Juan Williams

Early life and education Williams was born in Colón, Panama, on April 10, 1954, to Alma Géraldine and Rogelio L. Williams. Williams' father was from Jamaica and his mother was from Panama. His family spoke English and Spanish. In a 2018 op-ed, Williams stated he had legally emigrated from Panama to the United States aboard a banana boat with his mother and his two siblings when he was four years of age. The family briefly lived in Pleasantville, New Jersey, before settling in Brooklyn, New York. Williams received a scholarship to attend Oakwood Friends School, a Quaker school in Poughkeepsie, New York. After graduating from Oakwood in 1972,

Career

The Washington Post Williams wrote for The Washington Post for 23 years. The paper took disciplinary action against Williams and published an apology by him. On November 2, 1991, Williams wrote: "It pained me to learn during the investigation that I had offended some of you. I have said so repeatedly in the last few weeks, and repeat here: some of my verbal conduct was wrong, I now know that, and I extend my sincerest apology to those whom I offended."

National Public Radio Williams joined NPR in 2000 as host of the daily afternoon talk show Talk of the Nation. He then served as senior national correspondent for NPR. In 2009, NPR's president and CEO Vivian Schiller requested Fox News stop identifying him as an NPR host after Williams commented on The O'Reilly Factor: "Michelle Obama, you know, she's got this Stokely Carmichael in a designer dress thing going. If she starts talking...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".

NPR terminated his contract on Wednesday, October 20, 2010, two days after he made remarks on The O'Reilly Factor. He had commented, "Look, Bill, I'm not a bigot. You know the kind of books I've written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous." According to NPR, the remarks were "inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR." As to the reason for the termination of Williams' contract, NPR's president and CEO Vivian Schiller offered the following comment: "News analysts may not take personal public positions on controversial issues; doing so undermines their credibility as analysts..." On October 21, 2010, Schiller told an audience at the Atlanta Press Club that Williams' feelings about Muslims should be between him and "his psychiatrist or his publicist—take your pick."

Some observers have questioned whether NPR actually fired Williams for making the comments on Fox News, as opposed to making them in another forum. William Saletan of Slate.com compared the Williams situation to that of Shirley Sherrod, saying that both Sherrod and Williams had their words taken out of context in a way that made them appear racist and led to the loss of their jobs, except that Williams was victimized by liberals, rather than conservatives as in Sherrod's case. Saletan said that while Williams' confessed fears of Muslims were "unsettling", the context was Williams' argument that such fears should not be used to curtail the rights of Muslims or anyone else, and that Williams consistently argued that Muslims in general should not be blamed for the terrorist activities of Muslim extremists.

Fox News Channel Williams has been a Fox News Contributor since 1997. After NPR announced his termination from their network in October 2010, Fox News offered him a new $2 million (a "considerable" raise ) three-year contract and an expanded role at their network that included a regular guest-host role Friday nights on The O'Reilly Factor.

Following his firing from NPR, Williams appeared on The O'Reilly Factor and discussed his thoughts on how his role at Fox played into NPR's decision: "I don't fit in their box. I'm not a predictable black liberal. You [O'Reilly] were exactly right when you said you know what this comes down to. They were looking for a reason to get rid of me because I'm appearing on Fox News. They don't want me talking to you."

On February 18, 2022, Williams wrote an opinion piece for Fox News entitled “Rap and drill music is part of America's racial problem”. In it, he stated that the popularity of rap and drill music causes increased criminality among low-income black men. A 2020 study found no causal relationship between drill music and real-life violence when compared to police-recorded violent crime data in London.

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 television 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. 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 is a contributor to a number of national magazines, including Fortune, The New Republic, The Atlantic Monthly, Ebony magazine, TIME and GQ and frequents a wide range of television programs including ABC's Nightline, Washington Week on PBS, and The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Criticism In October 1991 Williams was accused of sexual harassment by four female Washington Post colleagues. His colleagues recalled his making sexually suggestive comments about them. William published an article apologizing for his comments. Tony, who was a Senate page and intern for GOP Senator Strom Thurmond from 1996 to 1997, was a speechwriter and legislative correspondent for Republican Senator Norm Coleman from 2004 to 2006; in 2006, Tony ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the Council of the District of Columbia, losing to Tommy Wells. The younger son, Raffi, studied anthropology and played lacrosse at Haverford College, his father's alma mater in Pennsylvania. He has worked for the House Rules Committee and as the communications director for Michigan Republican Dan Benishek's successful 2012 congressional campaign, and was a deputy press secretary for the Republican National Committee. Raffi served as press secretary to former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson.

Williams is the grandfather of twin girls, Pepper and Wesley.

Williams has described himself as "a black guy with a Hispanic name", and identifies as Afro-Panamanian. He is an Episcopalian.

Williams has been active on the Haverford College Board of Managers, in the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program, and in the Washington Journalism Center. He sits on the board of directors of the New York Civil Rights Coalition.

Awards Williams has received many awards, including honorary doctorates from Haverford College and State University of New York.