Emmett J. Scott

The first biography of Emmett J. Scott, chief of staff, adviser, and ghostwriter to Booker T. Washington, and power player behind the Tuskegee Institute

“Scott was one of the twentieth century’s most influential American men of color, a historic figure whose derived political and institutional power was for a time almost matchless. . . . To be sure, the record of our history is now far richer with the inclusion of the life and times of Emmett Jay Scott.”

—David Levering Lewis, from the foreword

Emmett J. Scott

Power Broker of the Tuskegee Machine

M A ceo c . dA iley J R . • e dited by w ill g uz M á N AN d dA vid h . J A ckso N J R . • f o R ewo R d by dA vid l eve R i N g l ewis • Afte R wo R d by e l A i N e bR ow N

Maceo Crenshaw Dailey Jr. (d. 2015) was the first director of African American Studies at the University of Texas at El Paso. Recognized nationally for his scholarship, Dailey authored many chapters, essays, articles, and books on African American history. Will Guzmán is professor of history at Prairie View A&M University and is author of Civil Rights in the Texas Borderlands: Dr. Lawrence A. Nixon and Black Activism. His research interests are in African American and Afro–Puerto Rican history. David H. Jackson Jr. is provost at North Carolina Central University. A prolific scholar of African American studies, his most recent book is Booker T. Washington and the Struggle against White Supremacy: The Southern Educational Tours, 1908–1912.

biogRAPhy / blAck histoRy

424 pp., 6 x 9, index $45.00 cloth 978-1-68283-123-6 $19.95 ebook 978-1-68283-130-4 reAred in Freedmen’s town, texAs, emmett J. Scott was a journalist, newspaper editor, government official, author, and chief of staff, adviser, and ghostwriter to Booker T. Washington. Frequently called “the power broker of the Tuskegee Machine,” Scott was a Renaissance man, scholar, and political fixer. However, his life has not received a full examination until now. Built upon fifty years of research, Emmett J. Scott offers readers this essential biography.

Before his death, Maceo Crenshaw Dailey had nearly singular access to the Scott papers at Morgan State University, now closed for decades. With this book, readers will finally learn of Scott’s behind-the-scenes contributions to racial uplift and his influential role in advancing not only the Tuskegee Institute but also the Booker T. Washington agenda.

Editors Will Guzmán and David H. Jackson lend their own expertise in bringing Dailey’s lifetime project to fruition. Twotime Pulitzer Prize–winning historian David Levering Lewis provides a timely foreword. Former Black Panther Party chairwoman Elaine Brown, granddaughter of Emmett J. Scott, reflects on Scott and his impact in the afterword.

Taken together, this biography is an impressive reference and an essential endeavor of recovery, one that restores to prominence the life and legacy of Emmett J. Scott.