Personal Heroes of American Black History Month: Marguerite Harper Scott
February is Black History Month in the United States. To honour and celebrate Black Americans I know or admire, I am sharing a series called Personal Heroes of American Black History. Please join me in this celebration.
I had the great privilege of growing up down the road from the Scott family. They were special, you could feel it just being around them. Kim was my childhood friend and we still keep in touch. Kim’s mother, Marguerite, is a formidable woman who will always be Mrs. Scott to me.
In 1966, Mrs. Scott broke the colour barrier as one of the first Black female students to attend Virginia Tech University. During her time there, she successfully campaigned to eliminate both the confederate flag from the campus and the song ‘Dixie’. You can watch her talk about her experiences here.
Outside of being Kim’s mom, Mrs. Scott was a teacher at our local high school. When I was a junior, I elected to take one of her class offerings: Sociology. I can say it was the most impactful course I studied and not just from the subject taught, but the perspective from which it was taught. Most assignments from high school have disappeared from my memory, but one of Mrs. Scott’s optional exercises has stuck with me for 26 years, it was that powerful.
The assignment? Participate in a field trip to the execution of a prisoner on death row at the state prison in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Pretty intense stuff for a 16 year old, but there was never an objection in my mind not to have the experience. My father drove me and one of my classmates who lived in the neighbourhood. We gathered outside the gates of Central Prison on Western Blvd. at 11pm and our task was to interview people in attendance. There were death penalty protestors, police officers, and public just there to grieve.
At midnight, the lights flickered in the prison. The execution had happened. I recall the drive home was quiet. It was a shock to realise someone had just died with us as witness.
Sadly, I don’t remember the class dialogue the next day but as 2020 unfolded and a continued civil rights campaign has taken hold in the States, I have reflected on what it must have meant to Mrs. Scott to offer us this rare and important opportunity. Her daughter, Kim, says that Mrs. Scott wanted her students to study every side of an issue and make learning real. Considering how long I’ve remembered her lesson, she has achieved that goal.
The death penalty affects Black Americans at a disproportionately higher rate than white Americans — Black Americans represent 13.4% of the population, but 34% of all death row executions. We currently have an administration in office who wants to abolish the death penalty, but even with that hope the collective racial trauma of that systemic injustice lives on. Mrs. Scott awakened this knowledge in me at an early age and I’m grateful for it — and grateful to now have the awareness of how deep these societal cuts go, especially for people I consider my personal heroes.
Thank you, Mrs. Scott.
