Visual artist and Baltimore Goon Squad member dies at 86
By Megan Sayles
AFRO Staff Writer
msayles@afro.com
One of Robert Scott’s earliest memories of his late father came on a drive home to Edmondson Village after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
Outside the car, he and his brother saw looters, fires and the National Guard. Inside, his dad, Oliver Patrick “Pat” Scott, explained what had led to unrest. Decades later, Robert Scott still sees that moment as emblematic of his father— an artist, educator and civil rights activist who spent his life helping shape Baltimore.
“When people ask me about him, I tell them that my father was a member of a group of civil rights pioneers that desegregated many of the services and facilities in the state of Maryland,” said Robert Scott. “That’s what I say, but he wanted to be remembered as an artist.”
Pat Scott, 86, died peacefully in his Zephyrhills, Fla. home on May 3. The Arkansas native, who grew up in West Baltimore, was the last surviving member of the Goon Squad, an informal collective of pastors, educators, attorneys and community leaders who began fighting for equality in Baltimore during the 1960s. The group included local civil rights giants, like Parren J. Mitchell, the first Black member of Congress from Maryland; and Judge Joseph C. Howard, the first Black District Court judge in Maryland.
Robert Scott recalled that one of the Goon Squad’s first efforts involved the integration of Gwynn Oaks Park in 1963.
“By the time I was about five years old, I had fond memories of going to Gwynn Oaks Park,” said Robert Scott. “I had no idea that just the year before they were picketing. It was like somewhere in the deep south right there in the Woodlawn area, where White folks didn’t want Black folks to go to the park. I was raised knowing that I was going to devote my life in service to Black people.”
During his time with the Goon Squad, Pat Scott began working in political organizing, a pursuit he would continue throughout his life. He supported campaign strategy and produced photography, signage and graphic design work for candidates across Maryland’s political landscape, including figures such as Mitchell, Howard, Verna L. Jones-Rodwell and former Baltimore State’s Attorney Patricia Jessamy.
Though his life touched activism, politics, education and mentorship, Pat Scott was known by many as an artist. He earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts and art education from then-Morgan State College and pursued additional studies in graphic design, photography and film criticism at The Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) and Johns Hopkins University. He became known for his sculptures, abstract paintings, portraits and charcoal drawings.
For nearly two decades, Pat Scott served as an art professor, director of the Murphy Fine Arts Center and chair of the Art Department at Morgan State University (MSU).
Burney J. Hollis, Board of Regents member and professor emeritus at Morgan State University, recognized Pat Scott as one of the most important 20th-century leaders of the historically Black university’s art program.
Hollis noted that as Pat Scott’s reputation as an artist grew, he was also instrumental in ushering the school’s art program into a new age, with the major expanding to include concentrations in painting, sculpture, environmental design, art history and photography.
“Pat was a strong and, despite his quiet demeanor, a vocal advocate for faculty rights on campus and, at the state and local levels, a principled political activist and advocate for Morgan’s progress, autonomy and integrity,” said Hollis. “The Art program owes much to his leadership during a critical period in its growth and the university a considerable debt to his unrelenting advocacy of Morgan in the larger community.”
Virlyn Patricia Koger, friend and domestic partner, described Pat Scott as calm, pensive and patient—characteristics that were infused in his art. The pair reconnected 40 years after their first meeting when they were brought back together at an event at MSU’s Murphy Fine Arts Center.
She described their bond through the song “Inseparable” by Natalie Cole, underscoring a relationship that held steady through hardship, joy and the more mundane tasks of life.
“It was good,” said Koger. “It was just the best way to feel, so I think I’m fortunate.”
Koger said one of the most significant moments in Scott’s later career came with his final showing in 2022 at a Delaware Art Museum exhibition that celebrated the legacy of Percy Ricks, a champion of Black artists who were excluded from mainstream institutions. His piece for the show was of a woman leading a march.
“He made references on and off to the fact that there were women who really helped power these protests, marches and demonstrations,” said Koger. “He didn’t say so, but I think he felt that a lot of times women didn’t get their just due for their participation.”
Like Robert Scott, Koger said Pat Scott ultimately saw himself first and foremost as a visual artist. For her, that identity shaped everything about him—from how he moved through the world to how he wanted to be remembered.
“He definitely wanted to be remembered as a visual artist, and I think that’s because he understood the value of art in every aspect of a person’s life,” said Koger. “It happened to be a God-given talent that he had to create images that people could appreciate.”
