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/man-versus-the-state), 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.
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Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Walter Williams
• Nick Gillespie
• Reason.tv
• Libertarian
• State Against Blacks
• Up From the Projects
• Reason Magazine
• Reason Foundation
• Philadelphia
• George Mason University

[shanecharris55]

Paul-Williams 2012!

[HayateAzekura]

How come in college I NEVER see teachers talk about people like Walter E Williams. It's always all these liberal socialism people. People are so scared of privatization. Yes there is corruption in business, but unlike government I have a choice, if my bank is ripping me off I go to my local credit union. With government you have no choice and you have to do it their way. Also government is always corrupted, look at congress. When the mess up it;s just oops and they continue with the same crap.

[halloranedward]

@AliceNchainz011 They really are not allowed to admit their views, anyone teaching capitalism would be fired. These people have been brainwashed with a completely revised history, kids in public high schools think that there were nine year olds working in the mines and mills in 1965 , and that if the EPA were closed everyone would die of cancer. Ask one of them what the name of an economic system where you get to own property, but government runs business.

[AliceNchainz011]

@HayateAzekura I've noticed that the few conservative teachers on a given campus usually don't beat their students over the head with their personal opinions.

[cray32]

These guys could do a 360 slam dunk and there is nothing you could do about it! lool

[ArgentDawn55]

The interviewers annoying

[TheFatherPharaoh]

@AshillaBeige Truth

[jedmarum]

Thank God for Walter E Williams!

[LadybugsTX]

@bjarnet3 I think your statement is FAR more stupid. Reason is libertarian. Ron Paul is also libertarian. That would be why they would favor Paul. However, the odds of Ron Paul getting the nominee is getting slimmer everyday. Acknowledging that fact doesn't mean your not in favor of him, it's accepting a reality. The fact that you called her a bitch shows what a narrow minded person you are.

[Eric21ND]

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

[nyker07]

Imagine if most black people were actually like this guy? They would be just as accomplished as whites.

[dubified89]

@Ceebulsk450 Ha I always notice stuff like that