George Washington Ellis (May 4, 1875 – November 26, 1919) was an African-American attorney, writer, and speaker. Ellis was born on May 4, 1875, in

Weston, Missouri Weston is a town in Platte County, Missouri within the United States. The population was 1,756 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. History The Lewis and Clark, Lewis and Clark Expedition stopped at "Bear Medison" island, near the locat ...

. He attended the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States. Two branch campuses are in the Kansas City metropolitan area on the Kansas side: the university's medical school and hospital ...

, graduating in 1893 with a

Bachelor of Law A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

degree. He later attended

Howard University Howard University is a private, historically black, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity" and accredited by the Mid ...

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, and Gunton's Institute of Economics and Sociology in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

.Roberts, Brian (2013), ''Artistic Ambassadors: Literary and International Representation of the New Negro Era''. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press. pp. 2–3, 181. . He practiced law for a few years following graduation, then in 1900 he went to work for the Census Department in Washington. From 1902 to 1910, Ellis was the secretary of the American delegation to the

Republic of Liberia Liberia, officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean to its south and southwest. It has a ...

. Ellis was one of several African-American officials and ministers, many of them writers like himself, who were sent by the US to areas of Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa between 1869 and the 1930s. Their writing and work on international diplomacy helped shape how the US approached racial diplomacy. At the conclusion of his assignment in Liberia, Ellis returned to the U.S. and opened a law office in

Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. Ellis wrote several publications and served as an editor of the ''

Journal of Race Development The ''Journal of Race Development'' was the first American academic journal of international relations. It was founded in 1910 by G. Stanley Hall along with George Hubbard Blakeslee, both of Clark University. Despite a name which now suggests a ...

''. He died in Chicago on November 26, 1919."Ellis, George Washington"
''West's Encyclopedia of American Law'', 2005. Encyclopedia.com, retrieved 7 February 2016.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ellis, George Washington American editors University of Kansas alumni Howard University alumni African-American diplomats Diplomats for the United States 1875 births 1919 deaths People from Weston, Missouri 19th-century American lawyers 20th-century African-American people 19th-century African-American lawyers