In the early 1900s, he studied abroad in Paris. Mentored by one of Paris’ most famous Black residents, Scott studied at famed institutions such as the Academie Julian and the Academie Colarossi. Tanner’s influence on his style and his philosophical approach is evident in Scott’s work. Scott was known in part, just as his mentor was, for rendering biblical scenes. He also seemed to adopt Tanner’s skepticism of modernist tendencies “such as cubism."

Although Scott is remembered for the many murals that he painted and for his portraits of famous Black Americans such as Booker T. Washington and Frederick Douglas, the work Scott produced in Europe, recalled French genre scenes and had a particular emphasis on his empathy with peasant life. Scott’s image La Pauvre Voisine (The Poor Neighbor) which was executed in 1912 while he was a student at the Académie Julian was accepted in the Paris Salon. The Poor, like other images that Scott painted in the early 1910s are reflective of Tanner's influence on his style.

After returning from Paris, Scott established permanent residency in Chicago. “In 1918, he designed the cover art for the November and Christmas issues of the NAACP journal The Crisis , edited by W.E.B. Du Bois. The covers reflected the two great issues in the black discourse of the day: the Great Migration of African Americans from the rural South to Northern and Southern cities, and African American involvement in The Great War. At the same time, other compositions of Scott’s venerated the South-based manual labor and technical training ideology of Booker T. Washington.”

Scott’s who garnered significant patronage for his work, was also featured in some of the Harlem Renaissance’s most important exhibitions. One of his most notable accomplishments was the inclusion of his work in the 1927 Negro in Art Week show, the first all-Black exhibition of visual art in the United States. In the 1930s, Scott traveled to Haiti. His paintings from this period reflects his observations of the day to day aspects on living on the island and his affinity toward the working class citizens of Haiti.

A prolific artist, Scott was, for a time employed under Federal Arts Projects work. His employment as a “New Deal Artist,” afforded Scott the opportunity to paint murals throughout Chicago. Scott’s concern sustaining the work of the South Side Community Art Center, “a central hub of Black art and cultural politics in the 1940s.” Known as a gathering place for Black artists of all genres, South Side was frequented by luminaries such as Langston Hughes and Margaret Burroughs. As a source of support for young Black, emerging artists, Scott reportedly encouraged his mentees “to remain resolute in the face of racism.”

Toward the end of his career, Scott traveled to Mexico in the 1950s, a place that served as a refuge for Black artists who sought relief from racially oppressive conditions in the United States. “Mexico had been an inspiration for African American artists for decades; by the early ’50s it was also haven for artists with leftist affiliations fleeing McCarthyism.” The trip to Mexico and Scott’s exposure to the rich Mexican Muralists works, offered Scott a measure of respite. In the 1960s, Scott painted what was one of his last major murals, The Negro in Democracy, at the South Side Community Art Center.