* C.A. Scott; Publisher of Early Black Newspaper

Cornelius Adolphous Scott, 92, the voice of racial consciousness as the editor and publisher of the Atlanta Daily World, one of the nation’s first black newspapers. C.A. Scott, as he was generally known, took the helm of the Daily World in 1934 after the death of his brother W.A. Scott II, who preceded him as publisher. Scott used the Atlanta paper to crusade against the Ku Klux Klan, Georgia’s poll tax and the city’s segregated Police Department. The Daily World was envisioned as the anchor paper to a chain of newspapers across the country. Founded as a weekly in 1928, it began publishing three times a week in 1931 and, in March 1932, became a daily. Along the way, the Scott newspaper syndicate started a number of other newspapers, including the Birmingham World and the Memphis World. The syndicate grew to about 50 papers and reached as far west as Phoenix and as far north as Des Moines. After the victories of the civil rights movement, many black newspapers suffered sharp declines in circulation and closed. By 1970, only the Birmingham and Atlanta newspapers remained in the Scott chain. Born in Edwards, Miss., Scott studied at Morehouse College in Atlanta. For a time he was chairman of the Public Affairs Committee of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People. He retired in 1997. On Sunday of pneumonia at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta.