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S(amuel) H. Scott was mentioned in the 1883-84 Pine Bluff (Jefferson County, Arkansas) City Directory as an attorney. Scott was elected a state legislative representative from Jefferson County to the Arkansas General Assembly in 1885. He may have moved thereafter, as he was reported to be an attorney in Fort Smith (Sebastian County), Arkansas, in 1889. He also was described as an editor, and may have published or worked for a newspaper or other journal.
Scott came to Arkansas from Dallas, Texas, where he lived for the short period of March-October 1881, maintaining an office and residence at 301 Main Street. He is reputed to be the first Black lawyer in Dallas, and developed a good reputation in the community. Before then, he had lived in Memphis, Tennessee. The 1880 Census identified him as an attorney, 40 years old, divorced, biracial, and born in Massachusetts.
Sources: Judith Kilpatrick, "(EXTRA)Ordinary Men: African-American Lawyers and Civil Rights in Arkansas Before 1950," 53 Ark. Law Rev. 299, 303 n8, 330, 345 (2000); Blake J. Wintory, African-American Legislators in the Arkansas General Assembly, 1868-1893, LXV Ark. Hist. Q. 385 (Wint 2006); "Arkansas State News," 3/30/1883, The Washington Press (v. 7, #12); John G. Browning & Chief Justice Carolyn Wright, "We Stood on Their Shoulders: The First African-American Attorneys in Texas," to be published in the Howard Law Journal, 2015-16;