William Seraile (born 1941) is a noted African American historian, pedagogue, writer, and community activist who was one of the earliest scholars to teach African American history within an academic department focused on Black studies.
Seraile was born in New Orleans, Louisiana as one of seven children, but his family moved to Washington state and he grew up primarily in and around Seattle. He graduated from Garfield High School in Seattle (1959), and received a Bachelor of Arts in social science from Central Washington University (1963).
Following his graduation, Seraile volunteered as a teacher with the Peace Corps in northern Ethiopia from 1963 to 1965 (his twin brother Wilfred ("Dick," 1941-1984) served with the Peace Corps in Liberia from 1964 to 1966). Seraile's experience in Ethiopia inspired him to want to learn more about African and African American history. After his return to the United States, he moved to New York City and earned a Master of Arts in history from Columbia University Teachers College (1967). Seraile then volunteered to teach English with International Voluntary Services in Cần Thơ, South Vietnam (1967-1968), an assignment cut short by the Tet offensive. Seraile met and befriended the writer John Balaban during his Vietnam service.
Returning to New York, Seraile taught history and worked for the textbook publisher Silver Burdett; he was later a consultant for textbooks and other educational products regarding Black history, advising or writing for the American Book Company, Litton Educational Publishing, and the Anti-Defamation League.
In 1971, Seraile quit his job at Silver Burdett to accept a lecturer position on the faculty of Herbert H. Lehman College, City University of New York (CUNY), working in what would become the Black Studies department (now Africana Studies). The following year, he entered the CUNY Graduate Center, earning his Ph.D in American history in 1977. His dissertation was on the New York State Black regiments that fought in the Civil War, which later became the topic of his last book.
Seraile played a large part in establishing the Black Studies curriculum at Lehman, creating and teaching several courses, such as History of African Americans, the Harlem Renaissance, the 1960s, Blacks in Politics, the Civil Rights Movement, and Black Nationalism. In the early-1990s, following the discovery of the African Burial Ground in Lower Manhattan, he headed Lehman's African Burial Ground Steering Committee, as well as its Genesis Project, which supported research, education, and community outreach related to the burial ground. Seraile was a popular instructor at Lehman, and was the first Black faculty member to receive the college's Teacher of the Year award in 1991. He was eventually promoted to full professor and retired to the rank of Professor Emeritus in 2007.
Seraile's published books include Voice of Dissent: Theophilus Gould Steward and Black America (1991); Fire In His Heart: Bishop Benjamin Tucker Tanner and the A.M.E. Church (1999); Bruce Grit: The Black Nationalist Writings of John Edward Bruce (2003); Angels of Mercy: White Women and the History of New York's Colored Orphan Asylum (2011); and New York's Black Regiments During the Civil War (2019). He also authored many articles for both academic journals and lay publications on African American people, issues, and historical topics, as well as book reviews. These articles appeared in venues such as Black World, Essence, Encore, The Journal of American History, Pennsylvania History, Big Red News, the New York Amsterdam News, and the New York Historical Society Quarterly.
In addition to his career at Lehman, Seraile advised the Schomburg Center on acquisitions and served on the board of the Schomburg Corporation as historian and archivist. He was also a consultant to the New York public schools and to various community groups in New York City. His long-standing concern was the lack of curricula in the school system regarding African American history. Seraile lectured at public events and libraries, often for the Manhattan branch of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH). (Seraile served as the vice-president of the Manhattan branch of ASALH and president of the Area Council of the New Jersey-New York branches.) Other groups with whom he was active include the Association of Black Educators of New York, the Committee to Eliminate Media Offensive to Black People (CEMOTAP), and the progressive New Alliance party. Seraile served on the party's Mid-Atlantic Steering Committee and ran on the New Alliance ticket against Congressman Charlie Rangel in the 1986 election. He appeared frequently as a guest on WLIB radio in New York in the 1980s, and hosted television programs on African American history and culture for New York City local cable outlets.
In addition to Lehman's Teacher of the Year honor, Seraile's many awards include the ASALH Award for "Unsung Historian" (1983), the Marcus Garvey Memorial Foundation-Carter G. Woodson-William Leo Hansberry Award for contributions in history (1989), Central Washington University's Outstanding Alumni award (2009), the ASALH Carter G. Woodson Scholars Medallion (2017), and the Graduate Center Service to City University of New York Alumni Achievement Award (2017).
Seraile was married to Janette Grey Seraile (1945-2011), an attorney, from 1970 until her death from cancer. He lives in Harlem, New York.