"I became a man because of my Mom"
David Murray Watkins was born February 5, 1964 in Windsor, ON. David is the third of four children. His father, Howard Watkins was a police detective who was the second Black man to join the Windsor Police Department in 1948. His mother, Leverda (nee Murrey) Watkins was left with four children to raise when her husband died at the age of 40 and David shares his amazement at how she was able to look after her children and go to school to get a teaching certificate and then a degree.
The name Watkins began in Windsor when an escaped slave named Allen Watkins came to Sandwich - now Windsor in the 1830s. There is a Watkins Street in Windsor named after the family.
David is a retired teacher and is working on a graphic novel and a guide to the African Studies Course that he helped develop for the Toronto District School Board. David was the recipient of the 2007 Governor General's Award for Excellence in Teaching Canadian History.