William Julius Wilson, a professor at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, is an authority on race and poverty in the United States. Wilson has built his reputation on three controversial and widely-read books: The Declining Significance of Race (1978), The Truly Disadvantaged (1987) and When Work Disappears (1996). Before 1996, Wilson taught at the University of Chicago for 25 years, where he conducted his research in local poor African American neighborhoods.

Respected beyond academia, Wilson is consulted by U.S. presidents on issues of race and poverty. While his advice has not always been accepted, Wilson's influence is undeniable. President Clinton, for example, told Time magazine that Wilson's books "made me see race and poverty and the problems of the inner city in a different light."

Wilson was born on December 20, 1935, in Derry Township, Pennsylvania, and raised in Blairsville, Pennsylvania, a working-class community east of Pittsburgh. His father, Esco Wilson...