Walter E. Williams
Encyclopedia
Walter E. 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 libertarian
views.
. Williams knew many of the individuals that Cosby speaks of from his childhood, including Weird Harold and Fat Albert
.
Williams was a talented high school student who displayed a very inconsistent performance in his studies. Following high school he came out to stay with his father in California and attended on semester at Los Angeles City College, but states he was not ready yet to be a serious student. In 1959 he was drafted into the military, and served as a Private
in the United States Army
. While serving in the Army, he "waged a one man battle against Jim Crow from inside the army (where he was nearly court-martial
ed for challenging the racial order)." Williams:
He received a reply from the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, Alfred B. Fitt, a response which he termed "the most reasonable response that I received from any official."
Upon his return from the military, he re-entered college as a far more motivated student. Williams earned both a bachelor's degree (1965) and a masters degree (1967) in economics from California State University, Los Angeles
. He earned his Ph.D.
from the University of California, Los Angeles
in 1972. 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 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, he discovered that based on the actual outcomes, such programs were abject failures. "I learned that you have to evaluate the effects of public policy as opposed to intentions."
While at UCLA Thomas Sowell
arrived on campus in 1969 as a visiting professor. Though he never took a class from Dr. Sowell, the two met and began a friendship that has lasted to this day. In the summer of 1972 Sowell was hired as director of the Urban Institutes Ethnic Minorities Project, which Williams joined shortly thereafter Correspondence between Sowell and Williams appears in the 2007 "A Man of Letters" by Sowell.
since 1980, and was chairman of the University's Economics department from 1995 to 2001.
He has previously been on the faculty of Los Angeles City College
, California State University – Los Angeles
, Temple University
, and Grove City College
. Williams was awarded an honorary degree at Universidad Francisco Marroquin
. He also attended Suffolk County Community College in Brentwood NY.
, as well as on several web sites by Creators Syndicate
.
, Williams is a proponent of free market economics and opposes socialist systems of government intervention. "I praise lassez-faire capitalism
as being the most moral and most productive system man has ever devised. Capitalism is relatively new in human history. Prior to capitalism, the way people amassed great wealth was by looting, plundering and enslaving their fellow man. Capitalism made it possible to become wealthy by serving your fellow man." He "is perhaps best known for his rigorous, fact-based argument that the free market is a force for racial equality." In advancing these theories, Williams has said "That's a challenge I love: making economics fun and understandable."
In the mid to late seventies Williams conducted research into the Davis-Bacon Act
of 1931 and on the impact of minimum wage laws on minority employment. His research led him to conclude the government's interventional programs were harmful. Among those state programs Williams was critical of were minimum wage
and affirmative action
laws, stating both practices inhibit liberty and are detrimental to the blacks they are intended to help. He published his results in his 1982 book The State Against Blacks, where he argued that laws regulating economic activity are far greater obstacles to economic progress for blacks than racial bigotry and discrimination. Subsequently Williams penned a number of articles detailing his view that increases in the minimum wage price low skill workers out of the market, eliminating their opportunities for employment. 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. "The welfare state has done to black Americans what slavery couldn't do, and that is to destroy the black family" Though 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
.
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 legalization of selling one's own bodily organs. He argues that government prohibiting the selling of one's bodily organs is an infringement upon one's property rights, asking "If I don't own my organs, please tell me who does?"
He has gone on record as advocating the Free State Project
in at least two columns and once on television. The Williams endorsement correlated with the largest single membership jump in the first 5000 phase of the project, a jump even higher than the results of the project being Slashdotted
. He also believes in the right of U.S. states to secede from the union as several states attempted to do during the Civil War. Williams has supported or been sympathetic toward various secession
ist ideas in his writings.
"As I got a little older I had it mostly polished when I was in college in terms of the ideas of liberty. And also I must have read Thomas Paine’s Common Sense I don’t know how many times. At least twenty-thirty times, and that kind of instilled some radical ideas in me as Thomas Paine
was trying to instill in the colonists. Affirmative action has led to, I believe, many Black people expecting favors from the system and not working as hard as they otherwise would, that is if you know that you can get into college because of affirmative action—or some people call it diversity nowadays—well then why work as hard in high school? So it might undermine some of the spirit of people. And I think that the basic premise of those who advocate affirmative action is that the problems that Black Americans face today are the result of racial discrimination."
In reaction to what he viewed as inappropriate racial sensitivity that he saw hurting blacks in higher education, Williams began in the 1970s to offer colleagues a "certificate of amnesty and pardon" to all white people for Western Civilization's sins against blacks - and "thus obliged them not to act like damn fools in their relationships with Americans of African ancestry." He still offers it to anyone. The certificate can be obtained at his website.
In his work, Williams builds on the economic theories of F. A. Hayek, Ludwig von Mises
, Henry Hazlitt
, and Milton Friedman
, as well as the previously mentioned Thomas Sowell
.
Besides his weekly columns, Williams has become known nationally as a highly popular guest host before the twenty million listeners of the Rush Limbaugh
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
.
and Grove City College
.
, in his comic strip Mallard Fillmore
, launched a campaign to draft
Williams for the Republican presidential
nomination in the 2008 United States presidential election. Although Williams initially stated that he wouldn't completely rule out the possibility, he ultimately decided against such a run, and endorsed Ron Paul
.
. Williams is a cousin of former NBA player Julius Erving
.
In 2011, Dr. Williams retired from the board of directors of Media General. He served on the board of directors from 2001-2011 and was chairman of the Audit Committee.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
economist, commentator, and academic. He is the John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics at George Mason University
George Mason University
George Mason University is a public university based in unincorporated Fairfax County, Virginia, United States, south of and adjacent to the city of Fairfax. Additional campuses are located nearby in Arlington County, Prince William County, and Loudoun County...
, as well as a syndicated
Print syndication
Print syndication distributes news articles, columns, comic strips and other features to newspapers, magazines and websites. They offer reprint rights and grant permissions to other parties for republishing content of which they own/represent copyrights....
columnist
Columnist
A columnist is a journalist who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs....
and author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
known for his libertarian
Libertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
views.
Early life and education
Williams family during childhood consisted of him, his mother, and his sister. His father played no role in raising either child. He grew up in Philadelphia. The family initially lived in West Philadelphia, moving to North Philadelphia and the Richard Allen housing projects when Williams was ten. His neighbors included a young Bill CosbyBill Cosby
William Henry "Bill" Cosby, Jr. is an American comedian, actor, author, television producer, educator, musician and activist. A veteran stand-up performer, he got his start at various clubs, then landed a starring role in the 1960s action show, I Spy. He later starred in his own series, the...
. Williams knew many of the individuals that Cosby speaks of from his childhood, including Weird Harold and Fat Albert
Fat Albert
Fat Albert may refer to:* Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, a cartoon show* Fat Albert , a 1973 comedy album by Bill Cosby* Fat Albert , a 2004 live-action film...
.
Williams was a talented high school student who displayed a very inconsistent performance in his studies. Following high school he came out to stay with his father in California and attended on semester at Los Angeles City College, but states he was not ready yet to be a serious student. In 1959 he was drafted into the military, and served as a Private
Private (rank)
A Private is a soldier of the lowest military rank .In modern military parlance, 'Private' is shortened to 'Pte' in the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries and to 'Pvt.' in the United States.Notably both Sir Fitzroy MacLean and Enoch Powell are examples of, rare, rapid career...
in the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
. While serving in the Army, he "waged a one man battle against Jim Crow from inside the army (where he was nearly court-martial
Court-martial
A court-martial is a military court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of members of the armed forces subject to military law, and, if the defendant is found guilty, to decide upon punishment.Most militaries maintain a court-martial system to try cases in which a breach of...
ed for challenging the racial order)." Williams:
wrote a letter to President John F. KennedyJohn F. KennedyJohn Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
denouncing the pervasive racismRacismRacism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
of the American government and military. “Should Negroes be relieved of their service obligation or continue defending and dying for empty promises of freedom and equality,” Williams demanded of the president. "Or should we demand human rights as our Founding Fathers did at the risk of being called extremists....I contend that we relieve ourselves of oppression in a manner that is in keeping with the great heritage of our nation.”
He received a reply from the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, Alfred B. Fitt, a response which he termed "the most reasonable response that I received from any official."
Upon his return from the military, he re-entered college as a far more motivated student. Williams earned both a bachelor's degree (1965) and a masters degree (1967) in economics from California State University, Los Angeles
California State University, Los Angeles
California State University, Los Angeles is a public comprehensive university, part of the California State University system...
. He earned his Ph.D.
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
from the University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles is a public research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA. It was founded in 1919 as the "Southern Branch" of the University of California and is the second oldest of the ten campuses...
in 1972. 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 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, he discovered that based on the actual outcomes, such programs were abject failures. "I learned that you have to evaluate the effects of public policy as opposed to intentions."
While at UCLA Thomas Sowell
Thomas Sowell
Thomas Sowell is an American economist, social theorist, political philosopher, and author. A National Humanities Medal winner, he advocates laissez-faire economics and writes from a libertarian perspective...
arrived on campus in 1969 as a visiting professor. Though he never took a class from Dr. Sowell, the two met and began a friendship that has lasted to this day. In the summer of 1972 Sowell was hired as director of the Urban Institutes Ethnic Minorities Project, which Williams joined shortly thereafter Correspondence between Sowell and Williams appears in the 2007 "A Man of Letters" by Sowell.
Academic career
Williams has been a Professor of Economics at George Mason UniversityGeorge Mason University
George Mason University is a public university based in unincorporated Fairfax County, Virginia, United States, south of and adjacent to the city of Fairfax. Additional campuses are located nearby in Arlington County, Prince William County, and Loudoun County...
since 1980, and was chairman of the University's Economics department from 1995 to 2001.
He has previously been on the faculty of Los Angeles City College
Los Angeles City College
Los Angeles City College, known as LACC, is a public community college in the East Hollywood section of Los Angeles, California. A part of the Los Angeles Community College District, it is located on Vermont Avenue south of Santa Monica Boulevard...
, California State University – Los Angeles
California State University, Los Angeles
California State University, Los Angeles is a public comprehensive university, part of the California State University system...
, Temple University
Temple University
Temple University is a comprehensive public research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Originally founded in 1884 by Dr. Russell Conwell, Temple University is among the nation's largest providers of professional education and prepares the largest body of professional...
, and Grove City College
Grove City College
Grove City College is a Christian liberal arts college in Grove City, Pennsylvania, about north of Pittsburgh. According to the College Bulletin, its stated three-fold mission is to provide an excellent education at an affordable price in a thoroughly Christian environment...
. Williams was awarded an honorary degree at Universidad Francisco Marroquin
Universidad Francisco Marroquín
Universidad Francisco Marroquín is a private, secular, university in Guatemala City, Guatemala. According to the school's website, "the mission of Universidad Francisco Marroquín is to teach and disseminate the ethical, legal and economic principles of a sociey of free and responsible persons."...
. He also attended Suffolk County Community College in Brentwood NY.
Writing career
Williams has written eight books and hundreds of articles. His syndicated column is published weekly in approximately 140 newspapers across the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, as well as on several web sites by Creators Syndicate
Creators Syndicate
Creators Syndicate is an independent distributor of comic strips and syndicated columns for daily newspapers. It was founded in 1987 by Richard S. Newcombe, and is based in Los Angeles. Creators was one of the first syndicates to allow its clients to maintain creative control of their material...
.
Economic and political views
As an economistEconomist
An economist is a professional in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy...
, Williams is a proponent of free market economics and opposes socialist systems of government intervention. "I praise lassez-faire capitalism
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
as being the most moral and most productive system man has ever devised. Capitalism is relatively new in human history. Prior to capitalism, the way people amassed great wealth was by looting, plundering and enslaving their fellow man. Capitalism made it possible to become wealthy by serving your fellow man." He "is perhaps best known for his rigorous, fact-based argument that the free market is a force for racial equality." In advancing these theories, Williams has said "That's a challenge I love: making economics fun and understandable."
In the mid to late seventies Williams conducted research into the Davis-Bacon Act
Davis-Bacon Act
The Davis–Bacon Act of 1931 is a United States federal law which established the requirement for paying prevailing wages on public works projects...
of 1931 and on the impact of minimum wage laws on minority employment. His research led him to conclude the government's interventional programs were harmful. Among those state programs Williams was critical of were minimum wage
Minimum wage
A minimum wage is the lowest hourly, daily or monthly remuneration that employers may legally pay to workers. Equivalently, it is the lowest wage at which workers may sell their labour. Although minimum wage laws are in effect in a great many jurisdictions, there are differences of opinion about...
and affirmative action
Affirmative action
Affirmative action refers to policies that take factors including "race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation or national origin" into consideration in order to benefit an underrepresented group, usually as a means to counter the effects of a history of discrimination.-Origins:The term...
laws, stating both practices inhibit liberty and are detrimental to the blacks they are intended to help. He published his results in his 1982 book The State Against Blacks, where he argued that laws regulating economic activity are far greater obstacles to economic progress for blacks than racial bigotry and discrimination. Subsequently Williams penned a number of articles detailing his view that increases in the minimum wage price low skill workers out of the market, eliminating their opportunities for employment. Williams believes that racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
and the legacy of slavery
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
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. "The welfare state has done to black Americans what slavery couldn't do, and that is to destroy the black family" Though 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
Freedom of association
Freedom of association is the individual right to come together with other individuals and collectively express, promote, pursue and defend common interests....
.
Williams views gun control
Gun politics in the United States
Gun politics in the United States refers to an ongoing political and social debate regarding both the restriction and availability of firearms within the United States. It has long been among the most controversial and intractable issues in American politics...
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
Ownership
Ownership is the state or fact of exclusive rights and control over property, which may be an object, land/real estate or intellectual property. Ownership involves multiple rights, collectively referred to as title, which may be separated and held by different parties. The concept of ownership has...
something is whether or not they have the right to sell it. Taking this argument to its conclusion, he supports legalization of selling one's own bodily organs. He argues that government prohibiting the selling of one's bodily organs is an infringement upon one's property rights, asking "If I don't own my organs, please tell me who does?"
He has gone on record as advocating the Free State Project
Free State Project
The Free State Project is a political movement, founded in 2001, to recruit at least 20,000 libertarian-leaning people to move to New Hampshire in order to make the state a stronghold for libertarian ideas....
in at least two columns and once on television. The Williams endorsement correlated with the largest single membership jump in the first 5000 phase of the project, a jump even higher than the results of the project being Slashdotted
Slashdot effect
The Slashdot effect, also known as slashdotting, occurs when a popular website links to a smaller site, causing a massive increase in traffic. This overloads the smaller site, causing it to slow down or even temporarily close. The name stems from the huge influx of web traffic that results from...
. He also believes in the right of U.S. states to secede from the union as several states attempted to do during the Civil War. Williams has supported or been sympathetic toward various secession
Secession
Secession is the act of withdrawing from an organization, union, or especially a political entity. Threats of secession also can be a strategy for achieving more limited goals.-Secession theory:...
ist ideas in his writings.
"As I got a little older I had it mostly polished when I was in college in terms of the ideas of liberty. And also I must have read Thomas Paine’s Common Sense I don’t know how many times. At least twenty-thirty times, and that kind of instilled some radical ideas in me as Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine
Thomas "Tom" Paine was an English author, pamphleteer, radical, inventor, intellectual, revolutionary, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States...
was trying to instill in the colonists. Affirmative action has led to, I believe, many Black people expecting favors from the system and not working as hard as they otherwise would, that is if you know that you can get into college because of affirmative action—or some people call it diversity nowadays—well then why work as hard in high school? So it might undermine some of the spirit of people. And I think that the basic premise of those who advocate affirmative action is that the problems that Black Americans face today are the result of racial discrimination."
In reaction to what he viewed as inappropriate racial sensitivity that he saw hurting blacks in higher education, Williams began in the 1970s to offer colleagues a "certificate of amnesty and pardon" to all white people for Western Civilization's sins against blacks - and "thus obliged them not to act like damn fools in their relationships with Americans of African ancestry." He still offers it to anyone. The certificate can be obtained at his website.
In his work, Williams builds on the economic theories of F. A. Hayek, Ludwig von Mises
Ludwig von Mises
Ludwig Heinrich Edler von Mises was an Austrian economist, philosopher, and classical liberal who had a significant influence on the modern Libertarian movement and the "Austrian School" of economic thought.-Biography:-Early life:...
, Henry Hazlitt
Henry Hazlitt
Henry Stuart Hazlitt was an American economist, philosopher, literary critic and journalist for such publications as The Wall Street Journal, The Nation, The American Mercury, Newsweek, and The New York Times...
, and Milton Friedman
Milton Friedman
Milton Friedman was an American economist, statistician, academic, and author who taught at the University of Chicago for more than three decades...
, as well as the previously mentioned Thomas Sowell
Thomas Sowell
Thomas Sowell is an American economist, social theorist, political philosopher, and author. A National Humanities Medal winner, he advocates laissez-faire economics and writes from a libertarian perspective...
.
Besides his weekly columns, Williams has become known nationally as a highly popular guest host before the twenty million listeners of the Rush Limbaugh
Rush Limbaugh
Rush Hudson Limbaugh III is an American radio talk show host, conservative political commentator, and an opinion leader in American conservatism. He hosts The Rush Limbaugh Show which is aired throughout the U.S. on Premiere Radio Networks and is the highest-rated talk-radio program in the United...
radio program when Limbaugh is away traveling. Reason has called Williams "one of the country’s leading libertarian
Libertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
voices." In 2009, Greg Ransom, a writer for the Ludwig von Mises Institute
Ludwig von Mises Institute
The Ludwig von Mises Institute , based in Auburn, Alabama, is a libertarian academic organization engaged in research and scholarship in the fields of economics, philosophy and political economy. Its scholarship is inspired by the work of Austrian School economist Ludwig von Mises...
, ranked Williams as the third most important "Hayekian
Friedrich Hayek
Friedrich August Hayek CH , born in Austria-Hungary as Friedrich August von Hayek, was an economist and philosopher best known for his defense of classical liberalism and free-market capitalism against socialist and collectivist thought...
" Public Intellectual in America, behind only Thomas Sowell
Thomas Sowell
Thomas Sowell is an American economist, social theorist, political philosopher, and author. A National Humanities Medal winner, he advocates laissez-faire economics and writes from a libertarian perspective...
and John Stossel
John Stossel
John F. Stossel is an American consumer reporter, investigative journalist, author and libertarian columnist. In October 2009 Stossel left his long time home on ABC News to join the Fox Business Channel and Fox News Channel, both owned and operated by News Corp...
.
Non-profit activities
Williams serves on the boards of a number of non-profit organizations, including the Bruin Alumni AssociationBruin Alumni Association
The Bruin Alumni Association is a conservative group for alumni of University of California, Los Angeles. It has no official affiliation with the University of California or the official UCLA Alumni Association...
and Grove City College
Grove City College
Grove City College is a Christian liberal arts college in Grove City, Pennsylvania, about north of Pittsburgh. According to the College Bulletin, its stated three-fold mission is to provide an excellent education at an affordable price in a thoroughly Christian environment...
.
Presidential draft campaign
Cartoonist Bruce TinsleyBruce Tinsley
Edward Bruce Tinsley IV is an American cartoonist, best known for his politically conservative comic strip Mallard Fillmore.-Early life and education:...
, in his comic strip Mallard Fillmore
Mallard Fillmore
Mallard Fillmore is a comic strip written and illustrated by Bruce Tinsley that has been syndicated by King Features Syndicate since May 30, 1994. The strip follows the exploits of its title character, an anthropomorphic green-plumaged duck who works as a politically conservative reporter at...
, launched a campaign to draft
Draft (politics)
In elections in the United States, political drafts are used to encourage or pressure a certain person to enter a political race, by demonstrating a significant groundswell of support for the candidate. A write-in campaign may also be considered a draft campaign.-The movement to draft Dwight D....
Williams for the Republican presidential
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
nomination in the 2008 United States presidential election. Although Williams initially stated that he wouldn't completely rule out the possibility, he ultimately decided against such a run, and endorsed Ron Paul
Ron Paul
Ronald Ernest "Ron" Paul is an American physician, author and United States Congressman who is seeking to be the Republican Party candidate in the 2012 presidential election. Paul represents Texas's 14th congressional district, which covers an area south and southwest of Houston that includes...
.
Personal life
Williams and his wife Connie (née Taylor) were married from 1960 until her death on December 29, 2007. They have one daughter, Devyn (b. 1975), who resides in Los Angeles, CaliforniaLos Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
. Williams is a cousin of former NBA player Julius Erving
Julius Erving
Julius Winfield Erving II , commonly known by the nickname Dr. J, is a retired American basketball player who helped launch a modern style of play that emphasizes leaping and play above the rim....
.
In 2011, Dr. Williams retired from the board of directors of Media General. He served on the board of directors from 2001-2011 and was chairman of the Audit Committee.
Books
- America: a Minority Viewpoint (1982) ISBN 0-8179-7562-4
- The State Against Blacks (1984) ISBN 0-07-070378-7
- All It Takes Is Guts: A Minority View (1988) ISBN 0-89526-569-9
- South Africa's War Against Capitalism (1989) ISBN 0-275-93179-X
- Do the Right Thing: The People's Economist Speaks (1995) ISBN 0-8179-9382-7
- More Liberty Means Less Government: Our Founders Knew This Well (1999) ISBN 0-8179-9612-5
- Liberty versus the Tyranny of Socialism: Controversial Essays (2008) ISBN 0-8179-4912-9
- Up from the Projects: An Autobiography (2010) ISBN 0-8179-1254-1
- Race and Economics: How Much Can Be Blamed on Discrimination? (2011) ISBN 978-0-8179-1244-4
External links
- Walter Williams Home Page at GMU
- Walter Williams Features at Creators SyndicateCreators SyndicateCreators Syndicate is an independent distributor of comic strips and syndicated columns for daily newspapers. It was founded in 1987 by Richard S. Newcombe, and is based in Los Angeles. Creators was one of the first syndicates to allow its clients to maintain creative control of their material...
- Syndicated articles (at townhall.com) (rss feed)(at Jewish World Review)
- Podcasts of Williams' recent articles
- Podcast featuring Williams Williams discusses economics and life on EconTalkEconTalkEconTalk is a weekly podcast hosted by professor Russell Roberts at George Mason University. Roberts interviews guests—often professional economists—on topics in economics....
. - Audio interview with Walter E. Williams at National Review Online
- Walter Williams Quotes
- Biography and List of Articles written by Walter Williams at Capitalism Magazine
- Economics for the Citizen
- His Introduction (pdf) to Choosing the Right College
- Walter E. Williams Lectures from the Intercollegiate Studies Institute
- An Interview with Dr. Walter E. Williams at Free Market Mojo