Sowell’s ‘life reflects the American virtues of perseverance, hard work, and the pursuit of truth.’
A group of conservatives is asking President Donald Trump to give the nation’s highest honor to longtime free market economist and public intellectual Thomas Sowell.
Former Vice President Mike Pence’s political advocacy group Advancing American Freedom is sending a letter to Trump Tuesday signed by dozens of conservatives that recommends Sowell, 94, for the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
“Dr. Sowell is one of America’s leading intellectuals, shaping how the nation thinks about global prosperity in economics, politics, and history,” the letter reads. To this day, Sowell “continues to work for economic liberty, equality before the law, and policy judged on its success or failure, not the intent of its proponents. His life reflects the American virtues of perseverance, hard work, and the pursuit of truth.”
Signatories of the letter include political figures, economists, academics, legal scholars, activists, and think tank executives. The signatories are affiliated with prominent conservative institutions including the Manhattan Institute, Young America’s Foundation, Americans for Tax Reform, Independent Women’s Forum, and Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, where Sowell is a senior fellow.
The letter goes through the biographical details of Sowell’s life and professional accomplishments. A black American, Sowell grew up in North Carolina and then New York City during the New Deal Era. Brilliant from an early age, Sowell accepted a scholarship from the prestigious Stuyvesant high school but dropped out due to financial difficulties.
Afterwards, Sowell served in the Marines during the Korean War and resumed his education, graduating with an economics degree from Harvard. He continued his studies with a masters in economics from Columbia and a doctorate from the University of Chicago in 1968 under the tutelage of renowned free market economists George Stigler and Milton Friedman.
In his twenties, Sowell held Marxist views, until he interned at the U.S. Department of Labor and sought to investigate whether minimum wage laws were responsible for unemployment in the Puerto Rican sugar industry. According to Sowell, he began to feel disillusioned with government programs when he noticed that bureaucrats had no interest in answering his question.
Over the course of decades, Sowell taught economics at several prestigious academic institutions and wrote dozens of books on economics, race, education, culture, public intellectuals, and other subjects. Sowell even wrote two influential books on late-talking children based on his experiences with his son who suffered from the condition. He has authored several New York Times bestsellers and his syndicated columns were featured in countless publications for a quarter century.
Sowell’s incisive commentary on achieving colorblindness in America and rigorous defense of market economics continues to be relevant in a time when the American Left has embraced socialism and a hyper-fixation on racial characteristics. Even in his advanced age, Sowell remains a public intellectual and is often cited as one of the greatest living black Americans.
“Thomas Sowell’s contributions to the American people are remarkable and merit the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Throughout his life, he has achieved great triumphs by working through numerous hardships. He has served his family, his country, the American people, and millions around the world through his profound economic insights,” the letter concludes.
For his achievements, President George W. Bush awarded Sowell the National Humanities Medal in 2002. The Trump administration highlighted Sowell in its proclamation honoring February as black history month, listing him alongside Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Tubman.