Nauman Scott
Encyclopedia
Nauman Steele Scott, II was a Republican
-appointed federal judge in the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana
from 1970 until 2001, who ordered cross-parish busing guidelines in 1980 to foster racial balance in Rapides Parish public schools. Because of his active fight against lingering remnants of segregation
, Judge Scott has often been compared to two other Republican federal judges in similar circumstances, John Minor Wisdom
(1905–1999) of New Orleans and Frank M. Johnson, Jr.
, of Montgomery, Alabama
, the latter a rival of former Alabama
Governor George C. Wallace, Jr.
Prior to his judicial appointment, Scott had been an attorney in private practice in Alexandria
.
in Pointe Coupee Parish to attorney Nauman Steele Scott, I, and the former Sidonie Provosty. His maternal grandfather, Albin Provosty, had been a state senator
, and his great-uncle, Olivier Provosty, was Chief Justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court from 1920-1922. Scott grew up in Alexandria. Scott, Sr., was killed in a tragic gunshot accident when Scott he was only eleven years of age, leaving him and four younger siblings. For a time, he was a childhood playmate of Louisiana's future Republican national committeewoman, Mary Virginia Wheadon de Gravelles
, who served in the party post from 1964-1968.
As per his late father's wishes, Scott was sent to boarding school and graduated from the elite Lake Forest Academy
in Lake Forest
, Illinois
, in 1934 and from Amherst College
in Amherst, Massachusetts
, in 1938. In 1941, he received his LL.B. degree from Tulane University
Law School in New Orleans. He established his practice in Alexandria from 1941-1942. On January 8, 1942, he married the former Blanche Hammond (1920–1985). From 1942-1946, he was a first lieutenant
in the U.S. Air Force. After the war, he resumed his law practice—Provosty, Sadler, and Scott—from 1946-1970.
Scott was president of the Alexandria Bar Association from 1965-1966. In November 1966, he ran for the Rapides Parish School Board. Though Scott was the top Republican votegetter, he lost the race because the weakest Democrat
on the ballot still outpolled him by some 3,000 votes. Democrats won all six of the at-large school board seats contested that year.
In 1972, Scott presided over the perjury
trial of Concordia Parish Sheriff
Noah W. Cross
, whose conviction was subsequently upheld on appeal. Cross, who began his tenure as sheriff in 1944 was compelled to resign in 1974 to enter federal prison. He died some two years later after having been released.
Scott served on the Louisiana Law Institute, the Louisiana Mineral Law Institute, and the Bar Association Committee for Drafting the Louisiana Constitution of 1974. He was a member of the Lake Forest Academy Hall of Fame, the recipient of the Amherst College Distinguished Alumni Award, the Tulane Law School Distinguished Jurist Award, and the Distinguished Jurist Award of the Louisiana Bar Association.
In 1980, Scott authorized a massive cross-parish busing plan. Few blacks at the time lived in the northern Wards 10 and 11 of Rapides Parish. To achieve integration, some black students were bused into the two wards, and certain whites were ordered into predominantly black areas of Alexandria. The plan was strongly opposed by many whites in the affected rural areas but hailed by black lawyers representing the minority community.
Scott's decision had a U.S. Supreme Court precedent, Swann v. Mecklenburg Independent School District (1971), a case from Charlotte, North Carolina
, which required busing across geographic boundaries, such as ward-to-ward or city-to-county, to increase racial balance in public schools. Swann, however, ran counter to the original 1954 desegregation ruling, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas
. Brown had forbidden segregation
in public schools but had not required racial balancing.
Scott's decision spurred angry protests, court battles and ultimate changes that led to a restructuring of the Rapides Parish school district. According to the Alexandria Daily Town Talk
, in 1980, at least nine Rapides Parish schools were still more than 93 percent black. The desegregation lawsuit, still open from 1961, had been filed by the Reverend Sylvester Valley, who wanted his daughter to attend a desegregated school.
Some desegregation, especially at the high school level, occurred in 1969. In an effort to remedy a perceived situation of de facto
racial inequity, Scott revived the lawsuit and directed massive school zone changes, cross-parish busing, school closures, and reassignment of principals. Critics said that the judge in reality had taken over the duties of the school board, which had been the only public office that Scott had ever sought in an election.
Lee took custody of the three girls, instructed police to take them to classes, and warned school officials to treat them like any other students, or face jail and fines. Scott then threatened to impose a $500-a-day fine on anyone who disobeyed his decree that the girls must attend the Jones Street facility.
For weeks, Lee attempted to countermand every desegregation order issued by Scott. Finally, Scott slapped contempt charges against Lee but revoked them in a bid to end the dispute over which school the girls would attend. According to the New York Times, Lee accused Scott of "trying to blackmail me . . . I was a gentleman and did what I said I was going to do, and he backed out. He lied to me.
When the girls re-enrolled at Buckeye High School, Scott ordered that none of their credits could be accepted by the Rapides Parish school system. Therefore, the girls -- called the "Buckeye Three" -- by the media—switched parental custody so that they could attend the mostly white Buckeye school. The parents retained the influential Lafayette
lawyer J. Minos Simon
to represent them. In 2008, Lee, having left the bench, was chairman of the Rapides Parish Democratic Executive Committee.
The Rapides Parish case attracted national attention for several weeks, even drawing the eye of then CBS anchorman Walter Cronkite
. Democratic Congressman Lawrence P. McDonald (1935–1983) of Georgia
, filed an impeachment
resolution against Judge Scott on February 5, 1981, on grounds that Scott had usurped local authority. McDonald, a member of the anticommunist John Birch Society
, was killed two years later when the Soviet Union
shot down the Korean Airliner 007 plane over the Kamchatka Peninsula
. No hearings were held on McDonald's impeachment resolution against Judge Scott.
On June 20, 1988, Judge Scott consolidated the schools of Bordelonville, Mansura
, Moreauville
, Plaucheville
, and Simmesport
in Avoyelles Parish to strengthen racial balance.
Scott's order closed Forest Hill
Elementary School closed, but parents tried to defy the order. They symbolically raising the U.S. flag daily to show that school was in session. It was converted into a private school. One of the Forest Hill parents, Clyde C. Holloway
, ran for the U.S. Congress in 1980 as a protest to Scott's order. In 1985, Holloway ran for Congress in a special election in which one of Judge Scott's sons, State Representative John W. "Jock" Scott
, was an opponent. In 1986, Holloway was elected to Congress for the first of three consecutive terms.
The federal court ruled that Rapides Parish had achieved racial equality in transportation, extracurricular activities, and facilities but not in student assignments and faculty racial ratios. Rapides Parish has altered school zones since Scott's ruling, but the school district was still impacted by Scott's orders in its zoning and hiring decisions.
On September 28, 2006, the U.S. District Court in Alexandria finally ended its supervision of the Rapides Parish public schools. Judge Dee D. Drell
, an appointee of President George W. Bush
, held that the district is fully desegregated, free of racial discrimination, and no longer requires federal supervision.
, of Pineville
. Jock Scott said that his loss may have been partly attributed to opposition in rural areas of Rapides Parish to his father's busing orders even though seven years had passed since the decision.
Judge Scott continued in senior status almost until his death and relished recounting to family, friends and associates the difficult days and circumstances of his celebrated cases. Even many years after these decisions, he remained concerned about their implementation and defended their correctness. He was conflicted about his place in the civil rights history of the region and understood the emotions his decisions caused among so many. His nephew Reverend Pike Thomas recalled a favorite memory, that Scott, in spite of his highly controversial persona, never delisted his telephone or public listing in the local telephone book and often courteously received the most reviling calls, even death threats, from local irate residents. "He was an example of rock-ribbed integrity mingles with compassion," Thomas stated.
in New Orleans in the Scott family plot of his grandfather, noted contractor Nathaniel Graves Scott (1848–1926).
Another childhood friend and associate, well-known Louisiana political figure who, like Judge Scott, was born in New Roads, deLesseps Story Morrison, Sr., a former mayor of New Orleans and ambassador to the Organization of American States, is also interred at Metairie Cemetery. The Provostys and Morrisons were political allies and sometimes rivals in the tumultuous local politics of Pointe Coupée Parish.
Judge Scott was preceded in death by his wife Blanche Hammond, who herself was active in Republican politics and whose mother, Hilda Phelps Hammond, penned one of the most celebrated anti-Huey Long
books in the 1930s
, Let Freedom Ring. A younger brother, oilman Albin Provosty Scott, likewise preceded him in death. Survivors included three sons, Nauman S. Scott, III, and Arthur Hammond Scott, both of New Orleans, and Jock Scott; one daughter, Ashley Scott Rankin of Dallas
; three sisters, Sidonie Scott Thomas of Alexandria, M'Adele Scott Read of Covington
, and Natalie Scott Persons of Mobile, Alabama
, and six grandchildren.
In 1981, Judge Scott's oldest and youngest sons, Nauman, III (born May 10, 1945), and Hammond Scott (born 1950), founded Black Top Records
, which specializes in rhythm and blues music. Nauman, III, a New Orleans lawyer as well as record company executive, died at the age of fifty-six on January 8, 2002, on what would have been his parents' sixtieth anniversary. His death came four months after Judge Scott's passing. The record company folded about 1999. Middle-son Jock Scott died on April 25, 2009, at the age of sixty-one while working in his yard at his residence on Jackson Street in Alexandria.
Jock Scott was an Alexandria lawyer and assistant professor of history at Louisiana State University at Alexandria
. In 2004, he tried yet again for higher office, running for Fifth District congressman, but he ran afoul of a "political dirty trick" as the popular freshman Democratic incumbent, Rodney Alexander
, switched his affiliation at the last hour of qualifying to the Republican Party, bringing the state GOP apparatus along with him. Scott remained in the race but, without the endorsement of his party, trailed far behind.
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
-appointed federal judge in the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana
United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana
The United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana is a United States federal court with jurisdiction over approximately two thirds of the state of Louisiana, with courts in Alexandria, Lafayette, Lake Charles, Monroe and Shreveport...
from 1970 until 2001, who ordered cross-parish busing guidelines in 1980 to foster racial balance in Rapides Parish public schools. Because of his active fight against lingering remnants of segregation
Racial segregation
Racial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home...
, Judge Scott has often been compared to two other Republican federal judges in similar circumstances, John Minor Wisdom
John Minor Wisdom
John Minor Wisdom , one of the "Fifth Circuit Four", and a liberal Republican from Louisiana, was a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit during the 1950s and 1960s, when that court became known for a series of decisions crucial in advancing the civil rights of...
(1905–1999) of New Orleans and Frank M. Johnson, Jr.
Frank Minis Johnson
Frank Minis Johnson, Jr. was a United States Federal judge, made a number of landmark civil rights rulings that helped end segregation in the South...
, of Montgomery, Alabama
Montgomery, Alabama
Montgomery is the capital of the U.S. state of Alabama, and is the county seat of Montgomery County. It is located on the Alabama River southeast of the center of the state, in the Gulf Coastal Plain. As of the 2010 census, Montgomery had a population of 205,764 making it the second-largest city...
, the latter a rival of former Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
Governor George C. Wallace, Jr.
George Wallace
George Corley Wallace, Jr. was the 45th Governor of Alabama, serving four terms: 1963–1967, 1971–1979 and 1983–1987. "The most influential loser" in 20th-century U.S. politics, according to biographers Dan T. Carter and Stephan Lesher, he ran for U.S...
Prior to his judicial appointment, Scott had been an attorney in private practice in Alexandria
Alexandria, Louisiana
Alexandria is a city in and the parish seat of Rapides Parish, Louisiana, United States. It lies on the south bank of the Red River in almost the exact geographic center of the state. It is the principal city of the Alexandria metropolitan area which encompasses all of Rapides and Grant parishes....
.
Early years and legal practice
Scott was born to a family of lawyers in New RoadsNew Roads, Louisiana
New Roads is a city in and the parish seat of Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana, United States. The center of population of Louisiana is located in New Roads . The population was 4,996 at the 2000 census. The city's ZIP code is 70760...
in Pointe Coupee Parish to attorney Nauman Steele Scott, I, and the former Sidonie Provosty. His maternal grandfather, Albin Provosty, had been a state senator
Louisiana State Legislature
The Louisiana State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is bicameral body, comprising the lower house, the Louisiana House of Representatives with 105 representatives, and the upper house, the Louisiana Senate with 39 senators...
, and his great-uncle, Olivier Provosty, was Chief Justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court from 1920-1922. Scott grew up in Alexandria. Scott, Sr., was killed in a tragic gunshot accident when Scott he was only eleven years of age, leaving him and four younger siblings. For a time, he was a childhood playmate of Louisiana's future Republican national committeewoman, Mary Virginia Wheadon de Gravelles
Virginia deGravelles
Mary Virginia Wheadon deGravelles is a retiree from Lafayette who was the Louisiana Republican national committeewoman from 1964–1968, a position which constitutes automatic membership on the Republican National Committee. Her husband, Charles Camille deGravelles, Jr...
, who served in the party post from 1964-1968.
As per his late father's wishes, Scott was sent to boarding school and graduated from the elite Lake Forest Academy
Lake Forest Academy
Lake Forest Academy is a college preparatory boarding and day school for grades 9 through 12 located on the North Shore in Lake Forest, Illinois, United States. As of the 2008-2009 school year, students at Lake Forest Academy come from 20 states and 28 countries. The current Head of School is Dr....
in Lake Forest
Lake Forest, Illinois
Lake Forest is an affluent city located in Lake County, Illinois, United States. The city is south of Waukegan along the shore of Lake Michigan, and is a part of the Chicago metropolitan area and the North Shore. Lake Forest was founded around Lake Forest College and was laid out as a town in...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, in 1934 and from Amherst College
Amherst College
Amherst College is a private liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Amherst is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 1,744 students in the fall of 2009...
in Amherst, Massachusetts
Amherst, Massachusetts
Amherst is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States in the Connecticut River valley. As of the 2010 census, the population was 37,819, making it the largest community in Hampshire County . The town is home to Amherst College, Hampshire College, and the University of Massachusetts...
, in 1938. In 1941, he received his LL.B. degree from Tulane University
Tulane University
Tulane University is a private, nonsectarian research university located in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States...
Law School in New Orleans. He established his practice in Alexandria from 1941-1942. On January 8, 1942, he married the former Blanche Hammond (1920–1985). From 1942-1946, he was a first lieutenant
First Lieutenant
First lieutenant is a military rank and, in some forces, an appointment.The rank of lieutenant has different meanings in different military formations , but the majority of cases it is common for it to be sub-divided into a senior and junior rank...
in the U.S. Air Force. After the war, he resumed his law practice—Provosty, Sadler, and Scott—from 1946-1970.
Scott was president of the Alexandria Bar Association from 1965-1966. In November 1966, he ran for the Rapides Parish School Board. Though Scott was the top Republican votegetter, he lost the race because the weakest Democrat
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
on the ballot still outpolled him by some 3,000 votes. Democrats won all six of the at-large school board seats contested that year.
Nixon appoints Scott to the bench
On September 14, 1970, President Richard M. Nixon appointed Scott to a newly-created judgeship for the Wwstern District of Louisiana headquartered in Alexandria. Scott secured U.S. Senate confirmation on October 13, and received his commission of office on October 15, 1970. He was senior judge on the court from 1976-1984. He assumed senior status on December 4, 1984. He was still technically serving at the time of his death—a week after the 9-11 disaster—but had been too ill to discharge his duties.In 1972, Scott presided over the perjury
Perjury
Perjury, also known as forswearing, is the willful act of swearing a false oath or affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to a judicial proceeding. That is, the witness falsely promises to tell the truth about matters which affect the outcome of the...
trial of Concordia Parish Sheriff
Sheriff
A sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....
Noah W. Cross
Noah W. Cross
Noah Webster Cross was a controversial Democratic sheriff from Ferriday in Concordia Parish in eastern Louisiana, who served from July 1, 1944 until July 1948 and again from July 1952 until April 4, 1973, when a conviction for perjury and a failed appeal forced him into federal prison. Cross was...
, whose conviction was subsequently upheld on appeal. Cross, who began his tenure as sheriff in 1944 was compelled to resign in 1974 to enter federal prison. He died some two years later after having been released.
Scott served on the Louisiana Law Institute, the Louisiana Mineral Law Institute, and the Bar Association Committee for Drafting the Louisiana Constitution of 1974. He was a member of the Lake Forest Academy Hall of Fame, the recipient of the Amherst College Distinguished Alumni Award, the Tulane Law School Distinguished Jurist Award, and the Distinguished Jurist Award of the Louisiana Bar Association.
Cross-parish busing to achieve racial balance
As a veteran federal judge, Scott rendered many decisions in a variety of issue areas, but he will be most remembered for his implementation of a longstanding lawsuit seeking full desegregation of Rapides Parish schools. Scott approved the establishment of Bi-Racial Committee in various cities struggling with desegregation issues. He also directed that the meetings of such committees be closed to the public and the media. "We're talking about sensitive problems and each side must be giving concessions. You can't have a negotiative meeting with all the elements that are not always dedicated to its success looking over your shoulder."In 1980, Scott authorized a massive cross-parish busing plan. Few blacks at the time lived in the northern Wards 10 and 11 of Rapides Parish. To achieve integration, some black students were bused into the two wards, and certain whites were ordered into predominantly black areas of Alexandria. The plan was strongly opposed by many whites in the affected rural areas but hailed by black lawyers representing the minority community.
Scott's decision had a U.S. Supreme Court precedent, Swann v. Mecklenburg Independent School District (1971), a case from Charlotte, North Carolina
Charlotte, North Carolina
Charlotte is the largest city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the seat of Mecklenburg County. In 2010, Charlotte's population according to the US Census Bureau was 731,424, making it the 17th largest city in the United States based on population. The Charlotte metropolitan area had a 2009...
, which required busing across geographic boundaries, such as ward-to-ward or city-to-county, to increase racial balance in public schools. Swann, however, ran counter to the original 1954 desegregation ruling, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas
Topeka, Kansas
Topeka |Kansa]]: Tó Pee Kuh) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Shawnee County. It is situated along the Kansas River in the central part of Shawnee County, located in northeast Kansas, in the Central United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was...
. Brown had forbidden segregation
Racial segregation
Racial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home...
in public schools but had not required racial balancing.
Scott's decision spurred angry protests, court battles and ultimate changes that led to a restructuring of the Rapides Parish school district. According to the Alexandria Daily Town Talk
The Town Talk (Alexandria)
The Town Talk, started as The Daily Town Talk in 1883 and later named the Alexandria Daily Town Talk, is the major newspaper of Central Louisiana. It is published by Gannett in Alexandria, the seat of Rapides Parish and the economic center of Central Louisiana.The daily newspaper has a circulation...
, in 1980, at least nine Rapides Parish schools were still more than 93 percent black. The desegregation lawsuit, still open from 1961, had been filed by the Reverend Sylvester Valley, who wanted his daughter to attend a desegregated school.
Some desegregation, especially at the high school level, occurred in 1969. In an effort to remedy a perceived situation of de facto
De facto
De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning fact." In law, it often means "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but not officially established." It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or...
racial inequity, Scott revived the lawsuit and directed massive school zone changes, cross-parish busing, school closures, and reassignment of principals. Critics said that the judge in reality had taken over the duties of the school board, which had been the only public office that Scott had ever sought in an election.
The clash with Judge Richard Lee
In January 1981, then Ninth Judicial District Judge Richard E. "Dick" Lee, a Louisiana Democrat, ordered the state police to accompany three white girls to predominantly white Buckeye High School. Lee's order was aimed at thwarting Judge Scott's efforts to send the trio to the integrated Jones Street Junior High School in Alexandria.Lee took custody of the three girls, instructed police to take them to classes, and warned school officials to treat them like any other students, or face jail and fines. Scott then threatened to impose a $500-a-day fine on anyone who disobeyed his decree that the girls must attend the Jones Street facility.
For weeks, Lee attempted to countermand every desegregation order issued by Scott. Finally, Scott slapped contempt charges against Lee but revoked them in a bid to end the dispute over which school the girls would attend. According to the New York Times, Lee accused Scott of "trying to blackmail me . . . I was a gentleman and did what I said I was going to do, and he backed out. He lied to me.
When the girls re-enrolled at Buckeye High School, Scott ordered that none of their credits could be accepted by the Rapides Parish school system. Therefore, the girls -- called the "Buckeye Three" -- by the media—switched parental custody so that they could attend the mostly white Buckeye school. The parents retained the influential Lafayette
Lafayette, Louisiana
Lafayette is a city in and the parish seat of Lafayette Parish, Louisiana, United States, on the Vermilion River. The population was 120,623 at the 2010 census...
lawyer J. Minos Simon
J. Minos Simon
Joseph Minos Simon was an author, a lecturer, an aviator, a sportsman, and particularly a Louisiana attorney known for his courtroom theatrics and demeanor.-Early years and education:...
to represent them. In 2008, Lee, having left the bench, was chairman of the Rapides Parish Democratic Executive Committee.
The Rapides Parish case attracted national attention for several weeks, even drawing the eye of then CBS anchorman Walter Cronkite
Walter Cronkite
Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr. was an American broadcast journalist, best known as anchorman for the CBS Evening News for 19 years . During the heyday of CBS News in the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the most trusted man in America" after being so named in an opinion poll...
. Democratic Congressman Lawrence P. McDonald (1935–1983) of Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
, filed an impeachment
Impeachment
Impeachment is a formal process in which an official is accused of unlawful activity, the outcome of which, depending on the country, may include the removal of that official from office as well as other punishment....
resolution against Judge Scott on February 5, 1981, on grounds that Scott had usurped local authority. McDonald, a member of the anticommunist John Birch Society
John Birch Society
The John Birch Society is an American political advocacy group that supports anti-communism, limited government, a Constitutional Republic and personal freedom. It has been described as radical right-wing....
, was killed two years later when the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
shot down the Korean Airliner 007 plane over the Kamchatka Peninsula
Kamchatka Peninsula
The Kamchatka Peninsula is a peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of . It lies between the Pacific Ocean to the east and the Sea of Okhotsk to the west...
. No hearings were held on McDonald's impeachment resolution against Judge Scott.
Forced busing loses public support
The national trend of desegregation gradually drifted away from forced busing. Mostly, districts guarantee that schools have equal facilities and offer students some choice through transfers and magnet programs. Yet, there remains some busing and zoning for desegregation purposes.On June 20, 1988, Judge Scott consolidated the schools of Bordelonville, Mansura
Mansura, Louisiana
Mansura is a town in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 1,573 at the 2000 census.Mansura is home to the , and is the Cochon de Lait Capital of the world.Legendary Avoyelles Parish Sheriff F.O...
, Moreauville
Moreauville, Louisiana
Moreauville is a village in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 922 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Moreauville is located at ....
, Plaucheville
Plaucheville, Louisiana
Plaucheville is a village in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 281 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Plaucheville is located at ....
, and Simmesport
Simmesport, Louisiana
Simmesport is a town in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 2,239 at the 2000 census.During the American Civil War, Union General Nathaniel P. Banks was superseded in command by E.R.S. Canby. General Ulysses S. Grant had sought Banks' removal for months, but U.S....
in Avoyelles Parish to strengthen racial balance.
Scott's order closed Forest Hill
Forest Hill, Louisiana
Forest Hill is a village in Rapides Parish, Louisiana, United States. It is part of the Alexandria, Louisiana Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 456 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Forest Hill is located at ....
Elementary School closed, but parents tried to defy the order. They symbolically raising the U.S. flag daily to show that school was in session. It was converted into a private school. One of the Forest Hill parents, Clyde C. Holloway
Clyde C. Holloway
Clyde Cecil Holloway is an American small business owner from Forest Hill in the southern part of Rapides Parish who is one of five members of the Louisiana Public Service Commission. He also served as a conservative Republican member of the U.S...
, ran for the U.S. Congress in 1980 as a protest to Scott's order. In 1985, Holloway ran for Congress in a special election in which one of Judge Scott's sons, State Representative John W. "Jock" Scott
Jock Scott
John Wyeth "Jock" Scott, II was a lawyer and college professor in Alexandria, who served three terms from District 26 in the Louisiana House of Representatives, first as a Democrat and then as a Republican . He was defeated in a race for the Louisiana State Senate in 1987...
, was an opponent. In 1986, Holloway was elected to Congress for the first of three consecutive terms.
The federal court ruled that Rapides Parish had achieved racial equality in transportation, extracurricular activities, and facilities but not in student assignments and faculty racial ratios. Rapides Parish has altered school zones since Scott's ruling, but the school district was still impacted by Scott's orders in its zoning and hiring decisions.
On September 28, 2006, the U.S. District Court in Alexandria finally ended its supervision of the Rapides Parish public schools. Judge Dee D. Drell
Dee D. Drell
Dee Dodson Drell is a United States District Judge for the Western District of Louisiana, based in Alexandria, the seat of Rapides Parish and the largest city in central Louisiana. He was nominated by U.S. President George W. Bush on January 15, 2003, confirmed by the U.S...
, an appointee of President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
, held that the district is fully desegregated, free of racial discrimination, and no longer requires federal supervision.
Busing case hurt Jock Scott's political aspirations
Jock Scott (1947–2009) was elected to a third four-year term in the legislature in 1983 despite the desegregation controversy from 1980-1981. He switched his partisan allegiance from Democrat to Republican in 1985. In 1987, he ran for the Louisiana State Senate but was defeated by Democrat William Joseph "Joe" McPherson, Jr.Joe McPherson
William Joseph "Joe" McPherson, Jr., is a retiring veteran Democratic member of the Louisiana State Senate from Woodworth, a small community south of Alexandria, Louisiana, the seat of government of Rapides Parish and the largest city in the Central Louisiana region...
, of Pineville
Pineville, Louisiana
Pineville is a city in Rapides Parish, Louisiana, United States. It is adjacent to the city of Alexandria, and is part of that city's Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 13,829 at the 2000 census....
. Jock Scott said that his loss may have been partly attributed to opposition in rural areas of Rapides Parish to his father's busing orders even though seven years had passed since the decision.
Judge Scott continued in senior status almost until his death and relished recounting to family, friends and associates the difficult days and circumstances of his celebrated cases. Even many years after these decisions, he remained concerned about their implementation and defended their correctness. He was conflicted about his place in the civil rights history of the region and understood the emotions his decisions caused among so many. His nephew Reverend Pike Thomas recalled a favorite memory, that Scott, in spite of his highly controversial persona, never delisted his telephone or public listing in the local telephone book and often courteously received the most reviling calls, even death threats, from local irate residents. "He was an example of rock-ribbed integrity mingles with compassion," Thomas stated.
Judge Scott's obituary
Judge Scott's funeral was held at Our Lady of Prompt Succor Catholic Church in Alexandria with two nephews, the Reverend LaVerne "Pike" Thomas and Deacon Charles F. Read, Jr., officiating. Burial was at Metairie CemeteryMetairie Cemetery
Metairie Cemetery is a cemetery in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. The name has caused some people to mistakenly presume that the cemetery is located in Metairie, Louisiana, but it is located within the New Orleans city limits, on Metairie Road .-History:This site was previously a horse...
in New Orleans in the Scott family plot of his grandfather, noted contractor Nathaniel Graves Scott (1848–1926).
Another childhood friend and associate, well-known Louisiana political figure who, like Judge Scott, was born in New Roads, deLesseps Story Morrison, Sr., a former mayor of New Orleans and ambassador to the Organization of American States, is also interred at Metairie Cemetery. The Provostys and Morrisons were political allies and sometimes rivals in the tumultuous local politics of Pointe Coupée Parish.
Judge Scott was preceded in death by his wife Blanche Hammond, who herself was active in Republican politics and whose mother, Hilda Phelps Hammond, penned one of the most celebrated anti-Huey Long
Huey Long
Huey Pierce Long, Jr. , nicknamed The Kingfish, served as the 40th Governor of Louisiana from 1928–1932 and as a U.S. Senator from 1932 to 1935. A Democrat, he was noted for his radical populist policies. Though a backer of Franklin D...
books in the 1930s
1930s
File:1930s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: Dorothea Lange's photo of the homeless Florence Thompson show the effects of the Great Depression; Due to the economic collapse, the farms become dry and the Dust Bowl spreads through America; The Battle of Wuhan during the Second Sino-Japanese...
, Let Freedom Ring. A younger brother, oilman Albin Provosty Scott, likewise preceded him in death. Survivors included three sons, Nauman S. Scott, III, and Arthur Hammond Scott, both of New Orleans, and Jock Scott; one daughter, Ashley Scott Rankin of Dallas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
; three sisters, Sidonie Scott Thomas of Alexandria, M'Adele Scott Read of Covington
Covington, Louisiana
Covington is a city in and the parish seat of St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 8,483 at the 2000 census. It is located at a fork of the Bogue Falaya and the Tchefuncte River....
, and Natalie Scott Persons of Mobile, Alabama
Mobile, Alabama
Mobile is the third most populous city in the Southern US state of Alabama and is the county seat of Mobile County. It is located on the Mobile River and the central Gulf Coast of the United States. The population within the city limits was 195,111 during the 2010 census. It is the largest...
, and six grandchildren.
In 1981, Judge Scott's oldest and youngest sons, Nauman, III (born May 10, 1945), and Hammond Scott (born 1950), founded Black Top Records
Black Top Records
Black Top Records was a New Orleans, Louisiana based independent record label founded in 1981 by brothers Nauman S. Scott, III and Hammond Scott. The label specialized in blues and R&B music. The first release was "Talk To You By Hand" by Anson Funderburgh & The Rockets...
, which specializes in rhythm and blues music. Nauman, III, a New Orleans lawyer as well as record company executive, died at the age of fifty-six on January 8, 2002, on what would have been his parents' sixtieth anniversary. His death came four months after Judge Scott's passing. The record company folded about 1999. Middle-son Jock Scott died on April 25, 2009, at the age of sixty-one while working in his yard at his residence on Jackson Street in Alexandria.
Jock Scott was an Alexandria lawyer and assistant professor of history at Louisiana State University at Alexandria
Louisiana State University at Alexandria
Louisiana State University at Alexandria is located in Alexandria, Louisiana. Louisiana State University at Alexandria is a publicly supported institution that provides undergraduatelevel college education to the citizens of Central Louisiana. The university is a unit of the LSU System and operates...
. In 2004, he tried yet again for higher office, running for Fifth District congressman, but he ran afoul of a "political dirty trick" as the popular freshman Democratic incumbent, Rodney Alexander
Rodney Alexander
Rodney McKinnie Alexander is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2003. He is a member of the Republican Party. The district covers twenty-two parishes in roughly the northeast quadrant of the state...
, switched his affiliation at the last hour of qualifying to the Republican Party, bringing the state GOP apparatus along with him. Scott remained in the race but, without the endorsement of his party, trailed far behind.