Watkins speaks about Douglass legacy

JUNETEENTH

The son of a former principal of Douglass School in Parsons spoke last week about his father’s and the school’s legacy.

Douglass School operated at 822 S. Central from 1908 until it was closed by USD 503 in 1958. Levi Watkins served as principal from 1940 to 1948. He and his family lived at 2401 Morgan.

Donald V. Watkins, one of Levi’s sons, spoke Thursday during a Juneteenth event at Parsons Municipal Auditorium. He is a businessman and retired attorney.

His talk was part of the community’s four-day celebration of June 19, 1865, when slaves in Texas learned of their emancipation. President Abraham Lincoln first issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring all slaves free in Confederate territory, on Sept. 22, 1862. He made a final declaration at the beginning of January 1863. But the news took more than two years to travel to slaves in Galveston, Texas, and elsewhere.

Watkins was one of six children born to Levi and Lillian Watkins. He was born in Parsons in 1948, the same year his father left Douglass and took a job leading Alabama State Teachers College, which was later Alabama State College and now Alabama State University.

Donald Watkins said he and his family lived in many places, but he and his siblings still claim Parsons as their hometown and an important part of the family’s story.

He said he never attended Douglass, but his family talked about Douglass and Parsons a lot over the years and the lessons from Douglass.

“What we came to learn was this. Douglass was already an educational powerhouse before my dad got here in 1940,” Watkins said.

Its success was tied to support from the Black community and churches and the hard work of its teachers and students during a time of segregation in the country. Equity issues were raised in lawsuits filed around the time that Douglass opened and thereafter, he said.

One family who lived near Lincoln sued after their child was required to attend Douglass, which was more than a mile from their home and the child had to cross several railroad tracks to get there.

He said even though the lawsuits didn’t always go the way of the petitioners, the Black community reaped a benefit through community activism from families and churches and the NAACP. The students benefited by getting a quality education at Douglass.

“When he (Levi Watkins) came to take over, he walked into one of the best school environments in America. It had community involvement. It had activism through the NAACP, because Mr. Watkins was heading the NAACP.”

Levi Watkins was 30 when he came to Parsons and his wife was 24.

“He realized … that this was a wonderful, wonderful opportunity to learn about children. How do you take children and turn them into superstars? The laboratory for that experiment was at Douglass School. So Douglass School, even though it was erected and built to serve colored students at the time, became a school in the Parsons school system. What they wanted, they had. What they had that money could not buy was pride, self-respect, respect for each other, respect for their parents and the desire to be the best that they could be. What they had supporting them was that whole community. What they had supporting them were teachers who gave a damn. What they had supporting them were goals in life,” Donald Watkins said.

He said his dad talked about the first commencement speaker he had for eighth-graders, Wilma Jean McKnight. Students learned about her at school and her address was about “should we rise by merit or by protest?” Watkins said. Her family was involved in one of the lawsuits related to Douglass in the early 1900s.

Students learned she was smart and that she said good grades would propel them into the future. “But she also knew that a lot of what had happened came as a result of protest. So the answer to her question that night, and this is how my dad explained it to us, those six kids sitting around the dinner table. The answer to that question is it’s by both.”

Students need to think when they go into a classroom that they will be first in everything and that everyone else in class is fighting for second and third place. He said students also

See WATKINS, Page 4.

must not separate themselves from their communities, churches, community service organizations. And parents must be involved in their students’ education as well.

“It’s not just a drop-off thing, like you’re dropping off laundry or you’re dropping off groceries somewhere. It’s your investment,” he said, and Parsons and Douglass were the models.

“My old man found an excellent model, unique in the United States, and he didn’t try to change the model. He tried to improve the model,” Watkins said.

He showed pictures of the students and faculty from Douglass when his father worked there. Those pictured looked like somebody because they were somebody, he said. Students may not have come from money, but they had courage, respect, pride.

“They knew the sky was the limit for them. All they had to do was apply themselves and be loved. So if you’re parents, love your child. Believe in your child. Push your child,” he said.

He also spoke about how other schools tried to emulate Douglass’ model to get the same results.

His father’s experience from Douglass served as a launch pad to his next job. The college at the time also had a laboratory school on campus for Black high school students, Alabama State College Laboratory High School. The lab school served as a model to train future Black teachers at Alabama State.

And students at Alabama State College learned from the best, including Dr. Isaac Hathaway, who designed the Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver/Booker T. Washington half dollars.

In Montgomery, Alabama, Watkins said his mother became friends with Rosa Parks, before she became famous in 1955 by refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger on a public bus. Montgomery is also the first full time pastoral assignment for a young Martin Luther King Jr., Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. Levi Watkins took his family to that church to support the young pastor.

He said even though the Douglass School is not physically here, the model that created it lives and thrives through other schools.

Valiant Cross Academy, an all Black male, faith-based school in Montgomery, Alabama, won a $1 million Yass Prize for its successes. Valiant had some of the same features as Douglass, from community to church and education program buy-in.

These model schools can be repeated in other communities.

“There’s nothing new about the formula. It’s the only thing that’s the question is do you have the will to want to be successful? If you do, you can be successful,” Watkins said.

He encouraged young people to look to the stars to navigate to their next destination. Don’t get discouraged and don’t give up, he said. There is always a brighter tomorrow. He said God will test you, but he will never leave you.

“It’s not your aptitude that’s going to determine your altitude in life. … It’s going to be your attitude,” Watkins said.

He encouraged youth to remember the people who have sacrificed to give them the chances hey have now.

“You are your family’s ambassador to the entire world,” he said.

Children need to be groomed to be leaders.

“If you want them to believe in themselves, you have to believe in them. And it don’t cost nothing to be nice to anybody. … And you gotta love children. If you don’t love them, somebody else is loving them. It’s usually street gangs, drug dealers. … So you have to love them, and you got to outlove everybody else,” Watkins said.

He then thanked the community for supporting and remembering his family over the years. That love created a proud connection to Parsons for the Watkins family, he said.

“I bring you the deepest gratitude for all of the love that this community has given our family for a long time, a very long time. For all of the support that this community has given our family,” he said.