As a former educator, state legislator, and United
States ambassador, Diane Watson entered the House of
Representatives as an unusually experienced first-term
Member. Throughout her 35 years in public office, Watson
established a reputation as a diligent and passionate
legislator concerned with improving the lives of women and
children—especially those living in poverty. Her diverse
legislative interests included welfare reform, civil rights,
foreign aid for African nations facing the HIV/AIDS crisis,
and improved health care and education in the United
States. “People have trusted me, and I have not let them
down,” Watson observed during her first congressional
campaign. “People have read my name on the ballot for 25
years. They have been born, grown up and gotten married
in that time. That means a great deal. When you work your
base, you win.”1
Diane Edith Watson was born on November 12, 1933,
in Los Angeles, California, daughter of William Allen
Louis Watson, a Los Angeles police officer, and Dorothy
Elizabeth O’Neal Watson, a postal worker.2 After graduating
from Susan Miller Dorsey High School in Los Angeles,
Watson received her associate’s degree from Los Angeles
City College in 1954 and a bachelor’s in education from
the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1956. Watson
later earned a master’s degree in school psychology from
California State University in 1967 and a PhD in education
administration from Claremont College in 1986. Watson
worked as a teacher and school psychologist in the Los
Angeles public schools, taught abroad in France and Japan,
lectured at California State University (the Long Beach
and Los Angeles campuses), and worked in the California
department of education.3
In 1975 Watson won election to the Los Angeles unified
school board and served until 1978.4 On the board, Watson
worked to desegregate the city’s the public schools. She
went on to win a spot in the California state senate in 1978,
becoming the first African-American woman to serve in
that chamber. “I think I bring another dimension being
a black female,” she said. “But I don’t want to be judged
here as a black or a woman but as a senator.”5 During her
two-decade career in the state senate, she chaired the health
and human services committee where she worked to provide
relief for the poor and sought to rebuild central Los Angeles
after the 1992 riots in the wake of the acquittal of white
police officers in the beating of Rodney King, an African
American.6 In 1992 Watson ran for the Los Angeles county
board of supervisors but lost to former Congresswoman
Yvonne Brathwaite Burke in a close race. State term limits
ended Watson’s career in the California senate, but in 1998,
President William J. (Bill) Clinton nominated her as U.S.
Ambassador to the Federated States of Micronesia.7
In December 2000, California Representative Julian
Carey Dixon died suddenly of a heart attack. A senior
member on the powerful Appropriations Committee, Dixon
had just won re-election to a twelfth term in Congress.
Urged by colleagues to run, Watson declared her candidacy
for the vacant seat in January 2001.8 Watson campaigned
on her political experience, community activism, and
local roots in the predominantly African American and
Hispanic district which included West Los Angeles and
Culver City. Watson earned a 33 percent plurality in the
primary, decisively defeating 10 opponents, including a state
senator and a city councilman. In the June 5, 2001, general
election, Watson easily carried the Democratic district with
75 percent of the vote against Republican businesswoman
Noel Irwin Hentschel.9 In her four subsequent re-elections,
Watson won with more than 80 percent of the vote.10
Sworn into office on June 7, 2001, Watson recognized
the achievements of her predecessor, a close political ally and
former high school classmate. “I never dreamed that this
walk would direct me in the footsteps of my dear friend, the
late esteemed Julian Dixon.”11 Watson received assignments
on the Government Reform and the International Relations
Committees—she remained on both panels throughout
her tenure in the House. As a former ambassador, she took
a keen interest in American foreign policy, particularly
relating to issues of racism and health in the developing
world. In the summer of 2001, Watson attended the United
Nations Conference on Racism, Xenophobia, and Other
Intolerance in Durban, South Africa. She later urged the
United States to host its own conference on racism and
called for reforms to the educational, justice, and health
care systems as possible means for reparations for the
long and painful legacy of American slavery.12 Watson
also supported the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes
Prevention Act, noting that incidents of violence against
people of Middle Eastern and North African descent, which
had risen since the 2001 terrorist attacks, were “the tip of a
proverbial iceberg.”13
During her tenure in the House, Watson worked to
increase U.S. aid to sub-Saharan African nations fighting
an HIV/AIDS pandemic. Aside from humanitarian
considerations, she argued that the crisis had repercussions
for regional stability and America’s national security because
of the strain it placed on so many developing economies.
The disease, she observed, “in the very near term, if not
more is done, may challenge the very notion of law-based
nation states.” Such instability, she also noted, could be
taken advantage of by terrorist groups. “Let us not forget
that Al Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden has
exploited the misery of another state where civil society has
collapsed—Afghanistan—to serve as a base for his terror
network,” Watson said in November 2001.14
Watson used her seat in Congress to call attention to
the plight of impoverished and underserved minority
communities—including those in her district. Building
upon her work in the state legislature, she proposed
“commonsense” welfare reform which included federal
reauthorization of the Temporary Assistance for Needy
Families program to provide education, childcare, job
training, and employment to welfare recipients by granting
states the ability to manage their own need-based programs.
A consistent supporter of increased funding for Head Start,
Watson also lobbied for federal assistance in combating gang
violence and protecting at-risk young people.15
During her time in the House, Watson highlighted the
achievements of important civil rights activists. In the 108th
Congress (2003–2005) she introduced a measure to award
a Congressional Gold Medal to Washington, DC, civil
rights advocate Dr. Dorothy Height, and she sponsored
legislation to extend the authority for the construction of a
national memorial honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.—both of which were approved by the House and eventually
became law.16
On February 11, 2010, Watson announced her decision
to retire at the end of the 111th Congress (2009–2011) in
order to spend more time with her 100-year-old mother.
Reflecting upon her career, Watson said, “I have been really
thrilled by the opportunity to help my constituents in
whatever way I could.”17
View Record in the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress
[ Top ]
