You would swear the room was shaking if you heard JoAnn Watson speak – not from volume, but from conviction.

Whether it was in pulpits or protests or behind the council dais, she spoke as if every syllable had an ancestor behind it.

If Detroit had a conscience – she was the one bringing it out.

Detroit was what defined JoAnn Watson. 

Raised on the west side of the city during Motown’s boom years, she grew up during the period when black communities were asserting their power spiritually, politically, and economically despite segregation and structural inequality.

Yet, she wasn’t just shaped by the city; she shaped it back.

JoAnn attended Cass Tech, then the University of Michigan, where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism as well as an honorary Doctorate in Humanities degree.

Her mentors were movement elders, civil rights giants, Pan-Africanists, and Black nationalists – all of whom knew that true liberation begins at the kitchen table and in the union hall.

Watson was fighting the good fight for decades before she finally served on Detroit City Council. 

She was the first woman to serve as Detroit NAACP Executive Director, a National Rainbow Coalition board member, a staff member and strategist for Congressman John Conyers, and one of the most persistent advocates for reparations in US history.

Her causes were many – and always rooted in Black liberation, justice, and community control.

Not only that, but JoAnn was also an early supporter of H.R. 40, the national bill to examine reparations for slavery & its results, a fight she fought outside Washington, inside the block, in the church, among the youth, and finally, at City Hall.

Watson is known as one of the rare few Detroit City Council members who never stood for a rubber stamp.

During her time in office, she famously:

• Opposed Michigan emergency management and state takeovers.
• Defended public assets like Detroit Water and Public Lighting.
• Demanded reparations long before the topic became trendy. 

In short, JoAnn Watson was “not respectable.”

She was righteous.

She didn’t posture. 

She prophesied.

Watson is also known for rallying against Gov. Rick Snyder and his state-appointed technocrats who were trying to sell off Detroit piece by piece. 

She warned that a public robbery would follow the city’s bankruptcy, and history proved her right.

Watson never stopped her work after leaving City Council in 2013.

She further evolved, becoming an associate pastor at West Side Unity Church, a professor at Ecumenical Theology Seminary, and the spiritual voice for tens of thousands at 910AM Superstation during Wake-Up Detroit each morning.

She spoke scripture – sure – but always through the prism of revolution:

“Faith without works is dead,” she’d say.

And in the same vein – justice without truth is fake.

Even as her health declined, JoAnn Watson was a pillar in every sense of the word – a mentor, a mother figure, and a movement memory bank.

When she passed away in July 2023, Detroit wept and marched, knowing it had lost a leader – and a moral compass. 

Her funeral was more like a torch passing than a goodbye.

By the time of her passing, she had already trained the next wave of activists, speaking to life the blueprint for movements to come.

In short, Reverend Dr JoAnn Watson never believed in power or was coerced by it.

She trailblazed her way through government halls, daring no one to forget the people who put her there. She believed in God, in justice, in Detroit – and though she wasn’t perfect, she was uncompromising.

It’s a legacy that Detroiters will never forget.

Victoria Jackson (Editor In Chief)

Victoria Jackson is a lifelong student and sharp-eyed documentarian of all things Detroit, from its rich musical roots and cultural icons to its shifting neighborhoods, storied architecture, and underground legends. With her finger firmly on the pulse of both the city’s vibrant past and its rapidly unfolding future, she brings a deeply personal, historically grounded lens to every piece she writes.

Published on: June 26, 2025