Each spring semester James Oliver Horton teaches in the UH Department of American Studies. During the fall semester he serves as the Benjamin Banneker Professor of American Studies and History at George Washington University and Director of the Afro-American Communities Project of the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution. Professor Horton received his Ph.D. in history from Brandeis University in 1973. He was Senior Fulbright Professor of American Studies at the University of Munich, in Germany (1988-89) and has also lectured throughout Europe and in Thailand and Japan. In 1991 he assisted the German government in developing American Studies programs in the former East Germany. In 1993 Professor Horton was appointed by Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt to serve on the National Park System Advisory Board and in 1996 he was elected board chair. In 1994-5 he served as Senior Advisor on Historical Interpretation and Public Education for the Director of the National Park Service.

Professor Horton has been recognized for teaching excellence, receiving The Carnegie Foundation, CASE Professor of the Year Award for the District of Columbia in 1996 and the Trachtenberg Distinguished Teaching Award for George Washington University in 1994. He has authored or co-authored nine books, including, most recently, Slavery and the Making of America (Oxford University Press, 2004), the companion book for the WNET PBS series of the same name which aired in February of 2005. He also is the editor of the Oxford University Press series, "The Landmarks of American History," (12 projected volumes, 2002-2007). He was awarded the President's Medal, October 2006.

He has served as historical advisor to several museums in the United States and abroad, including the Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, OH, the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, TN, Colonial Williamsburg, and Monticello. An advocate of public history, he has been historical consultant to numerous film and video productions including those seen on ABC, PBS, the Discovery Channels, C-Span TV, and the History Channel. Most recently he was historical consultant to and appeared in the PBS series “Africans in America” and The American Experience Series “John Brown’s Holy War." Other PBS appearances include” Duke Ellington’s Washington,” and “New England and the Civil War.” Professor Horton's regular appearances on The History Channel include the films "The Underground Railroad," “The History of the U.S. Marshals,” The Bounty Hunters,” and as the subject of a recent episode in The History Channel series, "Great Minds in American History," hosted by Roger Mudd. He has just completed the filming of historical commentary on the Civil War which will be included in the DVD version of the movie "Glory" and he is a regular panelist on The History Channel's weekly program, "The History Center."

From 1998 to 2000 Professor Horton worked with the White House Millennium Council, acting as historical expert for then First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. He traveled with the First Lady's "Save American Treasures" bus tour of historic places in the summer of 1998 and accompanied her on a tour of historic sites in Boston in the winter of 1998. In the fall of 2000, he was appointed by President William Clinton as one of two historians to serve on the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission.

Professor Horton was awarded the John Adams Distinguished Fulbright Chair in American History at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands for the fall semester, 2003. In 2004-5 he was the President of the Organization of American Historians, and in May of 2005 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters by Wagner College. In February of 2005 the Afro-American Museum of Boston presented Professor Horton with its “Living Legend Award.” A traveling exhibit curated with David Brion Davis, "Free at Last: A History of the Abolition of Slavery," opened Fall, 1997 at Fifth/Third Bank Exhibition Gallery, Cincinnati and Independence Hall, New York City. It is currently touring the United States.

BOOKS:
The Landmarks of African American History (Oxford University Press, 2005)

Slavery and the Making of America (Oxford University Press, 2004) the companion book for the WNET PBS series of the same name to air in February of 2005, coauthored with Lois E. Horton

Hard Road to Freedom: The Story of African America (Rutgers University Press, 2001), coauthored with Lois E. Horton.

Von Benin Nach Baltimore: Geschichte der African Americans
(Hamburger Edition, Germany, 1999), coauthored with Norbert Finzsch and Lois E. Horton

In Hope of Liberty: Free Black Culture and Community in the North, 1700-1865, (Oxford University Press, 1997),coauthored with Lois E. Horton. Oxford University Press nominee for the 1997 Pulitzer Prize in History.

The History of the African American People (Smithmark Publishers, 1995),co-edited with Lois E. Horton; (paper edition, Wayne State University Press, 1997)

Free People of Color: Interior Issues in African American Community (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1993).

City of Magnificent Intentions, A History of the District of Columbia (Intac, Inc., Washington, D.C., 1983), Pilot Series editor.

Black Bostonians: Family Life and Community Struggle in the Antebellum North (Holmes and Meier Publishers, New York, 1979, Second edition, 2000), coauthored with Lois E. Horton.