Juan Williams (right) with AALBC.com Founder, Troy Johnson

Juan Williams, one of America's leading journalists, is a senior correspondent. He also works on documentaries and participates in NPR's efforts to explore television opportunities. Knowledgeable and charismatic, Williams brings insight and depth "hallmarks of NPR programs" to a wide spectrum of issues and ideas.

From 2000 - 2001, Williams hosted NPR's national call-in show Talk of the Nation. In that role, he brought the program to cities and towns across America for monthly radio "town hall" meetings before live audiences. The town hall meetings were a part of "The Changing Face of America," a year-long NPR series focused on how Americans are dealing with rapid changes in society and culture as the United States enters the 21st century. The series, supported by a grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts, involves monthly pieces airing on Morning Edition and All Things Considered, as well as Talk of the Nation.

During his 21-year career at The Washington Post, Williams served as an editorial writer, op-ed columnist, and White House reporter. He has won an Emmy award for TV documentary writing and won widespread critical acclaim for a series of documentaries including 'Politics - The New Black Power.' Articles by Williams have appeared in magazines ranging from Newsweek, Fortune, and The Atlantic Monthly to Ebony, Gentlemen's Quarterly, and The New Republic.

Williams continues to be a contributing political analyst for the Fox News Channel and a regular panelist on Fox News Sunday. He has also appeared on numerous television programs, including Nightline, Washington Week in Review, Oprah, CNN's Crossfire (where he frequently served as co-host), and Capitol Gang Sunday.

A graduate of Haverford College, Williams received a B.A. in philosophy in 1976. Currently, he sits on a number of boards, including the Haverford College Board of Trustees, the Aspen Institute of Communications and Society Program, Washington Journalism Center, and the New York Civil Rights Coalition.¹

Read an AALBC.com Interview with Juan Williams August 2011

Muzzled: The Assault on Honest Debate
Click to order via Amazon

Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: Crown (July 26, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0307952010
ISBN-13: 978-0307952011
Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches

Read an AALBC.com Review


"You can't say that. You're fired."

Prize-winning Washington journalist Juan Williams was unceremoniously dismissed by NPR for speaking his mind and saying what many Americans feel'that he gets nervous when boarding airplanes with passengers dressed in Muslim garb. NPR banished the veteran journalist in an act of political correctness that ultimately sparked nationwide outrage and led to calls for Congress to end its public funding of the media organization.

In Muzzled, Williams uses his very public firing as a launching pad to discuss the countless ways in which honest debate in America'from the halls of Congress and the health care town halls to the talk shows and print media'is stifled. In today's partisan world, where media provocateurs rule the airwaves and political correctness dictates what can and cannot be said with impunity, Williams shows how the honest exchange of ideas and the search for solutions and reasonable compromise is deliberately muzzled. Only those toeing the party's line'the screaming voices of the extremist'get airtime and dominate the discussion in politics and the media. Each side, liberal and conservative, preaches to a choir that revels in expressions of anger, ideology, conspiracies, and demonized opponents. The result is an absence of truth-telling and honest debate about the facts. Among the issues denied a full-throated discussion are racial profiling; the increased reliance on religious beliefs in debating American values and legislation; the nuances of an immigration policym gone awry; why abortion is promoted as a hot button wedge issue to incite the pary faithful and drive donations; the uneasy balance between individual freedom and our desire for security of against terrorism; and much more.

A fierce, fresh look at the critical importance of an open airing of controversial issues, Muzzled is a hard hitting critique of the topics and concerns we can't talk about without suffering retaliation at the hands of the politically correct police. Only by bringing such hot button issues into the light of day can we hope to grapple with them, and exercise our cherished, hard-won right of free speech.

 

Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America--and What We Can Do About It
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ISBN: 0307338231
Format: Hardcover, 256pp
Pub. Date: August 2006
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group

Read an AALBC.com Book Review

Half a century after brave Americans took to the streets to raise the bar of opportunity for all races, Juan Williams writes that too many black Americans are in crisis-caught in a twisted hip-hop culture, dropping out of school, ending up in jail, having babies when they are not ready to be parents, and falling to the bottom in twenty-first-century global economic competition.

In Enough, Juan Williams issues a lucid, impassioned clarion call to do the right thing now, before we travel so far off the glorious path set by generations of civil rights heroes that there can be no more reaching back to offer a hand and rescue those being left behind.

Inspired by Bill Cosby's now famous speech at the NAACP gala celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the Brown decision integrating schools, Williams makes the case that while there is still racism, it is way past time for black Americans to open their eyes to the "culture of failure" that exists within their community. He raises the banner of proud black traditional values-self-help, strong families, and belief in God-that sustained black people through generations of oppression and flowered in the exhilarating promise of the modern civil rights movement. Williams asks what happened to keeping our eyes on the prize by proving the case for equality with black excellence and achievement.

He takes particular aim at prominent black leaders-from Al Sharpton to Jesse Jackson to Marion Barry. Williams exposes the call for reparations as an act of futility, a detour into self-pity; he condemns the "Stop Snitching" campaign as nothing more than a surrender to criminals; and he decries the glorification of materialism,misogyny, and murder as a corruption of a rich black culture, a tragic turn into pornographic excess that is hurting young black minds, especially among the poor.

Reinforcing his incisive observations with solid research and alarming statistical data, Williams offers a concrete plan for overcoming the obstacles that now stand in the way of African Americans' full participation in the nation's freedom and prosperity. Certain to be widely discussed and vehemently debated, Enough is a bold, perceptive, solution-based look at African American life, culture, and politics today.

 

This Far by Faith: Stories from the African American Religious Experience
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ISBN: 0060188634
Format: Hardcover, 336pp
Pub. Date: January 2003
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

This companion book to a six-part PBS series will appeal to anyone interested in African-American spirituality. Like the series, this handsome pictorial emphasizes the adversity that black American worshippers have confronted, and it celebrates the strong tradition of music and dance within African-American religious practice.

"Arriving on ships named Brotherhood and John the Baptist, slaves who had previously embraced tribal religions in their home countries faced the Christianity of their captors. Africans did not simply adopt the religion of the European colonists; they used the power, principles, and practices of Christianity to blaze a path to freedom and deliverance. In the process, the moral fabric of the nation was tested and took on a new texture and strength unique to America." "In the early to mid-twentieth century, black people used organized faith to meet, finance, and plan their struggle for freedom. The church was a living well of strength and comfort for black Americans; the one place where they maintained their public dignity. It was the black church that produced civil rights leaders from Martin Luther King Jr. to Malcolm X. And the white churches and synagogues provided key allies that were necessary to boost the Civil Rights movement to success." Using archival and contemporary photography, historical research, and modern-day interviews, and featuring messages from some of today's foremost clergymen and women, This Far by Faith is the first in-depth treatment of this social history and a companion to a major public television series.

 

Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965 (African American History
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ISBN: 0140096531
Format: Paperback, 320pp
Pub. Date: February 1988
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)

This liberally illustrated companion volume to an upcoming six-part PBS-TV series, produced by black filmmakers, offers a detailed account of the Civil Rights movement. Assisted by the film's production team, Washington Post national correspondent Williams singles out from the main political events, demonstrations and legal actions the stories of little-known activists, some of whom lost their lives fighting for political, social, economic and educational rights. Quotes from the students involved in the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka and Little Rock cases are recorded, as are those of a woman whose son was lynched and those of both black and white participants in sit-ins, Freedom Rides and marches, some of whom were badly beaten and jailed. An epilogue traces the lives of the movement's leaders and other activists since the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

 

Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary
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ISBN: 0812932994
Format: Paperback, 461pp
Pub. Date: February 2000
Publisher: Random House, Incorporated

Thurgood Marshall stands today as the great architect of American race relations, having expanded the foundation of individual rights for all Americans. His victory in the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954, the landmark Supreme Court case outlawing school segregation, would have made him a historic figure even if he had not gone on to become the first African-American appointed to the Supreme Court. Remembered as a gruff, aloof figure, Marshall in fact had great charisma and a large appetite for life. Away from the courtroom, he was a glamorous figure in Harlem circles, known as a man-about-town who socialized with prizefighter Joe Louis, singer Cab Calloway, and other black luminaries. He lived in every decade of the century and knew every president from Franklin Roosevelt to Bill Clinton, becoming a respected member of Washington's power elite, known for his savvy and quick wit. But beneath Marshall's charm was a hard-nosed drive to change America that led to surprising clashes with Martin Luther King, Jr., Robert F. Kennedy, and Malcolm X. Most intriguing of all was Marshall's secret and controversial relationship with FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover, revealed here for the first time.

 

My Soul Looks Back in Wonder: Voices of the Civil Rights Experience
Click to order via Amazon (Format: Hardcover, 240pp, May 2004  )
Click to order via Amazon (Paperback: 221 pages, August 1, 2005 )

Marian Wright Edelman (Afterword), Foreword by David Halberstam

Deeply personal in tone, My Soul Looks Back in Wonder presents stirring, thought-provoking, eyewitness accounts from people who played active roles in the civil rights movement over the past 50 years. All the narratives are drawn from AARP's Voices of Civil Rights project.

Unlike other books that merely retell a familiar tale, this volume showcases stories of personal transformation that bring a pivotal moment in American history vividly alive. It isn't just about the past; although the terrible age of segregation is covered, the powerful words and intimate experiences that unfold on every page reveal just how much the civil rights revolution remains a vital force today. Every speaker makes clear that the struggle for equality must continue now, and into the future.

The various individuals who offer their unique perspectives come from every age group, and from a variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds. Taken together, their tales create a fresh, intimate view of history in the making and reveal just how much the battle for civil rights touched the lives of every American in the most profound way.

 

Black Farmers in America
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ISBN: 0060094532
Format: Hardcover, 448pp
Pub. Date: November 2004
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

From Juan Williams, author of Eyes on the Prize, and the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund comes a must-have gift book and definitive resource that explores the historical, social, and cultural importance of America's 107 historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). HBCUs have graduated such illustrious leaders as Oprah Winfrey, Thurgood Marshall, Spike Lee, W. E. B. DuBois, Debbie Allen, Alain Locke, Samuel L. Jackson, and Nikki Giovanni. This commemorative illustrated gift book is filled with photographs, historical narrative, personal memoir, archival and contemporary material, and anecdotal and resource information. It is the first of its kind -- a groundbreaking retrospective that explores the dramatic development and history of America's historically black colleges and universities. Stories abound about the abolition of slavery.

However, lesser known are the efforts -- both prior to and after the Civil War -- of African American and white abolitionists banding together to formally educate newly freed slaves. Through the tireless work of government organizations, black churches, missionary groups, and philanthropists, HBCUs were established. The tales of how these schools were created and of the individuals who are linked to the schools' histories are extraordinarily rich -- and sometimes controversial. In an unprecedented salute to America's 107 historically black colleges and universities, I'll Find a Way or Make One chronicles the formation of the black middle class, the history of education in the African American community, and some of the most important events of African Americana and American history.

 

I'll Find a Way or Make One : A Tribute to Historically Black Colleges and Universities
Click to order via Amazon

ISBN: 0060094532
Format: Hardcover, 448pp
Pub. Date: November 2004
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

From Juan Williams, author of Eyes on the Prize, comes a must-have definitive reference and gift book that explores the historical, social and cultural importance of America's 108 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) through personal interviews, historical narrative, photographs, and comprehensive reference material.

I'll Find a Way or Make One is a groundbreaking reading book featuring 200 black & white photographs. It explores the dramatic development and history of America's 108 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) through photos, historical memoir, anecdotal information, archival and contemporary materials, and personal interviews.

Stories abound about the abolishment of slavery. However, lesser known are the efforts--both prior to and after the Civil War--of African-American and white abolitionists banding together to formerly educate newly freed slaves. In 1861, the 28 known Black graduates went to the island of Port Royal, South Carolina, to take part in this educational experiment. The 18-month program and subsequent article that ran in Atlanta Monthly were instrumental in the government's commitment to educate Blacks after the war. Through the government, tireless work of Black churches, White missionary organizations and philanthropists, HBCUs were established. The tales of how these schools were created and the individuals who are linked to their histories are rich and often controversial These tales are the crux of I'll Find a Way or Make One.

HBCUs have come to be known as the backbone of America's Black middle class. Most importantly, I'll Find a Way or Make One reveals how the social and cultural atmosphere fostered at these institutions ultimately played a major role in shaping African Americana.
 

 

 

¹Excerpted from Juan Williams, NPR Biography
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1930705