Last week, Bed Stuy said goodbye to Black media icon Thomas Henry Watkins, the founder, CEO, and publisher of the Daily Challenge, New York City’s first–and once only daily Black newspaper. It now prints weekly.
“He was a father to all of us, and even if we didn’t want the message, which means sometimes you did not–you got the message. You got his wisdom and his guidance,” said his granddaughter Tatianna Singleton-Dunlap. “If you took it or not it was on you, but he delivered it each and every time he came through 10 times out of 10. Sometimes 20 times out of 10, and it might not have been the way we wanted it to be, or the way he saw it, he gave us all he had. For those of us who are left, we have to use what he taught us. There’s always a lesson to be learned. We have to lean on each other.”
There was a genteel, but celebratory three days of services at Bed Stuy’s Troy Avenue’s famous Lawrence H. Woodward Funeral Home for the Brooklyn-based media giant. There were heartfelt tributes from Ben Chavis, President and CEO of the NNPA–the National Newspaper Publishers Association, a noble memorial presentation by elder Omega Psi Phi, and Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity (The Boulé) members, as well as the Comus Club Inc., and the Reveille Club.
Thomas H. Watkins–1937-2025, was raised in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. After enduring health challenges, he passed away on Friday, 19th December 2025, aged 88 years old.
Rev. Herbert Daughtry drove himself from New Jersey, a week after his 95th birthday, to attend the funeral. “It was important for me to be here,” he told Our Time Press. “Thomas Watkins gave me an opportunity as a columnist and a writer in the paper, but he also gave so much to our community. He gave us a media forum for us all to tell our stories, spread the news, and inform and inspire each other.”
The Watkins family was an integral part of the homegoing services. Tatianna Singleton-Dunlap urged folk to get their tissues ready, as her cousin Kyle Thomas Watkins played his moving original song at both the wake and funeral service the next day. He also read the detailed eulogy, which introduced his grandfather as a “builder of institutions, opportunity, and people.”
As fellow Brooklynite, Assemblywoman Stefani Zinnerman presented the family with a proclamation, they themselves also recognized the patriarch as a pioneering publisher, and a “successful entrepreneur, civic leader, athlete, and devoted family person, Tommy lived a life defined by discipline, independence, and an unwavering commitment to community.”
The paper was originally based in Restoration Plaza on Harriet Ross Tubman Avenue/Fulton Street, moving later to Atlantic Avenue on the border of Bed Stuy and Crown Heights.
Watkins’ Challenge Group had satellite locations in Newark, Paterson, Passaic, and Jersey City, and from 1989 to 1992 Watkins served as president of the National Newspaper Publishing Association.
His award-winning newspaper is celebrating its 54th year of publishing. Full disclosure: this reporter worked for the Daily Challenge and won many awards for the locally, nationally, and internationally community-focused paper.
“Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends leave footprints in your heart. Tom’s strong footprints have left indelible marks on many who worked under his powerful leadership at the Daily Challenge, New American and Afro Times,” funeral attendee journalist Audrey J. Bernard told Our Time Press.
The Society Editor for the New York Beacon and Harlem News said, “I was one of those privy to his stellar vision of bringing Black Elegance to publishing. He was a remarkable friend, father, influencer, and publisher who leaves behind a phenomenal legacy.”
At both the wake and the funeral services, an emotion-inducing reel played throughout, featuring golden globe boxing slides, community events, business soirees, and loving family reflections. The viewing, the wake, and the funerals had in attendance longtime intergenerational friends, business associates, media colleagues, former and current journalists, and employees.
At the grand Comus Club, Decatur Street brownstone, dozens of family, friends, business leaders, and journalists attended the repast on Friday night, 16th, January, 2026. There was delicious food, happy reminiscing, a surprise free ice cream truck blessing night time attendees, passersby, and drivers–in the name of Thomas Watkins.
Living in Central Brooklyn, former Assemblywoman Annette Robinson went to the Holy Rosary elementary school as did Watkins, and knew his parents well, she told Our Time Press, “His father had a paper called the New York Recorder, and he was very was influential, getting people together and letting people know what’s going on in the neighborhood, and Tommy’s paper kept people informed about what was going on in the neighborhood and in the world.
We talked from time to time. Our last trip together was in Jamaica, when [Carib News publishers Faye and] Karl Rodney were doing a health forum. There were so many topics we discussed on that trip. I’m just pleased and thankful that he was a beacon in the community to ensure that we, as a people, had the news and views about neighborhoods.”
Alongside her powerful recollection, the one-time NYC Councilwoman added,” I used to enjoy talking to his father as well. He was a very, very strong and enduring personality that you could talk to, and he would give you advice as well. When I was coming up as a young person in the community, I started out with Al Vann and was circulating petitions. I would talk to Tommy’s mother and his father at their house about signing the petition and letting them know who I was in the community. They were supportive in that way.”
Funeral attendee, Brooklyn basketball coach, and fellow Q fraternity member, Ray Haskins, told Our Time Press, “Brother Watkins was an institution in our community. Always ready to give a helping hand and constructive advice. He was a true leader who didn’t need to be upfront to lead.”
Once an inquisitive pre-teen visiting the offices with her mom, now a mother of two herself, brand design entrepreneur Jonsi McGill told Our Time Press that Thomas Watkins “didn’t just publish news. He built a platform that centered our communities and told the stories that too many outlets ignored. My mother, J Andree Penix Smith, found real freedom there at the Afro Times, where she served as managing editor. She could do the work without having to fight for every inch of truth.
Mr. Watkins also gave me my first job in his newsroom. As a kid, I wanted to be like him. He made entrepreneurship feel possible, and he carried himself with that rare mix of cool and deeply genuine care.” Ms. McGill added, “And the tributes say it plainly: Rev. Al Sharpton, Dr. Ben Chavis, Rev. Herbert Daughtry, and more aren’t just offering condolences, they’re naming a legacy. This is #BlackHistory.”
NNPA President Dr. Ben Chavis previously told Our Time Press, “Our responsibility is to keep the legacy of Thomas Watkins alive and impactful.”
