Michael Cottman

Journalist, Author, and Senior Correspondent for Black America Web

Travels From: NY

Fee Range: Call for Quote

Topics:
Writing/Publishing, Political, Journalism, Motivation

Links:

Full GBS Roster

Request More Information

Michael H. Cottman, an award-winning journalist and author, is a Senior Correspondent for BlackAmericaWeb.com, a division of REACH Media/Radio One, the nation largest black-owned media company.

Cottman, a former reporter for The Washington Post, Newsday and The Miami Herald, is also a lecturer in the Department of Journalism at Howard University in Washington, D.C.

Cottman is presently covering the 2008 Presidential campaign and also offers political commentary and news analysis for several national REACH/Radio One stations, which are owned by radio personality Tom Joyner and businesswoman Cathy Hughes.

He was a 2007 recipient of a newly-created political journalism fellowship sponsored by the Knight Foundation and the University of Southern California Annenberg School of Communication.

Cottman also serves on a special advisory board for the National Geographic Society. He was featured in a 2008 National Geographic documentary entitled "The Pirate Code," the story of a 300-year-old shipwreck, The Whydah, and the life Black Sam Bellamy - a legend during the Golden Age of Piracy and follows one mans quest to resurrect Black Sam ship from its watery grave.

Cottman was featured in a 2007 documentary by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) entitled "Moira Stuart: In Search of Wilberforce," the story of the British involvement in trans-Atlantic slave trade.

Cottman, the author of three books, has spent the past 27 years reporting about politics, social trends and America expanding multi-cultural society.

Cottman has interviewed and written about some of the world most prominent news makers, including former South African President Nelson Mandela, the late John F. Kennedy Jr., former New York Mayors Ed Koch, David Dinkins and Rudolph Guliani, and former President Bill Clinton and 2008 presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Cottman has worked for some of the nation top newspapers, including The Washington Post, Newsday, The Miami Herald and The Atlanta Constitution. In addition to writing for newspapers, Cottman also co-wrote a screenplay for Showtime Television Networks, and is presently researching his next book project.

He has received numerous awards including journalism highest honor, the Pulitzer Prize, which he shared with a team of reporters at Newsday in 1992.

Cottman also appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2000 to discuss his book, "The Wreck of the Henrietta Marie." He has also appeared on CNN; NPR; PBS; C-SPAN Booknotes; ABC News and CBS News affiliates, The Learning Channel and The History Channel.

He frequently lectures about journalism, African-American history, contemporary social issues, the politics of race, underwater exploration and the African slave trade. Cottman also serves on a special advisory board of The National Geographic Society.

His journalism travels have taken him across the United States reporting on social conditions in communities from Miami to Los Angeles. He has also reported from West Africa, South Africa, France, the U.K., Japan, Malaysia, Central America, and The Caribbean. In 1998, Cottman traveled to Dakar, Senegal to write about President Bill Clinton historic trip to Africa, the most extensive visit to Africa by a U.S. President. Cottman articles have also been published in The Washington Post Sunday Magazine; Essence; Black Enterprise, Odyssey Couleur, Emerge, Heart and Soul, and SkyWritings, Air Jamaica in-flight magazine, as well scuba diving and tourism trade publications. As a writer who enjoys creative diversity, Cottman also wrote a three-part series in 2005 about life, culture and scuba diving in Malaysia.

In 2005, Cottman served as the keynote speaker for the UK annual Slavery Remembrance Day, held in Liverpool, England.

Some of Cottman other presentations include:

The Smithsonian; National Geographic Society; The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); The Getty Foundation; the Dusable Museum of Chicago; Wayne State University; The Junior League of Richmond; the National Association of Black Genealogists; the Detroit African-American History Museum; The Daytona Beach Museum of Arts and Science; the National Aquarium in Baltimore, The Boston Aquarium; Howard University, Clark Atlanta University, The University of North Carolina, Virginia Tech University, The Little Rock Museum of History, the Augusta Museum of History, The Reginald F. Lewis Museum of African American History and Culture; the National Museums Liverpool, Liverpool, England; The Georgia Aquarium, the Mote Marine Research Laboratory, The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center and The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Cottman is the author of three books, including The Wreck of the Henrietta Marie, (Crown/Random House) the story of a sunken 17th Century slave ship that sank off the coast of Key West, and the black scuba divers who helped explore the 300-year-old vessel. Cottman spent four years researching the origin of the slave ship and retracing the route of Henrietta Marie, traveling to every port of call and scuba diving inlets where the ship anchored.

Cottman traveled to three continents to reconstruct the slaving voyages of the Henrietta Marie and, as a certified scuba diver, helped explore the remains of the vessel which yielded 20,000 artifacts, including the largest collection of slave-ship shackles ever found on one site. It is the only sunken slave ship in the world to be scientifically documented. In 1972, the Henrietta Marie was originally discovered by a group of treasure salvagers, which included a black underwater treasure hunter.

In 1993, Cottman was part of a group of black scuba divers that placed a one-ton monument on the site of the slave ship to commemorate the African people who died aboard the Henrietta Marie and those lost during the Middle Passage. Today, the monument is the only underwater memorial of its kind in the nation. A bronze plaque is embedded on the concrete monument. The inscription reads: "Henrietta Marie: In memory and recognition of the courage, pain and suffering of enslaved African people. Speak her name and gently touch the souls of our ancestors."

Cottman, who has logged dozens of dives on the slave-ship site, co-sponsors annual trips to the wreck of the Henrietta Marie for certified divers. The site is protected by several federal marine agencies. In June 2005, Cottman joined several NABS members in taking a group of public school students to the Henrietta Marie site, marking the first time black students had visited the wreck.

Cottman belongs to a number of professional associations, including The Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society, and the National Association of Black Scuba Divers. Cottman was certified as an Advanced Open Water scuba diver in 1991 by the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI).

Would You Like More Information About our Speakers? Fill out the form below and someone will get back to you shortly.