Gloria Scott

Dr. Gloria Scott connected with the women’s movement through her leadership in higher education and civic engagement. She served as an instructor and administrator at numerous institutions, including Indiana University and North Carolina A&T State University. In 1975, Scott became the first African American to serve as national president of the Girl Scouts of the USA. The following year, she returned to Houston to accept a position at Texas Southern University.

As a member of the IWY Commission, Scott was heavily involved in the planning and execution of the National Women’s Conference. She also led the Houston Committee, a volunteer group that conducted much of the groundwork prior to the conference. Scott was first to speak at the event, bringing the opening ceremony to order with the gavel presented to Susan B. Anthony by the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1896. “It is in the true spirit of American democracy that we have come together to debate issues and not people,” she remarked.

Scott left Texas Southern in 1977 to serve as vice president of Clark College. Ten years later, she became the twelfth president of Bennett College, an elite black women’s college in North Carolina. She resigned in 2001 to move to Corpus Christi, where she acted as a member of the Corpus Christi Black Chamber of Commerce for several years.

Ann Richards
Sarah Weddington