John R. Scott, Sr.

Reverend John Robert Scott Sr. (1840-41 – February 18, 1929) was a religious and political leader in Florida as well as a college president. He was born into slavery in Virginia. During the Reconstruction era he became a pastor in the African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church and a state legislator.

He was chosen in 1870 as the first pastor of St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church of Jacksonville, Florida. He also served in the Florida House of Representatives, representing Jacksonville, from 1868 to 1873 and again in 1879. He was a leading politician in Jacksonville during the Reconstruction Era and a member of the City Council; his group "once had so many representatives in the city government that the entire form of government was changed by an executive act in Tallahassee". He chaired the 1870 state convention of Republicans in Jacksonville.

In 1893, a photograph documents that he was the president of Edward Waters College.

His son John R. Scott Jr., earned a Bachelor of Divinity, was also a minister of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (and secretary of its conference, 1889), a member of the Florida Legislature, and a professor of homiletics (preaching) at Edward Waters College.