In a Country Not Yet Reconciled With Its Past, Virginians Made an Inspiring Decision

“I thank whatever Gods may be, For my unconquerable soul”

Just as the words of Invictus have guided many Brothers before me, they guide the me now as I take on this role. Thank you to my beloved Alpha phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. for your well wishes! 🤙🏾 https://t.co/UkNGUJhfBp

— Don Scott (@DonScott757) January 11, 2024

When January 6th insurrectionists replaced the American flag with a Confederate flag, we saw the depths of racial animus in this country. Donald Trump’s ugly rhetoric has unleashed and bolstered the most hateful speech and action that’s probably always been lurking not far below the surface.

Calls for a second civil war and vile racist epithets spew from the mouths of many Trump supporters. Suppressing the votes of Black Americans, blatant racial gerrymandering that the radical Supreme Court majority pretends is “political” and unworthy of their attention, and attempting to rewrite our history so it doesn’t hurt young white kids’ feelings–these assaults continue to appear in various states.

Against that backdrop, the act of the Virginia General Assembly is profoundly encouraging. The Democratic majority just elected Democrat Don Scott as their speaker. And they did so unanimously, giving him a standing ovation as he walked toward the podium to take his oath of office. [This is a clarification. Please see below.*]

Don Scott, a self-made man who’d been convicted of a drug felony, thus became the first Black Virginian to hold this leadership position in that legislative body’s four hundred year history. NPR reported this story on January 10th. It’s so encouraging that I’m sharing it here.

Scott, one of six children raised in Texas by a single mom, didn’t have an easy childhood. But his mother used the local public library as a safe child care space for her children, and that’s where Scott became an ardent reader, eventually determined to go to college.

After serving in the Navy, he went to law school. In his last year, he was convicted of “conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute crack cocaine.”

He maintained that he was transporting money for a drug dealer he knew and had no intention of selling the drugs, but Scott was sentenced to ten years in federal prison. He began serving his term after his law school graduation.

He was released after nearly eight years and got a job with a program to help people receiving public assistance, married, and had a child. But as he progressed, his work required travel, so he passed the bar and joined a law firm where he eventually became a partner–a position that he still holds.

I’m so impressed that law firm saw something in this man that made them willing to risk hiring him despite a felony conviction. How often does that happen, and how many individuals with much to contribute don’t get that second chance?

The fact that Scott was made a partner demonstrates to me that what the hiring partners saw was validated.

Here is a fine nugget from this story:

Though Scott didn’t try to hide his conviction, it apparently weighed on his ambitions. In 2018, a reporter found out about it, contacted him, and wrote an article that appeared on the front page of the Sunday edition of the newspaper.

NPR quotes Scott:

“When you have a conviction,…you never really feel comfortable. You always feel like you have to be careful on how far you can go and you put limits on yourself.”

With the story’s publication, a friend told him:

“You’re free now. So whatever you want to do now, you can do it.”

One year later, Scott won his seat in the Virginia house following a campaign based on criminal justice reform–an area in which he had personal experience.

We’re living in a time when election-denying legislators and other ambitious-beyond-a-fault candidates have shown us the depths that people will go to simply to gain or retain power. Thus, when Scott explained to the NPR writer the grounding his life experiences had given him in his approach to seeking office, I found his words compelling.

“I used to always say the worst thing that will happen to me will not be losing an election.”

Scott wasted no time trying to effect the changes on which he’d run. His first introduction of a package of criminal justice reform bills failed to win support even from his Democratic colleagues. But the massive demonstrations following George Floyd’s murder had an impact, and he secured passage of bills on probation limits and earned sentence credits.

The fact that he was elected speaker unanimously is fascinating to me, as the NPR article notes he has a “confrontational style full of quips and asides on the floor.” [See clarification.*]

He wasn’t afraid to tangle with Virginia’s governor, Glenn Youngkin, in 2022, when Youngkin was still seen as a powerful figure and shining light for the Republicans nationwide. (That halo disintegrated with the 2023 election, when Democrats took control of both houses.)

Youngkin’s first order of business in 2022 was signing an executive order that included establishing a statewide “tipline” to encourage anonymous reports of educators who were teaching “divisive concepts” such as critical race theory (which isn’t a part Virginia educational curricula).

Scott said though Youngkin purports to be a man of faith, his actions suggested he was “someone who wants to divide the Commonwealth.”

Although his words were booed by the Republicans, Youngkin invited Scott to the governor’s mansion. Scott said if Youngkin wanted to see him, he should “come over here. And to his credit, he came, he came to see me.”

Scott’s Democratic colleagues were watching, and months later, they named him house minority speaker, tasked with reclaiming the house from the Republicans in 2023.

After that victory, they nominated him to be speaker.

In a speech to his supporters prior to leaving for Richmond to take the speaker’s gavel, Scott spoke of those who’d built that state capitol: enslaved Virginians.

He said:

“Every time I walk into that Capitol y’all–and this is true, I promise you–I see ghosts.

“I see our ancestors who were in there, who were emptying people’s urine and emptying the spittoons, building the buildings, breaking their backs while people make decisions about whether they were human or not.”

It is now 2024, and we have a woman running for the Republican presidential nomination who could not bring herself to respond to a questioner that yes, of course, the Civil War was fought over slavery.

But we also have Don Scott, Speaker of the Virginia General Assembly, assuring all who can hear him that those ghosts will not be silenced.

I’m betting on, working for, Don Scott’s vision of America’s future.

Annie

[Clarification: although the NPR story states that Scott was unanimously elected, as fellow blogger W. Hungerford points out, other reports state that he was unanimously elected speaker by his fellow Democrats. I regret that my reliance on one source—albeit reputable—fed by my enthusiasm—led me to repeat an overstatement of what is still a remarkable advance.]