Walter Williams begins his day early -
before most are out of bed.
His enthusiasm for life is based on sound
advice he received as a young man...learn
to come early and stay late- and always be
ready when the opportunity train comes along.
Walter E. Williams - claiming the "E" stands for
excellence- was born in Philadelphia in 1936.
He spent his early boyhood with his mother
and his sister Catherine.
My mother was very, very important.
She was the one who made the sacrifices to
make sure that we got a reasonably good
education given our income, given our circumstances.
What we find is the basic economic principle,
and that is, if you tax something
you're going to get less of it,
and if you subsidize it, you're going to get more of it.
And what we've been doing is
subsidizing slovenly behavior.
Walter graduates from high school and
registers for two night classes at Temple University.
To pay the bill he goes to work driving a taxi,
and that changes his life.
Through another driver, he meets an
attractive young woman destined to
become Mrs. Walter Williams.
They would, you know, go to parties and he
would be arrogant.
And they would come home and he would get
a scolding, saying "You know, you can't
talk to people like that."
is what my mom would say.
"...you don't have to prove you're the
smartest person in the room.
People will know just by having
conversation with you."
It is 1958, and America is still drafting
able-bodied men in the armed forces...and
by the next summer, Walter too, would be
drafted into Uncle Sam's army.
Being in the army is a million dollar
experience that you wouldn't take a
million dollars to do again.
My first experience with open
discrimination and segregation was while I
was on my way reporting to Fort Stewart, Georgia.
And I looked up and saw a sign saying,
"Colored Waiting Room."
There was discrimination in Philadelphia,
but there weren't the open signs saying,
"Colored waiting room, colored bathroom,
colored water fountain."
I was just in shock, because I'd never
seen that being born and raised in Philadelphia.
One obvious form of discrimination in the
military was the assignment of menial jobs to blacks.
Walter was sent to the motor pool to
wash military vehicles.
When he was ordered to paint a
two-and-a-half-ton truck, he knew full
well the officer meant only the flatbed.
By the time he got to the tires- he was stopped.
And so he says, "Soldier, what in the hell
are you doing?"
I said, "I'm painting the truck, sir."
He said, "You don't do it that way."
I said, "You said the whole truck."
I had officers that would question me and say,
what's my agenda?
And I would say, "In all due respect to
you, sir, I took an oath of office when I
was drafted into the army to uphold and
defend the United States Constitution
against its enemies, both foreign and domestic.
And you sir, are a domestic
enemy of the Constitution.
At one time, black Americans were not
allowed in professional basketball and football.
Well, how did black Americans go from not
being in these sports...Right.
...to being the top and dominating them?
It wasn't due to any anti-discriminatory
laws or affirmative action at all?
So you say, well, how do you explain it?
I think that these guys can just do a 360
slam dunk in your face, and you can't do
anything about it.
So much that Jackie Robinson was put
through was due to the fact that other
people understood that once he broke the
color line, it was all over.
The welfare state has done to black
Americans what slavery could not have done,
Jim Crow and the harshest racism
could not have done - namely to destroy
the black family.
Many people believe that the route to
economic power is to have political power,
and there's absolutely no evidence to
support that.
Government cannot create a special
privilege for one American, without
simultaneously creating a special
disadvantage for some other American.
Much of what Walter Williams has achieved
in life has been the result of hard work and sacrifice.
But luck and chance have also been on his side.
What if he had never had a determined and
disciplined mother, or tough-minded
teachers who, as he says, didn't give a
damn about his self-esteem?
Suppose he never got a job driving a taxi?
It's likely he would never have met Connie.
Where would he be now?
Where would any American of color be
without freedom and opportunity?