Walter Williams, RIP

Walter E. Williams

The great free market economist Walter E. Williams has died. He was 84.

Williams was the John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics at George Mason University.

He was the author of over 150 publications which have appeared in scholarly journals such as Economic Inquiry, American Economic Review, Georgia Law Review, Journal of Labor Economics, Social Science Quarterly, and Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy and popular publications such as Newsweek, Ideas on Liberty, National Review, Reader’s Digest, Cato Journal, and Policy Review. He authored ten books: America: A Minority Viewpoint, The State Against Blacks, which was later made into the PBS documentary “Good Intentions,” All It Takes Is Guts, South Africa’s War Against Capitalism, which was later revised for South African publication, Do the Right Thing: The People’s Economist Speaks,  More Liberty Means Less Government, Liberty vs. the Tyranny of Socialism, Up From The Projects: An Autobiography, Race and Economics: How Much Can Be Blamed On Discrimination? and American Contempt for Liberty.

He was also an occasional substitute host for the “Rush Limbaugh” show.

He wrote a nationally syndicated weekly column that was carried by approximately 140 newspapers and several web sites including some columns at EPJ.  His book, The State Against Blacks, was published by McGraw-Hill in the winter of 1982 and was made into a television documentary entitled, “Good Intentions.”  His most recent documentary is “Suffer No Fools,” shown on PBS stations Fall/Spring 2014/2015, based on Up from the Projects: An Autobiography.

Here is a clip of the great economic communicator:

Tributes are beginning to pour in.

From Don Boudreaux:

Devastating news: Walter Williams died last night (or early this morning).

Walter has been my colleague and friend for more than 35 years. He is one of my few heroes. I will write more later, but I am now in no condition to say more.

From Matt McCaffery:

 Walter Williams, Rest in Peace. He remained to the last a scholar of utmost integrity.

–RW