Barbara M. Watson

Barbara Mae Watson (November 5, 1918 – February 18, 1983) was a lawyer, United States diplomat, the seventh Ambassador to Malaysia, and the first Black person and the first woman to serve as an Assistant Secretary of State.

Early life and education Watson was born in New York City, the eldest child of James S. Watson and his wife, Violet Lopez Watson. Her parents were born in Jamaica; her father was the first Black judge elected in New York State, and her mother was one of the founders of the National Council of Negro Women. Barbara M. Watson was the sister of judge James Lopez Watson, Grace Elizabeth Watson, and Douglas C. Watson. Her cousins included J. Bruce Llewellyn and of Colin Powell.

Watson attended Barnard College, completing a bachelor's degree in 1939. While at Barnard, she was the first Black woman to participate in the school's Greek Games. She attended New York Law School and earned her law degree in 1962, graduating third in her class.

Career Early career After college, Watson worked as an interviewer for the United Seamen's Service from 1943 to 1946. In 1946, Watson, along with Jamaican commercial artist Edward Brandford and stylist Mary Yarbo, co-founded one of the first licensed Black modeling agencies, Brandford Models. Watson taught etiquette and charm school courses at the agency's affiliated modeling school. Edward Brandford founded an advertising agency, Brandford Advertising, that was marketed towards companies that wished to appeal to Black consumers in 1948. Watson ran the modeling agency after 1949, when Brandford's attention had become more divided. She had renamed the agency Barbara Watson Models by 1954, and continued to serve as Director until 1956, when she closed both the agency and its affiliated modeling school.

From 1958 to 1959, Watson worked as Student Activities coordinator at Hampton Institute. After obtaining her law degree, she was appointed as an assistant attorney in the New York City Law Department in 1963. She then worked as executive director of the New York City Commission to the United Nations from 1964 until 1966.

Department of State under Presidents Johnson, Nixon, and Ford Watson joined the United States Department of State in 1966, as a special assistant to the Deputy Under Secretary of State for Administration and was soon promoted to Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Security and Consular Affairs. From 1966 to 1968, she served as Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Security and Consular Affairs. She was responsible for the Passport Office, the Visa Office, and the Office of Special Consular Services. In 1974, she received the Luther I. Replogle Award for Management Improvement. She also chaired an international consular conference in Mexico City in 1974.

Ouster Beginning in March 1974, the Nixon administration attempted multiple times to oust Watson in order to replace her with Leonard F. Walentynowicz, a Republican lawyer from Buffalo, New York. The Ford administration blocked attempts from Nixon appointees in late August and early September before demanding her resignation in November. Her papers and photographs are in the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, at the New York Public Library. In 1994, the Consular Officer of the Year Award was renamed the Barbara M. Watson Award for Consular Excellence, in her memory.