Contributed Photo / The commentaries by George Mason University libertarian professor Walter Williams have appeared in the Chattanooga Times Free Press and the former Chattanooga Free Press well back into the 20th century.A prophet, it is said in the Bible, is seldom heard in his own land.
We hope that is not true with Walter E. Williams, the Black syndicated columnist whose commentaries have been featured on this page since the merged newspaper’s inception in 1999, and in the former Chattanooga Free Press well back into the 20th century.
Williams, the John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics at George Mason University, died Wednesday at the age of 84, fittingly having taught his last class the night before and having filed his last column (which will appear next Sunday).
The libertarian economist, educator and author, while frequently writing on free markets and the blessings of liberty, turned more of his attention in recent years to the plight of his fellow Black Americans.
Always citing statistics that backed his words, Williams inveighed against the proliferation of single parenthood, fatherless homes and school dropouts, frequently noting how the increase of federal government intervention in the Black community over the last 60 years had only increased the negative statistics.