Late Congressman David Scott honored at Georgia’s Capitol

Current and former federal and state officials joined the late Congressman David Scott’s family for a memorial service at the Georgia State Capitol, where he was lying in repose Friday.

Speakers at the memorial celebrated his long life of public service, highlighting his role as the first African American to chair the U.S. House Agriculture Committee, along with his support for historically Black colleges and universities and his popular annual job fairs he held as congressman.

“David led with conviction, guided by both principle and compassion. When he entered Congress, he carried that same spirit on the national stage. He represented not just the district, but the hopes and voices of countless Georgians,” said former state Rep. Calvin Smyre during the memorial.

Smyre recalled when he met Scott in 1975 when they were both sworn in to the state House. Scott, a Democrat, later won election to the state Senate in 1982 and to Congress in 2002. 

“I can still hear that strong, commanding voice, an orator with a touch of preaching in him. To me, then it was clear he was destined to speak, not just with authority and clarity, but also with conviction and purpose,” he said.

U.S. Congresswoman Maxine Waters of California said at the memorial that Scott was someone she could trust with complicated topics. She pointed to the farm bill, a piece of federal legislation passed every few years that sets federal policy for agriculture and assistance programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

“The farm bill is a complicated bill dealing with a lot of issues, and so he was the one who helped to lead us and help us to understand what was going on. I voted with David Albert Scott, because I believe that whatever the complications were, whatever the problems were, that he had worked to try and bring the two sides together, and that he had done the best job that could be done,” Waters said. “And so he has a reputation for having been one of the greatest leaders of agriculture in the history of the Congress of the United States of America.”

Scott, whose death in April upended a crowded primary, was last seen in person at the state Capitol when he qualified to run for reelection. Marcye Scott, one of his daughters, said in a speech that she is “not missed by the irony” that after serving in the General Assembly for nearly 30 years that “he wasn’t celebrated” that morning he qualified.

“He was met with questions about why he’s running. But I came home that day and I looked at him and I said, ‘Hey, Daddy, what’s going on?’ And he told me. He said, ‘Marcye, we got a race to run. I just qualified.’ That was his spirit, that was his fight, that was his heart to the world,” Marcye Scott said.

Marcye Scott recently indicated she may run to finish the rest of her father’s term in a special election, which Gov. Brian Kemp called after the memorial for July 28.

Dayna Scott Vidal, Scott’s oldest daughter, read from a partially finished memoir she said the late congressman started writing about three years ago. In his writings, he recalled when he was a struggling shoe shiner in New York before a kind stranger helped him with a generous tip and started telling other people about Scott.

“I’m going to read it straight from his words. He said, ‘And this is the start of a pattern in my life, strangers coming into my life at significant times to help me on my journey. At this early age, I realized that God sends good folks a helping hand along the way,’ and that story says more than just about the person who came and helped him. That moment stayed with him,” Vidal said, committing to finishing her father’s memoir with her sister Marcye.