“Father Earl B. Scott.” Detail from
“St. Mary’s Episcopal Church joins in New Jersey’s Tercentenary Celebration,”
(1964), 16. Courtesy Diocese of New Jersey archives.
“Earl B. Scott was born on July 11, 1919 in Pleasantville, NJ, to… John H. and Minnie Brown Scott, the eleventh of twelve children… [where he] attended the public schools.”[1] As a young man Scott attended Glassboro State Teacher’s College which, at the time, was subject to state investigations resulting from its segregation practices.[2] Nevertheless Scott graduated from the institution, managing to succeed in spite of significant documented racism.[3] He “received a Bachelor of science degree in Education [from Glassboro],… earned a second baccalaureate degree in Sacred Theology with honors from the Philadelphia Divinity School… and [then] a Master of Divinity from the Episcopal Theological School… [in] Cambridge, Mass.”[4]
Starting out as a member of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Pleasantville, New Jersey, “in 1950, the leadership of St. Mary’s was assumed by… Scott, who served as Layreader until 1957, when he was ordained to the Priesthood.”[5] Scott was beloved at St. Mary’s being described as having “served efficiently and well,”[6] a testament to the long tradition “of outstanding significance in St. Mary’s history… that Layreaders… [regularly] played a vital role in its growth and then… [continued on] to Priesthood in the Episcopal Church. These men – Father Harris, Father Ferrell and Father Scott – represent the blood, sweat and tears of the history of St. Mary’s Church among the legions of the Priesthood.”[7]
After his successful tenure at St. Mary’s Rev. Scott was called to St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Red Bank, New Jersey. He “served St. Thomas from April 1962 to June 1979,”[8] starting out as vicar. “Under his leadership, St. Thomas became a self-supporting Parish in 1965, with him… [becoming] the first Rector, after [the congregation having been] a Mission for fifty years.”[9]
“Fr. Scott…took a great interest in ministry to the young. He started a thriving youth club at St. Thomas, and during his time, the church hosted a Head Start Program for pre-schoolers.”[10] Wherever he went he “he became an advocate for the under-privileged.”[11] “From 1967 through 1971, Fr. Scott served as Social Worker for the Monmouth County Community Action Program working with black, white and Spanish families in the Bayshore area… [and] served as an educational consultant and trainer of aides for the Head Start Program.”[12] As an “effective and devoted community leader, advocate and activist with a long history of service to the various communities in which he resided, Fr. Scott served as the first Afro-American elected[13] to the Borough Council of Red Bank… [and] in 1977 he became the [Council] president.”[14] He also served “as Chairperson of the Board of Red Bank Community Center, [as] a board member of the Monmouth County Mental Health Association, … on the Youth Employment Service, [the] Monmouth County Cotillion Committee, … the tutorial and scholarship committees of the local chapter of the NAACP, the Red Bank Men’s Club, Prince Hall Masons... [on] the Union of Black Episcopalians,”[15]
and “as a Chaplain at Riverview Medical Center, Red Bank, NJ, and Monmouth Medical Center, Long Branch, NJ.”[16]
So beloved had he been in Pleasantville that Rev. “Scott returned [to St. Mary’s] in 1979 after a ministry of 17 years in St. Thomas of Red Bank, New Jersey.”[17] He served with the congregation at St. Mary’s “until his death on August 24, 1984.”[18]
“Fr. Scott… had a great impact on the life of the Diocese, where he… [served as] a member of the Board of Missions,”[19] as “Dean of the Monmouth Convocation, president of the Monmouth Clericus of Episcopal Priests and [as head of] the Greater Red Bank Council of Churches and the Westside Ministerium.”[20] Rev. Scott was “active as a member of the Division of Urban Concerns, the Bishop Trial Court, [and] the Major Chapter of Trinity Cathedral, Trenton, NJ.”[21] In particular, “he became a catalyst to challenge racism in the church and community.”[22] At one specially memorable “Clergy Conference in 1983 he challenged the Diocese on the issue of race, by telling his experiences of racism in the Episcopal Church. This led to the establishment of the Diocesan Committee on Racism of which he was the first Chairman. He was a founder of the Black Clergy Caucus of the Diocese…. [and] inspired the formation of the [Diocese of New Jersey] Chapter of the Union of Black Episcopalians.”[23] Taken too soon from the people he loved, “eight months after his death on August 24, 1984 the UBE chapter was named in memory and thanksgiving for his leadership and service.”[24]
Jolyon G. R. Pruszinski, Ph.D.
Reparations Commission Research Historian
Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey
[1] Anna Henderson, “A Biography of Earl Brown Scott,” 1995. MSS held at Diocese of New Jersey archives, Trenton, New Jersey. MSS is nearly identical to Anna Henderson, “The Reverend Earl B. Scott,” 1995: https://www.ebsube.org/earl-scott/.
[2] New Jersey Urban Colored Population Commission, “Annual Report of the Urban Colored Population Commission, State of New Jersey, Year Ending December 31, 1943,” (1944), pp. 82-87 (of the digitized edition): https://dspace.njstatelib.org/items/def4766a-f51d-4e1e-8f52-c4fcb97de98c.
[3] Gary J. Hunter, Neighborhoods of Color: African American Communities in Southern New Jersey, 1638-2000 (Glassboro, NJ: Rowan University, 2002).
[4] Later known as Episcopal Divinity School. Henderson, “A Biography of Earl Brown Scott.”
[5] Maxwell Manning, “From this Humble Beginning,” page 14 in “St. Mary’s Episcopal Church joins in New Jersey’s Tercentenary Celebration,” (1964). MSS of pamphlet held at Diocese of New Jersey archives, Trenton, New Jersey. “On April 27, 1957 he was ordained to the Diaconate in the Diocese of New Jersey and in that same year was ordained to the Sacred Priesthood on November 2, 1957.” Henderson, “A Biography of Earl Brown Scott.”
[6] He was so loved that he was invited back to serve as priest again later in his career. Manning, “From this Humble Beginning,” 14.
[7] Manning, “From this Humble Beginning,” 14.
[8] Historical Committee of St. Thomas Church, “Historical Highlights: St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Red Bank, New Jersey, 1891-1991 Centennial,” 14. MSS held at Diocese of New Jersey archives, Trenton, New Jersey.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Ibid.
[11] Ibid.
[12] Henderson, “A Biography of Earl Brown Scott.”
[13] He served from 1974 to 1977.
[14] Henderson, “A Biography of Earl Brown Scott.”
[15] Ibid.
[16] Ibid.
[17] Manning, “From this Humble Beginning,” 14.
[18] Ibid.
[19] Historical Committee of St. Thomas Church, “Historical Highlights,” 14-15.
[20] Henderson, “A Biography of Earl Brown Scott.”
[21] Ibid.
[22] Ibid.
[23] Historical Committee of St. Thomas Church, “Historical Highlights,” 14-15.
[24] Henderson, “A Biography of Earl Brown Scott.”
