William Loren Katz

William Loren Katz is an American educator, historian, and author of many books on African-American history, including a number of titles for young adult readers. He is particularly noted for his extensive writings on the 500-year history of relations between African Americans and Native Americans in the New World. His books include Black Indians: A Hidden Heritage and 40 other books on African American history

Biography

A graduate of both Syracuse University (1950, with a Bachelor of Arts in history) and New York University (1952, with an MA in Secondary Education), Katz taught in the New York City and State secondary education systems for 14 years. He has served as a consultant for numerous boards of education nationwide.

Katz's "Education and Books" column appeared in the New York Daily Challenge from 1986 to 2003, and he hosted an interview program on Pacifica Radio station WBAI-FM in New York. He was the recipient of the 2000 White Dove Imani Peace Award from the White Dove-Imani-Rainbow Lodge of Whitehall, Ohio.

He is an acclaimed lecturer who has spoken at more than 50 universities and dozens of museums, and libraries, including The American Museum of Natural History, the Smithsonian Institution, The Western History Association to Johns Hopkins University, The Institute for Texan Cultures, and the Schomburg Library. He has been affiliated with New York University since 1973 and is also the editor of more than 220 research volumes for libraries.

His books have won awards and his research, writing and lectures have earned praise from such noted figures as John Hope Franklin, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., John Henrik Clarke, Howard Zinn, James M. McPherson, Alice Walker, Cornel West, Ivan Van Sertima, Betty Shabazz, and Dr. Ralph Bunche.

In 2012 he received the National Underground Railroad to Freedom Award by the National Park Service, and the Lifetime Contribution to The Literature for Children of African Descent from the Institute of African American Affairs, New York University where he has been a scholar-in-residence since 1973.

Selected bibliography

• Black Indians: A Hidden Heritage (1997, Simon Pulse) ISBN 0-689-80901-8
• The Black West: A Documentary and Pictorial History of the African American Role in the Westward Expansion of the United States (1996, Touchstone) ISBN 0-684-81478-1
• Black Pioneers: An Untold Story (1999, Atheneum) ISBN 0-689-81410-0
• Breaking The Chains (1998, Simon Pulse) ISBN 0-689-81919-6
• Black Women of the Old West (1995, Atheneum) ISBN 0-689-31944-4
• Black Legacy: A History of New York's African Americans (1997, Atheneum) ISBN 0-689-31913-4
• Eyewitness: A Living Documentary of the African American Contribution to American History (1995, Touchstone) ISBN 0-684-80199-X
• The Cruel Years: American Voices at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century (with Laurie Lehman, 2001, Beacon Press) ISBN 1-891843-06-0

Essays by Katz

• What Goes Around Comes Around Tuesday October 19, 2004
• The Meaning of Hugo Chávez Tuesday, August 24, 2004
• Iraq, the US and an Old Lesson Wednesday April 28, 2004
• Justice and African Seminoles March 15, 2001
• We Are Repeating the Mistake We Made in the Philippines 100 Years Ago May 3, 2004
• The Forgotten Fight Against Fascism June 13, 2014 on Common Dreams
• 'The Birth of a Nation': A Century Later February 14, 2015 on Common Dreams

See also

• Black Indians in the United States
• Black Seminoles
• Native Americans in the United States
• Native American tribes
• One-Drop Rule
• Zambo

External links

• Official Site
• Simon & Schuster site - Books by William Loren Katz
• Democracy Now! - Eyewitness interview with William Loren Katz
• Review of Katz' website African Americans in the Spanish Civil War on Teachinghistory.org