Charlie Scott: Civil Rights Activist, NBA Hall of Fame Inductee, and Stuyvesant Alum

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On September 7, for the first time in Stuyvesant High School history, a Stuyvesant alumnus, Charles Thomas Scott, was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame of the National Basketball Association (NBA), in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Scott was born in 1948, grew up in a broken, impoverished household in Harlem and tested into Stuyvesant, where he attended from 1962-1963. At this time, he was one of few African Americans attending Stuyvesant. He then transferred to North Carolina’s Laurinburg Institute, a famous preparatory school for African American students, where he graduated as the class valedictorian.

Following his high school career, Scott became the first African American to be offered an athletic scholarship to the University of North Carolina (UNC), a college in the Jim Crow South. Attending such a school was a controversial and dangerous matter in this time period. Despite this, he was eager to face the challenge. Later at his Hall of Fame induction ceremony, he reflected upon his decision, saying, “I am very proud to be standing up here, as a black man that took a path that wasn’t easy, but was the right path to take.”

Scott’s decision to remain in the South after completing high school at Laurinburg shaped a number of experiences during his career there. He once was wrongfully detained by the police at gunpoint for allegedly harassing a white woman, an accusation that could mean death in the Jim Crow South. Though he was later cleared, he was profoundly shaken. “It was like culture shock,” Scott later said. Another time, he was heckled during a game to the extent that his coach—fellow NBA Hall of Famer Dean Smith—uncharacteristically charged into the stands to confront the person.

However, from a basketball standpoint, his time at UNC was a success, leading the previously scandal-ridden and poorly performing Tar Heels to two final four NCAA tournament appearances. While he was enthusiastically embraced on the court in the UNC community, before long, he found life there quite lonely. There was simply no social scene for African Americans.

Racial prejudice was worse throughout the rest of the Jim Crow South. He was snubbed of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Player of the Year as a Junior when he clearly deserved it, averaging 22.3 points, 7.1 rebounds, and 3.4 assists per game. Even worse, the next year, he was not even recognized on all of the ballots as one of the Top Five Players of the ACC, despite leading the ACC in scoring with 27.1 points per game. Of this, he said “That was about the only time in college that I felt things were done in a prejudicial manner. And what concerned me more was how the media handled it. Nobody ever said anything about it, never challenged what took place. To me, that’s just another form of hypocrisy.”

Nonetheless, he dealt with all this with grace. In doing so, he earned the respect of many of his peers and administrative leaders at the university. When tensions rose between the administration and the Black Student Movement campus group, he was selected as a mediator in the conflict.

After finishing at UNC, Scott signed a contract with the Virginia Squires of the American Basketball Association (ABA) and continued excelling at the professional level. He won Rookie of the Year in the 1970-1971 season, averaging 27.1 points per game. Eventually, Scott made the shift to the NBA. Beginning his NBA career with the Phoenix Suns and then the Boston Celtics, he won an NBA championship with the Celtics in the ’75-’76 season.

While Scott is known for his athletics, he had a profound impact beyond sports throughout his life. This Stuyvesant student’s enshrinement into the NBA’s Hall of Fame provides an opportunity for all of us to reflect upon race relations and the role of athletics in our lives. I wonder if Stuyvesant has already retired his uniform number. Have our gyms been named after anyone yet?

The following is a list of some of Charlie Scott's most impressive basketball accomplishments:

• He won an Olympic Gold Medal in 1968.

• He led the University of North Carolina to two NCAA “Final Four” appearances, reviving a formerly scandal-plagued team.

• He led the ACC in scoring with a 27.1 average of points per game

• He was ABA rookie of the year from 1970-1971.

• With 157 ABA games-played, he has the ABA’s highest Career Scoring Average, with 31 points per game (unofficially).

• He owns the highest ABA Single-Season Scoring average with 34.6 points per game.

• He was voted into the “ABA All-Time Team.”

• He was selected to five All-Star Games (three NBA, two ABA).

• He won an NBA championship with the Boston Celtics in 1976.

• He owns a career average of 20.7 points per game over ten years, combined ABA and NBA.

• YouTube reveals that he is a legend in the streetball community based on his play in the Holcombe Harlem Rucker League—widely considered to be the most prestigious public court in the country since the ’50s.