Gov. George C. Wallace, Jr. March 26, 2019 Dear Wallace Family Members, Many things have been written and said about former Alabama Gov. George Corley Wallace, Jr. His legacy as Alabama’s most famous governor is shaped by these six words: " Segregation now! Segregation tomorrow! Segregation forever! " You knew him as a father and grandfather. My father knew him, as well. As president of Alabama State University in Montgomery, Alabama from 1962 to 1981, my father, Dr. Levi Watkins, Sr., and Gov. Wallace got to know each other on an up-close and personal basis. During the height of the Civil Rights Movement in Alabama in 1965, Wallace and my father forged a bond that stood the test of time. Following the tear gassing and beatings Colonel Al Lingo and his state troopers administered to non-violent protestors at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma on “Bloody Sunday” (March 7, 1965), civil rights activists from the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (“SNCC”) took over the campus of Alabama State and were looking for another bloody confrontation with Lingo and his state troopers. This kind of violence would bring national attention to SNCC and further its cause. Die-hard segregationists wanted Col. Lingo to “clean up” the Alabama State campus – at any cost. Students, faculty and staff members were in full sympathy with the “Movement.” Emotions were running high and the situation was ripe for violence and bloodshed. Under enormous pressure to restore order, Lingo considered coming onto campus to root out the demonstrators and “outside agitators.” This was a recipe for a massacre. By April 23, 1965, the situation on campus had reached a boiling point; it was a time bomb awaiting Col. Lingo’s “riot squad.” Lingo was ready to move on the situation and let my father know that state trooper action was imminent. He was coming on campus to restore “law and order.” My father asked to see Lingo at the Public Safety Department Office in the Capitol Complex before his state troopers came on campus that morning. Lingo agreed to a meeting but told my father “you’d better get down here quick.” On his way to Col. Lingo’s office, my father decided that speaking to him would do no good. After all, Lingo was still on an emotional high from “Bloody Sunday.” Instead, my father decided to appeal directly to Gov. Wallace for help in defusing the situation. Father believed that a direct appeal to Wallace was the only chance he had to prevent violence. Somehow, my father never felt that George Wallace was a racist. From his years of personal and professional contact with Wallace, father was convinced that the governor acted like a racist and said racist things solely for political reasons. Wallace never displayed racism to my father in their personal interaction and was always respectful to him. My father asked Wallace to stop Col. Lingo from sending state troopers on campus. With no trooper action, father felt the situation would soon run its course and end without violence. He reminded Wallace of the tear gas and billy clubs Lingo’s troopers used at the Edmund Pettus Bridge. My father also reminded Wallace how he had temporarily lost control over Lingo on “Bloody Sunday.” Father predicted far worse violence would occur if Lingo and his state troopers were allowed to enter Alabama State’s campus. At first, Wallace denied my father’s request. Then father told him: “Governor, I’ve done what I could to avoid a massacre. I’m sorry you won’t help me. Blood will flow today on the Alabama State campus. Your children will never outlive the damage done to the Wallace name. My conscious will be clean. At least, I will have done all I could. Thanks for seeing me.” As my father was leaving the meeting, Cecil Jackson, the Governor’s legal advisor shouted for him to “wait a minute.” Jackson reminded Wallace that a joint committee of the Senate and House were meeting in Wallace’s office in a few minutes. Jackson proposed that the committee be allowed to hear my father’s request and, with the committee’s concurrence, Wallace should reconsider father’s request. Wallace agreed. Wallace briefed the committee on the deteriorating and potentially violent situation at Alabama State. Then, he allowed my father to make a direct appeal to the committee for support. Father asked for black police officers as an alternative to Col. Lingo’s infamous all-white state troopers.” Father added that he did not wish to crush the protest – an integral part of the Movement – but to prevent violence and bloodshed. He wanted control of the campus until emotions cooled and the protest died down. When asked where he would get black officers, father told Wallace and the legislators gathered in his office that the only black police officers in Alabama were on the Mobile police force – about 20 of them. During the meeting, violence broke out at Alabama State when 10 to 15 Montgomery police officers entered the campus to arrest a SNCC staffer named Willie Ricks. They were pelted with rocks and bottles. The police fired shots in the air to escape the bombardment. The meeting was interrupted when my father got an emergency phone call from campus police about the violence. He told Wallace and the legislators he had to go -- right now. Things were spiraling out of control on campus. My father’s resolve electrified Wallace and the legislators. They did not want the responsibility for a massacre. Wallace took the habitual cigar out of his mouth and held it with an outstretched arm. He then told my father he was eager to help. Wallace agreed that the state would reimburse Alabama State for the cost of hiring the Mobile police officers to maintain peace and order on campus. He also pressured Mobile’s police commissioner and police chief to allow the city’s black officers to work on Alabama State’s campus after these police commanders initially balked at the idea. Because my father needed to get to Mobile immediately, Wallace ordered that the Governor’s airplane fly him there. When he arrived in Mobile, my father pleaded with the black police officers gathered at a city auditorium to accept this special duty assignment. Fourteen of them were present. The others were off duty and could not be reached on such short notice. After my father’s passionate plea, each of the fourteen black police officers answered the call of duty and agreed to come to Alabama State – for however long it took to prevent the bloodshed and restore order on campus. They were led by Officer George Sullivan, Jr. All of them were flown to Montgomery on the Governor’s airplane. Col. Lingo met the first group of Mobile police officers at Dannelly Field Airport in Montgomery. He offered Sullivan and his fellow officers the use of riot gear, including tear gas and billy clubs. Sullivan declined, saying, “Dr. Watkins brought us here to help students, not hurt them.” After a two-week stay at Alabama State, the Mobile police calmed the atmosphere on campus and returned home. They had done what the State of Alabama could not do. And, what the University could not do alone. They helped to save lives and prevent bloodshed. Only God knows how many lives and how much blood. These fourteen dedicated and caring police officers were commended by a Joint House and Senate Resolution of the 1965 all-white Alabama Legislature “for their responsible attitudes and actions and for their devotion to their public duty and their concern for public safety.” Each one of them also received the President’s Award at the May 1965 Commencement for the Alabama State University’s Mobile Center. As for Gov. George Corley Wallace, Jr., his loss of control on March 7, 1965 caused “Bloody Sunday,” but his resolute leadership on April 23, 1965 prevented a likely massacre of black students, faculty and staff members on the campus of Alabama State University. If we are to blame Wallace for allowing Col. Lingo to cause “Bloody Sunday,” we must also credit Wallace (and my father) for securing and redeploying the Mobile police officers who stopped Lingo from producing a far more violent and bloodier confrontation on the campus of Alabama State University a mere six weeks later. Sincerely, Donald V. Watkins [Editor’s Note: This story is told in greater detail in “Fighting Hard: The Alabama State Experience,” authored by Levi Watkins, Harlo Press (1987)]

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on January 18, 2026 An Editorial Opinion   For reasons that were never disclosed on the 2024 campaign trial, President Donald Trump has established five protected classes of federal criminals. They are: Elite Epstein pedophiles who benefitted from Trump’s July 2025 directive to Attorney General Pam Bondi to close this notorious child sex trafficking case without any further prosecutions (beyond Epstein companion Ghislaine Maxwell's 2021 conviction) . MAGA loyalists in Congress like former Congressman George Santos, who was convicted of identity theft and wire fraud and had his sentence commuted shortly after he was imprisoned. Soiled Democrats like former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich (who was convicted of public corruption), former U.S. Representative Henry Cuellar of Texas (who was convicted of bribery and money laundering), and former New York City Mayor Eric Adams (who was indicted on charges of bribery, conspiracy, wire fraud, and solicitation of illegal foreign campaign contributions), all of whom may be useful Trump surrogates in the political arena. Imprisoned federal inmates who have the financial resources and/or political connection to purchase a presidential pardon from Trump much like racketeering kingpin Ross William Ulbricht, former Honduran President and narco-terrorist Juan Orlando Hernández, and twice pardoned fraudster Adriana Camberos. Law enforcement officials like Border Czar Tom Homan, whom the FBI secretly recorded taking a $50,000 cash bribe from undercover agents p osing as business executives seeking future government contracts, and former Virginia Sheriff Scott Jenkins, who was convicted of taking bribes and whom Trump pardoned in October 2025.   This article exposes Trump's expansion of the 5th category of protected criminals to include three Minnesota law enforcement officers who pleaded guilty to child sexual abuse charges and are awaiting sentencing.  Trump wants these ex-lawmen freed, too.  They are Jeremy Francis Plonski, Anthony John Crowley, and Timothy Ryan Gregg.   Plonski’s Victim was a Female Toddler Between the Ages of 1 and 2   From April to October 2023, former Minnesota State Trooper Jeremy Francis Plonski produced 23 child porn videos of a female toddler between the ages of 1 and 2.  Plonski repeatedly and personally abused this toddler while he wore his uniform and sidearm.  The videos, which were 2 to 3 minutes in length, were transported across state lines via Plonski’s cellphone.   Plonski agreed to forfeit “a pink sex toy” and a “wearable prosthetic sex toy” that he used to sexually abuse the toddler. Plonski was an open and proud Trump supporter on his X social media.   Crowley’s Victim was a Prepubescent Girl Under the Age of 12   On August 21, 2022, former DHS Border Patrol Agent Anthony John Crowley distributed child porn videos across state lines.  One of these videos depicted a prepubescent girl under the age of 12 engaged in explicit sexual conduct.   Crowley confessed to acting voluntarily and knowingly, in violation of federal child porn criminal laws.   Gregg Produced, Starred In, and Distributed Child Porn involving an Underaged Teen   From March to October 2025, DHS Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Timothy Ryan Gregg engaged in explicit sexual conduct with a 17-year-old teenage girl. Gregg used the law enforcement data base to confirm that she was underage.  Gregg engaged in sex with this girl nearly about a dozen times and photographed their explicit sexual activities.   Gregg sent the girl numerous text messages containing the explicit sexual photos of their encounters.  The girl’s father discovered the photos and text messages on her cell phone and notified law enforcement authorities.   The Trump Administration is Intent on Freeing these Three Sex Offenders   Attorney General Bondi, acting on private verbal orders from Donald Trump, is working to free these three convicted child sex offenders.  In Trump's view, law enforcement officers who are aligned with his violent crackdown on undocumented migrants and sympathetic protestors are above the law – regardless of their abusive conduct toward toddlers, prepubescent children, and underaged teens.   Trump has never advocated the strong and aggressive enforcement of laws designed to protect children from child molestation, child rape, and child pornography.   Last Tuesday, Bondi forced the resignation of Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Thompson, the lead federal prosecutor in the District of Minnesota.  Five additional prosecutors in Thompson’s office, including the Assistant U.S. Attorney assigned to Timothy Gregg’s child porn case (Harry M. Jacobs), resigned as well.    This move was the first step on the road toward freedom for these child sex offenders. This was also the first step in the successful effort to free Eric Adams on his bribery charges.   The planned dismissal of the child porn cases will use a pretextual basis that alleges the Department of Justice (DOJ) discovered acts of prosecutorial misconduct after Thompson and the other prosecutors resigned.  DOJ is expected to argue that this misconduct was gross in nature and warrants setting aside the three convictions and closing the cases.   Absent state charges against these men, Crowley and Gregg will be freed and reinstated as DHS agents. Last week, DOJ placed Minnesota Gov. Tim Watz under federal criminal investigation for allegedly impeding immigration agents in Minnesota. This move provides Donald Trump with considerable leverage to get Plonski cleared of any companion state charges and reinstated as a state trooper or hired as a DHS agent.   Today, the only bright light shining on Pam Bondi’s steps to vacate the child porn convictions of Plonski, Crowley, and Gregg and dismiss all charges against them is the one our news team is shining on these men.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on January 11, 2026 Clyde E. Jones, Birmingham, Alabama. An Editorial Opinion From 1985 to 1998, I battled scores of good litigators while representing the City of Birmingham and Mayor Richard Arrington, Jr.  The best one, by far, is Clyde E. Jones.   Jones was educated in the Birmingham public schools. After attending Parker and Ramsey High Schools, Jones enrolled in Knoxville College (in Knoxville, Tennessee) where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology in 1976.  Jones earned his law degree frpm Cumberland School of Law at Samford University in 1979.   After graduating from law school, Clyde Jones served as a Deputy District Attorney in the Tenth Judicial Circuit and an Assistant District Attorney in the Fifth Judicial Circuit.  Jones also served as a partner in the law firm of Penick, Williams and Jones before opening his own law firm, Law Offices of Clyde E. Jones, P.C., in 1987. Jones is the son of the late Rev. Clyde M. Jones (1927 to 2017), a Birmingham civil rights icon and one of the first black applicants in 1956 for a police officer position with the City of Birmingham. Jones came from a family of high achievers and he was a high achiever himself. Our Battle Inside the Courtroom   I met Clyde Jones in 1989 when he was a solo practitioner.  Our meeting occurred inside the courtroom.  I was representing the City of Birmingham and Jones was representing Mr. Rick Bentley, a well-known local contractor who was suing the city.   I did not know it at the time, but the scouting report I was provided on Jones by the city's law department was wholly inadequate. It grossly understated Jones' litigation skills and provided no substantive information on his exceptional family. When litigating and winning cases, everything matters, including information on the family background and personal attributes of the opposing lawyer. This is especially true in cases where opposing counsel is the child of an iconic figure in the community.   When Jones walked into the courtroom, I could tell immediately that he had been in the gladiator pit before -- many times.  Jones, who was tall, fit, energetic, and confident, introduced himself to me while looking into my eyes and shaking my hand firmly.  There was no fear in his eyes even though I had a reputation for annihilating my courtroom opponents in a fair fight.    Jones took a seat at the counsel table, along with his client.  When he pulled his case files out of his briefcase, I noticed how organized everything was. He also had a trial notebook that was tabbed throughout. Right away, I knew Jones was ready to fight.   When Jones addressed the court, he stood tall and spoke with authority.  He exuded a level of confidence I had not seen in opposing counsel in any of my prior City of Birmingham cases.   Then, the fighting began. Clyde Jones was super-smart, fearless, strong, aggressive, and highly skilled in presenting Rick Bentley’s case.  He knew the rules of evidence without looking in the book.  He knew how to present his client's case in a succinct and efficient manner.  He was methodical with the use of his trial exhibits and brilliant in examining and cross-examining witnesses.     Clyde Jones was a master litigator. We fought a long, hard, and fierce courtroom battle that day.  In the end, I prevailed – barely. A Draining and Hard-Earned Victory   Two things contributed to my draining and hard-earned victory.  First, I had five more years of litigation experience than Jones.  I had to use every litigation technique I had learned to defeat him. Second, I had the substantial financial resources of the City of Birmingham underwriting my trial preparation.  Despite Jones’ masterful use of litigation skills, his client could not match our resources.   I did not know Clyde Jones prior to our courtroom battle, but I damn sure knew his name him after that fight.   I left the courtroom with another victory notched on my belt and went straight to Mayor Arrington’s office.  I was highly pissed-off. As soon as I saw Arrington, I chewed him out because the scouting report I received on Jones from the law department did not have any substantive information about his trial skill level or family background. As a result, Jones mauled me like a ferocious tiger mauls his prey.     I never fought Clyde Jones again, and I had no desire to do so. To this day, my respect and admiration for Jones is off the chart.   In 2002, Clyde Jones became a judge in the Criminal Division of the Jefferson County, Alabama Circuit Court. He was re-elected multiple times.  Jones retired from the bench on January 16, 2023.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on January 14, 2026 Renee Nicole Good (April 2, 1988 to January 7, 2026). An Editorial Opinion On January 7, 2026, Minnesota-based ICE agent Jonathan Ross pulled out his service revolver, pointed it at an unarmed Renee Nicole Good, and pumped three bullets into Good’s head and face at close range. Moments later, Ross called Good a “fucking bitch.”  Ross and fellow ICE agents rejected a doctor’s plea at the scene to administer emergency medical assistance to Good, thereby assuring she would bleed out.   As a former litigator who has prosecuted and defended police officers who killed civilians, it is evident to me that Renee Good is the victim of a cold-blooded police murder.  As is often the case when police officers murder unarmed civilians, a law enforcement coverup of Good's murder has ensued. Good's murder was a horrenous act of police misconduct. The coverup is worse.   A lifetime of Experiences in America’s Dark Past   In my lifetime, I have seen horrendous acts that have revealed the inhumanity of mankind. I have seen blacks savagely beaten for trying to use public water fountains and restrooms that were reserved for “whites only” and for trying to eat at segregated lunch counters in local department stores.   State laws forced me to attend all-black public schools in Memphis, Tennessee and Montgomery, Alabama. This situation lasted until I went to college at Southern Illinois University in 1966.   While I was a child in the 1950s, black men in the South were burned alive by white “Christian” mobs for alleged crimes against white women.   In 1955, I saw the Jet magazine photos of 14-year-old Emmett Till’s battered, beaten and mutilated face and body during his open-casket funeral and listened in horror as my parents told us what happened to him. Till was lynched in Mississippi for reportedly flirting with a white woman. As young children, our parents told us about the lynching of my maternal grandfather’s cousin in Mississippi and how my mother’s father barely escaped death in the same incident.   I watched news of the 1963 Birmingham church bombing on TV while I was a teenager in Montgomery. During this same period, I saw the city of Birmingham’s fire hoses and police dogs turned on school children who were protesting for an end to racial segregation in public accommodations and schools.   In the early 1960s, Martin Luther King, Jr., Ralph Abernathy, and Rosa Parks sat in my parents’ home as I listened to them describe the rivers of blood that flowed from the civil rights protesters’ courageous acts of civil disobedience across the South.   I watched real-time TV news accounts about the 1963 assassination of Medgar Evers in Mississippi, the 1965 murders of civil rights workers Viola Liuzzo (from Michigan) and Jimmy Lee Jackson (from Selma) in Alabama, and the 1968 assassination of Dr. King in Memphis.   In 1963, I watched Governor George Wallace block the admission of Vivian Malone and James Hood to the University of Alabama. In August 1964, I watched the news when federal authorities discovered the bodies of three civil rights workers who were kidnapped by local sheriff’s deputies and murdered by the Ku Klux Klan while registering blacks to vote in Mississippi. In 1965, I watched John Lewis and other civil rights marchers endure horrendous beatings by Alabama State Troopers at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama.   In 1974, Clarence Norris told me about the beatings and torture he and the other eight Scottsboro Boys endured after their 1931 arrest on false rape charges and imprisonment in Alabama. When I retrieved the Scottsboro Boys’ case file from state archives, the old prison records verified Norris’ account of the prison system’s brutality.   On March 21, 1981, the Ku Klux Klan kidnapped and lynched a 19-year-old African American teenager named Michael Donald in downtown Mobile, Alabama. This was the last recorded lynching in America.   After I became a lawyer in 1973, I was threatened with bodily harm and death so many times because of my representation of poor, underprivileged, and disadvantaged citizens that I have simply lost count of the number of such threats. I have been hauled before grand juries and subjected to lawfare by rogue prosecutors with made-up criminal offenses, attacked by state and federal regulatory bodies with oversight responsibility for my private businesses, and peppered with personal attacks on my character by state officials whose propensity for racial animosity exceeds all known means for objective measurement.   These were not experiences I read about in scholarly journals or best-selling novels; these were my real-life experiences. Throughout it all, I learned what it is like to be a victim of unimaginable acts of hatred, denigration, harassment, abuse of power and process, lawfare, and violence by a tyrannical majority solely because my ethnicity makes me a member of a disfavored group of Americans.   These experiences have not made me bitter, but they have heightened my awareness of just how evil some people can be. As a result, I am aggressive and passionate in the way I fight to safeguard the human and civil rights of others.   Today’s Fights Against Law Enforcement's Darkest Instincts   This is why I am fighting so hard to pursue justice for the 1,000+ acknowledged child molestation, child rape, and child pornography victims in the Jeffrey Epstein vase. President Donald Trump, who is Epstein's party pal, is leading the Department of Justice's obstruction of justice for the elite pedophiles in Epstein's case.   This is why I am fighting hard to expose the truth about the police murder of Renee Nicole Good. Donald Trump, who opposes same-sex marriages, is leading the effort to obstruct justice in Good's murder case because she was in a same-sex marriage with Becca Good.   This is why my news team is investigating what ties, if any, Jonathan Ross has to a child porn ring that ensnared Minnesota-based Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents Timothy Ryan Gregg and Anthony John Crowley in 2025. Both men have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing.   Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson (for the District of Minnesota) and his local DOJ team were prosecuting Gregg and Crowley.  They resigned yesterday in protest over a directive from top Department of Justice officials to smear Renee and Becca Good.   Confidential news sources say Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is overseeing the obstruction of justice in the Jeffrey Epstein child sex trafficking case, may voluntarily dismiss the criminal charges against Gregg and Crowley to protect other DHS agents in the child porn ring.  Reportedly, one of these DHS agents is a “high-profile” and "radioactive" ICE agent.   I have lived through barbaric times in America when law enforcement agencies subject citizens to unimaginable acts of horror.  I have seen them murder innocent, unarmed citizens with impunity.  I have seen them targeted, maimed, and smear protestors – simply because they could.    I do not want to see America return to this dark period in our history.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on July 28, 2024 An Editorial Opinion When the U.S. was established as a country in 1776 , whites comprised roughly 80% of the population.  Native Americans, who were declared to be “ merciless Indian savages ” in the Declaration of Independence, were excluded in the census count.    Slaves of African descent were deemed to be “ chattel property. ”  Thus, slaves were not counted in the census as human beings.  They were, however, listed under their master's property holdings.   As the first census after the Civil War, the 1870 census included African Americans by full name and race in the population count.   Following passage of the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 and subsequent litigation, all American Indians and Alaska Natives were included in the census count,  beginning in 1940 .   In 1920, the white percentage of the U.S. population rose to 90% , where it stayed until 1950 , when it dropped to 89.5%.   Since 1950, the “ White Alone Population ” has declined as follows: 1960--88.6% 1970--93% 1980--80% 1990--76% 2000--75.1% 2010--72% 2020--61%   By the 2050 census count , the share of the White Alone Population will be  under 50%  for the first time since the census began.   The decline in America's "White Alone Population" since 1950 goes a long way toward explaining and driving the following political phenomena: The birth and growth of Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement.   MAGA’s push to make abortions illegal in every state and under all circumstances.  This push is designed to slow or reverse the decline in the White birth rate. The concerted and aggressive effort to suppress the voting rights of Americans of color nationwide. This paves the way for minority rule. MAGA’s hardline opposition to the migration of people of color at America’s southern border. There is no MAGA focus on illegal migration by Caucasions from European nations and other countries. MAGA’s opposition to teaching African American and Native American history in public schools, while Caucasion heritage and history, from Christopher Columbus to the "Founding Fathers" to Dr. Wernher von Braun to Elon Musk, is celebrated and glorified. The death of all affirmative action programs that includes racial minorities.  Of course, affirmative action that excludes minorities is legal and thriving.  All-white courts, corporate boards, and government bodies are on the rise, again. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion or DEI is the new racial dog whistle .   Finally, Donald Trump and MAGA have found their greatest base of support in Old Confederate states that keep their Black citizens downtrodden “from the cradle to the grave.”  In fact, Project 2025 is actually being implement in these states today, to the extent possible. Piercing the veil of MAGA’s strategic ambiguity, it is clear that the period between 1920 and 1950 is when America was “great” in Donald Trump’s eyes .  White male privilege and dominance in America was unchecked, unchallenged, and reigned supreme during this period. Will MAGA succeed in taking America back to this period? I hope not.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on January 10, 2026 Birmingham, Alabama Mayor Richard Arrington, Jr. (1979 to 1999). An Editorial Opinion I have told the story about my 1994 meeting with Birmingham, Alabama business icon Henry C. Goodrich and his request on behalf of the city's White business leaders for me to leave town immediately because I was a "troublemaker" in Birmingham who was disturbing the business community’s “good relations with the Colored community."   I have also told the story of Birmingham-Southern President Neal Berte (1976 to 2004), who wrote a handwritten letter to Arrington in 1990 in which Berte opposed my successful legal representation of Arrington in the face of Republican U.S. Attorney Frank Donaldson's racially-motivated, unrelenting, 4-year battle to oust Arrington from office and imprison him.  Arrington allowed me to read Berte's letter before he balled it up and threw it in the trash can.   Neal Berte wrote his letter to Mayor Arrington after U.S. Senator Howell Heflin, who was White, placed a detailed report about Frank Donaldson's lawlessness against Arrington into the Congressional Record .   Local Black Lawyers Demanded a Meeting with Mayor Arrington Now it is time to tell you the story of a group of Black lawyers in Birmingham who demanded and got a meeting with Arrington in 1991 in an effort to run me out of town. Led by Henry “Hank” Thompson and Henry L. Penick, this group of about 6 Black lawyers was upset that my law firm was being paid about $1 million per year to litigate complex, high-profile cases on behalf of the city and mayor’s office where losing was not an acceptable option.   As a self-insured city, Arrington determined that it was cheaper to pay me to win these difficult cases than it was to pay skyrocketing and expensive insurance premiums.   By the time the Black lawyers called for the meeting, my Birmingham litigation Dream Team , which is depicted below, had won 73 straight cases for the city and saved the municipality more than $100 million in potential liability exposure.   Mayor Arrington attended the meeting with his trusted confidant Doyal Reed and administrative assistant Jessie Huff.  Arrington excluded me from the meeting so that the lawyers who gathered in his City Hall conference room would feel free to voice whatever concerns they had.   Their concerns basically boiled down to the fact that I was making substantial money from litigating complex city legal cases, and they were not.  None of them claimed to have greater litigation skills and abilities than I had exhibited in my 73 court victories.   None had a better win-loss record in the courtroom.   None of the lawyers had experience in representing a municipality at the time.  I was representing the largest city (Birmingham) and third largest city (Montgomery), as well as the city of Uniontown, in complex litigation in cases where losing was not an acceptable option. At the time, Montgomery had an arch-conservative White Republican mayor who was paying me a higher hourly rate for my services than Arrington paid.   None of this mattered to these Black lawyers.  As longtime Arrington supporters, they believed they should be handling the lion’s share of the city’s legal work, with local White firms handling the remainder.  In their view, I needed to be fired immediately and sent back to Montgomery where I came from. For context, this meeting occurred while Frank Donaldson was aggressively trying to indict Arrington on bogus criminal charges and put him in prison. Donaldson was also looking for any basis to get me removed as the city-paid lawyer who was fighting his criminal investigation of Arrington. Donaldson even encouraged an unsuccessful taxpayer's lawsuit against the city and me to recoup all legal fees I had been paid.   Mayor Arrington closed the meeting by thanking the local Black lawyers for voicing their concerns.  After the meeting, Arrington told me about their concerns and instructed me to stay focused on my legal work.  Doyal Reed provided me with a detailed briefing on the meeting.   Looking back on my legal career today, I am probably the only Birmingham lawyer who had three different local groups trying to run me out of town simply because: (a) I disturbed the “good relations” White business leaders had with the city's "Colored community,” (b) I was proficient at picking the highest caliber of legal talent for my litigation Dream Teams, and (c) I was winning all of my assigned cases, for which I was paid well. I finished my 46-year legal career in 2019 with 217 documented courtroom victories and 8 losses.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on January 8, 2026   An Editorial Opinion When I retired from the practice of law in 2019, I had amassed a win-loss record of 217 courtroom victories and 8 defeats.  About 154 of those victories were procured during the years I worked from my Birmingham, Alabama law office.    Most of the Birmingham courtroom victories occurred after I formed a dream team of litigation attorneys that consisted of Joe Whatley, Rick Kuykendall, Sam Heldman, Kenneth Thomas, H. Lewis Gillis, Andrew Allen, Peter Burke, and Candis McGowan.  Valton Johnson and Joseph Cole were our superstar paralegals.   The combined brainpower on this dream team was off the charts.  I enjoyed directing and supervising their work on cases where losing was not an acceptable option.  Every one of these professionals was extremely gifted in his/her craft.  Their collective brilliance was spellbinding.  As a team, we set and broke a lot of records in American jurisprudence.   We enjoyed working with each other in the team's war room at the law firm of Cooper, Mitch, Crawford, Kuykendall & Whatley.  We devised a litigation technique that was designed to ensure victory in each case.  First, we organized into three teams that would work in 8-hour shifts on each assigned case, each day.  Next, we fired off a barrage of substantive motions, briefs, and reports in each case each day.  This Blitzkrieg approached overwhelmed our opponents.  We called our technique “laser litigation.”     Laser litigation even wore down the U.S. government in criminal cases targeting Birmingham Mayor Richard Arrington, Jr. (from 1988 to 1992) and Chief U.S. District Court Judge U.W. Clemon (in 1996).  The government eventually abandoned its criminal investigations in each man's case. Later, Lewis Gillis joined me in deploying laser litigation in the successful criminal defense of former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy, who won a dismissal and/or acquittals on all 85 felony counts in his 2003 indictment.   After my first retirement in 1998, all of us went our separate ways.  I ventured into the banking and clean energy worlds and only occasionally took on a selected civil or criminal case of special interest.  The other team members continued to enjoy highly successful careers in law.    My work with this dream team of exceptionally talented lawyers spoiled me. I retired permanently as a litigator in 2019 with the satisfaction of knowing that no litigator in America is likely to break my 217-8 win-loss record in courtroom victories during my lifetime.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on August 28, 2022 Rosa Parks visits Lillian Varnado Watkins in her Montgomery, Alabama home. They were best friends and sisters in the civil rights movement for life. Most readers know that I grew up in Montgomery, Alabama in the 1950s and 60s. Many of the people I looked up to were community leaders who had criminal records in Alabama's local, state, and federal criminal justice systems. My childhood church pastor, Sunday School teacher, Baptist Training Union instructor, and Crusaders Club leader at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King had an extensive arrest record in Montgomery and elsewhere in the South. The state of Alabama indicted Dr. King on felony tax evasion charges. In 1963, the FBI, which often collaborated with the Ku Klux Klan and local law enforcement agencies, tried to force Dr King into committing suicide before he traveled to Stockholm, Sweden to accept the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize. Dr. King ignored the Bureau and its misguided vindictiveness. Rosa Parks was one of my mother's best friends. Ms. Parks visited our house quite often. My parents enjoyed her company. She was a very classy woman. Ms. Parks had a criminal record, as well. Ms. Parks became a "criminal" when she refused to give up her seat on a city bus to a white passenger. Photos of Ms. Parks being booked after her arrest and her mug shot are featured with this article. My brother, Dr. Levi Watkins, Jr., was Ms. Parks' heart surgeon. He, too, associated with many known "criminals," all of whom were arrested for protesting racial segregation and discrimination in American society and throughout Africa. Levi, Jr. also developed personal relationships with Nelson Mandela and his second wife, Winnie. Mandela was a convicted felon who spent 27 years in South African prisons. Winnie Mandela was convicted of felony crimes, as well. Fannie Lou Hamer, Maggie Bozeman, and Julia Wilder were also labeled as "criminals." I loved these "criminals." They had more courage than you can find in many women and men today. In 1963, Hamer was arrested and brutally beaten by local police and jail trustees (at the direction of the police) for her spirited civil rights activism in Mississippi. In the early 1980s, Maggie Bozeman and Julia Wilder were imprisoned for simply registering blacks to vote in Pickens County, Alabama. Joseph Cole was the SCLC Chapter president in Gadsden, Alabama. He became a "criminal" and was imprisoned in the early 1980s after his lawsuits desegregated the all-white Gadsden, Alabama fire, police, and civil service departments for the city. Mr. Cole also fought and stopped the police killing of innocent, unarmed, young black men in Gadsden after the death of Collis Madden in 1978. Madden died in a hail of 40 to 50 bullets during a routine traffic stop by Gadsden police. My list of "criminal" associates is long and distinguished. I felt privileged as a child and young adult to be in their midst. However, all of them were despised by the ruling class of their day. They all went to jail on trumped up charges. Looking back on my life, it seems like I was inspired as a young man by the men and women who were viewed by white society in the 1950s, 60s, 70s, and 80s as "criminals," "trouble-makers," "outside agitators," and "thugs." So be it! My church pastor, Sunday school teacher and BTU instructor is arrested by Montgomery, Alabama police officers for challenging the city's laws on racial segregation in the 1950s. Today, Dr. King is the only non-U.S. President who has a memorial dedicated to him on the National Mall in Washington. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who is one of my personal heroes was constantly arrested and jailed by local and state officials in Southern states. In this picture, Dr. King is once again booked into a jail on bogus criminal charges. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was booked into the Birmingham City Jail as a "criminal". This is his mugshot in 1963. This jail is where he wrote his famous letter, "Letter from Birmingham Jail". This is the same year that the FBI tried to force Dr. King into committing suicide before King flew to Stockholm, Sweden to accept his 1964 Nobel Peace Prize. Ms. Rosa Parks was the mother of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. In this photograph, she is being booked into the Montgomery City Jail in 1955 because she refused to give up her seat on a city bus to a white passenger. Rosa Parks was a civil rights activist during the 1950s. She refused to give up her seat on a city bus to a white passenger and this act of defiance started the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955. Ms. Parks was a close friend of the Watkins family. Ms. Rosa Parks loved visiting with Lillian Watkins (front row. left) and Dr. Levi Watkins, Sr. at the Watkins family home. In this photo, she was accompanied by my sister, Emma Pearl Watkins (second row, right) and Elaine Steel. When Donald Watkins. Jr. (left) and Light Watkins (right) were teenagers, I introduced them to Ms. Parks. Their civil rights activism can be traced back to this introduction. Young teenager Drew Watkins with Rosa Parks Nelsen Mandela was a civil rights attorney in South Africa in the 1950s and 60s. The all-white South African government charged Mandela and his 19 compatriots with sabotage, treason and violent conspiracy. Mandela spent 27 years in prison, including 18 years in solitary confinement. After leaving prison, Mandela became the first black African president of South African. He was a Watkins' family friend. Ms. Fannie Lou Hamer was the Mississippi field secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. In 1963, she was arrested for attempting to eat at a segregated restaurant. Once she was jailed, she was held down and beaten with a blackjack until she was almost killed. Upon her release from jail, Ms. Hamer needed more than a month to recuperate from the beatings and never fully recovered. Julia Wilder (left) and Maggie Bozeman (right) led the voter registration effort in Pickens County, Alabama during the 1970s and 80s. State officials charged them with trumped up voter fraud charges and imprisoned both women in the state penitentiary. In 1984 a federal judge threw out their convictions. Joseph L. Cole is a civil rights icon whose lawsuits desegregated the city of Gadsden's all-white police, fire and civil service departments. Federal officials imprisoned Cole on a bogus charge of misapplying federal grant funds. All articles are shared on Facebook and Twitter. If you enjoyed this article, please click on these links to follow Donald Watkins: https://www.facebook.com/donald.v.watkins https://twitter.com/donaldvwatkins

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on January 3, 2026 Rev. and Mrs. Willie Lewis Varnado (seated) with their children (from left to right) Doris, Ernestine, Willie, Jr., Lillian, and Pearl. Lillian was my mother. Rev. Willie Lewis Varnado and his wife Oda Etta Carmichael , my maternal grandparents, had five children -- daughter Pearl from Rev. Varnado's first marriage, Willie, Jr., Doris, Lillian (my mother), and Ernestine.   Oda was a stay-at home mom and Willie was a well-known Baptist preacher. The couple’s three biological daughters -- Doris, Lillian, and Ernestine -- were constantly referred to as the "Varnado girls."   The Varnado girls and their oldest two siblings spent their childhood years in Canton, Mississippi. When Willie Varnado secured a more prominent ministerial position in Jackson, the family moved to that city.   The Varnado children attended and graduated from the distinguished laboratory school on the campus of Jackson State College in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1930s.  Doris graduated on time but deferred going to college until Lillian graduated from the laboartory school. Ernestine skipped two school grades because of her exceptional academic performance and graduated with Lillian.   All three Varnado girls entered Lane College in Jackson, Tennessee together.  The girls lived together, pledged Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority together, and graduated from college together with academic honors. They were best friends for life. Siblings Pearl and Willie, Jr., attended and graduated from Jackson State College with academic honors. Pearl became the "Supervisor of Colored Schools" in Meridian, Mississippi. Willie, Jr., became a top government executive in Detroit, Michigan. While the Varnado girls were attending Lane College, Rev. and Mrs. Varnado moved to Memphis after Willie received a more prestigious ministerial positionin the city.   Upon graduation from college, Doris returned to Jackson where she co-founded, co-owned, and co-managed Conic Beauty and Barber Supply Company in with her high school boyfriend, Frank N. Conic.  Lillian took a teaching job at Burt High School in Clarksville, Tennessee, where she met, fell in love with, and married Levi Watkins, a math teacher and the school's assistant principal.  Ernestine took a math teaching job in Memphis, Tennessee, where she met, fell in love with, and married fellow school teacher and local businessman Walter P. Guy, Jr. Ernestine would later transition into financial accounting positions at two Memphis-area colleges. From left to right: Doris, Ernestine, and Lillian Varnado. After Lillian married Levi, she became a stay-at-home mom to her six children. Lillian’s August 16, 1939 teacher’s certificate from the state of Tennessee qualified her to teach high school classes in “ Education, French, Home Economics, Music, Science, including Biology, Chemistry, General Science, Physics, Social Science, including only Civics, History, and Sociology ." We were home schooled in these subjects long before we ever showed up in a school classroom. Mom's home schooling supplemented our classroom instruction and continued until we graduated from high school. Except for four years in the public schools of Memphis when Levi was president of Owen Junior College in the late 1950s, Levi and Lillian enrolled their children in the prestigious Douglass School in Parsons, Kansas and the academically advanced laboratory school on the campus of Alabama State College in Montgomery, Alabama.   Looking back on it today, the decision of Willie and Oda Etta Varnado to (a) enroll their children in the laboratory school at Jackson State and (b) enroll the Varnado girls together at Lane College, coupled with the next generation decision of Levi and Lillian Watkins to enroll their children in the Douglass School and laboratory school at Alabama State (with supplemental and continuous home schooling), gave my five siblings and me an enormous head start in the academic competition we would face throughout the course of our educational experiences -- regardless of the race or socio-economic status of other competing students. The four Varnado daughters: From left to right, Ernestine, Lillian, Pearl, and Doris Varnado. The Varnado family's unique educational journey makes it possible and likely that I will reach all of my personal and business goals  for 2026 and beyond.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on January 6, 2026   Slave 2 Nothing Foundation fights substance abuse and human trafficking. An Editorial Opinion In-N-Out Burger is a chain of fast-food restaurants with locations primarily in California and to a lesser extent the West Coast and Southwest. It was founded in 1948 by Harry (1913–1976) and Esther Snyder (1920–2006). The chain is headquartered in Irvine, California. The company has expanded outside Southern California into the rest of California, as well as into Nevada, Utah, Texas, Oregon, Colorado, Idaho, Washington, and Tennessee.  It is also planning expansion into New Mexico. The current owner is Lynsi Snyder-Ellingson, the Snyders' only grandchild.   In-N-Out Burger, which has 424 locations, 27,000 employees, and an estimated $2 billion in annual revenue, has chosen not to franchise its operations or go public. The company believes that rapid business growth, via franchising or going public, would compromise food quality and/or customer consistency. In-N-Out Burger has developed a highly loyal customer base and is rated as one of the top fast-food restaurants in America. I am one of those loyal customers.  My son Light Watkins introduced me to In-N-Out Burger in Los Angeles 24 years ago. I eat their hamburgers at least once a week.   When I went to the restaurant last night in Sacramento, In-N-Out Burger asked me if I wanted to make a donation to its Slave 2 Nothing Foundation . They offered to match my donation 3-to-1 in January.  Without hesitation, I contributed to this worthy cause.   The Slave 2 Nothing Foundation’s mission is to free people from being enslaved to any person or substance. It was formed by Lynsi and her husband Sean Ellingson. The Foundation fulfills its mission by contributing financially to organizations that align with its causes and actively provide services in communities served by In-N-Out Burger. It assists individuals and their families to gain freedom and healing from substance abuse.  It also creates, educates, and assists with solutions to eliminate human trafficking.   Slave 2 Nothing Foundation partners with more than 100 local non-profit organizations in communities served by In-N-Out Burger.  Since 2016, the Foundation has granted over $17 million to organizations fighting substance abuse and human trafficking.   In-N-Out Burger covers all administrative costs associated with the Foundation, thereby ensuring that 100% of every dollar raised goes to organizations that assist individuals and families to gain freedom and healing from substance abuse and human trafficking.   This month, the Foundation is highlighting its fight to end human trafficking. It is partnering with those on the front lines and working to expose trafficking threats against children that pose as Trojan Horses in an enhanced effort to protect the survivors and end human trafficking. In-N-Out Burger matches your donation 3-to-1 in January. The Foundation's mission evidences superb corporate responsibility and leadership during the nationwide surge of pedophiles and the increasing sexual abuse of women.

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on September 26, 2018 Conic Beauty and Barber Supply Company operated in Jackson, Mississippi from 1950 to 1975. From left to right: Doris V. Conic, Myrtle C. Johnson, Frank N. Conic, and Jack Johnson. Frank and Doris Conic owned and operated Conic Beauty and Barber Supply Company at 615 North Farish Street in Jackson, Mississippi from 1950 to 1975. They were also civil rights icons in Jackson from the 1940’s through the 1970s. They displayed incredible courage on a daily basis in the face of Mississippi’s hardcore, entrenched racism. Doris Varnado Conic (Nov 15, 1915 - Jan 16, 1998) was the daughter of the late Rev. Willie Varnado and his wife, Oda Etta Carmichael Varnado. Aunt Doris was my mother’s sister. Frank N. Conic (May 3, 1911 - Feb 10, 2005) was the son of John Edgar Conic, Sr., a prominent black businessman in Jackson.  Uncle Frank’s father operated the City Barber Shop and was the only independent distributor of the Chicago Defender and Pittsburg Courier newspapers in Jackson for 30 years. Both newspapers were influential weekly publications that called for improvements in housing, healthcare, and education for African-Americans. Long before Uncle Frank and Aunt Doris retired in 1975, their business was delivering beauty supplies throughout the entire State of Mississippi. Their sales grossed more revenues than any other African-American business in Jackson. The Conics Believed in the Promise of America In the South, very few African-Americans dared to exercise their right to vote during the Jim Crow era. Two Mississippians who did were Frank and Doris Conic. They paid the poll taxes that white segregationist officials imposed upon blacks to discourage them from voting and did so each year from 1940 until shortly after the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. By exercising their right to vote under the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, Frank and Doris put their lives at risk each time they showed up at the polls to vote between 1940 and 1965. Furthermore, their civil rights activism extended well beyond voting. On June 10, 1960, Uncle Frank wrote the following passionate letter to Jackson Mayor Allen Thompson: “Dear Mr. Mayor, As a lifelong resident of Jackson, I am proud of the progress that the city has made under your capable leadership. When I ride over this city, it is indeed thrilling for me to realize that my taxes have contributed to its expansion, improvement and beautification. Though my portion of the taxes would be minute if it were separated from the total, so would that paid by its wealthiest citizens. Therefore, all of the facilities and projects that the city provides should be available to all of its people, and they should rejoice whenever any proposals are made to improve this community economically and culturally. So, as one who has confidence in the future of Jackson, I shall vote for the bond issue on next Tuesday. Nevertheless, my enthusiasm is weakened somewhat by the fear that not all Jacksonians will be able to enjoy the benefits that its passage would provide. You see, sir, I am a Negro, and along with the other members of my race, I am barred from the existing “white” recreational and cultural facilities. The lone exception, I understand, is the municipal auditorium, where colored people may see the wrestling matches. Evidently, persons who grant us this “privilege” do not believe that Negroes’ tastes for cultural and entertainment are as varied as those of the white citizens. To assume that colored people are interested only in wrestling is as ridiculous as the assumption that white women are the only ones to enjoy the finer things in life, so no consideration has been shown to the ladies of my race. In making this criticism, I am speaking only for myself, but the sentiments I express are identical to those felt by all of Jackson’s worthy Negroes – the kind that you have praised several times. I want you to know, Mr. Mayor, that I think the citizens are fortunate to have a man of your stature at the head of our city. With your leadership, I am certain that Jackson’s progress will increase abundantly in every way during the remainder of your administration. Sincerely yours, Frank Conic” Uncle Frank’s letter was featured in the “African-American News” section of the Jackson Clarion-Ledger newspaper. It later made its way into the files of the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission, which targeted black civil rights activists in the 1960s for harassment, retaliation, and much worse. Valuing the Right to Vote Frank and Doris Conic valued their right to vote. They paid poll taxes to exercise this right until the Voting Rights Act became law and federal court decisions relieved them of this obligation. Poll tax receipts for Doris and Frank Conic Uncle Frank and Aunt Doris made their last poll tax payments on February 1, 1966, just a few weeks before Mississippi was forced to end poll taxes. In April 1966, Mississippi became the last state in the nation to end poll taxes. Voter registration cards for Frank and Doris Conic, 1965. Today, all voting-age Americans should exercise their right to vote. Frank and Doris Conic paved the way for us to vote without fear of reprisals or artificial barriers to our exercise of this precious right. Voting is the foundation of our democracy. We must vote in EVERY election cycle, including the November midterm elections and the presidential elections.  Our future as a progressive nation depends upon it. The final poll tax payment by Doris Conic, 1966.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on January 2, 2026 An Editorial Opinion Donald Trump is a sick man.  He is a 79-year-old, overweight man with a weak heart, enlarged prostate, hypertension, impaired bladder and colon functions, and horrible eating habits.  Additionally, Trump does not exercise on a daily basis.   Trump has large concentrations of fluid in his legs, low energy, unhealthy pale skin, and speech difficulty.  His diuretic pills have not succeeded in removing the water and sodium accumulation in his body from the junk food he binges on.   In October 2025, Trump suffered a minor stoke from a blood clot to the brain. Doctors call it a TIA (transient ischemic attack).  The stroke was accompanied by a temporary loss of vision in one of Trump’s eyes, dizziness, and weakness in his body.  His incapacitation lasted less than an hour.   After the stroke occurred, Trump was rushed to Walter Reed Hospital where cardiac doctors gave him the full measure of stroke protocol tests, including an EKG, an EEG, a chest X-Ray, a CT brain scan, a CT head and neck scan, a CT chest scan, and MRI of his brain.  Follow-up protocols, lab work, and examinations occurred in the White House. Monitoring of Trump's TIA continues.   Doctors have not determined the exact cause of Trump’s TIA beyond a blood clot to his brain.  Trump is taking a low-dose daily aspirin and Plavix to thin his blood. These medicines will reduce the potential for future clotting. Trump is also taking cholesterol medication to prevent clogging in his arteries.   Understandably, Trump and his White House aides have minimized all medical information about his TIA.  Flying aboard Air Force One and processing his mortality, Trump told reporters in October: " I'm not sure I'm going to be able to make heaven, but I've made life a lot better for a lot of people." These reporters had no clue that Trump had just survived a stroke.