Cornerstone Moment: Alumna Marguerite Harper Scott '70 reflects on how Virginia Tech shaped her

I was pretty much happy most of the time, except when I was fighting. I mean my happiest moment in fact was my involvement in things in trying to get things changed. That's when I was happiest. If I thought that there was an injustice, then I would fight to change that injustice. One of the first problems that we tried to tackle there through the Human Relations Council was over the prospect of dating interracially. Now keep in mind, I went to school in '66 it's not until 1967 that the Supreme Court ruled that interracial marriage was legal. That was one of those things that we had to fight. When I found out from some girls who had mentioned that they would like to date a particular fellow who was black. And I said, "Well, you know, I can fix you up." You know, and they said no, we have to have permission from our parent. And I said, "you do?" And I said, "why is that?" And they said because that's what we were told we had to have permission. And I said, "well, nobody told me I had to have permission to date interracially." And so of course, I had to go and see the Dean of Women about that. And so the Dean of Women and I had quite a few meetings over what I considered to be injustice. So I think that one great thing that Virginia Tech taught me, and that's because I was there and I felt I had to do these things was made me a fighter. And so I've been fighting injustice, in my own way, ever since.