Elisha J. Scott, 1890-1963, was raised in Topeka's Tennesseetown. As a youth, he possessed a strong drive and a quick wit, which attracted the eye of prominent Topeka minister Charles M. Sheldon. With financial support from Sheldon and his own abilities to succeed, Scott earned his law degree from Washburn College in 1916. During his long career as an attorney, he argued many civil rights and school segregation cases throughout Kansas and the Midwest. Two of Scott's sons, John and Charles, joined him in his law firm of Scott, Scott, Scott, and Jackson. Together they helped to prosecute, at the local level, the landmark civil rights case of Brown v. Topeka Board of Education.