Name William Katz Role Author | Education Syracuse University | |
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Books Black Indians, Black West, Black women of the Old W, Breaking The Chains, Black pioneers | ||
The Black Indians: Freedom Fighters of the Frontier
William Loren Katz is an American educator, historian, and author of forty books on African-American history, including a number of titles for young adult readers. He is particularly noted for his research and writing 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
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Biography
A graduate of Syracuse University (1950, with a Bachelor of Arts in history) and New York University (1952, with an MA in Secondary Education]]), Katz taught in New York City and State public secondary education systems for 14 years. He has served as a consultant to the U.S. Senate, the British House of Commons, and the Smithsonian Institution; the state boards of education of North Carolina and New York; school districts from Seattle, Washington, to Dade County, Florida, to London, England. He is married to Dr. Laurie Lehman, Chair of the Education Department of Long Island University in Brooklyn, and an early authority and writer on Disability Studies.
Katz's "Education and Books" column appeared in the New York Daily Challenge from 1986 to 2003; contributed articles to the Amsterdam News and many other publications; he hosted an interview program on Pacifica Radio station WBAI-FM in New York, and appeared on many TV and radio programs hosted by Indigenous Americans and African Americans. He was the recipient of the 2000 White Dove Imani Peace Award from the White Dove-Imani-Rainbow Lodge of Whitehall, Ohio.
As an acclaimed lecturer he 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 delivered the Keynote Address "The Underground Railroad that Ran South to Freedom,"at its National Conference; and the award for Lifetime Contributions 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.