[1][2] Although largely forgotten today, he was among the most famous African American correspondents in the United States during the mid-20th century.

[1] In 1943 he published New World A-Coming: Inside Black America, which described life for African Americans in Harlem, New York City, in the 1920s and 1930s.

[1] He also interviewed important personalities like Governor Talmadge of Georgia, and Samuel Green, Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan.

[1] Ottley's other published works include Black Odyssey: The Story of the Negro in America, 1948;[6] No Green Pastures, 1951;[7] and Lonely Warrior: The Life and Times of Robert S. Abbot, 1955.

[8] Two were published posthumously: White Marble Lady in 1965,[9] and The Negro in New York: An Informal Social History, 1626–1940 in 1967.