Paul Ortiz
Paul Ortiz is Professor of Labor History at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations. A PEN Award-winning author, Paul’s book An African American and Latinx History of the United States was identified in 2020 by Bustle as one of “Ten Books About Race to Read Instead of Asking a Person of Color to Explain Things to You.” Fortune Magazine listed it as one of the “10 books on American history that actually reflect the United States.”
Formerly an associate professor in history and director of the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program at the University of Florida. Lives in Gainesville, Florida From Bremerton, Washington.[1]
Married to Sheila Payne.
Education
Studied History at Duke University.
Career
- Past President at Oral History Association
- Vice President at United Faculty of Florida at UF
- Former Radio Operator, Mobile Training Teams at US Army Special Forces (Green Berets)
MAGA Project 2025 webinar
Carol Anderson, Nancy MacLean, Paul Ortiz, Bill Fletcher, Jr.
Prism
Paul Ortiz was a graduate student at Duke, a labor activist and contributor to Prism.[2]
He was also a a North Carolina Farmworker Project board member.[3]
Gainesville comrades
Candi Churchill, Paul Ortiz, Diana Moreno.
Gainesville Veterans for Peace
Paul Ortiz January 14, 2017:
Because a military veteran's place is marching in the annual Gainesville, Florida Martin Luther King, Jr. march with his wife and comrade Sheila Payne and Alachua County Labor Coalition member Jeremiah Tattersall and hundreds of activists! — with Joe Courter, Sherry Steiner, Mary Bahr, Sheila Payne, Faye Williams, John Fullerton and Kali Blount at Veterans For Peace.
Paul Ortiz Follow · May 27, 2017:
Another president, more hype, more war. Come visit Gainesville Veterans for Peace Memorial Mile this weekend. — with Sherry Steiner, Sheila Payne, John Fullerton and Scott Camil at Veterans For Peace.
Teaching for Change
Paul Ortiz January 6 2018:
Grounding with educators and organizers at Teaching for Change office in Washington, DC. Deborah Menkart brought us together with SNCC veteran Charlie Cobb one of my movimiento heroes! We discussed my newly-published An African American and Latinx History of the United States (Beacon Press) Thank you Deborah Menkart for keeping us organized! January 4, 2018. This was the very first book event for An African American and Latinx History of the United States.. — with Fayette Colon, Charles Cobb and Maybelline McCoy at Teaching for Change.
"Futures of Black Radicalism"
Paul Ortiz September 3, 2017:
"Futures of Black Radicalism". Edited by Gaye Theresa Johnson and Alex Lubin with contributions by Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Jordan T. Camp, Angela Davis, Nikhil Singh, Paul Ortiz, Erica Edwards, Robin D. G. Kelley and others! — at Verso Books.
UFW
In 2008 Paul Ortiz's wiife canvassed for the Obama campaign four or five days a week for several months in Gainesville. She learned many of her organizing skills - as did Paul Ortiz- working with the United Farm Workers of America many years ago.[4] |
Labor organizer
In 1998 Paul Ortiz was a graduate student at Duke and a labor activist, and a North Carolina Farmworker Project board member.
Praise for "The Cost of Privilege"
"The Cost of Privilege" an anti-racist book was written by North Carolina Freedom Road Socialist Organization member Chip Smith.
Several people, mostly Freedom Road Socialist Organization members wrote advance "praise blurbs" for the book's website .
- The Cost of Privilege is U.S. history without jargon and blinders. It demonstrates how a stronger grasp of the past may be used to inform social justice organizing in the present. Chip Smith is not interested in moralizing about white supremacy; he wants to dismantle it. Smith presents historical and personal case studies about how to challenge racism as well as anti-immigrant hysteria. Community activists, union organizers, and educators will find this book indispensable in their work."
Paul Ortiz, author of Emancipation Betrayed: The Hidden History of Black Organizing and White Violence in Florida from Reconstruction to the Bloody Election of 1920.[5]
Maestre screening
Catherine Murphy October 24, 2016:
Howard University Education Department will present Maestra this Thursday at 2pm - free & open to the public!
Come on over friends in the DMV! — with James Early, Kymone Tecumseh Freeman, Medea Benjamin, John Lists, Deborah Menkart, Paul Ortiz, Makani Themba, Karen Hampton, Karen Mafundikwa, Doris Derby, Luisa Crespo, Talaya Grimes, Annette Martin, Rhone Fraser, Mimi Machado-Luces, Saad Hayes Sodaye, Matthew White, Lisa Brock, Netfa Freeman, Sira Orozco, Luisa Campos, Eve Goldberg, Luci Murphy, Alison Kibbe, Curtis Muhammad, Mwiza C K Munthali, Mia Henry, Michelle Darden Lee, Alli Jarrar, Banbose Shango, Shah Boo and U.S. Women and Cuba Collaboration at Howard University.
Black Lives Matter march
Paul Ortiz May 21, 2016:
Black Lives Matter march, Gainesville, Florida. — with Nkwanda Jah, Justin Hosbey, Sheila Payne, Brittany Ferrell, Diana Dombrowski, John Fullerton, Nailah Summers, Jessica Taylor and Justin Dunnavant at Veterans for Peace.
C.L.R. James panel
Paul Ortiz March 25, 2016
At Verso Books in Brooklyn last night after our C.L.R. James panel. It was wonderful for Sheila Payne and I to be able to re-connect with brilliant, former students from UC-Santa Cruz and UF who are doing AMAZING work in NYC in the labor movement, in immigration rights, feminism, international solidarity, raising wonderful families and so much more! Thank you to New Politics and to Verso for organizing such a wonderful event. Such a great honor to work with Scott McLemee on the panel! — with Marcie Chin, Erica Lim, Abdul Fattah Ismail, Sheila Payne and Leilani Montes at Verso Books.
May 5th informational picket
Paul Ortiz May 5, 2016:
Couldn't keep these two guys apart at our May 5th informational picket in Gainesville, Florida in solidarity with the Verizon Strikers. Co-organized by Gainesville IWW and the Alachua County Labor Coalition. John Fullerton, Jeremiah Tattersall — with Joe Courter, Sheila Payne, David Wilcox, Hugh Esco, John Fullerton, Candi Churchill, Zot Lynn Szurgot and J.D. Smithwick at Alachua County Labor Coalition.
Nelson Mandela Day Celebration
Paul Ortiz November 28, 2016:
Nelson Mandela Day Celebration, November 28, 2016 organized by the UF African Student Union. Thank you Oluwatoyin Kole and Justin Dunnavant for filming and documenting the event! — with Sherry Sherrod DuPree, Anupa Kotipoyina, Agnes Leslie, Justin Dunnavant and Kali Blount at The Samuel Proctor Oral History Program (SPOHP).
Confronting Racial Capitalism conference
Paul Ortiz November 21, 2014:
With Cedric Robinson and Elizabeth Robinson in 2014 at the Confronting Racial Capitalism conference and thinking through the challenges we face today. The book that has grown from this collaboration, "Futures of Black Radicalism" is out NOW by Verso edited by Gaye Theresa Johnson and Alex Lubin and available for a 50% discount! . https://www.versobooks.com/books/2438-futures-of-black-radicalism — with Robin D. G. Kelley, Thulani Davis, Christina Heatherton, Danny Widener, Jordan T. Camp, Angela Davis, Ruth Wilson Gilmore and Elizabeth Robinson at The Graduate Center, CUNY.