NAACP Community Service Award-Donald Scott

Donald Scott, Sr., Assistant Professor of English, was awarded the Cheltenham-NAACP Community Service Award and a citation from State Sen. LeAnna Washington of Pennsylvania for his journalistic writing, history research and authoring a book about Camp William Penn, the first and largest federal facility to train black soldiers during the Civil War that was located in what is today Cheltenham Township, Pa. He is also a history columnist for the Journal-Register Co. and was also noted for contributing as a writer to the award-winning web site, www.afrigeneas.com, that focuses on African-American genealogy. Scott’s Afrigeneas articles have concerned tracing his roots to 18th-century Virginia and the Sea Islands of South Carolina, as well as via DNA studies to Africa’s Djolla of Guinea Bissau, Liberia’s Kpelle, Ghana’s Akan and Ashanti, as well as Nigeria’s Hausa and Edo (or Bini) peoples. His latest article about rare paintings of a black family with interracial ties to Philadelphia’s first mayor (circa 1691) can be found at www.afrigeneas.com/library/portraits_article.html.