March 23, 2011 8:57AM # Walter Williams, Freedom Fighter By [Daniel J. Mitchell](https://www.cato.org/people/daniel-mitchell) --- SHARE I’ve been fortunate to know Walter Williams ever since I began my Ph.D. studies at George Mason University in the mid-1980s. He is a very good economist, but his real value is as a public intellectual. He also has a remarkable personal story, which he tells in his new autobiography, [*Up from the Projects*](http://www.amazon.com/Up-Projects-Autobiography-HOOVER-PUBLICATION/dp/0817912541). I’ve read the book and urge you to do the same. It’s very interesting and, like his columns, crisply written. To get a flavor for Walter’s strong principles and blunt opinions, watch this video from Reason TV. I won’t spoil things, but the last couple of minutes are quite sobering. I suppose a personal story might be appropriate at this point. My ex also was at George Mason University, and she was Walter’s research assistant. Walter would give multiple-choice tests to students taking his entry-level classes and she was responsible for grading them by sending them through a machine that would “click” for every wrong answer. For almost every student, it sounded like a machine gun was going off. Suffice to say, Walter’s classes were not easy. So while I’m glad to say he’s my friend, I’m also happy I never took one of his classes. ##### Related Tags [General](https://www.cato.org/general), [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).