550 N Broad St Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19130 United States
Walter Williams graduated from Benjamin Franklin High School.
College/University
Gallery of Walter Williams
5151 State University Dr, Los Angeles, CA 90032, USA
Following his military service, Williams re-entered college as a far more motivated student. Williams earned a bachelor's degree in Economics from California State College at Los Angeles (now California State University, Los Angeles) in 1965.
Gallery of Walter Williams
University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA
Walter Williams earned both his master's degree in 1967 and his Ph.D. in 1972 in Economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
5151 State University Dr, Los Angeles, CA 90032, USA
Following his military service, Williams re-entered college as a far more motivated student. Williams earned a bachelor's degree in Economics from California State College at Los Angeles (now California State University, Los Angeles) in 1965.
("America: A Minority Viewpoint" is a compilation of 84 ne...)
"America: A Minority Viewpoint" is a compilation of 84 newspaper essays focusing on government sanctioned restraints on human freedoms and the attendant problems.
(Praised by Thomas Sowell, these columns are both entertai...)
Praised by Thomas Sowell, these columns are both entertaining and enlightening. This is a collection of Walter Williams' essays, drawn from his syndicated column. Williams writes with brilliant clarity - and he doesn't mince words. He destroys a number of prevailing myths, such as economic and social disparities being the result of racism and economic sanctions punishing the South African blacks more that the whites. Williams explains why the nature of congressmen is not to act in the national interest and shows how government regulations hinder rather than help the disadvantaged.
(Written for students, laypersons, and scholars who seek a...)
Written for students, laypersons, and scholars who seek a deeper understanding of the roots of apartheid in South Africa, this book focuses upon the relationship between apartheid and capitalism. The author argues, in contrast to prevailing views held both in South Africa and the West, that rather than resulting from capitalism, apartheid is the antithesis of capitalism.
(Nationally syndicated columnist Walter E. Williams is cha...)
Nationally syndicated columnist Walter E. Williams is chairmain of the economic department at George Mason University. This thought-provoking book contains nearly one hundred of William's most popular essays on race and sex, government, education, environment and health, law and society, international politics, and other controversial topics.
More Liberty Means Less Government: Our Founders Knew This Well
(In this collection of thoughtful, hard-hitting essays, Wa...)
In this collection of thoughtful, hard-hitting essays, Walter E. Williams once again takes on the left wing's most sacred cows with provocative insights, brutal candor, and an uncompromising reverence for personal liberty and the principles laid out in our Declaration of Independence and Constitution.
Liberty Versus the Tyranny of Socialism: Controversial Essays
(In this selected collection of his syndicated newspaper c...)
In this selected collection of his syndicated newspaper columns, Walter Williams offers his sometimes controversial views on education, health, the environment, government, law and society, race, and a range of other topics. Although many of these essays focus on the growth of government and our loss of liberty, many others demonstrate how the tools of freemarket economics can be used to improve our lives in ways ordinary people can understand.
(Nationally syndicated columnist and prolific author Walte...)
Nationally syndicated columnist and prolific author Walter E. Williams recalls some of the highlights and turning points of his life. From his lower middle class beginnings in a mixed but predominantly black neighborhood in West Philadelphia to his department chair at George Mason University, Williams tells an "only in America" story of a life of achievement.
Race and Economics: How Much Can Be Blamed on Discrimination?
(Walter E. Williams applies an economic analysis to the pr...)
Walter E. Williams applies an economic analysis to the problems black Americans have faced in the past and still face in the present to show that that free-market resource allocation, as opposed to political allocation, is in the best interests of minorities. He debunks many common labor market myths and reveals how excessive government regulation and the minimum-wage law have imposed incalculable harm on the most disadvantaged members of our society.
(In this latest collection of essays selected from his syn...)
In this latest collection of essays selected from his syndicated newspaper columns, Walter E. Williams takes on a range of controversial issues surrounding race, education, the environment, the Constitution, health care, foreign policy, and more. With his usual straightforward insights and honesty, Williams reveals the loss of liberty in nearly every important aspect of our lives, the massive decline in our values, and the moral tragedy that has befallen Americans today: our belief that it is acceptable for the government to forcibly use one American to serve the purposes of another.
Walter Edward Williams is an American economist, commentator, and academic. He is the John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics at George Mason University, as well as a syndicated columnist and author known for his classical liberal and libertarian conservative views. His writings frequently appear on Townhall.com, WND, and Jewish World Review.
Background
Walter Edward Williams was born on March 31, 1936 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Williams's family during his childhood consisted of his mother Catherine Williams, a domestic worker; his sister, and him. His father deserted the family when Walter was three.
He grew up in Philadelphia. The family initially lived in West Philadelphia, moving to North Philadelphia when Williams was ten years old.
Williams is a cousin of former NBA player Julius Erving.
Education
Walter Williams was a talented high school student who displayed a very inconsistent performance in his studies. Following graduation from Benjamin Franklin High School, he went to California to live with his father and attend one semester at Los Angeles City College. He later said that he was not ready at that time to be a serious student.
In 1959, he was drafted into the military and served as a Private in the United States Army. Following his military service, Williams re-entered college as a far more motivated student. Williams earned a bachelor's degree in Economics from California State College at Los Angeles (now California State University, Los Angeles) in 1965.
He then earned both his master's degree in 1967 and his Ph.D. in 1972 in Economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
Speaking of his early college days, Williams says "I was more than anything a radical. I was more sympathetic to Malcolm X than Martin Luther King because Malcolm X was more of a radical who was willing to confront discrimination in ways that I thought it should be confronted, including perhaps the use of violence. But I really just wanted to be left alone. I thought some laws, like minimum-wage laws, helped poor people and poor black people and protected workers from exploitation. I thought they were a good thing until I was pressed by professors to look at the evidence". While at UCLA, Williams came into contact with economists such as Armen Alchian, James M. Buchanan, and Axel Leijonhufvud who challenged his assumptions. Never one to be over-awed by others, Williams regularly challenged his professors as well. But on examining the evidence of actual outcomes, he came to believe such laws are abject failures. "I learned that you have to evaluate the effects of public policy as opposed to intentions".
While Williams was at UCLA, Thomas Sowell arrived on campus in 1969 as a visiting professor. Although he never took a class from Dr. Sowell, the two met and began a friendship that has lasted for decades.
During the 1970s, Walter Williams held a series of teaching positions. He worked as an instructor in economics at Los Angeles City College, Los Angeles in 1967-1968. From 1967 to 1971 he worked as an assistant professor at California State University, Los Angeles. During 1971-1973 Williams was a member of research staff at Urban Institute.
From 1973 to 1980 he worked as an associate professor of economics at Temple University in Philadelphia. Walter Williams has been a professor of economics at George Mason University since 1980, and was chairman of the University's Economics department from 1995 to 2001. Williams also served on the board of directors of Media General from 2001 until his retirement from the board in 2011.
In addition, Williams has written ten books and hundreds of articles. His syndicated column is published weekly in approximately 140 newspapers across the United States, as well as on several web sites by Creators Syndicate. He also wrote and hosted documentaries for PBS in 1985. The "Good Intentions" documentary was based on his book "The State Against Blacks".
Achievements
During his distinguished career, Walter Williams has earned numerous awards and recognitions for his teaching, research, and newspaper columns. Besides his weekly columns, Williams has been a guest host for Rush Limbaugh's radio program when Limbaugh is away traveling. Reason has called Williams "one of the country's leading libertarian voices." In 2009, Greg Ransom, a writer for the Ludwig von Mises Institute, ranked Williams as the third-most important "Hayekian" Public Intellectual in America, behind only Thomas Sowell and John Stossel.
In addition, Walter Williams was awarded an honorary degree at Universidad Francisco Marroquin. He is also the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including Ford Foundation fellowship in 1970.
Williams was also a national fellow of Hoover Institute in 1976 and a faculty member of the year of George Mason University Alumni Association in 1985. Additionally, Williams was named one of America’s ten best college professors by Insight magazine in 1987.
(Walter E. Williams applies an economic analysis to the pr...)
2011
Politics
As staunch libertarian capitalist, Williams’s political and economic philosophy included supporting a free market. He believes laissez-faire capitalism is the most moral, most productive system humans have ever devised. He has opposed social programs such as welfare for the poor and ethnic minorities arguing that such programs sap the personal initiative of people in those communities. He has also criticized anti-discrimination legislation as well as minimum wage and affirmative action laws.
Since 1981, Williams’s libertarian views have been expressed in his popular weekly column “A Minority View” which appears in hundreds of newspapers and on news websites.
Williams believes that racism and the legacy of slavery in the United States are overemphasized as problems faced by the black community today. He points to the crippling effects of a welfare state and the disintegration of the black family as more pressing concerns.
Although in favor of equal access to government institutions such as court houses, city halls, and libraries, Williams opposes anti-discrimination laws directed at the private sector on the grounds that such laws infringe upon the people's right of freedom of association.
Additionally, Williams views gun control laws as a governmental infringement upon the rights of individuals and argues that they end up endangering the innocent while failing to reduce crime. Williams also makes the argument that the true proof of whether or not an individual owns something is whether or not they have the right to sell it. Taking this argument to its conclusion, he supports the legalization of selling one's own bodily organs. He argues that the government prohibiting the selling of one's bodily organs is an infringement upon one's property rights.
Moreover, Williams has praised the views of Thomas DiLorenzo and wrote a foreword to DiLorenzo's anti-Abraham Lincoln book. Williams maintains that the U.S. states are entitled to secede from the union if they wish, as the Confederate states attempted to do during the Civil War, and asserts that the Union's victory in the Civil War allowed the federal government to "to run amok over states' rights, so much so that the protections of the Ninth and Tenth Amendments mean little or nothing today."
Williams is also opposed to the Federal Reserve System, arguing that central banks are dangerous.
Views
Quotations:
"The welfare state has done to black Americans what slavery couldn't do, and that is to destroy the black family."
Membership
Walter Williams was a member of the American Economics Association.
Connections
Walter Williams and his wife Connie (Taylor) Williams were married from 1960 until her death on December 29, 2007. They had one daughter, Devon.
