Audiobooks by Scott Ellsworth

The Ground Breaking: The Tulsa Race Massacre and an American City's Search for Justice

A gripping exploration of the worst single incident of racial violence in American history, timed to coincide with its 100th anniversary. On 31 May 1921, in the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, a mob of white men and women reduced a prosperous African American community, known as Black Wall Street, to rubble, leaving countless dead and unaccounted for, and thousands of homes and businesses destroyed. But along with the bodies, they buried the secrets of the crime. Scott Ellsworth, a native of Tulsa, became determined to unearth the secrets of his home town. Now, nearly 40 years after his first major historical account of the massacre, Ellsworth returns to the city in search of answers. Along with a prominent African American forensic archaeologist whose family survived the riots, Ellsworth has been tasked with locating and exhuming the mass graves and identifying the victims for the first time. But the investigation is not simply to find graves or bodies - it is a reckoning with one of the darkest chapters of American history. 'A brilliant update that recounts the events with the swiftness of an especially grim crime thriller. ... An essential historical record surrounding heinous events that have yet to be answered with racial justice.' Kirkus Reviews (starred review) 'Absolutely riveting ... With a stunning combination of objectivity and empathy, it demonstrates how even in polarized times we can come together in pursuit of truth. ... Anyone interested in America's future should read it as a template for the reconciliation that lies ahead.' Tim Blake Nelson 'The persistence, empathy and painstaking research of The Ground Breaking move us much closer to the justice that the victims of Greenwood, and the people of America, deserve. Heartbreaking and inspiring.' Beto O'Rourke

Scott Ellsworth (Author), Ako Mitchell (Narrator)

Audiobook

Play Sample Listen For Free

Death in a Promised Land: The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921

Widely believed to be the most extreme incidence of white racial violence against African Americans in modern United States history, the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre resulted in the destruction of over one thousand black-owned businesses and homes as well as the murder of between fifty and three hundred black residents. Exhaustively researched and critically acclaimed, Death in a Promised Land is the definitive account of the Tulsa race riot and its aftermath, in which much of the history of the destruction and violence was covered up. It is the compelling story of racial ideologies, southwestern politics, incendiary journalism, and an embattled black community's struggle to hold onto its land and freedom. More than just the chronicle of one of the nation's most devastating racial pogroms, this critically acclaimed study of American race relations is, above all, a gripping story of terror and lawlessness and of courage, heroism, and human perseverance.

Scott Ellsworth (Author), Pat Grimes (Narrator)

Audiobook

Play Sample Listen For Free

The Secret Game: A Wartime Story of Courage, Change, and Basketball's Lost Triumph

Winner of the 2016 PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing The true story of the game that never should have happened--and of a nation on the brink of monumental change In the fall of 1943, at the little-known North Carolina College for Negroes, Coach John McLendon was on the verge of changing basketball forever. A protégé of James Naismith, the game's inventor, McLendon taught his team to play the full-court press and run a fast break that no one could catch. His Eagles would become the highest-scoring college team in America--a basketball juggernaut that shattered its opponents by as many as sixty points per game. Yet his players faced danger whenever they traveled backcountry roads. Across town, at Duke University, the best basketball squad on campus wasn't the Blue Devils, but an all-white military team from the Duke medical school. Composed of former college stars from across the country, the team dismantled everyone they faced, including the Duke varsity. They were prepared to take on anyone--until an audacious invitation arrived, one that was years ahead of anything the South had ever seen before. What happened next wasn't on anyone's schedule. Based on years of research, The Secret Game is a story of courage and determination, and of an incredible, long-buried moment in the nation's sporting past. The riveting, true account of a remarkable season, it is the story of how a group of forgotten college basketball players, aided by a pair of refugees from Nazi Germany and a group of daring student activists, not only blazed a trail for a new kind of America, but helped create one of the most meaningful moments in basketball history.

Scott Ellsworth (Author), Scott Ellsworth (Narrator)

Audiobook

Play Sample Listen For Free