Charles S. Scott
1921-1989

Kansas Champion for Justice

Charles S. Scott participated in the 1954 landmark Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education U.S. Supreme Court decision as one of the local attorneys for the Kansas plaintiffs. He, with his brother, John Scott, and their law partner, Charles Bledsoe, first argued the case before the federal district court in Topeka in 1951. Mr. Scott was later selected by his Topeka colleagues to represent the Kansas case before the U.S. Supreme Court. After the Supreme Court ruled in favor of abolishing segregation in the schools, Scott, whose reputation led to offers from leading firms in the nation, chose to remain in Kansas to continue his advocacy of justice and equal rights for his fellow Kansans.

A native of Topeka, Scott was graduated from Topeka High School and entered Washburn University, in 1940. His education was briefly interrupted when he joined the U.S. Army during World War II, serving in the African American 2nd Calvary Division based at Fort Clark, Texas, in the “Red Ball Express” transport unit, which saw action in southern France and Sicily. After the war, he returned to complete his legal education at Washburn’s School of Law and joined his father’s law firm in Topeka.

From the beginning of his career, Mr. Scott represented clients seeking justice in the face of racial segregation and other forms of discrimination. Among many examples: He aided his father in successfully challenging school segregation in Johnson County in 1949 and joined his brother in bringing successful court challenges against local public recreation and eating establishments that excluded African Americans. After the victory of the 1954 landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision, he continued his leadership role in civil rights locally and nationally, notably as the Legal Redress Committee chair of the Topeka Chapter of the Kansas NAACP and in the 1960s volunteered to represent the Congress of Racial Equality in Mississippi during the Civil Rights Movement. In 1968, he founded the Coordinating Committee of the Black Community in Topeka to address civil rights violations, unfair hiring practices and other economic issues that required advocacy. Beginning in 1972, he served as general counsel for the Kansas Commission on Civil Rights and was promoted to the position of hearing examiner in which he served until his death.