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.
Ever the educator, he believed schooling and not the government was the route to success. After all, he'd seen it in his own life.
Raised in a single-parent home and a victim of the same discrimination from law enforcement that sadly still occasionally occurs today, Williams saw his lot in life as a challenge.
Following military service and higher education, he went on to be syndicated in more than 100 newspapers, write 10 books and author articles in more than 150 scholarly publications. He taught at George Mason for 40 years and was a frequent guest host for the "Rush Limbaugh" radio show.
A number of the columnist's recent commentaries voiced his concern over high schools graduating students who were not proficient in the reading and math skills they would need in the real world; in the proliferation of multiculturalism in schools (to the detriment of those it purports to help); in the political correctness that has stifled student speech and promoted intolerance; and in school districts' and teachers unions' insistence on opposing better education alternatives for their students.
"If we accept the notion that rotten education is not preordained," Williams wrote in a commentary released this week, "then I wonder when the Black community will demand an end to an educational environment that condemns so many youngsters to mediocrity. You can bet the rent money that white liberals and high-income Blacks would not begin to accept the kind of education for their children that most Blacks receive."
The Philadelphia native was not the only Black conservative columnist working today, but his unapologetic, witty, clear style for so many years has been a ray of sunshine in a forest of unenlightenment.
He will be missed.