Her parents were born in Jamaica; her father was the first Black judge elected in New York State, and her mother was one of the founders of the National Council of Negro Women.

[4] In July 1968, President Lyndon Johnson nominated Watson as Assistant Secretary of State for Security and Consular Affairs.

[14] Beginning in March 1974, the Nixon administration attempted multiple times to oust Watson in order to replace her with Leonard F. Walentynowicz, a Republican lawyer from Buffalo, New York.

[15][16] The Ford administration blocked attempts from Nixon appointees in late August and early September before demanding her resignation in November.

[1] Watson remained in Washington, D.C., where she took a job with Walter Annenberg's Triangle Publications as a legal consultant in 1975.

Three years later, President Carter appointed Watson United States Ambassador to Malaysia.

Watson was a member of the boards of Fordham University; Barnard College; the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service; the Georgetown Center for Strategic and International Studies; Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe; and the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts.

[12][17] Her papers and photographs are in the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, at the New York Public Library.