Updated:
05/09/2008
Robert R. Moton
Robert Russa Moton was born in 1867. He learned to read at the William Vaughan Plantation with the help of the daughter of the former owner. As a boy, his family sent him to a free school for Blacks operated by an ex-officer of the Confederate Army. While going to school, he worked on the Vaughan Plantation and others.
In 1885, Moton was an 18 year old student at the Hampton Institute. After graduating in 1890, he became the school's Commandant in charge of military discipline. He held this post for 25 years. During his tenure at Hampton Institute, Moton traveled to cities in the North to persuade philanthropists to contribute money to the predominantly Black colleges. Moton left Hampton Institute in 1915 to become the President of Tuskegee Institute, a predominantly Black College in Alabama. Under Moton's leadership Tuskegee grew. In 1920 Moton added a new college department to better train Black teachers. In 1921, after the election of President Warren G. Harding, he wrote a significant letter of congratulation in which he set forth some suggestions related to interracial conditions. Moton used his success to push his proposals to improve conditions for Black officers fighting in World War I. He asked the government to establish a training camp for Black officers. Later, Moton appeared before Secretary of War, Newton D. Baker, to lobby for a Black man to be appointed as an assistant to the "Secretary of War". The recommendation was adopted.
Declining health forced Moton to retire from Tuskegee in 1935. He moved to Gloucester County, his wife's home. There Moton built a majestic brick home he called Holly Knoll. Moton invited some of the most prominent authorities into his home to dicuss the issues of the day that were important to Blacks: housing, education and civil rights. His home later became known as the Moton Conference Center. A second floor wing called the "Holly Knoll Suite" has much of the furnishings and memorabilia Moton brought with him from Alabama. Among them are signed pictures from Presidents Coolidge, Wilson, Roosevelt, Harvey, Taft and Washington.
Moton died in 1940, he is buried at Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia.