A Place For Us - Speaker's Bureau

Over 40 Years of Experience

Ricky Watson

Ricky Watson serves as the co-director of A Place For Us Alabama along with his wife. He is a licensed minister and an award winning illustrative artist. He has served as a youth minister, evangelist and he has also worked as a corporate travel agent. He is a researcher, writer and an aspiring author. Ricky addresses racism in the Church.

~Suggested Honorariums for non-profits: locally $1500.00 per speech. Will negotiate with schools and colleges ~Nationally $2500.00 -$6000.00 each for speech or all day seminars (travel, distance, time, lodging and food)  Note: A percentage of all Booked Engagements through A Place For Us –Speaker’s Bureau will go back into the Non-Profit work of A Place For Us National

Ricky grew up in Enterprise, Alabama in the home of an alcoholic and racist father. Ricky's only refuge to get away from his father was youth activities at a local church and his love for comic books and drawing them, with dreams of one day becoming a real comic book artist. Ricky comitted his life to Jesus Christ in 1988 after he woke up out of a dream about the end times. The next couple of years Ricky began a serious relationship with God. At the age of 17, he was called into ministry. After winning several art awards in high school, and with an application in his hand to attend art school in New Jersey that offered internship at comic book publishers 40 miles away in Manhattan, Ricky had a choice to make. He gave up his dream to entered into ministry for God in 1990. After attending a year at Enterprise State Junior College as a psychology major he entered Florida Baptist Theological as a theology major, later transferring to Jefferson State Community College in Birmingham, Alabama as an art major. At the age of 18, Ricky found himself on the preacher's circuit in several states in the Southeastern United States preaching in all denominations from Southern Baptist to Pentecostal. He served as evangelism chairman for a Christian based organization at his small junior college. Ricky received his minister's license in 1992. By the age of 20, he turned down an offer to pastor a church to accept a position as youth pastor. In the same year, he was the coordinator and promoter of the Sonburst '93 Youth Conference in South Alabama. He also accepted a researcher's position for two college textbooks about Civil War preaching offered to him by one of his college professors whom authored the books. Ricky wrote a movie script about racism in the church that was reviewed by a producer in California that never received financing for the film. He later went on to act in plays and starred as Matthew for two years in the Passion Play in Birmingham, Alabama in 1997 and 1998. One of Ricky's highlights of his life was being one of the 3 million men that "stood in the gap" in Washington, D.C. on October 4, 1997 at the Washington Mall for a Promise Keepers event. A major turn of events took a toll on Ricky's life when his oldest daughter was born with cerebral palsy and autism and in the same year, his close friend and associate pastor and his associate pastor's wife were killed in a fatal automobile accident. After Ricky served his full one year term as a ministry intern at his church, he left ministry, questioning God at the tragedies taking place in his life; and he entered the work force as a corporate travel agent for American Express. After the divorce from his first wife, Ricky walked out on the church and turned to the world and away from God. In the process, Ricky lost everything he had, eventually having to file bankruptcy. In 2004, at the sound of his youngest daughter's voice, Ricky knew it was time to change his life when she told him, "Daddy, I'm hungry," and he had no food in his apartment to feed his children at the time, having to take his children to his mother's to eat that weekend of his scheduled visitation. After that moment, Ricky made a commitment to himself and to God that never again would he allow his children to be put in that situation because of his own disobedience to God, thus resulting in Ricky's rededication of his life to Jesus Christ in 2004. Since Ricky's rededication, he has become married to his wife, Stacey and both have become interracial marriage advocates. He and his wife are currently the Alabama Directors for A Place For Us National. Ricky has felt a calling to address racism in the church. He is currently writing two books: " Interracial Relationships, Traditional Taboo, and What the Bible Says About It," and the other book entitled, "Daddy, I'm Hungry! What I heard When I Became Tired of Living In the Pigpen".