Barbara Mae Watson photographs

1921-1983 [bulk 1968-1981]

Barbara Mae Watson was born in New York City on November 5, 1918 to James S. Watson, the first Black elected judge in New York, and Violet Lopez Watson, one of the founders of the National Council of Negro Women. Barbara was the eldest sibling of Grace Elizabeth Watson, James Lopez Watson, and Douglas C. Watson. The family frequently vacationed in Spanish Town and Kingston, Jamaica, where both Violet and James S. had grown up. Barbara obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1939 from Barnard College, and a law degree in 1962 from New York Law School. She began her professional life as an interviewer with the United Seamen's Service of New York from 1943 to 1946.

In 1946, along with commercial artist Edward Brandford and stylist Mary Louise Yabro, Watson co-founded Brandford Models, one of the first Black modeling agencies. Watson also taught etiquette and charm school courses at the agency's modeling school. Edward Brandford also founded an advertising agency 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.

After obtaining her law degree in 1962, Watson was appointed as an assistant attorney with the Corporation Counsel of New York City from 1963 to 1964. She then served as the Executive Director of the New York City Commission to the United Nations from 1964 until 1966, when her Department of State career began. She served in the Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and Carter administrations. Watson joined the Department in 1966 as special assistant to the Deputy Under Secretary of State for Administration and was soon promoted. From 1966 to 1968, she was Acting Administrator of the Bureau of Security and Consular Affairs.

In July 1968, Watson was nominated by President Lyndon B. Johnson to be Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Security and Consular Affairs. The United States Senate confirmed her appointment, and she held this position until November 1974. Her brother, Judge James L. Watson, administered the oath of office during her swearing-in ceremony. Watson was both the first Black Assistant Secretary of State and the first woman to serve in this role. She was an active participant in international Consular Conferences throughout the 1970s.

Beginning in March of 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. Watson remained in Washington, D.C., where she took a job with Walter Annenberg's Triangle Publications as a legal consultant in 1975. She also lectured at several colleges and universities during this interim.

In January 1977, President Jimmy Carter asked Watson to return to the role of Assistant Secretary of State for Security and Consular Affairs. She was appointed Ambassador to Malaysia by President Carter three years later in 1980, and presented her credentials in September. During her term, she supervised the transfer of 75,000 Vietnamese refugees of the Cambodian-Vietnamese War to the United States; encouraged American trade investments in Malaysia; and facilitated negotiations of the sixth International Tin Agreement. President Ronald Reagan accepted her letter of resignation in February 1981. She returned to private law practice with two Washington-based firms, specializing in international law, business development, and trade.

Watson received honorary doctorates from the University of Maryland and Mount St. Mary's College. She was a member of the American Bar Association, the District of Columbia Bar Association, the Bar of the State of New York, and the Bar of the District of Columbia. In addition to receiving the Luther I. Replogle Award for Outstanding Management in Foreign Affairs in 1974, Watson was the recipient of seventeen other awards from varied organizations, and was decorated as a Commander of the National Order of the Republic of the Ivory Coast.

Watson was a member of the boards of Fordham University; Barnard College; the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service; the Georgetown Center for Strategic and International Studies; Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe; and the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts.

Barbara Mae Watson died of pneumonia at George Washington University Hospital in Washington, D.C. on February 17, 1983.