What Color Is a Conservative?: My Life and My Politics

How does an African American man raised in a family of Democrats on the poor side of the tracks in little Eufaula, Oklahoma, become a conservative and the first to hold a Republican Party leadership position in the history of the U.S. Congress?

In What Color Is a Conservative?, J. C. Watts, Jr., shares the remarkable story of his life and the controversy of his independent views. The fifth of six children, Watts was raised by parents who taught him the value of faith, family, hard work, and personal responsibility. As Eufaula and the nation struggled to integrate, Watts saw his father and uncle take on the local establishment to end segregation in his hometown, and he made history on his own as one of the first two black children to integrate the town's all-white elementary school.

But it was J. C.'s outstanding football talent that earned him a scholarship and a quarterback spot on Coach Barry Switzer's legendary Oklahoma Sooners. He went on to lead the team to back-to-back conference championships and Orange Bowl titles. After graduation, Watts opted to play in the Canadian Football League when the NFL refused to let him play his strength — quarterback.

After his football career ended, J. C.'s interest in politics began to grow, but he would take a different path. "Like most African Americans," he says, "I was raised in the most partisan of households — 100 percent Democrat. In fact, every black I knew was a Democrat."

Upon hearing Republicans such as Don Nickles and Jack Kemp espouse the same values as those of his father, he began to consider leaving the Democratic Party. It wasn't easy: "The ties that bind African Americans to the Democrat Party are strong, and I would argue are often based more on geography or tradition than ideology." But change he did, and soon his name was on the ballot. In 1994, as a candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives, he won Oklahoma's mostly white 4th District. That victory brought him national attention as the first black Republican elected to Congress from a southern state since Reconstruction.

During his eight years in Washington, J. C. Watts has not been a typical politician. And in What Color Is a Conservative?, he shows why, taking on what he considers negative forces and entrenched ideas in both parties. While he stands proudly with the GOP, Watts knows that a lot has to change. "The party of Lincoln has in many ways forgotten its roots," he writes. Meanwhile, the Democrats have cheapened the tone of public discourse, choosing character assassination over constructive dialogue, partisanship over unity.

Then there are those who have "driven a wedge between my politics and my people." Watts challenges the nation's traditional black leaders to reject race baiting, black orthodoxy, and victimhood. He protests that when African Americans "stray too far from black orthodoxy, we are punished and isolated in a warped kind of ideological apartheid."

In a life defined by straight talk, J. C. Watts isn't afraid to tackle hot-button issues, his vision for America's future, and his controversial decision to retire from Congress. Inspiring, provocative, and an inside look at the workings of Washington, What Color Is a Conservative? may ruffle a few feathers on the left and the right, but that's exactly what J. C. Watts, Jr., thinks is good for America,

This is the inspiring story of J. C. Watts' journey from poverty to college football acclaim to the United States Congress. For the first time in print, Watts shares his hopes and plans for the future of America. Included is an account of his confrontation with the Rev. Jesse Jackson on race and victimization. He tells how he prepared his televised response to President Clinton's State-of-the-Union address even as the world awaited the verdict of the O. J. Simpson trial. Watts forthrightly explains how his deep abiding personal relationship with Jesus Christ directs his role as a leader in America.