Emmett Scott
*Emmett J. Scott was born on this date in 1873. He was a Black author and administrator.
From Houston, TX, he briefly attended Wiley College in Marshall, TX., before working as a journalist for the Houston Post in 1891. He was awarded an honorary M.A. from Wiley College in 1901. In 1894, he started his weekly newspaper, the Houston Freeman, and soon after became the personal secretary for Booker T. Washington. Scott was elected secretary of the Tuskegee Institute from this position in 1912. He became widely recognized as the leader of what was later known as the “Tuskegee Machine,” the group of people close to Booker T. Washington who wielded influence over the Black press, churches, and schools to promote Washington’s views.
After Washington’s death, Scott became a special assistant to the U.S. secretary of war in charge of Negro affairs at the start of World War I. This was when race relations in the military were an issue of debate, and it was here where Scott became a liaison between Black soldiers and the War Department. For twenty years from 1919, he held positions as secretary, treasurer, or business manager at Howard University. He was also the father of poet Clarissa Scott Delaney. Emmett Scott died in 1957.
The Encyclopedia of African American Heritage
by Susan Altman
Copyright 1997, Facts on File, Inc. New York
ISBN 0-8160-3289-0
