Black educator known as a persuasive speaker. Born Smith County, Texas; son of Frank and Christial Watson. Brown University class of 1904; also attended Colgate University, Cornell University, and the University of Chicago. At different times taught at Morehouse College, was President of Leland College, and then President of Agricultural, Mechanical and Normal College (now the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff). Friends and associates included W. E. B. DuBois, Samuel Howard Archer, John Hope, and Booker T. Washington. Active in the Y.M.C.A.
Married Hattie Louise Rutherford of Washington, D.C., a 1907 graduate of Spelman College (Atlanta, Georgia); a teacher and a librarian; and a founder and charter member of the first Negro social clubs in America: the Inquirer Club and the Chautauqua Circle, of Atlanta. John Brown and Hattie Rutherford Watson adopted one daughter, Marian-Etoile Watson, a television personality and writer in New York City.
From the description of Papers, [ca. 1869-1942]. (Brown University). WorldCat record id: 86167659
