Paul Ortiz is director of the award-winning Samuel Proctor Oral History Program and professor of history at the University of Florida. His book, "An African American and Latinx History of the United States" is the recipient of the 2018 PEN Oakland-Josephine Miles Award for Literary Excellence. He is also the author of "Emancipation Betrayed: The Hidden History of Black Organizing and White Violence in Florida from Reconstruction to the Blood Election of 1920." 

He was an interviewer and co-editor of "Remembering Jim Crow: African Americans Tell About Life in the Segregated South" (New Press). Paul received the 2013 César E. Chávez Action and Commitment Award from the Florida Education Association, AFL-CIO 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".