January-February 1999
J.C.Watts - Work Hard, Play Fair, Be Responsible
by Jennifer Ferranti
Congressman J.C. Watts leans back in his office chair as he amiably answers the questions of a Plain Truth reporter. Suddenly, a buzzer sounds, summoning Watts to the House floor for a vote. "Gotta run," the former football star apologizes as he hurriedly grabs his jacket and dashes down the lengthy corridor of the Longworth House Office Building.
He sprints down a flight of stairs and out onto Independence Avenue, crosses the street and runs the distance to the Capitol. At this speed, he'll be the first legislator to arrive.
But Watts is accustomed to being first. He was the first African-American quarterback on his high school football team. He was the first African-American to be elected to a statewide office in Oklahoma. And on November 18, 1998 (his 41st birthday) he was elected as Republican Conference Chairman, the first black Republican ever to be elected to a party leadership position.
| "I was taught that character does count. For too long, we have gotten by in a society that says the only thing right is to get by and the only thing wrong is to get caught." |
Polls report that 72 percent of the country's African-American citizens identify themselves as Democrats. So the term "black Republican" is somewhat of an oxymoron. Watts is a conservative Republican who disdains welfare, affirmative action and any other government program which he believes discourages initiative, hard work and self-reliance.
Rural Beginnings
J.C. (Julius Caesar) Watts, Jr. was the fifth of six children born to J.C. "Buddy" and Helen Watts in the small, rural town of Eufaula, Oklahoma. That was in 1956, a time when African-Americans were still relegated to the balcony of the local movie theater.
Watts says, "I got my values growing up in a poor black neighborhood on the east side of the tracks where money was scarce, but dreams were plentiful and love was all around." He was particularly influenced by his father -- a Baptist minister, policeman and part-time farmer. "I have seen him struggle as far back as I remember," Watts says, "working three jobs so he could support our family, make house payments and keep a car that would run."
"My dad never made it past the seventh grade," Watts points out, but "he and my mother taught us the important things in life -- that if you lived under their roof, you were going to work -- if you make a mistake, you've got to own up to it -- if you spend more money than you make, you're on a sure road to disaster." Above all, he says, "My parents taught me I could do anything if I applied myself and understood sacrifice and commitment."
Watts' parents also made sure their son received the best education available. When a nearby elementary school opened its doors to integration, Watts was one of the first two African-American children to be enrolled.
At age 14, Watts' athletic talent was discovered. But when he became the first African-American quarterback on his high school football team, several white teammates quit in protest.
"There's no one in Congress who's been called 'nigger' more times than J.C. Watts," he confirms.
A few years later, Watts was heavily recruited for college football. He signed at the University of Oklahoma and led the Sooners to two consecutive Big Eight championships and Orange Bowl victories.
In 1981, after Watts graduated with a degree in journalism, he was drafted as a running back for the New York Jets. Instead, he opted to play as a quarterback in the Canadian Football League.
The Most Important Things in Life
But professional football was not Watts' first priority. In the sixth grade, he had begun writing love notes to a pretty girl in his class named Frankie. Two years later, she moved to California, but Watts continued writing. When Frankie returned to Eufaula for the 10th grade, the couple started dating. In Watts' freshman year of college, they were married. They have a family of five children: Keisha, Jerrelle, Jennifer, Trey and Julie. Today, the family resides in Norman, Oklahoma, although the two older children no longer live at home.
| "I didn't come to Congress to be a black leader or a white leader, but a leader. I don't speak as a black Republican. I speak from a set of principles that I believe will totally reorder the political landscape in America." |
"I've never needed anything other than the title of 'Dad' in front of my name to tell me who I am and what I should stand for," Watts proudly claims.
He is equally committed to his Christian faith. "I don't apologize for my personal relationship with Jesus Christ," he asserts. "You don't put on your faith 'suit,' then take it off when you walk in to vote on the House floor. You carry your faith with you everywhere you go."
Watts' life changed in 1986 when he came home one day and announced he had played his last professional football game. "I just think the Lord is speaking to my heart to move on," he told Frankie.
A few days later, a church leader suggested Watts become a youth pastor. Watts joined the youth ministry at Sunnylane Southern Baptist Church in Del City, Oklahoma. He was ordained a Southern Baptist minister in 1993 and remains a popular guest preacher at churches around the country.
Watts has dabbled in business, albeit with little success. He invested in oil just when the market turned sour, and he made a series of poor land investments. But by the end of the 1980s, Watts had accumulated assets of another kind. In the community, he was a handsome football star with a wholesome image and statewide name recognition. In the pulpit, he was a fiery and eloquent speaker. And in his heart, he was a devoted husband, father and Christian. It wasn't long before people starting telling Watts he ought to be in politics.
Against Tradition
Watts says his parents were "geographic Democrats" -- not Democrats because they believed in the party's values, but Democrats by geography or tradition. It was just assumed he would grow up to be a Democrat too.
But Watts says he began reconsidering his party affiliation as a journalism major at Oklahoma University. "It was my senior year and I was assigned to cover a debate between a young Republican businessman (now U.S. Senator Don Nickles of Oklahoma) and the Democratic mayor of Oklahoma City." Watts says he left the debate confused and shaking his head as he found himself agreeing more with the Republican than the Democrat. "The Republican candidate made sense. His words resonated with the values on which I had been raised, echoing all the things my dad had taught me: work hard, play fair, be responsible, pay your own way."
In 1989, Watts officially switched political parties. His explanation: "I think the Democratic Party leadership -- not the Democrats, but their party leadership -- has totally deserted the values of Buddy and Helen Watts."
The Republican Party, eager to build its base of black voters, welcomed Watts with open arms and his political career was launched. Just one year later, the young candidate won one of three seats on the powerful state corporation commission, which regulates the telephone, gas and oil industries. He was the first African-American in Oklahoma to be elected to a statewide office.
Four years into his six-year term, the Congressional seat in Oklahoma's 4th District opened up, and Watts decided to make a bid for national office. His opponent ran ads featuring a high school photo of Watts sporting an Afro hairstyle and beads, hoping the radical image would turn off voters in a district that is 93 percent white.
| "I've never needed anything other than the title of 'Dad' in front of my name to tell me who I am and what I should stand for." |
Watts responded with a campaign that touted character and traditional family values. "I was taught, in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to judge a man not by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character," he told voters. "And I was taught that character does count. For too long we have gotten by in a society that says the only thing right is to get by and the only thing wrong is to get caught. Character is doing what's right when nobody is looking."
Watts won the 1994 election by a nine point margin, becoming part of the "Republican Revolution" that gained control of the House of Representatives after 40 years of Democratic majority.
In the Limelight
Those outside the Washington beltway met Watts when he made a prime-time speech at the 1996 Republican National Convention in San Diego.
"In my wildest imagination, I never thought the fifth of six children born to Helen and Buddy Watts -- in a poor black neighborhood, in the poor rural community of Eufaula, Oklahoma -- would someday be called congressman," he told the nation. His star still rising, Watts was next selected to deliver the Republican Party's response to the president's 1997 state of the union address. He was the most junior congressman ever to do so -- and the first African-American.
But on the day of the speech, the Washington Post ran an interview with Watts that spliced together his remarks in such a way as to suggest he called Jesse Jackson and Washington Mayor Marion Barry "race-hustling poverty pimps." Watts insists he used the phrase in reference to "some of the leadership in the black community" who defend the welfare status quo, but adamantly denies he specifically connected it to Barry and Jackson.
Watts also caused an uproar among liberal African-American leaders when he refused to join the Congressional Black Caucus.
"They cry 'Sellout!' -- or worse -- any time a black person dares to step out of their narrowly defined group identity mode," Watts says. Besides, he says, "I didn't come to Congress to be a black leader or a white leader, but a leader. I don't speak as a black Republican. I speak from a set of principles that I believe will totally reorder the political landscape in America."
According to Watts, those principles are good character -- which he says still counts -- and traditional family values -- which he insists is the key to our "spiritual, moral and economic renewal."
Making History
In 1996, Watts faced vehement opposition in his bid for re-election. His opponent accused him of fathering two children out of wedlock in 1976 and defaulting on a bank loan. Watts immediately admitted the former, but denied the latter, and his credibility remained intact. He trounced his opponent by 18 percentage points.
Admirers say there's no limit to how far this charismatic and compassionate congressman can go. He's even been introduced at some high profile events as "the man who just may be the first African-American president of the United States."
Now that would be a first. But Watts isn't just setting first-time records anymore; he's making history.
Jennifer Ferranti founded and directs the Northern Virginia Christian Writers Fellowship. She has won numerous writing awards and is an active member of the Society of Professional Journalists, Evangelical Press Association and Washington Independent Writers.