Scott Ellsworth

Scott Ellsworth joined the DAAS faculty in 2007, and teaches courses on African American history, Southern literature, and crime and justice in contemporary U.S. society. Trained as a historian, he received his Ph.D from Duke University in 1982, where he was a member of the Duke Oral History Program. The author of "Death in a Promised Land" (LSU Press), the first-ever comprehensive history of the horrific Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, Dr. Ellsworth served, with Dr. John Hope Franklin, as the lead scholars for the Tulsa Race Riot Commission, and has been involved in the ongoing legal efforts to win compensation for riot survivors. Formerly a historian with the Smithsonian Institution, he has written about American history for the New York Times, the Washington Post, and other publications, and has appeared on National Public Radio, the Today Show, PBS's The American Experience, the History Channel and in both film and broadcast documentaries. His new book, "The Secret Game" (Little, Brown), won a 2016 PEN Book Award, and was named by the Chicago Tribune as one of the Top Ten Books of the Year.