Wendell Scott born - August 29, 1921

On this day in history, race car driver Wendell Scott was born in Virginia. Learn more about Scott in a two-part episode of Stuff You Missed in History Class at https://www.missedinhistory.com/tags/wendell-scott.htm.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class. It's a production of I
Heart Radio. Hi everyone, welcome to This Day in History Class,
where we uncover the remnants of history every day. Today
is August. The day was August. Wendell Oliver Scott was

(00:29):
born in Danville, Virginia. He would later become the first
black man to win a race in NASCAR's Grand National Series.
Scott's father was a driver for wealthy white families, and
he worked on their cars. He learned a lot about
auto mechanics from his father, though Scott's parents later split
up and he did not see his father for many years.

(00:53):
From a young age, Scott recognized the realities of segregation
and Jim Crow in the South. By the time he
was a teenager, he began taking jobs to support his family.
He worked at a drug store and he became a bricklayer.
But when Scott got tired of bricklaying, he started working
as a taxi driver and bought his own cab. Scott

(01:17):
soon became known for his speed as a taxi driver.
He earned that reputation with passengers and with police officers.
He got thirteen tickets in his time as a taxi driver.
In nineteen two, Scott was drafted in World War Two
and began serving in the Army's hundred and first Airborne.

(01:38):
His work was focused on maintaining vehicles. Two years later,
while he was on leave, he married Mary Bill Coles,
a woman he met while he was driving his cab.
They eventually had six children together. When World War Two
was over, Scott went back to Danville and began building
a business and mechanic work. While the business was successful,

(02:02):
he took on a partner who mismanaged their money. That
partner eventually died in an accident that also caused their
shot to burn down. So Scott started bootlegging whiskey, but
bootlegging was dangerous work. In nineteen forty nine, Scott regularly
watched races at the Danville Fairgrounds Speedway. The next year,

(02:24):
racing promoter Martin Rogers was looking to bring more people
to the races and decided to find a black driver
to increase publicity. He asked the cops which black guy
would be a good fit, and they suggested Wendell Scott.
So Scott borrowed a car he had used for running
liquor that he had since sold to his brother in law.

(02:45):
He loved his first race. He started out in the
Dixie Circuit and went on to do other races that
were not affiliated with NASCAR. In Virginia, he won a
race for the first time in June of nineteen fifty two,
and he continued on to win other races. Though there
had been other black drivers before Scott, he was often

(03:07):
the only one at his events, and racism was still
rampant in the nineteen fifties in the US. People yelled
slurs at him and threatened his children. Plus he did
not have sponsors, a paid pit crew, or a mechanic
besides himself. NASCAR, or the National Association for Stock Car

(03:27):
Auto Racing, was founded in nineteen Though he had been
rejected from entering NASCAR sanctioned races because of his race,
he entered his first one in nineteen fifty four. Scott
was the first black driver to be in a race
that was sanctioned by NASCAR. Scott was never able to
race in a new car because he could not afford

(03:49):
it and did not have sponsorship, but he built his
own cars and was successful in racing. Still, he was
frequently singled out as a black driver. Other drive vers
would intentionally wreck his car during races, inspectors would demand
unnecessary repairs before he could race. This discrimination continued despite

(04:10):
some support from William France Senior or Big Bill, the
founder of NASCAR, and it caused Scott to make less money,
which had to go towards paying for his bills, gas
and car repair costs. Those Scott's cars were not as
new and improved as the other driver's cars, he still

(04:30):
performed will In his first NASCAR season in nineteen sixty one,
Scott made his first appearance in the Grand National now
called the Winston Cup in South Carolina. Two years later,
he won his first and only Grand National race. Scott
continued racing for several years, but in nineteen seventy three,

(04:52):
he was involved in a crash at Talladega Speedway in Alabama.
He survived the crash, but fractured many bones in had
to retire from racing. After returning to work in an
auto repair shop and paying for his children to go
to college, he died of spinal cancer in After his death,

(05:13):
Scott was inducted into several halls of fame, including the
National Sports Hall of Fame and the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
I'm eave Jeffcote and hopefully you know a little more
about history today than you did yesterday. And if you
want to learn more about Scott, you can in the
two part episode of Stuff You Missed in History Class

(05:34):
called Wendell Scott, Black Nascar driver in the Jim Crow Era.
You can find the link to that episode in the description,
and if you'd like to follow us on social media,
you can find us at t D I h D
Podcast on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Thanks again for listening

(05:54):
and we'll see you again tomorrow. For more podcasts from
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