Those that knew her say it’s simple: Celeste Scott made Pittsburgh a greater, kinder, extra equitable place. The beloved organizer, mom, and chief died all of the sudden this fall on the age of 46, leaving a legacy of affection, righteous wrestle, and group care.
Residing “Fats, Femme, and Fly,” Scott unapologetically spoke fact to energy, sharing her sweeping imaginative and prescient for a Pittsburgh the place Black communities can thrive, and dealing tirelessly to make it occur.
“It’s time for a complete reimagining of public security, restorative justice, and accompanying reallocation of funds to group funding,” Scott stated at a 2020 listening to on police reform and public security. “We all know a greater future is feasible. We will make Pittsburgh a metropolis the place all of us have our humanity revered.”
Scott was instrumental within the creation of Pittsburgh’s Housing Alternative Fund, which invests tens of millions annually in inexpensive housing, and SisTers PGH’s transitional housing program for unhoused trans, nonbinary, and gender non-conforming Pittsburghers.
“She had a voracious want for data, justice for the susceptible and music,” reads her obituary. “She mastered the artwork of loving folks sufficient to inform them the reality that might set them free and elevate them even when they had been aggressively decided to stay sure.”
In Scott’s honor, the Alternative Fund has launched a brand new initiative known as Respite for Black Ladies that can present funding to assist Black ladies’s “proper to relaxation” in Pittsburgh.
