Watts Activist Ted Watkins Sr. Dies at 71

Ted Watkins Sr., who founded the Watts Labor Community Action Committee to provide jobs and social services after the 1965 Watts riots, has died. He was 71.

Watkins died Monday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center of an apparent heart attack after surgery to correct a kidney dialysis problem, his son, Timothy, said late Tuesday.

Watkins’ wife, Bernice, and the youngest of their six children, Tom, were with him when he died.

Timothy Watkins said his father had been working at his organization’s headquarters until being admitted to the hospital about three weeks ago because of complications of dialysis. The son said Watkins had been talking Sunday about his plans to raise $1 million to aid the homeless.

“The homeless were a top priority of his before it became politically correct, if you will, and it remained one of his primary concerns,” Timothy Watkins said.

In the aftermath of the 1965 riots, Watkins founded his organization with the sponsorship of more than a dozen labor unions in an effort to create housing, jobs and a better life for Watts and South-Central Los Angeles. Funded primarily by government grants, the group began operating small businesses and buying land to build low-cost housing.

Poverty rights lawyer John Phillips once called Watkins “the most effective housing provider in South-Central.”

Watkins tangled with Willowbrook neighbors in the late 1970s over his efforts to spearhead a redevelopment project on land that included their houses. But over the years, he garnered more commendations than controversy.

When the federal Office of Economic Opportunity approved a $250,000 grant for the committee in 1967, Theodore Berry, national director of OEO’s community action programs, said Watkins’ organization was “sound, well-organized and has a demonstrated record of successful performance.”

Watkins, his family and staff were forced to flee their headquarters, two blocks from the Watkins home, during last year’s riots. About 200 rioters smashed through the gates of the complex and burned its offices and parts of the commercial center, which included a coin laundry, a chili parlor, a toy store, a youth enterprise project, a furniture and appliance shop, a building supply store, and a food stamp office.

The complex was heavily damaged despite shouts from Teryl Watkins, the founder’s daughter and aide, that: “We’ve been here for you; we’re black!”

Watkins and his family rebuilt, returning to provide the anti-poverty services that Watkins had set out to deliver three decades earlier.

Watkins is survived by his wife and six children--Ted Jr. (Teddy), Tamlin, Timothy, Teryl, Lyssa and Tom, all of Los Angeles.

A celebration of Watkins’ life and work is planned for 10 a.m. Nov. 13 at the Watts Labor Community Action Committee, 10950 S. Central Ave.

The family has asked that any memorial contributions be made to the Ted Watts Memorial Fund at the committee’s Central Avenue headquarters in Los Angeles.