Former Detroit City Council member Reverend Dr. Joann Watson has died

DETROIT – Former Detroit City Council member Reverend Dr. Joann Watson has died.

Watson was the first woman to serve as executive director of the Detroit chapter of the NAACP.

She’s been the senior pastor at West Side Unity Church and was recently appointed to the City’s first-ever reparations task force.

There has been no word on her cause of death.

“The City of Detroit, the Nation, and the World lost a true Detroit and Civil Rights icon. Mother Watson, as well as all so many affectionately called her, was a trailblazer, stalwart, and one-of-a-kind freedom fighter who loved her people and the Lord. Mother Watson, the first woman to serve as the Executive Director at the Detroit NAACP, former Detroit City Council Member, and a former delegate to the 2001 United Nations World Conference on Racism, laid the blueprint for fighting on all fronts for equality and freedom.

There are so many elected officials, leaders, advocates, pastors, business professionals, and community leaders that are who they are because Mother Watson was who she was – present company included. I had the distinct honor of appointing Mother Watson to the Detroit’s first-ever Reparations Task Force recently in honor of her life’s work and dedication around the issue. Further honoring her legacy, we launched the Task Force at her church, and having the opportunity to appoint her, along with our subsequent conversations, are memories I will cherish for the rest of my life.

Today, God called upon our beloved Mother, the Honorable Rev. Dr. Joann Watson, saying, “Job well done, my faithful servant,” and she went home to be with the Lord. I send my sincerest condolences and prayers to her family, friends, and the scores of Detroiters, and Americans whose lives she touched and that are mourning her death. She will be sorely missed. May God Bless her soul!”

Council President Mary Sheffield