement come true yesterday. This is why Americans of interracial goodwill care about the fair administration of our criminal laws and why we are willing to pay the price in our blood, sweat, and tears that is necessary to achieve equal justice in America. Despite four hundred years of the most inhumane treatment administered to a minority race by the majority one, African-Americans never stormed the U.S. Capitol and ransacked this historic national building to express our discontent. Instead, we have simply persevered in peaceful protest for centuries until we were able to awaken the conscience of a reluctant nation. After all, justice is a beautiful thing! All articles are shared on Facebook and Twitter. If you would like to follow Donald Watkins, please click on these links and hit the follow button: https://www.facebook.com/donald.v.watkins https://twitter.com/donaldvwatkins

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on April 16, 2021 During the Christmas/New Year's holidays of 2019, I published two articles that have gone viral on the Internet. One is titled, "The Royal Bloodline of Jesus and Mary Magdalene," which was published on January 4, 2020. As of April 16, 2021, more than 71,000 people worldwide have read this article. The second article is titled, "The Rothschilds: Controlling the World's Money Supply for More Than Two Centuries." This article was published on December 27, 2019. As of April 16, 2021, more than 61,000 people have read this article. A Google search reveals that the Royal Bloodline article is the second listing under "Mary Magdalene Bloodline." The Rothschilds article appears as the 9th listing under the famous Rothschild name. Both articles were based upon well-documented historical events from the relevant periods of time. The body of credible and objective evidence supporting the material facts presented in each article was clear and convincing. Both subjects continue to enjoy significant public interest among global audiences. The Royal Bloodline article is also the subject of the critically acclaimed, non-fictional book titled, "Holy Blood, Holy Grail," by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln, published in Great Britain by Jonathan Cape Ltd., 1982. This well-researched, New York Times bestseller served as one of my many reference sources for the verified historical and Biblical facts evidencing Jesus' marriage to Mary Magdalene and the couple's Royal Bloodline, as reported in the original article. At the conclusion of my Royal Bloodline article, I reported that at least a dozen families in Europe today have members who are part of the Jesus-Mary Magdalene Royal Bloodline. I have traced the lineage of two of these families. They are descendants from the Royal Couple's daughter, Sarah. Historical and genealogical records document and support this lineage. I will be publishing a follow-up article on this subject very soon. Titled, "The Royal Bloodline of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, Part 2," this article will trace the Jesus-Mary Magdalene Royal Bloodline to the couple's modern-day descendants. Stay tuned!

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on April 11, 2021 Black America's fear of the police is rooted in history and can be traced all the way back to the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1865. The Thirteenth Amendment outlawed most forms of slavery in America. The Amendment, however, contained a big exception to the prohibition on slavery that allows pre-1865 slavery to exist under certain conditions today. The Amendment states: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist with the United States, or any place subject to its jurisdiction." The exception in the Amendment authorizes a permissible form of legal slavery in America -- slavery within state and federal penal colonies, complete with all of the degrading and inhumane indicia of pre-1865 slavery. To be clear, inmates in America's state and federal penal colonies are legally and technically "slaves." See, Ruffin v. Commonwealth, 62 Va. 790, 21 Gratt. 790, Virginia Supreme Court 1871. For political correctness purposes, these slaves are called "inmates." Unbelievably, America is the only nation in the Western Hemisphere whose national constitution authorizes any form of legal slavery. The Re-Enslavement of Blacks Appeased Old Confederacy White Southerners Not surprisingly, the Thirteenth Amendment's exception to the ban on slavery was an appeasement to white Southern farmers and business owners in Confederate states who lost free slave labor when the South lost the Civil War. Southern states used this exception to establish and enforce laws called "Black Codes" which permitted the re-enslavement of up to 800,000 blacks during the period between the end of the post-Civil War Reconstruction era and the turn of the 19th century. "Black Codes" criminalized hundreds of petty offenses. For example, it was a crime for a black minister to preach to a black church congregation without first obtaining permission in writing from the local white chief of police. Additionally, unemployed blacks could be arrested on sight and imprisoned up to a year for vagrancy or loitering. Also, the children of a "vagrant" could be "apprenticed" to a local white "employer" for little or no pay. Alabama, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, Florida, Tennessee, and South Carolina leased out convict labor under a formal and inhumane peonage system. These states made the practice of arresting and convicting blacks in an all-white criminal justice system a very lucrative business. Thousands of marginally qualified and poorly trained white men were hired across the South as police officers. They were charged with the responsibility to search for and arrest as many blacks as they could find who violated the Black Codes. Lawlessness reigned among these "police officers." Once arrested, these black men, women, and children would be leased to plantations where they would harvest cotton, tobacco and/or sugar cane. Sometimes, they would be leased to work at coal mines or railroad companies. The owners of these companies would pay the state a nominal fee for every inmate who worked for them. This was true prison labor; it was also state-created and enforced peonage. Sadly, the prison peonage system did not end in America until World War II began in 1940. By the turn of the 19th century, America's all-white federal, state, and local law enforcement communities were aggressively working in concert with all-white local, state, and federal judges to re-enslave innocent black citizens, using the Thirteenth Amendment as the enslavement vehicle. These groups also strictly enforced de jure and de facto racial segregation, "Black Codes," Jim Crow laws on every subject imaginable, and the growing and brutally oppressive peonage system. A Long Tradition of Police Violence Against Blacks "Fleeing" felon statutes authorized white law enforcement officers to shoot black suspects in the back if they attempted to flee from police officers. These statutes were not struck down until the 1980s. However, this small measure of progress has not stopped the unrelenting waves of police murders of unarmed black suspects across the United States. What is more, blacks cannot help but notice that white mass murderers/active shooters are rarely killed by police at the scene of their crimes or during the process of arrest. By and large, they are treated with the utmost respect by the white law enforcement community. Police torture of black men, women, and children during interrogations was a common tool of law enforcement agencies nationwide until the early 2000s. Torture is still widely practiced by police and tacitly condoned by law enforcement chiefs and judges in many Southern states. Torture within state and federal penal colonies is legendary nationwide. It occurs on a regular basis within the Special Housing Units of federal prisons. White correctional officers who relish dominion and control over inmates of color seem to be drawn to this modern-day enslavement plantation. No past or present U.S. president should ever lecture China, Russia, Iran, or any other foreign country about its treatment of prisoners until the torture of inmates in the custody of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons has ceased. "Torture," as I define it, includes the act of stripping a male inmate naked, physically restraining him with straps, and spraying his testicles with burning chemical mace, as was done to inmate James Summers (Reg # 51863-074) in 2020 in the Special Housing Unit at the federal prison in Manchester, Kentucky. It also includes the vicious beating of inmates who are forced to walk backwards in a crouched position with their hands cuffed behind their backs." I can specify other acts of torture if the Bureau of Prisons has a genuine interest in stopping it. These acts are just as ugly and violent. And, they are happening on American soil. Racism Within Police Agencies Has Been Protected by the Courts All of these acts of systemic law enforcement racism were sanctioned by the federal, state, and local courts, except for a brief period of civil rights enforcement by a few courageous federal judges from 1954 to 1980. The rest of their time in America, blacks have caught pure hell from the police and courts in every aspect of their lives. To make matters worse, the Federal Bureau of Investigation operated a formal program to target, discredit and destroy non-violent, law-abiding, civil rights activists like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rev. Ralph David Abernathy, Mrs. Rosa Parks, Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, and thousands of other innocent and peaceful freedom fighters, from 1956 to 1971. The program was called COINTELPRO. The program, which was sanctioned by then-FBI Director Herbert Hoover, actually tried to force Dr. King to commit suicide in 1963. COINTELPRO, which enjoyed the strong support of local white reporters, federal, state, and local police agencies, and federal and state judges around the nation, destroyed thousands of innocent black lives. COINTELPRO continues today as an informal, off-the-books racist law enforcement program in FBI offices in Southern states like Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia, among others. Birmingham, Alabama was a citadel for COINTELPRO activities in the South through 2020. To this day, the federal courthouse in Birmingham proudly displays the wooden "robe closet" of one of the federal bench's most notorious and unreformed racist judges -- U.S. District Court Judge Edwin Nelson (deceased). From 1980 to 1995, white federal law enforcement officials gathered annually in Tennessee to carry on an orgy of overtly racist conduct at a gathering called the "Good Ol' Boys Roundup." More than 1,000 agents and their guests gleefully celebrated their racism with acknowledged white supremacists. The imprisonment of blacks, when measured as a percentage of their numbers in the general population, outpaces the imprisonment of any other ethnic group in America. As expected, federal courts are leading the way in enslaving black criminal defendants and in executing federally imprisoned "slaves." In 2021, the greatest threat to the fair administration of justice in America for black citizens is no longer the white men and women who wear white robes, who burn crosses at night, and who lynch blacks from trees. They have been replaced by today's so-called "respectable" white "conservative jurists" who wear black robes in their courtrooms, who routinely eviscerate a black defendant's constitutional right to a fair trial, and who consistently re-enslave blacks on a wholesale basis without flinching. This is why African-Americans have historically feared the police. All articles are shared on Facebook and Twitter. If you would like to follow Donald Watkins, please click on these links and hit the follow button: https://www.facebook.com/donald.v.watkins https://twitter.com/donaldvwatkins

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on April 5, 2021 Over the weekend, I read "Full Dissidence: notes from an uneven playing field" by Howard Bryant, Beacon Press (2020). I highly recommend this book to my readers. As noted author Ibram X. Kendi says, "This book is an oracle." I agree. Mr. Bryant is a senior writer for ESPN.com and a correspondent for NPR's Weekend Edition. He won several awards for his writing and has been twice nominated for the National Magazine Award for commentary. His books include "The Heritage, Juicing the Game," and "The Last Hero." He lives in Northampton, Massachusetts. This is one of the best books I have ever read on the racial politics of athletics and the athletic politics of race. Mr. Bryant "places important issues of sports in the proper context of their current times and historical precedent," says Bomani Jones, co-host of High Noon. The book's cover jacket summarizes its contents better than I could ever do it. I have reprinted its summary below: "These ten original essays form an impassioned mediation on who gets to be American, on where the aggressive reestablishment of white nationalism leaves black America, and whether, battered by grinding inequality, Americans of all races are willing to surrender their democracy to the capricious generosity of the super-rich. In these pages, award-winning sportswriter and cultural critic Howard Bryant steps beyond the boundaries of the playing field and encounters the game in lockstep with the nation, reveling in its ability to crush dissent. Broken into three parts, the book first confronts authoritarianism masquerading as patriotism, the banishment of Colin Kaepernick on the field and the corporate attack on labor off of it, two decades of endless war and the increasing militarization of society as America drowns in debt, and the idealizing of the police without accountability. In the second part Bryant addresses the myth of integration and the erasure of identity as a condition of success for black professionals and ballplayers alike. The third looks at the reassertion of dominance, the white male retaliation to #MeToo and minority hiring, the political and celebrity classes violating the public trust without consequences, and the political installation of corporate lackeys charged with eliminating government oversight as private industry devours public wealth. While citizens bicker and opposition wanes, the power, Bryant argues, is making its moves." Mr. Bryant has articulated the true state of racial matters in America. Every American of interracial goodwill should read this book.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on March 28, 2021 Trumpism started out in July 2015 as a personality cult of Republicans who were mesmerized by candidate Donald J. Trump and who supported his bid for the U.S. Presidency. On August 1, 2015, I was the first American journalist to publish an article explaining how and why Trump would win the Republican Party nomination and the presidency itself. Political pundits thought I had lost my mind. I knew my predictions were right. I also predicted Trump’s defeat in 2020. Many political pundits subsequently joined me in this predication. Trump’s incompetent handling of the COVID-19 pandemic doomed his re-election chances. After Trump’s defeat on November 3, 2020, I predicted that Trump would try to block the certification of Joe Biden as the winner of the election, and he would also attempt to usher in his concept of “minority rule” in the new paradigm of American politics. I asked whether a second American Civil War was on the horizon? Insurrection at the Capitol Trump and his “patriots” answered my question with the deadly Insurrection at the U.S. Capital on January 6, 2021. Thankfully, Attorney General William Barr, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), and Vice President Mike Pence defected from Trump’s planned coup d’état against the duly elected government of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris prior to the Insurrection. Defense Secretary Mark Esper refused to participate in the coup, as well. Trump promptly fired Esper on November 9, 2020. Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller aided and abetted the Insurrectionists by refusing to allow the National Guard to deploy to the scene of the riot at the Capitol in a timely manner. Five people died in the riot, including a Capitol police officer. In the aftermath of the Insurrection, one thing has become crystal clear – Trumpism is no longer a personality-based cult; it is a religion. And, in Trumpism, Donald J. Trump is “God”. Trumpism has usurped the Tea Party, conservative Republican Party politics, rational political thought, and civility. It is madness on steroids and is spreading within the Republic Party like “civic cancer”. Trump Worshipers Unhinged Just when Americans thought Trumpism could get no worse, it took another nosedive. On February 28, 2021, Trump appeared at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando, Florida to promote his lies about widespread election fraud and to declare his intent to remain a dominant force within the Republican Party. The conference turned out to be nothing more than a religious gathering where the attendees worshipped Trump and a golden statue in his likeness that was on display. In a straw poll of just over 1,000 attendees, 97% approved of the job Trump did as president. Sixty-eight percent said Trump should run again. Fifty-five percent said Trump was their preferred candidate for president in 2024. Mainstream Republican conservatives like McConnell and his wife, former Trump Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, and Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney did not attend the event. Mike Pence declined his invitation to attend. Trump worshippers included Goya Foods CEO Robert Unanue, who declared that Trump is still the “actual president of the United States”; former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo; Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer; Acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell; Budget Director Russ Vought; House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy; House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La); Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah); Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga); Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz); Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio); Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL); Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL); Florida Governor Ron DeSantis; South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem; militia group members from the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers; and various white supremacy groups, among others. For reasons that defy rational thought, Trump, in the eyes of his worshippers, is bigger than the U.S. Constitution, the rule of law, and the sanctity of our democrative institutions. There is no human intervention that can free the Republican Party from Trump’s death grip. Epilogue My final prediction in this saga is that God will intervene to stop the madness of Trumpism. He always does. Exodus 20: 3-4 tells us how Trumpism will end. Luke 1:52 signaled the beginning of the end of Trumpism. God will finish it in grand style. Throughout the annals of recorded history, no man has been bigger than God, though many thought they were. Whoever thought of the “golden statue” of Donald J. Trump doomed the religion of Trumpism. All articles are shared on Facebook and Twitter. If you would like to follow Donald Watkins, please click on these links and hit the follow button: https://www.facebook.com/donald.v.watkins https://twitter.com/donaldvwatkins

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on March 31, 2021 In my spare time, I study comparative religions. Different religions have always fascinated me. Since my college days at Southern Illinois University, I have tried to learn as much as I could about the world’s most popular religions – Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism. A central figure across all religions is Jesus Christ. He is referenced directly or indirectly in all of them. Lee Strobel, the former legal editor of The Chicago Tribune who has a journalism degree from the University of Missouri and a Master of Studies in Law from Yale, chases down the biggest story in history – “Is there credible evidence that Jesus of Nazareth really is the Son of God?” After reading Strobel’s book titled, “The Case for Christ”, Zondervan (1998, 2016), my verdict is, “Yes”. Part 1 of Strobel’s book examines the historical record at the time of Jesus. Strobel chronicles the eyewitness evidence, tests it for trustworthiness and reliability under scrutiny, discusses corroborating evidence for Jesus outside of the eyewitness testimony, uses archaeological evidence to confirm or contradict the eyewitness testimony and compares the Jesus of History to the Jesus of Faith to determine if they are the same being. In Part 2 of his book, Strobel analyzes the existence and life of Jesus using Identity Evidence, Psychological Evidence, Profile Evidence, and Fingerprint Evidence. The totality of objective scientific evidence supports the conclusion that Jesus – and Jesus alone – was the Biblical Messiah who fulfilled the “Attributes of God” and was the “Son of God”. In Part 3, Strobel researched the Resurrection by examining the Medical Evidence, the Evidence of the Missing Body from the Tomb, the Evidence of Jesus’s Appearance after his crucifixion, and the Circumstantial Evidence supporting the Resurrection. Finally, Strobel announces the Verdict of History – Jesus existed and is the unique Son of God. Frankly, I do not understand how any person can wallow in atheism after reading Strobel’s book. For me, Jesus was more than a wise teacher. He set the standard for my morality. Because of Jesus’s words, I have an unwavering foundation for my choices and decisions, rather than basing them on the ever-shifting sands of expediency and self-centeredness. Jesus personally knew betrayal, unimaginable physical pain, suffering, homelessness, abandonment, scorn and the price God exacted for our sins. As such, Jesus can comfort me and encourage me in the midst of the turbulence that he himself warned is inevitable in a world corrupted by greed, sin, and antichrists who masquerade as religious leaders. Remember, no leader of any other major religion has ever pretended to be God. Jesus is God’s son – his one and only son. “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God”. John 1:12. As Strobel points out, this Bible passage spells out with mathematical precision what it takes to go beyond mere mental assent to Jesus’s deity and enter into an ongoing relationship with him by becoming adopted into God’s family: believe + receive = become a child of God. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., my childhood Sunday School teacher and pastor at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama showed me the way to Christ when I was a pre-school boy in the early 1950s. I am truly blessed that Dr. King led me to Christ as he held my little hand and sang along with my Sunday School classmates, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so….”. Strobel’s book is educational and fulfilling. Check it out.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on March 14, 2021 I loved them with all my heart. I received my winning lottery ticket number at birth. After all, I am the 5th child of Levi and Lillian Watkins – my personal heroes. I have written about my family and its history in America on several occasions. My parents, grandparents and ancestors were incredible people. Never have so few people done so much for America with so few resources. The Carmichael/Varnado/Watkins family has been bridge builders in American culture for over 150 years. This family has shaped who I am as a man. In the words of famed civil rights leader Fred Shuttlesworth, this family instilled “a fire [in me] you can’t put out”. My purpose in life was defined at birth. I was groomed to carry on our family’s legacy – educational excellence, breaking down color barriers, speaking up for the “least of these”, and fighting for civil rights and human dignity in a sea of suffocating racial oppression and endless brutality in the Deep South. Like those who preceded me on the frontline, I have always understood and been willing to pay the price that must be paid to improve the plight of a race of people who were brought to America 400 years ago to serve as slaves. That price was often death or imprisonment. Often, it was both. As I look back over my life at 72-years-old, I am very proud of the profound contributions I have made to racial progress in America. In the face of incredible odds, I was able to (a) desegregate the University of Alabama’s law school; (b) use my litigation skills to desegregate 67 of the state’s public K-12 school systems, all of the state’s community colleges and technical schools, all 32 Alabama public senior colleges, numerous local, state, and federal government agencies in Alabama, and the workforces of countless private companies; (c) curtail police brutality; (d) set a record number of landmark cases in American jurisprudence; (e) own as an African-American, the first international cargo airlines; (f) take 4 private companies public on the NASDAQ; (g) secure the first and only bank charter ever awarded to an African American by the Alabama Banking Department; (h) operate and grow a successful waste-to-energy company in 47 international markets; and (i) own an international oil and gas company. Again, my stride towards excellence is a “fire you can’t put out”. As the engines of African-American progress in the U.S. have grinded to a halt, the forces that have always opposed our progress have found creative ways to neutralize my ability to favorably impact American society. As has been the case for the past 400 years, these forces are trying to redefine the public image of independent black entrepreneurs like me. They have sought to portray us as “sinister” or “crooks”. None of the leaders of the neutralization effort has ever lifted a finger to promote racial equality in America. At best, they can only utter the empty words that “I have a good black friend”, often referring to a Clarence Thomas-like “Negro”. Despite the dangers that lie ahead and the challenges that impede our progress as Americans, I remain optimistic about this nation’s future. Like millions of forward-thinking Americans, I am focused on the future. My fire is still raging. I still have personal and professional goals to achieve, and I firmly believe I can reach them. For me, prison is a detour, not a deterrent. I know the obstacles that must be overcome to reach my goals, and how to overcome these obstacles. As with all adversity, I have learned that the key to succeeding in life is one’s faith in God and one’s ability to apply his/her knowledge, skills and abilities under the most challenging circumstances. The forces that oppose our growth can always strip us of material possessions and they can easily restrain our physical freedom. What they cannot do is suppress our knowledge, imprison our minds, break our spirits, and extinguish a fire that can’t be 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

Special Investigative Report By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on March 21, 2021 New Department of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has a unique opportunity to achieve justice in the 2005 murder of Army Private LaVena Johnson. Ms. Johnson was a 19-year-old black Private who served as a switchboard operator on a U.S. military base in Balad, Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom. This is her story. Private Johnson's Murder On July 19, 2005, Private Johnson took a short break from her job on the base and inadvertently stumbled upon four-star Army general Kevin P. Byrnes in an area reserved for civilian contractors while Byrnes was in the midst of an extramarital love affair with a female contractor. Byrnes, who is white and was powerful within military circles, had been previously ordered by Army Chief of Staff Peter Schoomaker to end the affair. He disregarded this order. When Johnson discovered Byrnes in a compromising situation, Byrnes snapped. He immediately assaulted Johnson, fractured her neck, and shot Johnson in the back of her head with his 9 millimeter pistol. The bullet traveled down the side of Ms. Johnson’s head and lodged within her tongue. During a post-mortem autopsy performed by the Army on Johnson’s body, her tongue was removed. The Army’s autopsy report made no reference to the removal of Johnson’s tongue or her fractured neck. These findings were made in a subsequent private autopsy commissioned by the Johnson family. Within hours after Private Johnson’s murder, the Army labeled her death a “suicide”. They claimed that Johnson stuck her M-16 rifle in her mouth and killed herself. If true, this made Private Johnson one of 83 men and women in military uniform who committed suicide in 2005. In August 2005, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and the Central Commander of Iraqi War Operations, Gen. John Abizaid, met with President George W. Bush to discuss three subjects: (a) the progress of the war in Iraq; (b) the “suicide” of Army Private LaVena Johnson, and (c) the hunt for Osama bin Laden. After this meeting, two things occurred. First, the Pentagon’s internal file on Private Johnson’s death was classified as “Top Secret” and could only be released to the public upon the written signatures of the Secretary of Defense and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Second, General Byrnes was promptly fired by Rumsfeld. No public explanation was provided by the Pentagon for kicking Byrnes out of the Army three months prior to his previously announced retirement in November 2005. Rumsfeld’s adverse personnel action suddenly and unexpectedly ended Byrnes’ 36-year distinguished Army career. Private Johnson was not a military intelligence officer. Her work did not bring Johnson into contact with Iraqi insurgents or U.S. counterterrorism operations. She had no known connections to Osama bin Laden. Yet, Private Johnson’s “suicide” was the only one involving U.S. military personnel that required a private meeting between Rumsfeld, Gen. Abizaid, and President Bush. Johnson was not killed by enemy combatants or friendly fire. She was murdered by a Commanding Officer who was engaging in prohibited acts that could result in his court-martial. Her Black life did not matter to the Pentagon’s top brass in 2005. As described in detail in my exclusive series of 2016 articles titled, “The Murder of Private Johnson”, LaVena Johnson was murdered on the night of July 19, 2005; she did not commit suicide. Her murderer is Kevin P. Byrnes. [Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Epilogue] As fate would have it, Private Johnson’s personal notes on a legal pad she kept as a diary placed Gen. Byrnes on the base the day before her murder. While Private Johnson was being laid to rest in a military cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri, Gen. Byrnes was transitioning into his new life as a civilian. He ultimately divorced his wife. On August 19, 2014, Byrnes’ 28-year-old daughter committed suicide. Senator Richard Shelby – Byrnes' Protector and Provider Unbeknownst to the public, Byrnes had a powerful friend and ally in the U.S. Senate – Richard Shelby (R-Al). Shelby, who has been a member of Congress since January 1979 and a U.S. Senator since 1986, used his influence as a former chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, chairman of the Appropriations Committee’s subcommittee on defense, and as chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence to secure a high-paying job for Gen. Byrnes as a senior management executive with defense contractor Raytheon in Huntsville, Alabama. Shelby, who announced in February that he will not seek re-election in 2022, is notorious for “parking” his personal friends and former staff members inside of entrenched defense contractors so they can feed off of tax dollars without detection. Senator Shelby came to Washington in 1979 with a humble net worth, but found a way to increase his fortune to $20,000,000 by 2021 through his “public service." Shelby’s 42 years in Congress have been a financial bonanza for him just like it was for Bill and Hillary Clinton when Bill served as President and Hillary served as a U.S. Senator and Secretary of State. In 2016, Shelby ran for re-election for a fifth term in the Senate. During his campaign, a little-known Madison County, Alabama DA named Jay Town was featured in a TV campaign ad that aired during the College Football Playoff national championship game. Town, who had no solid credentials as a state prosecutor identified himself as a former major in the United States Marine Corps, spoke about Islamic terrorists, and bragged about how Senator Shelby was keeping watch over President Obama. Town said, “We have radical Islamic terrorists killing people all over the world, and President Obama keeps talking sweet to them, doesn’t want to offend them. Where’s the sense in that? We have another year to put up with Obama. But thank God we have Richard Shelby standing over him, trying to keep him in line.” Shelby won re-election and assumed office for the sixth time in January 2017. In June 2017, Shelby got President Donald Trump to nominate Town as the U.S. Attorney for Alabama’s Northern District. Town’s resume was devoid of any significant accomplishments as a prosecutor. He was a mediocre assistant DA with a lackluster track-record as a state prosecutor. Town was “co-counsel”, not “lead counsel”, in his “most well-known case” – the prosecution of Benito Albarran for the murder of Huntsville police officer Dan Golden in 2008. In Alabama, the murder of a police officer is considered a slam-dunk case that is certain to result in the death penalty, especially if the defendant is an undocumented migrant or person of color. Albarran was both. Town’s nomination was confirmed by the Senate and he was sworn in by Judge Karon O. Bowdre on August 11, 2017. Town, who resides in Huntsville, immediately hired Lloyd Peeples as First Assistant U.S. Attorney to serve as “de facto” U.S. Attorney. In this capacity, Peeples ran the Office’s day-to-day operations. Peeples, a struggling pizza restaurant owner and operator prior to being hired by Town, has a long and documented history of harboring and expressing racially discriminatory and sexist views. His conduct as a federal prosecutor mirrors that exhibited by COINTELPRO federal prosecutors of the 1950s, 60s and 70s as well as the racist federal law enforcement officials who participated in the “Good Ol’ Boys” network from 1980 to 1995. In essence, Town drew a government paycheck as U.S. Attorney, while Peeples ran the shop as a modern-day COINTELPRO operation targeting civil rights activists and political dissidents. As Shelby’s political operative and handpicked U.S. Attorney, Town performed two political functions for Shelby. First, Town protected General Byrnes from exposure and prosecution for his murder of Private Johnson after Byrnes was “outed” in my 2016 series of investigative articles. This was accomplished by placing me under a Blitzkrieg federal crime investigation in October 2017 in connection with various “investor fraud” allegations against me that had been reviewed by career federal prosecutors in New Jersey in 2015 and 2016, and for which I had been cleared of all wrongdoing. Shelby was also a member and/or chairperson of the Senate Banking Committee from 2005 to January 2021 in addition to his other committee assignments. Second, Town met with Alabama Power Co. CEO Mark Crosswhite before the North Birmingham Superfund bribery trial began in the summer of 2018 to ensure that power company officials and their ties to a money laundering entity named Alliance for Jobs and the Economy were never mentioned during the trial. Town also made sure that Senators Richard Shelby, Jeff Sessions (then Trump’s Attorney General), and Luther Strange (Sessions’ successor) were protected from reputational harm, even though they were directly connected to the Superfund bribery scandal and received campaign and/or PAC money from two of Alabama Power’s strategic partners that were implicated in the bribery scheme – the Balch Bingham law firm and the Drummond coal company. Strange received $50,000 in campaign cash in 2014 and 2015, Sessions received $300,000 since the late 1990s and Shelby pocketed $110,000 from Balch and $155,000 from Drummond between 1999 and 2016. It should be noted that Attorney General Sessions did not require Town to recuse himself from the Superfund bribery investigation or trial. Jeffery Wood, Sessions’ Assistant Attorney General of the Environment and Natural Resources Division, was a Balch attorney who worked in Sessions’ Senate office. Woods recused himself from all matters involving the Superfund site. In contrast, Town embarked upon heavy-duty political protectionism and kept Shelby, Sessions, and Strange out of harm’s way. Town’s Financial Reward for Protectionism On August 4, 2020, Al.com announced that Jay Town had joined Huntsville defense contractor and cybersecurity company, Gray Analytics, as vice president and general counsel. Town will “play a large role in leading efforts around digital forensics and eDiscovery, supply chain security and business development as Gray expands its company with a new Los Angeles office," the company said. “We’re honored to welcome Jay Town to our team and believe his leadership, expertise and perspective will be of great benefit to our clients, and in turn, our nation’s defense system, which we serve,” said Gray Analytics President, Scott Gray. Gray Analytics projected growth in its commercial and government projects within the coming months and stated that “Jay will lend exemplary support across all initiatives.” Any objective review of Town’s career resume shows that he has zero experience in designing, installing, operating, and/or protecting sophisticated cybersecurity systems. His credentials in this highly specialized area of expertise are weaker than his greatly exaggerated credentials as a state and federal prosecutor. As such, Senator Shelby has “parked” another political flunky inside a defense contractor and is feeding him big bucks that are funded by tax dollars. The Pathway Forward Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has a unique opportunity to achieve justice for Private LaVena Johnson. Austin, who is Black and was a former Army four-star general, should declassify the “Top Secret” internal Pentagon file regarding the murder of LaVena Johnson. The case should then be referred by Austin to the Department of Justice for the investigation and the prosecution of Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes for Private Johnson’s murder. There is no statute of limitations for murder and the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act gives U.S. prosecutors jurisdiction for criminal acts committed by former U.S. soldiers in foreign countries. Austin should also request the Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute all conspirators who covered up the murder of Private Johnson. None should be spared. Finally, Austin should investigate Gray Analytics for its role in hiring Jay Town – the man who protected Gen. Byrnes from prosecution and for whom Gray Analytics is a “pass-through” entity for funneling Town taxpayers’ money for work Town is not qualified to perform. Town’s employment and retention at Gray Analytics represents a classic case of “fraud, waste, and abuse” in government contracts that cannot be tolerated. The company should be banned from participating in federal government contracts while Austin’s review is ongoing. Finally, President Joe Biden should call the parents of Private LaVena Johnson and assure them that the coverup of her murder is over and that Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes will be prosecuted for this crime. This is the justice that Private Johnson deserves. She has been waiting in her grave for it for 16 years. Make it happen! Senator Richard Shelby, Kevin P. Byrnes, Jay Town 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