His Works

As a columnist for the Chicago Tribune, war-correspondent, and author of several best-selling books, Roi Ottley was, in the words of Ernest Hemingway, "One of the outstanding Negro writers of America."  His 1943 book, New World A-Coming won the coveted Peabody Award as well as the Life in America Award.   His other books, Black Odyssey, No Green Pastures, White Marble Lady, The Lonely Warrior, and The Negro in New York all examined issues concerning race.  In 1944, Ottley traveled to Europe where he became known as "the first Negro war correspondent to write for a major paper."  He covered the events of World War II on a day to basis for several major newspapers. Some of the articles he wrote, and the journal he kept were published in 2011 as Roi Ottley's World War II.