"Emmett J.Scott"(2-13-1873-1957)

Emmett garnered a reputation as Booker T.Washington's chief aide.He was also the highest ranking African American in the Woodrow Wilson's Administration.The son of ex-slaves.In 1887,he entered Wiley College in Marshall, Texas,eventually leaving school in his third year.He soon worked at the Houston Post,first as a sexton,and later as copyboy and journalist. In 1893 Emmett,along with Charles N.Love and Jack Tibbit,formed the Texas Freeman,Houston's first African American newspaper.Emmett also worked for Galveston,Texas,politician and labor leader,Norris W.Cuney.Emmett caught the attention of Booker T.Washington,who hired him in 1897.For the next eighteen years,Emmett served Booker as a confidant,personal secretary,speech writer,and ghostwriter;in 1912,he became Tuskegee's treasurer-secretary.Emmett advocated Booker's philosophy of constructive accommodation over immediate social integration.Emmett and New York Age editor T.Thomas Fortune helped Booker found the National Negro Business League (NNBL)in 1900.In 1917,two years after Booker's death,President Woodrow Wilson appointed Emmett special advisor of black affairs to Sceretary of War Newton Baker.He wrote reports on conditions facing African Americans during the period,which were published as The American Negro in the World War (1919) and Negro Migration during the First World War (1920).From 1919-1932,Emmett was the business manager and secretary treasurer of Howard University,retiring from the college in 1938.During World War II,Emmett worked for the Sun Shipbuilding Company of Chester,Pennsylvania,and helped the company create Yard No.4 for African American laborers.He was married and had five children,all of whom graduated from college.He and his wife also raised his five younger sisters,who also earned their degrees.Emmett died in Washington,D.C.