William Worthy

William Worthy, Jr. (b. 1921) is an African-American journalist, born in Boston, Massachusetts. Worthy is a graduate of Boston Latin High School, and received a B.A. degree in sociology from Bates College, Lewiston, Maine, in 1942. Worthy was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, class of 1957.

Worthy traveled to China (1956-57) and Cuba (1961) in violation of United States State Department travel regulations. At the time he entered China, Worthy was the first American reporter to visit and broadcast from there since 1949. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,808926,00.html] His passport was seized upon his return to the U.S. from China and American lawyers Leonard Boudin and William Kunstler represented Worthy in an unsuccessful lawsuit seeking the return of his passport. Without a passport, Worthy traveled to Cuba in the early days of Fidel Castro to report on the Cuban revolution, and upon his return to the U.S. he was tried and convicted for "returning to the United States without a valid passport." Worthy was again represented by Kunstler, who successfully persuaded a federal appeals court to overturn Worthy's conviction. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit found the restrictions unconstitutional. The court held that the government could not make it a crime under the Constitution to return home without a passport. Years later, Kunstler wrote in his autobiography, "My Life As A Radical Lawyer", that the Worthy passport case was his "first experience arguing an issue about which I felt passionate," was the "first time I had ever invalidated a statute," and that success "confirmed my faith in the justice system." [Kunstler, William M., "My Life As A Radical Lawyer," pp. 95-97 (Birch Lane Press 1994).]

Folksinger Phil Ochs wrote a song called "The Ballad of William Worthy" about Worthy's trip to Cuba and its consequences.

The Committee for the Freedom of William Worthy was formed in 1962 and was chaired by A. Phillip Randolph and Bishop D. Ward Nichols.

Worthy was a conscientious objector in World War II, and in 1954 he voiced early opposition to American involvement in Vietnam after he visited Indo-China in 1953.

During the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, Worthy was a civil rights activist, and in the early 1960s he was an outspoken critic of the civil rights movement for not going far enough to achieve civil rights in housing and all areas of American life. In the late 1960s, Worthy organized a rent strike against a Catholic hospital in New York City that attempted to tear down Worthy's apartment building and turn it into a parking lot. Worthy later wrote about those experiences in a critically acclaimed book, "The Rape of Our Neighborhoods," published in 1976.

The late psychologist, Kenneth B. Clark, said of Worthy: "The Bill Worthys of our society provide the moral fuel necessary to prevent the flickering conscience of our society from going out."

Worthy continued to work in the field of journalism and in the 1970s he was appointed as head of the African American journalism program at Boston University. However, the highly controversial and ultra-conservative BU president, John Silber, removed Worthy as head of the program after Worthy criticized the BU administration and he supported BU campus workers who were attempting to unionize.

In 1981, the luggage of Worthy and two other journalists working with him, Terri Taylor and Randy Goodman, was seized by the FBI and CIA on their return from Iran; and they subsequently won a suit on Fourth Amendment grounds. [http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=115719]

Following his BU appointment, Worthy taught journalism at UMass Boston and at Howard University in the 1980s and 1990s. During most of the 1990s until 2005, Worthy lived in Washington, D.C., where he served as a special assistant to the dean of the School of Communications at Howard U. and served on the board of directors of the National Whistleblower Center.

On February 22, 2008, the Nieman Foundation honored Worthy with the prestigious Louis M. Lyons Award. [http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/02/22/reclaiming_a_gallant_voice/]

Books

The Vanguard: A photographic essay on the Black Panthers by Ruth-Marion Baruch, Parkle Jones, and William Worthy (Paperback - Jan 18, 1970)

The Rape of Our Neighborhoods: And How Communities Are Resisting Take-Overs by Colleges, Hospitals, Churches, Businesses, and Public Agencies by William, Worthy (Hardcover – 1976) (Paperback - April 1977)

Interview with Prince Sihanouk by William Worthy (Unknown Binding - 1965) The story of the two first colored nurses to train in Boston City Hospital, Boston, Mass by William Worthy (Unknown Binding - 1942)

Our disgrace in Indo-China by William Worthy (Unknown Binding - 1954)

Pampered dictators and neglected cities: The Philippine connection by William Worthy (Unknown Binding - 1978) The Silent Slaughter: The Role Of The United States In The Indonesian Massacre by Eric Norden; Worthy, William; March, Andrew; & Lane, Mark (Youth Against War & Fascism) Norden (Pamphlet - 1967)

References

* [http://www.walterlippmann.com/worthy.html biographical notes]
* [http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~trent/ochs/lyrics/ballad-of-william-worthy.html Ochs' song]
* [http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=135335 Harvard Crimson 1957 biographical notes]
* [http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=147238 Harvard Crimson Apr. 28, 1977 article on Worthy]
* [http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/02/22/reclaiming_a_gallant_voice/ Feb. 22, 2008 Boston Globe column]