Thomas Sowell

 Thomas Sowell (/soUl/; born on June 30, 1930) is an American author economist, author, and political journalist who is a senior fellow of the Hoover Institution. He is a well-known voice within American conservative movements and was widely published in both books and writings. He has also appeared on TV and radio as a guest. Sowell was born in Gastonia, North Carolina to an impoverished family. He grew up in Harlem, New York City and was a dropout of Stuyvesant's high school. He then worked odd jobs, and was a member of the United States Marine Corps during World War II. He was a student at night at Howard University after which he was accepted to Harvard University. In 1958, he was awarded the magna cum felicite. His teacher Milton Friedman gave him a master's in economics at Columbia University in the following year. In 1968, he received a doctorate in economics at the University of Chicago. He has taught at Stanford University, Amherst College as well as Brandeis University. He has also been a part of think tanks , including the Urban Institute. He has been a Hoover Institute Senior Fellow in Public Policy at Stanford University since 1977.