Michael Butler

Dr. J. Michael Butler is the Kenan Distinguished Professor of History and the Humanities Department Chair at Flagler College, where he has taught since 2008. His work has appeared in many leading peer-reviewed academic publications, such as American Studies, the Journal of Southern History, Southern Cultures, and, most recently, The Journal of African American History.  His book Beyond Integration: The Black Freedom Struggle in Escambia County, Florida, 1960-1980 won a 2017 Florida Book Award in nonfiction. Dr. Butler, who received his PhD in History from the University of Mississippi, specializes in southern cultural history with an emphasis on the Black freedom struggle, teaches a number of classes on the topics, and has spoken to dozens of teachers and community groups about the civil rights movement and African American history. His work has been featured by PBS, NPR, C-Span, NBC News.com, Salon.com, Vanity Fair magazine, and two Emmy-winning First Coast News documentaries, among others. The Organization of American Historians named Dr. Butler a “Distinguished Lecturer” in 2024, and he was a Visiting Professor at the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University for the Fall 2025 academic semester.