Juan Williams

For the Chilean naval officer, see Juan Williams Rebolledo.

Juan Williams
Juan Williams speaking at Chautauqua Institution in 2007
Born	(1954-04-10) April 10, 1954 Colón, Panama
Occupation(s)	Author, journalist
Notable credit(s)	CNN Crossfire Fox News Sunday National Public Radio

Juan Williams (born April 10, 1954) is an American journalist, author, and political commentator for Fox News Channel.

Williams regularly appears on radio and television programs, particularly National Public Radio and the Fox News Channel. He also writes for several newspapers including The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal, and has been published in magazines including The Atlantic Monthly and Time.

Williams has spoken at the Smithsonian’s celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision which ended legal segregation in public schools and was selected by the United States Census Bureau as moderator of its first program beginning its 2010 effort. He has received honorary doctorates from Lafayette College, Wittenberg University, and Long Island University, among other institutions.

Williams was an editorial writer, op-ed columnist, White House correspondent and national correspondent during his 23 year career at The Washington Post. He has won several awards for investigative journalism and his opinion columns.

Early years

Williams was born in Colon, Panama, near the Canal Zone. His father, Roger, was a boxing trainer and his mother, Alma, a seamstress. He was raised in the Episcopal Church. When he was four years old his family—including older siblings Elena and Rogelio—moved to the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York. He then won a scholarship to attend Oakwood School in Poughkeepsie, New York. He became president of the student body, editor of the student paper and was captain of the baseball, cross-country and championship basketball team. He then won a scholarship to Haverford College where he graduated with a B.A. in philosophy in 1976.

Career

During college, Williams worked for three years as a reporter intern for the Philadelphia Bulletin. He also won a Dow-Jones Newspaper Fund Award for outstanding young journalists and worked for a summer as an editor at the Providence Journal before returning to finish college. After graduation, he won an internship at The Washington Post. He worked at the paper from 1976 to 2000. During his tenure at the Post, he held several positions, including metropolitan staff writer. While on the local staff he wrote a prize winning 6 part series on the problems in the DC public schools that was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. His investigative reporting on corruption in Mayor Marion Barry’s administration also won several awards. He later served on the Post’s national staff – covering every major political campaign from 1980 to 2000 – and as a political analyst. He also wrote as the paper’s White House correspondent, as an editorial writer, op-ed columnist and for the Post Sunday Magazine.

While at the Post he became a regular panelist on Inside Washington, a weekly Washington political affairs program. In 1990 CNN signed him to be a host for its Crossfire program with co-hosts Bob Novak, Michael Kinsley and Pat Buchanan. He also regularly appeared on Capitol Gang and hosted Crossfire Sunday with Lynne Cheney.

In 1996, Williams became host of the syndicated television program, America’s Black Forum. The show’s regular panelists included Julian Bond, Niger Innis, Deborah Mathis and Armstrong Williams.

Williams joined the Fox News Channel as a political contributor in 1997. He is a regular panelist on Special Report with Bret Baier and Fox News Sunday With Chris Wallace. He also regularly appears on The O'Reilly Factor and has served as a guest host on the show.

Due to Williams' commentary on the Fox News Channel, NPR requested that the FNC stop identifying him as an NPR host. NPR Ombudsman Alicia Shepard maintained that: "Williams tends to speak one way on NPR and another on Fox." Williams' following comment triggered the move:

Michelle Obama, you know, she's got this Stokely Carmichael in a designer dress thing going. If she starts talking, as Mary Katharine [Ham, a conservative blogger] is suggesting, her instinct is to start with this blame America, you know, I'm the victim. If that stuff starts coming out, people will go bananas and she'll go from being the new Jackie O to being something of an albatross.

"As a result of this latest flap, NPR's Vice President of News, Ellen Weiss, has asked Williams to ask that Fox remove his NPR identification whenever he is on O'Reilly."

Williams joined NPR in 1999 as host of the daily afternoon talk show Talk of the Nation. During his nearly two years as host the show gained its highest ratings. He then served as senior national correspondent for NPR, interviewing newsmakers as well as providing analysis of major events in interviews with the anchors for the newsmagazines Morning Edition, All Things Considered and Weekend Edition Saturday and Sunday.

NPR terminated his contract in October 2010 after he made remarks on Fox News that NPR deemed "inconsistent with [its] editorial standards."

Television

Williams is the recipient of an Emmy Award for his work in television documentary writing, and has earned critical praise for a series of documentaries including Politics: The New Black Power, A. Philip Randolph: For Jobs and Freedom, Civil Rights and The Press, Riot to Recovery and Dying for Healthcare.

He was the scriptwriter for Oprah Winfrey’s primetime special – No One Dies Alone.

Williams' 1988 book, Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954-65, was written with the Blackside production team as a companion to the first season of the PBS series Eyes on the Prize. His 2003 book, This Far by Faith, is also a companion to a PBS series.

Williams has contributed to a number of national magazines, including Fortune, The New Republic, The Atlantic Monthly, Ebony magazine, TIME and GQ. He has also frequented a wide range of television programs including ABC's Nightline, Washington Week on PBS, and The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Works

• Williams, Juan (1988). Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965. Penguin (Non-Classics). ISBN 0140096531.
• Williams, Juan (2000). Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary. Three Rivers Press. ISBN 0812932994.
• Williams, Juan (2003). This Far by Faith: Stories from the African American Religious Experience. Harper Paperbacks. ISBN 0060934247.
• Williams, Juan (2004). I'll Find a Way or Make One : A Tribute to Historically Black Colleges and Universities. HarperCollins. ISBN 0060094532.
• Williams, Juan (2005). My Soul Looks Back in Wonder: Voices of the Civil Rights Experience. Sterling. ISBN 1402722338.
• Williams, Juan (2006). Black Farmers in America. The University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0813123992.
• Williams, Juan (2007). The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America--and What We Can Do About It. Three Rivers Press. ISBN 030733824X.

External links

• Juan Williams: NPR Biography
• Juan Williams: Fox News Biography
• A Conversation with Juan Williams — Video