Wilson, William Julius

Wilson, William Julius

(born Dec. 20, 1935, Derry Township, Pa., U.S.) U.S. sociologist. He spent 24 years on the University of Chicago faculty before moving to Harvard University in 1996. In The Declining Significance of Race (1978) and The Truly Disadvantaged (1987) he contends that entrenched black poverty stems neither from racism nor from welfare dependency but from changes in the global economy that pull low-skilled manufacturing jobs out of the inner city. In When Work Disappears (1996) he discusses, among other issues, how chronic joblessness erodes work skills. Wilson holds that only “race neutral” programs such as universal health care and government-financed jobs can alleviate the problems of black poverty in the inner city.

---

Wilson, William Julius (1935–  ) sociologist; born in Derry Township, Pa. He earned his Ph.D. at Washington State University and joined the faculty of the University of Chicago (1971). He studied the ghetto poor and the cycle of poverty in America and developed city programs in Chicago to help urban African-Americans. His works include Power, Racism and Privilege (1973), Through Different Eyes (1973), and The Truly Disadvantaged (1987).