Skip to main content

James Oliver Horton

James Oliver Horton was the Benjamin Banneker Professor of American Studies and History at George Washington University and Historian Emeritus of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History. From 2004 to 2005 Horton served as the President of the Organization of American Historians, and previously worked as the Senior Advisor on Historical Interpretation and Public Education for the Director of the National Park Service before being appointed by President Clinton to serve on the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission in 2000. He has consulted museum exhibitions and the History Channel and his most recent book, Slavery and Public History: The Tough Stuff of American Memory, was released in 2006.

Articles by this Author

By the end of the Civil War, nearly 200,000 African-Americans had fought for the Union cause and freedom