Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 6, 1993 TAG: 9301060111
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BONNIE V. WINSTON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
BLACK CONGRESSMAN MAKES VA. HISTORY
A day of triumph also was bittersweet Tuesday for Rep. Robert C. Scott, whose personal zenith intersected on the House floor with an apex in Virginia's history.With a hand aloft and a murmurred, "I solemnly swear," Scott, 45, became Virginia's first black congressman in more than 100 years.
But Scott's father, retired Newport News surgeon Dr. Waldo Scott - whose popularity and reputation many have credited with propelling his son to the state legislature in the late 1970s - was absent, critically ill in Sentara Hampton General Hospital. Dr. Scott's wife, Mae, was at his bedside and missed the swearing-in, too.
Scott, elected in November to represent a new Norfolk-to-Richmond district, declined to talk about it. But his brothers, Jon and Charles, and his sister, Val Price, who celebrated with him in Washington alongside a bevy of nieces, nephews and cousins, were less reticent.
"We wish they could be here today," Jon Scott said. "We sneaked one of those TVs with a built-in VCR into the [hospital] room last night, and we're taping the swearing-in on C-Span so they can watch it later. They'll be able to see it on tape."
With the oath, Scott became part of the largest class of freshmen congressmen - 110 - since World War II. The turnover brought record numbers of blacks, women and Hispanics to this Wedgewood blue hall of democracy.
Five Southern states - Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama and Florida - elected their first blacks to Congress since Reconstruction. Membership in the Congressional Black Caucus swelled to a record 40 from last year's 26. All of the new black members are Democrats.
Black lawmakers expressed confidence that the growth in their ranks will bring more clout in committees and growing influence on legislation affecting everything from urban problems to agricultural rights.
Acknowledging the history of the day, House Speaker Thomas Foley told the members they are "more reflective of the people of this country."
Scott, who paced and schmoozed with his new colleagues but never sat as Foley was formally selected speaker, ended up standing at the rear of the chamber, almost an outsider at his own swearing-in. The ceremony itself, a mass hand-raising, took all of two minutes.
Scott, who more than a decade ago became the first black Virginia legislator to represent a white-majority district, was characteristically reluctant to discuss the racial significance of his election. He said he would "leave it to the media" to discuss his "footnote in history" and that he preferred to focus on issues such as jobs, health care and education.
But history was hard to escape, particularly as Scott and other black lawmakers attended a later ceremony sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus. The oath administered there by federal Judge A. Leon Higginbotham Jr. recognized their role in protecting the rights of those who previously have been overlooked.
Repeating after Higginbotham, Scott and other caucus members pledged to "always seek equal and total justice for all citizens" and to be a "vigorous advocate for the weak and the poor, who but for me may otherwise not have their problems resolved."
Higginbotham and Rep. Kweisi Mfume, D-Maryland, chairman of the caucus, both recalled the words of George Henry White of North Carolina, the last black to serve in Congress from that state, who was driven out in 1900 by a violent, racist campaign.
In his final address to Congress on Jan. 29, 1901, a tearful White told his colleagues: "This, Mr. Chairman, is perhaps the Negro's temporary farewell to the American Congress. But let me say, Phoenix-like, he will rise up someday and come again. These parting words are in behalf of an outraged, heartbroken, bruised and bleeding people - but God-fearing people, faithful, industrious, loyal people . . . rising people, full of potential."
"George Henry White's words were prophetic," Mfume said. "We are the Phoenix rising in the clear, blue sky . . . the 103rd Congress."