Paul A Ortiz
Paul Ortiz is Professor of Labor History at Cornell University and an affiliate faculty member of Cornell's Latino Studies Program. He joined Cornell in 2024 after serving as director of the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program and professor of history at the University of Florida. After receiving his doctorate in history at Duke University in 2000, Ortiz taught in the Department of Community Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz between 2001-2008.
He is the author or co-author of several books including, Emancipation Betrayed: The Hidden History of Black Organizing and White Violence in Florida from Reconstruction to the Bloody Election of 1920 (University of California Press). Ortiz’s An African American and Latinx History of the United States, was identified by Fortune Magazine in 2020 as one of the “10 books on American history that actually reflect the United States.”
A third-generation U.S. military veteran, Paul is a PEN-award winning writer. He was a historical consultant and featured narrator for John Leguizamo’s American Historia: The Untold History of Latinos docuseries that aired on PBS during Hispanic Heritage Month in 2024. Paul was also a consultant and narrator for Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s The Black Church: This is Our Story. This Is Our Song, which premiered on PBS in 2021.
Ortiz wrote the epilogue for the 4th edition of Who Built America? Working People and the Nation's History. He is currently writing A Social Movement History of the United States for Beacon Press.
Dr. Ortiz was Brooklyn College’s 2023-2024 Robert L. Hess Humanities Scholar-in-Residence. He was the National Archives and Records Administration Distinguished Scholar in Latinx History in 2022-2023.
At ILR, Ortiz teaches Introduction to Labor History and upper-division electives in comparative race and ethnicity. He lectures regular for unions, community organizations and Fortune 500 corporations on topics including African American, Latinx, and labor history.
Areas of Expertise
Publications
Publications
BOOKS: African American Studies: 50 Years at the University of Florida, co-edited with Jacob U’Mofe. (Library Press @UF, 2021).
People Power: History, Organizing, and Larry Goodwyn’s Democratic Vision in the Twenty-First Century, edited with Wesley Hogan. (University Press of Florida, 2021).
An African American and Latinx History of the United States. ReVisioning American History Series. (Boston: Beacon Press, 2018; Paperback published 2018). (Audiobook published concurrently by Audible.com). Young Adult edition in-progress.
Emancipation Betrayed: The Hidden History of Black Organizing and White Violence in Florida from Reconstruction to the Bloody Election of 1920. American Crossroads Series, George Gund Foundation imprint in African American Studies (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005).
Remembering Jim Crow: African Americans Tell About Life In The Segregated South. Co-editor with: William H. Chafe, Raymond Gavins, Robert Korstad, et. al. (New York: New Press, 2001). (Fourth edition, 2014).
BOOKS UNDER CONTRACT: A Social Movement History of the United States (Beacon Press)
Settler Colonialism and the ‘War on Terror’: 1492 to the Present (Beacon Press)
SELECTED PEER-REVIEWED ESSAYS/BOOK CHAPTERS:
Coda Essay: “To Continue the Work of Our Foreparents,” for: Who Built America: Working People and the Nation’s History, 4th Edition, American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning (2024).
Journal Essay Accepted for Publication: “The Ocoee Massacre in History and in Memory,” for: The Florida Historical Quarterly, (Spring, 2024) 8,000-word essay.
Book Chapter, Grappling With an ‘Omen of Doom’: Learning From The Ocoee Election Day Massacre, for: Black Hibiscus: African Americans and the Florida Imaginary, Edited by John Wharton Lowe (University of Mississippi Press, 2024), 74-89.
Foreword: “Let’s Make Ours a Better World Together,” for: Dispatches from Beluthahatchee: A Stetson Kennedy Reader (Florida Historical Society Press, 2023)
“Pathways,”essay on my oral history work for: US Latina & Latino Oral History Journal (Volume 6, December 2022), 95-103.
“A Civics Primer for American History,” essay for: Review Roundtable on Jill Lepore’s In These Truths: A History of the United States, in: The American Historical Review, Vol. 125, Issue 5, December 2020, 1773-1777.
“Memories of Revolution,” essay for Special Forum on An African American and Latinx History of the United States in: Cultural Dynamics, Vol. 3, (Fall, 2019), 410-417.
Book Chapter, “’Washington, Toussaint, and Bolívar, The Glorious Advocates of Liberty’: Black Internationalism and Reimagining Emancipation,” in: Rethinking American Emancipation: Legacies of Slavery and the Quest for Black Freedom (Cambridge Press, 2015), eds. William Link and James Broomall, 187-215.
Book Chapter, “The Not So Strange Career of William Watson Davis’s Civil War and Reconstruction in Florida,” in: The Dunning School: Historians, Race, and the Meaning of Reconstruction, ed. John David Smith and J. Vincent Lowery. Foreword by Eric Foner. (University of Kentucky Press, 2013), 255-280.
Invited Guest Editorial, “In Support of Our Students, In Support of the DREAM Act,” Latino Studies (2010) (First guest editorial in the history of this journal.)
Chapter, ¡Si, Se Puede! Revisited: Latino/a Workers in the United States,” in Social Work Practice with Latinos, Eds., Richard Furman & Nalini Negi (Chicago: Lyceum Books, 2010), 45-66.
Honors and Awards
SELECTED AWARDS AND HONORS: Robert L. Hess Scholar-in-Residence, Ethyle R. Wolfe Institute for the Humanities, Brooklyn College, 2023-2024.
Cesar Chavez Liderazgo Hall of Fame Induction, National Council for Leadership, Charlotte, North Carolina, March 25, 2024
University of Florida Research Foundation Professorship for distinguished record of research and scholarship (2023-2026)
National Archives Distinguished Scholar (Latinx History), 2022-2023
The Elizabeth Wood Dunlevie Honors Term Professorship, University of Florida, 2020-2021
University of Florida Term Professorship Award, for establishing “a distinguished record of research and scholarship that is expected to lead to continuing distinction in my field.” (2019-2022).
PEN Oakland-Josephine Miles Award for Literary Excellence, for: An African American and Latinx History of the United States, 2018.
Choice Outstanding Academic Title, for: An African American and Latinx History of the United States, 2018
Kirkus Starred Review, for: An African American and Latinx History of the United States
Diversity Award, for the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program’s “relentless pursuit of community knowledge, local voices, and academic transformation has created a monumental program that has impacted the lives of countless people in Florida and across the nation.” Society of American Archivists, 2015.
Elizabeth B. Mason Award, Oral History Association. For SPOHP Mississippi Freedom Project, 2015.
The César E. Chávez Action and Commitment Award, for “Outstanding leadership through engaging in activities which dignify workers and by making notable contributions to the labor movement & demonstrating resilience in organizing workers, especially those who have been traditionally disadvantaged.” FEA, AFL-CIO, 10/13/13.
Stetson Kennedy Vox Populi Award, Oral History Association. For the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program’s “outstanding achievement in using oral history to create a more humane and just world,” October 2013.
Professional activities
Florida Department of State, Division of Historical Resources, Historical Preservation Grant, $65,000. Primary investigator (2023-2024). (UF declined grant.)
“Challenging Racism at UF: Using History to Create a Welcoming University and a Vibrant Intellectual Atmosphere,” Advancing Racial Justice Through Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access at the University of Florida, UF Research, Primary Investigator, $66,000 (2022-2023)
National Endowment for the Humanities, “Reanimating African American Oral Histories of the Gulf South,” $349,000 to develop a new web search interface and curriculum modules for K-12 educators, Co-primary investigator. (2021-2024)
Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, “Doris Duke Native Oral History Revitalization Project,” $200,000 to supervise digitization and processing of Native American Oral Histories, Co-primary investigator. (2021-2023)
National Endowment for the Humanities, “Migration, Mobility, and Sustainability: Caribbean Studies and Digital Humanities $207,749 to host an international institute at UF, Co-primary investigator. (2018-20)
SELECTED INVITED LECTURES & PANELS:
Keynote Lecture, “Reflecting on Emancipation Betrayed in Florida’s Latest Crisis Era,” Florida Policy Summit, Sarasota, Florida, September 18, 2024
Closing Plenary Panelist, “How to Fight the Autocratic Takeover of Our Public Institutions,” Critical Race Theory Summer School, African American Policy Forum, August 2, 2024
Workshop Leader, “Researching and Teaching Latinx and African American Histories,” Critical Race Theory Summer School, African American Policy Forum, July 29, 2024
Keynote Lecture, “How A ‘Nation of Immigrants,’ Became Anti-Immigrant and What We Can Do About It,” Southeastern Immigration Studies Association, Wofford College, SC, April 14, 2023.
Moderator, “The Thirtieth Anniversary of, Behind the Veil, Documenting African American Life in the Jim Crow South,” panel at Duke University, Discussants: William H. Chafe, Robert Korstad, March 6, 2023.
Panelist, “Whitewashing Black Studies: The Fight for African American Studies in the Era of Racial Backlash,” African American Policy Forum, Columbia University Law School, February 8, 2023
Panelist, “Unions in Higher Education—Historical and Contemporary Realities,” American Historical Association annual meeting, Philadelphia, PA, January 6, 2023
Chair and Comment, “If I Had My Way I’d Tear the Building Down: Revolution, Counterrevolution, and Contested Memories of Reconstruction,” American Studies Association annual meeting, New Orleans, LA, November 5, 2022.
Panelist, “Writing Textbooks: Is a Unified Narrative of Pluralistic America Possible?” for: “Teaching Race and Slavery in the American Classroom,” Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition, Yale University, November 4, 2022
Keynote Lecture, Hispanic Heritage Month for Mi Gente Student Organization, Duke University, October 4, 2022.
Panelist, “Teaching with Social Movements,” Critical Race Theory Summer School, African American Policy Forum, July 20, 2022.
Discussion of An African American and Latinx History of the United States, Gilder Lehrman Book Breaks, The Gilder Lehrman Institute, May 1, 2022.
Panelist, Race, History & Academic Freedom: A Teach-In, National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining, March 2, 2022.
Kyle T. Mays in Conversation with Paul Ortiz, Book Launch Event for: Afro-Indigenous History of the United States, City Lights Booksellers & Publishers, San Francisco, CA, November 9, 2021.
Lecture, “Centering BIPOC Voices and Stories: What We Can Learn from Curriculum Planning in Connecticut,” and Interview with Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, “Not a Nation of Immigrants: Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy and a History of Erasure & Exclusion,” National Antiracism Teach-In, August 10, 2021.
Panel Presentation with Johanna Fernandez, On Latinx Activism, National Antiracism Book Festival, Boston, Massachusetts, April 24, 2021
Keynote Lecture, “The Making of An African American and Latinx History of the United States,” Presidential Equity & Excellence Lecture, Olympic College, Bremerton, Washington, March 4, 2021.
Keynote Lecture, Black History Month, San Jose City College, San Jose, California, February 24, 2021.
Lecture & Book Signing, “Four Hundred Years of African American and Latinx Experiences, from 1619 to 2019,” Florida A&M University, February 18, 2020
Keynote Lecture, “The 100th Anniversary of the Ocoee Election Day Massacre,” The City of Ocoee, Florida, Martin Luther King, Jr. Convocation, January 20, 2020.
Distinguished Faculty Lecture, The Making of An African American and Latinx History of the United States, Gallatin School of Individualized Study, New York University, April 16, 2019.
Lecture & Book Signing, The Making of An African American and Latinx History of the United States, Charles Warren Center for the Study of American History, Harvard University, April 4, 2019
Lecture and Book Signing, An African American and Latinx History of the United States, The Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies, University of California, Los Angeles, February 7, 2019.
Keynote lecture, "Talking Revolution Again: Political Struggles and Organizing in the Era of American Carnage," Chabraja Center for Historical Studies Conference, Northwestern University, April 20, 2018
Lecture and Book Signing: “The Making of An African American and Latinx History of the United States,” Doreen B. Townsend Center for the Humanities, University of California, Berkeley, February 23, 2018