Watts, J. C. (Julius Caesar), 1957-

WATTS, Julius Caesar (J. C.), Jr., a Representative from Oklahoma; born in Eufaula, McIntosh County, Okla., November 18, 1957; graduated from Eufaula High School, Eufaula, Okla, 1976; B.A., University of Oklahoma, Norman, 1981; member of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, 1990-1995, and chairman, 1993-1995; elected as a Republican to the One Hundred Fourth and to the three succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1995-January 3, 2003); House Republican Conference Chair (One Hundred Sixth Congress through One Hundred Seventh Congress); was not a candidate for reelection to the One Hundred Eighth Congress in 2002.

<p>Julius Caesar Watts Jr. (born November 18, 1957) is an American politician, clergyman, and athlete. Watts was a college football quarterback for the Oklahoma Sooners and later played professionally in the Canadian Football League. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2003 as a Republican, representing Oklahoma's 4th Congressional District.</p>

<p>Watts was born and raised in Eufaula, Oklahoma, in a rural impoverished neighborhood. After being one of the first children to attend an integrated elementary school, he became a high school quarterback and gained a football scholarship to the University of Oklahoma. He graduated from college in 1981 with a degree in journalism and became a football player in the Canadian Football League until his retirement in 1986.</p>

<p>Watts became a Baptist minister and was elected in 1990 to the Oklahoma Corporation Commission as the first African-American in Oklahoma to win statewide office. He successfully ran for Congress in 1994 and was re-elected to three additional terms with increasing vote margins. Watts delivered the Republican response to Bill Clinton's 1997 State of the Union address and was elected Chair of the House Republican Conference in 1998. He retired in 2003 and turned to lobbying and business work, also occasionally serving as a political commentator.</p>

<p>A college football hero, charismatic conservative, and gifted public speaker, J. C. Watts had star power when he took the oath of office as a Member of the first Republican majority in 40 years. One of two black Republicans in Congress in his freshman term, Watts cited his humble roots in a segregated Oklahoma farm town as the source of his belief in self–reliance and disdain of social welfare. “I wasn’t raised to be a Republican or Democrat,” Watts recalled. “My parents just taught by example. They taught me and my brothers and sisters that if you lived under their roof, you were going to work.” Watts quickly became one of the GOP’s most visible spokesmen, quickly rising to the position of Republican Conference Chair—the fourth–highest–ranking Republican in the House. His uneasy relationship with party leaders and a desire to spend more time with his family cut short Watts’s Capitol Hill career in its prime.</p>

<p>Julius Caesar (J. C.) Watts, Jr., was born in the farming community of Eufaula, Oklahoma, on November 18, 1957. His mother, Helen Watts, a homemaker, raised six children: Melvin, Lawrence, Mildred, Gwen, J. C., and Darlene. Watts’s father, Julius Caesar (Buddy) Watts, was a police officer, a businessman, and a minister. The elder Watts also served on the Eufaula city council, and along with his brother, Wade, was active in the Democratic Party and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Wade Watts headed the Oklahoma branch of the NAACP for 16 years. J. C. Watts was one of the first black children to attend a previously all–white elementary school in Eufaula. At Eufaula High School, Watts was the first African–American quarterback for the school’s football team; some of Watts’s teammates from the mostly segregated local community protested at first. While in high school, Watts fathered two daughters with two different women. One child, Tia, was adopted by Watt’s Uncle Wade. Watts married his other daughter’s mother, Frankie Jones, whom he first met at his seventh birthday party. The couple raised five children: LaKesha, Jerrell, Jennifer, Julia, and Trey.</p>

<p>After graduating in 1976, Watts played football and studied journalism at the University of Oklahoma in Norman. At first, he was a seventh–string quarterback. Discouraged with his minimal playing time, he left school multiple times. In each instance, his father persuaded him to return. In 1979, Watts became the starting quarterback and led the Sooners to Orange Bowl victories in 1980 and 1981. He was named the bowl’s most valuable player both years, and he was inducted into the Orange Bowl Hall of Fame in 1992. Watts’s athletic prowess provided him with motivational speaking opportunities while he was in college.</p>