Walter James Scott

Born in New York City in 1859, Walter James Scott attended Wayland Seminary in Washington, DC, and the Hopkins School before entering Yale College. Orphaned when he was six years old, Scott was raised by his uncle. The family moved to New Haven when Scott was around 12 or 13 years old. He left Yale College to work as a printer; he was one of only two Black men in the state of Connecticut in that trade. Scott assisted in running the New Haven Free Press, a Black newspaper. While working at the newspaper, Scott studied with a Yale tutor. He then enrolled in the law school in 1879.

Scott worked for Joseph Sheldon, also a Yale graduate, in New Haven after graduation. He is believed to be the first Black person to try a case before a Connecticut court. Not long after, he opened his own law office in Petersburg, Virginia: Harris and Scott. (Harris was a graduate of Howard’s law school and a well-known Black lawyer). According to “The Genesis of the Negro Lawyer in New England” by Charles Sumner Brown, published in 1959, Scott was the first Black lawyer to practice in Connecticut, after being admitted to the Connecticut bar immediately after graduating from Yale. In 1884, Scott moved to Richmond, Virginia to continue his practice there. From June 1887 to February 1888, his health declined due to tuberculosis. Scott returned to New Haven and died there at the age of 29.