Juan Williams
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Juan Williams, National Public Radio's Senior Correspondent, is an Emmy Award-winning writer, radio, and television correspondent who has written for The Washington Post and has appeared on-air on National Public Radio, Fox News, and PBS.
He was born in April of 1954 in the city of Colón, Panama, which is located near the Panama Canal Zone (which was at the time a US territory). His father was a boxing trainer. Williams was raised in the Episcopal branch of the Anglican church, of which his father was a member. In 1958, his family moved to the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York.
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[edit] Education and Career
After graduating from Haverford College with a degree in philosophy, Williams joined The Washington Post, for which he would work for 23 years, from 1976 to 1999. During his tenure at the Post, Williams worked in a variety of roles, including editorial writer, op-ed columnist and White House correspondent.
In 2000, Williams joined National Public Radio, where he became the host of its daily two hour interview and call-in show, Talk of the Nation. He has also been a frequent guest on the MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour on PBS.
In 1996, Williams became host of the syndicated television program known as America's Black Forum. On this show, he is part of a panel that has included Julian Bond, Niger Innis, Debra Mathis, and Armstrong Williams.
Williams has been a Fox News political contributor since 1997. He is a regular panelist on Special Report with Brit Hume and Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace. On Fox News Sunday, he is known for his frequent shoot-outs with Brit Hume. Williams has also written articles for a number of national magazines, including Fortune, Ebony, and GQ.
Williams is currently serving as a senior national correspondent for National Public Radio, in which he provides analysis of major events in interviews with the anchors for the newsmagazines Morning Edition and All Things Considered.
[edit] Books and Television documentaries
Williams has received an Emmy Award for television documentary writing. He has won widespread critical acclaim for a series of documentaries including, Politics—The New Black Power, and A. Philip Randolph: For Jobs and Freedom. He is the author of the non-fiction bestseller, Eyes on The Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965 and Thurgood Marshall—American Revolutionary.
Williams' most recent book is Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America--and What we can do about it, a critical look at the current generation of black leaders that was published in August 2006. In this book Williams echoes themes expressed by Bill Cosby, calling upon members of the black community to take responsibility for their actions, reinstill a work ethic that he contends has been lost in recent years, and begin to reemphasize stigmatization-at least, in certain forms-as a means of promoting policies that he believes are conducive to black development, e.g. a renewed focus on education, monogamy and marriage, and self-sufficiency.
While Williams acknowledges that the African-American community has made great strides since the civil rights era, he also argues that there have been significant areas, such as the out-of-wedlock birth rate, in which black Americans and families have fallen behind. He expressed these views in an interview about his book that aired on NPR's Morning Edition on Monday, August 7, 2006. He is in favor of family planning, birth control and the morning-after pill.
[edit] Family
One of his sons is the up and coming Republican politician Antonio (Tony) Williams.
Despite his first name being "Juan", Williams identifies more with the African-American community than the Latino community. He has said that since his ancestors were West Indian, despite being born in Panama he has never really felt Latino.
