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John W. Scott Jr.

John W. Scott Jr., one of six students who integrated a Fredericksburg high school and later the area’s first black judge, died Wednesday, a day after having eye surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. He was 59.

According to The Free Lance-Star, Judge Scott had planned to retire next month after Jeffrey, one of his three sons, graduated from college.

He had gone to Johns Hopkins for cornea surgery on Tuesday and collapsed and died as he was preparing to leave the hospital. Congenital glaucoma had left him blind in one eye and with limited vision in the other.

Judge James W. Haley Jr., who served with Judge Scott in the 15th Circuit before he was elevated to the Virginia Court of Appeals, told The Free Lance-Star, “John Scott was a gentleman who overcame social and physical obstacles to become a brilliant and respected judge, and did so without bitterness to the past.”

In 1963, Judge Scott and the other students won a federal lawsuit after they were denied the right to attend James Monroe High School. He excelled at the school and went on to graduate from Wesleyan University and the University of Virginia law school.

After law school graduation in 1973, Judge Scott worked for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund before joining the Richmond firm of Hill, Tucker & Marsh.

He was president of the Fredericksburg branch of the NAACP for eight years before he was named a general district judge in Stafford County in 1989. Seven years later, he was elevated to the circuit bench and sat primarily in Fredericksburg.

In addition to Jeffrey, Judge Scott is survived by his Alda White, an attorney, and sons John III and Christopher.

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