He is the author of Rumor, Repression, and Racial Politics: How the Harassment of Black Elected Officials Shaped Post-Civil Rights America (University of Georgia Press, 2012) which examines black elected officials' allegations of state and news media "harassment" over the course of the post civil rights period. Dr. Musgrove has received the 2003-2004 Anne E. Plato predoctoral fellowship at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut and the 2007-2008 postdoctoral fellowship in the Center for African American Urban Studies and the Economy at Carnegie Mellon University to support his work. He received his Ph.D. in U.S. history from New York University in 2005.