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1) A most unique man, and an American hero, Walter E.Williams died today. Born on March 31, 1936, Williams grew up without a father in the Philadelphia housing projects. His neighbor was Bill Cosby, and many of the characters in Cosby's sketches were kids Williams knew.
2) In 1959, after graduating high school and driving a Yellow Cab, Williams was drafted into the U.S. Army where he basically raised hell against segregation. He was so vociferous that he was court-martialed. Williams represented himself during the court-martial & was not guilty.
3) I recall when he came to the U. of Dayton to speak, he spoke of his time in the Army and how he saw E. Germany with its fortifications designed to keep people in.
4) Sent to Korea, he marked "caucasian" on his forms, for which he was questioned. He replied that blacks got the worst jobs & worst positions, then he made his case in a letter to Pres. John Kennedy.
5) JFK must have been struck by the letter because he referred it to the DOD and Williams received a response from the Dep. Assistant Sec of Defense, which Williams labeled "the most reasonable response . . . I received from any official."
6) During these years Williams considered himself a radical & identified with Malcolm X, but really "just wanted to be left alone." He received an MA at Cal State LA then a PhD at UCLA where he was instructed by such noted economists as Arman Alchian & Nobel winner James Buchanan
7) Williams moved into more libertarian positions. At the same time, Thomas Sowell was on campus teaching. Williams didn't take a class from Sowell, but the two became lifelong friends.
8) After teaching at Temple U & serving as a visiting scholar at the Hoover Institution, Williams took a position at George Mason U, which is where I met him in the early 1980s during my work on southern banking.
9) Williams was a syndicated columnist and wrote a number of books, in my mind the most important of which was "The State Against Blacks," which showed the harmful effects of ordinary, day-to-day regulations on black people.
10) His great talent---as with Thomas Sowell---was in explaining complicated economic theories simply with everyday examples. Williams eschewed work in the academic journals, instead writing common sense economics books and columns.
11) He became a regular guest host for Rush Limbaugh, where he would entertain the audience with stories of "Mrs. Williams" (Connie Taylor).
I recall one time he was so concerned about Mrs. Williams shoveling snow that he bought her a snowblower.
I recall one time he was so concerned about Mrs. Williams shoveling snow that he bought her a snowblower.
12) His personal biography & life history made him hard to attack, so liberals tended to try to slough him & Sowell off as "tokens."
13) RIP Walter. You will be missed.
13) RIP Walter. You will be missed.
