The HistoryMakers

Producer, performer, educator and civic activist Glory Van Scott was born in Chicago, Illinois, June 1, 1947. Her parents, Dr. and Ms. Thomas Van Scott, were raised near Greenwood, Mississippi and share some Choctaw and Seminole ancestry. The trauma of cousin Emmett Till's murder in 1955 did not diminish the benefit of the art, dance and drama classes at The Abraham Lincoln Center, where Van Scott met Paul Robeson and Charity Bailey. She spent summers in Ethical Culture Camp in New York. A student at Oakland Elementary School and Dunbar High School, Van Scott finished high school at Ethical Culture High School in New York City.

That summer at the Society for Ethical Culture's Encampment for Citizenship, Cicely Tyson referred Van Scott to actress Vinette Carroll, who mentored Van Scott in theatrical arts. Soon, Van Scott was moving easily between modeling for the Wilhelmina Agency and performing. A principal dancer with the Katherine Dunham, Agnes DeMille, and Talley Beatty dance companies, Van Scott was also joined the American Ballet Company. She appeared on Broadway in House of Flowers, with Pearl Bailey in1954, Kwamina, 1961, The Great White Hope, 1968, Billy No-Name, 1970, and Rhythms of the Saints, 2003. Van Scott played the "Rolls Royce Lady" in 1974's film, The Wiz. All the while, Van Scott earned a B.A. and an M.A. from Goddard College and a Ph.D. from Antioch Colleges' Union Graduate School. For ten years she taught Theatre at Bucknell University's Pennsylvania School for the Arts and now teaches "Theatre As Social Change" at Fordham University. Van Scott is a Breadloaf Writers Scholar and the author of eight musicals including Miss Truth. She is also the founder of Dr. Glory's Children's Theatre. Lipincott published Van Scott's first children's book, Baba and the Flea.

Van Scott served as coordinator for WNET's Dance in America - Katherine Dunham: Devine Drum Beats in 2000 and produced The Katherine Dunham Gala at Carnegie Hall and the 2003 Tribute to Fred Benjamin at Symphony Space. She was also project director/artistic coordinator for the Alvin Ailey Company's The Magic of Katherine Dunham and is co-producer of the National Black Touring Circuit, with Woodie King, Jr. of New York Dance Divas. Van Scott, immortalized in bronze by Elizabeth Catlett in 1981, was awarded the first Katherine Dunham Legacy Award in 2002.

Van Scott was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on September 16, 2004.