Don 'Ogbewii' Scott

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Don ‘Ogbewii’ Scott taught research writing, journalism, African-American literature and multiple levels of composition as a college professor. He wrote several thousand articles (and/or edited) for The Miami News, The Fort Lauderdale News, The Philadelphia Tribune, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Daily Local News and The Times Chronicle, as well as other publications in the MediaNews Group and Digital First Media. Topics ranged from his Gullah-Geechee ancestors and corporate media mergers to Civil-War history focusing on anti-slavery abolitionist journalists and Black soldiers in the conflict that he also examined in several books.

He has also written for England's National Archives' publication, Ancestors; Wharton, America's Civil War, Everton's Family History,  www.Afrigeneas.com and American Visions, etc.

Further, Scott contributed stories or chapters to three acclaimed book projects, including the African American National Biography, edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr and Evelyn Higginbotham of Harvard University and Oxford University Press, as well as the Encyclopedia of Jim Crow, a Houghton-Mifflin publication and The Civil War in Pennsylvania: The African American Experience, edited by Samuel Black, a Heinz Museum curator.

The author of several books concerning Pennsylvania history, Camp William Penn: 1863-1865 is about the first and largest federal institution to train black soldiers during the Civil War; his most recent 384-page book about the post was updated as an ebook by Schiffer Publishing in 2021.  

 

Scott's 2025 Brookline-Casemate Publishing book, The Montiers: From Enslavement to Paul Robeson and Beyond, concerns the very important story of a colonial-era interracial family that can be traced through multiple generations and into the 21st century.

The African-American Montier family traces its roots to the British-born Caucasian son of Philadelphia’s first mayor, Richard Morrey, who had a relationship with Cremona, a young woman who had been enslaved by the Morrey family, resulting in five mixed-race children. Before his death, Richard would pass to Cremona 200 acres of land, giving her an almost unique position in 18th-century Philadelphia. On this land a small Black town known as Guineatown would grow up, with an associated cemetery.
 
Cremona’s descendants and luminaries associated with the family include Cyrus Bustill, a black activist and baker who made bread for the Continental Army; David Bustill Bowser, a 19th-century activist who designed and created the colors for eleven African-American regiments at Camp William Penn; the great Paul Robeson, renowned scholar, lawyer, diplomat, athlete, singer, and actor; and William Pickens, Sr., a co-founder of the NAACP. The Montiers traces this unique family to the present day.

Scott’s often televised talks were hosted by the Molefi Kete Institute, Independence Mall National Historic Site, the National Archives, the U.S. Dept of Labor, U.S. National Energy Laboratory, Community College of Philadelphia and National Civil War Museum. Several presentations were co-sponsored by Pa Humanities and the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. - Contact dscott9703@gmail.com