Walter Williams: Up From the Projects

In 1981, Secretary of Health Education and Welfare Patricia Harris wrote in the Washington Post that libertarian economists Walter Williams and Thomas Sowell are "middle class" so they "don't know what it is to be poor."

In fact, Williams grew up in a single-parent household in a poor section of Philadelphia. He was raised by his mother, who was a high school dropout. The family spent time on welfare, and eventually moved into the Richard Allen public housing project. (Sowell, whose father died before he was born, was the son of a maid.)

Drafted into the peacetime Army, Williams eventually earned a PhD from UCLA in the late 1960s and quickly became a sought-after researcher and public intellectual. His best known book, 1982's The State Against Blacks, argues that a major cause of black unemployment is government intervention in the labor market.

Williams' contrarian views have had wide exposure through documentaries, public appearances, and for the past 30 years, a syndicated weekly column. Since 1992, Williams has also been a frequent guest host of Rush Limbaugh's radio show. Now a professor emeritus at George Mason University, Williams has taught at Temple University, California State University-Los Angeles, and other universities. (Go here for his personal web page.)

His new book, Up from the Projects: An Autobiography, is a fascinating look at his childhood, his half-century-long marriage to his recently departed wife, his unusual career path, and the genesis of his views on race, economics, and politics.

Throughout his career, Williams has used his own life to illustrate how government regulations often work to deny opportunities to poor blacks, and his memoir is no exception. For example, Williams recounts that when he was a teenager, he was fired from a great job at a hat factory when a fellow employee complained to the Department of Labor that his boss was violating child labor laws.

Reason.tv's Nick Gillespie recently sat down with Williams to talk about his life, how his experiences have informed his scholarship, his lead role in turning George Mason University into a center for libertarian scholarship, and whether the Obama presidency has improved the lives of blacks in the United States.

Williams is also an emeritus trustee of the Reason Foundation, the nonprofit that produces Reason.tv.

For more on Williams' new memoir, check out Damon Root's review (http://reason.com/archives/2011/01/28...), which calls the book "a revealing and sometimes hilarious account of his rise from Philadelphia's Richard Allen housing projects, where his neighbors included a young Bill Cosby, to 'brown bag' lunches at the White House where he gave advice to President Ronald Reagan and his staff."

Produced, shot, and edited by Jim Epstein. Additional camera: Joshua Swain.

Approximately 30 minutes.
Go to Reason.tv for HD, ipod, and audio versions, and subscribe to Reason.tv's You Tube Channel to receive automatic notifications when new material goes live.

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[Eric21ND]

I would love to see him on Ron Paul's economic team.

[BlackAfricanBrother]

"you discriminated against women who wouldn't return your phone calls." haha.

[autofill67]

I agree with your comment only problem is that most blacks would rather side with the white liberals who will give them things as opposed to white folks who take from them, unequally protection of the penal system,blatantly and overtly extinguish career paths of most blacks. conservatives have the best ideas, however they have no intent on implementing any of them. black people despise hypocrisy even more than protecting our own self-interest.

[autofill67]

true. thats why more white women between the ages of 14 and 27 use the morning after pill. Bad moral teaching, i agree.

[autofill67]

absolutely!

[autofill67]

Nick Gillespie was disrespectful by calling Mr. Williams, Walter. He doesnt rate to call him Walter and Im sick of the blatant disrespect of distinguished black men by these half-wit white boys.

[zvi303]

So the Secretary of Education didn't bother to do research.

[Jacqueline Rogers]

I wish I had heard of this man earlier; simply brilliant. I don't understand Black conservatives as to why would you want to conserve government sanctioned welfare but this man (for the most part) I get

[Ross Kecseg]

one of the greatest thinkers of our time. it will be a sad day when he is here no more

[MrThinkaholic]

I don't think it was those two examples specifically. I think he just meant that because his wife is not Japanese or Italian that he discriminated against them. Those were just the two examples he used. But yeah, I understand.

[Andrew Highland]

Of course what you're saying is true I was just curious, why Japanese and Italian women in specific

[MrThinkaholic]

We 'discriminate' when we go to public restrooms: are you a man or a woman? Employers discriminate when they hire people: who is qualified and who is not? The term discrimination has unfortunately been distorted by the media to mean exclusively the connotations of the term rather than the good things as well. Discrimination is merely a way of differentiating individuals which can help us everyday: if we are sick, do we go to a construction worker or to the doctor? It's simple.