J. C. Watts

Watts was born in Eufaula in McIntosh County, Oklahoma to J. C. "Buddy" Watts Sr., and Helen Watts (d. 1992). His father was a Baptist minister, cattle trader, the first black police officer in Eufaula, and a member of the Eufaula City Council. His mother was a homemaker. Watts is the fifth of six children and grew up in a poor rural African-American neighborhood. He was one of two black children who integrated the Jefferson Davis Elementary School in Eufaula and the first black quarterback at Eufaula High School. Their families decided against an interracial marriage because of contemporary racial attitudes and Watts' family provided for the child until she could be adopted by Watts' uncle, Wade Watts, a Baptist minister, civil rights leader and head of the Oklahoma division of the NAACP. In 1977, Watts married Frankie Jones, an African-American woman with whom he had fathered a second daughter during high school. Watts won election to the Oklahoma Corporation Commission in November 1990 He served as a member of the commission from 1990 to 1995 and as its chairman from 1993 to 1995. ==U.S. House of Representatives==

George H. W. Bush and David Boren in 1997 1994 congressional election Watts ran for Congress in 1994 to succeed Dave McCurdy, who had announced his retirement from the House of Representatives to run for the Senate. He positioned himself as both a fiscal and social conservative, favoring the death penalty, school prayer, a balanced budget amendment and welfare reform, and opposing abortion, gay rights, and reduced defense spending. as the first African-American Republican U.S. Representative from south of the Mason–Dixon line since Reconstruction. He and Gary Franks of Connecticut were the only two African-American Republicans in the House. He initially supported ending affirmative action, declaring inadequate education the main obstacle for racial equality, but subsequently opposed legislation banning the practice for the federal government. in a negative campaign. Watts denied the charge, took the test, and accused Crocker of draft dodging during the Vietnam War and later living at the "center of the West Coast drug culture." He had a lifetime 94 percent rating from the American Conservative Union and a lifetime "liberal quotient" of 1 percent from Americans for Democratic Action, and was regarded as a team player by Republicans. after a vote of 121–93. He voted to impeach Bill Clinton, Watts argued for using tax reduction to improve education, job training and housing in poor urban and rural settings, and advocated letting religious institutions carry out the work. To keep a majority of House seats in the 2000 election, Watts advised Republicans to moderate their language and criticized the party for creating the perception it favored a view of "family values that excluded single mothers." Watts won re-nomination with 81 percent against James Odom and was re-elected by his largest margin yet against Democratic candidate Larry Weatherford. and proposed several new tax reductions in addition to Bush's tax cut plan, targeting the estate tax and marriage penalty. Watts was one of ten congressional leaders taken to an undisclosed location following the September 11 attacks. In 2002, Watts stated he would not seek reelection, citing a desire to spend more time with his family, Republicans argued Watts complained about the party message and the cancellation of an artillery system in his district by the Bush Administration, which Watts denied. ==Post-congressional career==

on September 2, 2003 After he left Congress, Watts was appointed by President Bush to be a member of the Board of Visitors to the United States Military Academy for a term expiring December 30, 2003. Watts founded a lobbying and consulting firm, J. C. Watts Companies, in Washington, D.C., to represent corporations and political groups and focus on issues he championed in Congress. The John Deere Company hired Watts as lobbyist in 2006 and Watts later invested in a Deere dealership and sought financial support from United States agencies and others for a farm-related project in Senegal. Watts wrote an autobiography, wrote regular opinion columns for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, and joined the boards of several companies, including Dillard's, Terex, Clear Channel Communications, and CSX Transportation, and served as chairman of GOPAC. Watts supported the Iraq War in 2003, stating: "America did not become the leader of the free world by looking the other way to heinous atrocities and unspeakable evils." He was later hired as a political commentator by CNN In 2008, Watts announced he was developing a cable news network with the help of Comcast, focusing on an African-American audience, and that he considered voting for Barack Obama, criticizing the Republican party for failing in outreach to the African-American community. Reports showed he contributed to John McCain, but not to Obama. Watts considered running to succeed Brad Henry as Governor of Oklahoma in the 2010 gubernatorial election, but declined in May 2009, citing his business and contractual obligations. Watts served as a campaign surrogate for Newt Gingrich's 2012 presidential campaign. On April 7, 2015, Watts joined U.S. Senator Rand Paul on stage during Paul's announcement speech for U.S. president. For most of 2016, Watts served as the president and CEO of Feed the Children (FTC). The board of directors announced his appointment on January 21. On November 15, the organization and Watts announced that he was no longer serving in those roles. The following April, Watts sued both FTC and its board of directors for wrongful termination. According to Watts, he was fired after uncovering rampant financial mismanagement at the charity and notifying the state's Attorney General Office of potentially illegal practices. Feed The Children denied there was any validity to Watts' claims and proceeded to file a counter-suit against him. The case was settled in 2019, after FTC agreed to drop their counter-suit and pay Watts $1 million to resolve all his claims against them. In 2019 Watts began plans to start the Black News Channel, which launched on February 10, 2020, as a 24-hour news channel aimed at an African American audience. The channel went out of business in April 2022, in the face of lagging cable and satellite provider subscriptions and an unsuccessful 2021 revamp that added commentators at odds with Watts's views. ==Writings==

}: Results 1994–2000 ==Football statistics==