Walter E. Williams
Distinguished George Mason Economics Professor
Next year, Dr. Walter E. Williams will have served on the faculty of George Mason University for 32 years. He is the John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics at GMU and led the Economics Department as department chairman from 1995 to 2001. Williams became famous for his battle against government intervention in markets and has weighed in on issues ranging from labor markets and economic regulation to federal spending and taxation.
Williams spent his childhood in the Richard Allen projects of North Philadelphia before being drafted into the Army in 1959. During his time as a private, he became a radical voice against the racism he encountered, winning courts martial and even writing a letter to the president. He graduated with a BA degree in economics from California State University in 1965 before receiving his MA and PhD in economics from UCLA. During his graduate studies, Williams met some of the greatest economic minds of the time, including Axel Leijonhufvud, James Buchanan and Armen Alchian, and was challenged to seriously consider the merits of free market economics. Since receiving his doctorate in 1972, Professor Williams has served on the faculties of Los Angeles City College, California State University at Los Angeles, Temple University in Philadelphia, Grove City College, and George Mason University.
Williams has won numerous awards including the Foundation for Economic Education’s Adam Smith Award and the Veterans of Foreign Wars U.S. News Media Award. He has developed a strong media personality as well and has appeared on Face the Nation, Dr. Milton Friedman’s “Free to Choose,” Freedom Watch and numerous television and radio shows.
Williams’ articles have appeared in a number of scholarly journals such as Economic Inquiry, American Economic Review, and Georgia Law Review as well as several popular publications including Newsweek, National Review, and Reader’s Digest. In all, Williams has authored over 160 publications, including 10 books. One of those books,The State Against Blacks, was adapted to screen in a television documentary entitled "Good Intentions." Williams was frequently testified before the US Congress and has authored a study on “Youth and Minority Unemployment” commissioned by Congress. Hoover Institution Press recently published his autobiography Up from the Projects and his most recent book isRace and Economics: How Much Can Be Blamed on Discrimination?
Williams currently teaches an undergraduate course on microeconomics at George Mason University as well as a graduate level microeconomics course. He serves on the boards of Grove City College, Chase Foundation and the Reason Foundation, as well as several academic advisory boards. Additionally, Williams writes a nationally syndicated column that is carried by 140 newspapers and dozens of websites across the country. He is considered one of thetop Hayakian intellectualsin the US.
The reason he began to embrace free market economics, Williams writes, was the result of the “tough-minded professors” he met who encouraged him to “evaluate the effects of public policy as opposed to the intentions.” Now Williams is the tough-minded professor—every year forcing hundreds of GMU students to do the same.