TJF, helping as many people as humanly possible.

Barack Obama once said, “The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. Don’t wait for good things to happen to you. If you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world with hope, you will fill yourself with hope.” This quote embodies everything that Hattie Ewing Watson stood for. Hattie was born in the state of Mississippi in 1915. As a baby, she was brought to a tiny village called Brooklyn, Illinois. Hattie grew up in hard times, with a goal to help everyone that she could. She achieved this goal, as she was the person that people in Brooklyn called on for whatever they needed. They may not have always gotten what they wanted, but she still tried to be a resource to others, providing her time, energy and, in some cases, finances. She never had children of her own, but was a mother to her six siblings. Hattie finished high school and became a bookkeeper at the Harlem Club. For all of these reasons and more, we are extremely pleased to offer a new book scholarship, exclusively for college students, in order to help as many people as humanly possible in her name.