My Lifelong Addiction to Smart, Progressive, Purpose-Driven People

By: Donald V. Watkins

Copyrighted and Published on March 4, 2025

Multimedia mogul and former Howard University trustee Rock Newman has been a source of knowledge and inspiration in my life for many years. Every conversation with Rock Newman is an empowerment experience. This man is a genius. My enduring friendship with Rock Newman is truly a blessing from God.

People ask me all the time about who inspired my confidence and growth in life.  I have complied a list of the people who fueled my knowledge and blocked for me on the playing field of life. Many of them are deceased. All of them were/are super smart, progressive, and purpose-driven people.

Beyond my paternal and maternal grandparents, my parents, my siblings, my children and their wonderful spouses, and other close family members, the following individuals inspired my purpose-driven life and nurtured my growth:

DeAndra Y. Watkins, Susan J. Silvernail, Lisa R. Swoboda, my Alabama State College Laboratory High School classmates, Rev. S.A. Owen, Dr. Benjamin Mayes, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Coretta Scott King, Rev. Ralph David Abernathy, Juanita Abernathy, Rosa Parks, Dr. E.D. Nixon, Johnnie Carr, Arlam Carr, Sr. and Jr., Dr. Joe L. Reed, Anthony S. Butler (Lisman, Alabama), Ramus Rhodes, Derry and Loretta Johnson, Clarence Norris, Rev. Joseph Lowery, Rev. John Nettles, Maggie Bozeman, Julia Wilder, Mayor Andrew Hayden, Judge Aubrey Ford, Albert Turner, Jr., Kenneth Ward, Justice Oscar Adams, Joseph T. Watkins, Dr. Maya Angelou, Harry Belafonte, Don Cornelius, Adrian Taylor, Wesley Snipes, Nikki Parks, and Rev. Jessie Jackson.

Joseph L. Cole, Doyal Reed, Harold Ford, Sr., John Ford, Benjamin Hooks, Dr. Lucius Pitts, Mayor Johnny Ford, Fred D. Gray, Solomon S. Seay, Charles Langford, J.L. Chestnut, Billy L. Carter, Karen Neal Knight, Brenda Carter, Karen Ballard, Sidney Williams, Jimmy Evans, Justice Mark Kennedy, Bill Baxley, Milton C. Davis, Rev. Al Dixon, Joe Whatley, Sam Heldman, Andrew C. Allen, Valton Johnson, David Sullivan, Deborah Walker, Connie Parsons, Judge Clyde Jones, Judge Myron Thompson, and Judge U.W. Clemon.

Harvest Mitchell, Charles L. Carter, Walker Alexander, Douglas Pope, Larry Fluker, Simmie Lavender, Ben Greene, Mayor Richard Arrington, Jr., Mayor Emory Folmar, Colonel Stone Johnson, Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, Antonio Spurling, Ann Bolden, Kimberly Perkins, Sharon Childs-Long, Jessica Findley, Larry Tate, Charlie W. Pollard, Nathan A. Chapman, Jr., Mark Englehart, Jonathan Rose, Charles Wallace, Mark Ritchie, Eric Ramsey, Richard M. Scrushy, Dr. Frank Franklin, Georgia Smith Slade, Richard Burton, Sam Moss, and the multigenerational Delos Yancey family (Rome, Georgia).

Rock Newman, Daryl Harms, Dr. John Johnson, Dr. John Poggio, Juderson Leslie, Judson Yates, Byron Brown, Eboni T. Little, David Minkin, Ralph Malone, Olayinka Arowolo, Nichelle Gainey, Kamar Jones, Chandra Dake, Mayor Mike Schmitz, David Meckley, Harry T. Cullinan, and Cary McKay.

I have written articles about many of these people. They were/are racially diverse and had/have a wide range of political beliefs.

My exposure to these people made me realize two very important things about myself. First, I love working with and learning from strong, highly intelligent, community-minded people.  Second, I have zero tolerance for weak-kneed, spineless "airheads" who do nothing but spew malicious gossip all the time.