The Scripto Pen Company was established in Atlanta, Georgia, as the M. A. Ferst Company in 1923. In 1924, the company changed its name to Scripto. From 1931 to 1977, Scripto operated its facilities on Houston Street (later John Wesley Dobbs Avenue) near Auburn Avenue, a historically Black cultural district. Scripto produced mechanical pencils, pens, and, starting in 1955, refillable butane lighters.

Scripto employed hundreds of Black Atlantans, over half of which were women. These women and the Local 754 of the International Chemical Workers Union (ICWU) organized a strike in 1964 in protest of Scripto's discriminatory wage practices. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) supported the strike. The strike ended on January 9, 1965, resulting in union recognition and a four-cent wage increase.

In 1977, Scripto relocated its operations to Gwinnett County. In 1984, it partnered with the Japanese firm TokaiSeiki, which purchased Scripto later that year. The company became Scripto-Tokai in 1988, moved its headquarters to California, and ceased pencil production. In 2006, the name changed to Scripto USA, and by 2012, the company focused exclusively on pocket and utility lighters under its parent company, Tokai World.