Scott Douglas

Scott Douglas

Scott Douglas is an Alabama activist.

Background

Scott Douglas is a native of Nashville, TN and attended the University of Tennessee in Knoxville where he co-founded the University’s Black Student Union in 1967. Residing in Birmingham since 1976, he served under the leadership of Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth and Anne Braden as Executive Director of the Southern Organizing Committee for Economic and Social Justice from 1984-1989. He was Southern Regional Program Officer for the Partnership for Democracy Foundation from 1989-1992. He is also a former Secretary of the Germania Park Neighborhood Association. After a stint as the first Environmental Justice Grassroots Organizer for the Sierra Club, Douglas became Executive Director of Greater Birmingham Ministries. GBM is a multi-faith, multi-constituency and multi-racial organization that provides emergency services to families in economic crisis while working with congregations and low-income residents to reclaim communities, identify and fill gaps in social service infrastructures and build community confidence in self-governance through inclusive, participatory, transparent, and democratically accountable civic and voter engagement.

Douglas is a former board member of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and currently serves on the boards of the Progressive Technology Project, the Equal Justice Initiative of Alabama, Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama and the PushBack Network. He has written articles on social and racial justice for Southern Exposure, Howard Law Journal, and the National Newspaper Publishers Association. Scott Douglas is an alumnus of Leadership Birmingham and Leadership Alabama, a founding board member of the Alabama Association of Nonprofits and a 2011 MIT Mel King Community Fellows Program graduate.

Douglas is a member of Saint Paul United Methodist Church (Rev. Marcus Singleton, pastor) where his wife, Lynn, a retired Birmingham teacher, directs the Senior and Homeless Ministries. Scott and Lynn have one adult son, Frederick Douglas, who resides in Nashville.

WEB DuBois Clubs of America

In 2014, Scott Douglas was listed a a friend on the DuBois Clubs Facebook page.

Communist Party candidate

In 1972 Scott Douglas was Communist Party USA candidate for Congress, 5th C.D. (Nashville), Tennessee.

Communist Party dissidents

On November 15-16 1991, 30 dissident members of the National Committee of the Communist Party USA convened a meeting to "sign a statement of events" - most or all signatories were soon to break with the party and were later to form Committees of Correspondence.

The signatories included Scott Douglas, Alabama;

Communist Party reformer

In 1991 Scott...Alabama, was one of several hundred Communist Party USA members to sign the a paper "An initiative to Unite and Renew the Party" - most signatories left the Party after the December 1991 conference to found Committees of Correspondence.

CoC National Conference endorser

In 1992 Scott Douglas, president Greater Birmingham New South Coalition, Alabama, endorsed the Committees of Correspondence national conference Conference on Perspectives for Democracy and Socialism in the 90s held at Berkeley California July 17-19.

Mayoralty run

In November 2009 Scott Douglas, 62, executive director of Greater Birmingham Ministries announced candidacy for mayor of Birmingham.

Douglas, with about 20 supporters standing behind him in Kelly Ingram Park, said he is running on a platform of green jobs, green schools, green transportation and green communities.

Colbert Report/Immigration activism

This is Martin Luther King’s birthday celebration, and he famously said that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, and HB56 is a threat to me and to all Americans.”

That’s how Scott Douglas, executive director of Greater Birmingham Ministries, defended his support for Hispanic immigrants on the satirical comedy news show The Colbert Show on Monday. Douglas’ response earned raucous applause from host Stephen Colbert’s audience.

Scott Douglas, executive director of Greater Birmingham Ministries, appeared on the Colbert Report on Monday night to mark Martin Luther King’s birthday celebration.

Douglas has been with GBM since 1993, and has recently taken on the fight against Alabama’s tough immigration law, which is known as HB56. Before the interview, Colbert described Douglas as “a community organizer who believes anti-immigration is the civil rights issue of our time.”

During the interview, Douglas described HB56 as a law that “burdens family, breaks up families, forces to split up our families, burdens taxpayers and makes law enforcement take on the extra job of checking out people at traffic stops.” Douglas argued against a patchwork state immigrant law system in which all 50 states have their own anti-immigrant laws, and in favor of a comprehensive federal immigration law “that’s just and fair for everyone.” Douglas also mentioned the argument that HB56 diverts scarce law enforcement resources to immigration enforcement, a view shared by Jefferson County Sheriff Mike Hale and other Alabama law enforcement officials.

At one point, Colbert told Douglas that he is unable to see color (a long running Colbert Report gag), and asked if Douglas is Hispanic.

“I am a proud African-American, a proud Alabamian and a proud United States citizen,” Douglas replied.