In this video, hosted by Jason Riley, we look at the life of Thomas Sowell, 90, a black conservative who many believe is “one of the greatest minds of the past half-century.” Over his career, he addressed issues of racial inequality, economics, history, migration and culture. He counters the message of a victim mentality with one of personal responsibility.

When he was in his 20s, Sowell described himself as Marxist and even wrote a book sympathetic towards Marxism.

However, after interning for the federal government in 1960, his views changed as part of his work included studying how increasing the minimum wage in Puerto Rico’s sugar industry contributed to rising unemployment.

After being the first person in his family to complete grade six, Sowell went on to become a senior fellow at Stanford University‘s Hoover Institution.

He has written over 30 books along libertarian, conservative themes with his latest, Charter Schools and Their Enemies, published in 2020.