Robert Russa Moton (August 26, 1867 - May 31, 1940) is an African-American educator and writer. She serves as an administrator at Hampton Institute. In 1915 he was appointed principal of the Tuskegee Institute, after the death of the founder of Booker T. Washington, a position he held for 20 years until his retirement in 1935.
Video Robert Russa Moton
Biography
Robert Russa Moton was born in Amelia County, Virginia, on August 26, 1867, and grew up in nearby Rice, Prince Edward County, Virginia. He is the grandson of an African tribal chief who has grown rich by being involved in slavetrading. Then the head itself was sold as a slave, which led to the arrival of the Moton family in America shortly thereafter.
Moton graduated from the Hampton Institute in 1890.
He married Elizabeth Hunt Harris in 1905, but he died in 1906. He married his second wife, Jennie Dee Booth, in 1908. They had three daughters together: Charlotte Moton (Hubbard), who became an assistant deputy minister of state in State Department under President Lyndon B. Johnson; Catherine Moton (Patterson); and Jennie Moton (Taylor). All three are married and have family.
In 1891, Moton was appointed commander of the male student corps corps at Hampton Institute, equivalent to the Dean of Men, serving in this position for over a decade. He is informally known as "Major".
In 1915, after the death of Booker T. Washington, Moton succeeded Washington as the second principal of the Tuskegee Institute. While supporting the work-study program, he emphasized education, integration
"the liberal arts into the curriculum, establishing a bachelor's degree in agriculture and education.He enhanced the study program, especially in teacher training, improved faculty and administration qualities, built new facilities, and significantly increased donations by maintaining his connections to white benefactors in North. "
During World War I, Moton traveled to Europe on behalf of president Woodrow Wilson. His job is to investigate the conditions of African-American troops. He often witnessed discriminatory practices. For example, during his investigation Moton was confronted by an American general of twenty-six alleged rape cases by black troops. The general told Moton that the black soldiers were dangerous to themselves and to women. Moton challenged these allegations, pointing out that discrimination was a driving factor, and encouraging black troops to protest segregation when they returned to the United States.
Moton writes a number of books as he serves as headmaster. He attended the First Pan-Africa Congress in Paris in 1919, met with educators and other activists from around the world.
In 1922 he became the keynote speaker at the Lincoln Memorial ordination in Washington, DC but was not allowed to sit with other speakers.
In race relations, Moton advocated accommodation, not confrontation. He firmly believes that the best way to advance the cause of African-Americans is to convince white people of blacks' value through their exemplary behavior. No one to shake the boat, he does not fight segregation or challenge white authority.
Moton sits on the board of the main philanthropic organization with the likes of Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller Jr., and his influence is considerable. When Julius Rosenwald, president of Sears, Roebuck and Company, provided funds to build more than 6,000 "Rosenwald" schools for rural South Africans, Moton's skills were evident in the game behind the scenes.
In 1927, Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 destroyed the Delta. With the flood waters of Mississippi covering the entire Delta, the Greenville dyke, Mississippi is the only high and safe place for thousands of refugees. Most of those who are stranded on the embankment are African Americans, and they are desperate for food, drinking water, and shelter. Instead of evacuating them, African-Americans are virtually imprisoned in the embankment and forced to work at gunpoint. Conditions in the Greenville camp are the worst of any refuge site.
To avoid a scandal that would threaten Hoover's presidential ambitions, Hoover's friends urged him to get what they called the "big Negro" in Republicans to appease his critics, and Hoover turned to Robert Moton for the job. Hoover formed a Color Advisory Committee, led by Moton and managed by prominent African Americans, to investigate allegations of violations in the flooded areas.
The Commission conducted a thorough investigation and reported back to Moton in miserable conditions. Moton presented the findings to Hoover, and advocated immediate improvements to help those most in need of flooding. But the information was never published. Hoover has asked Moton to keep an eye on his investigation. In return, Hoover implies that if he succeeds in his quest for the presidency, Moton and his men will play a role in his unprecedented government in the nation's history. Hoover also hinted that as president he intends to divide the planters' land of bankruptcy into a small African-American farm.
Motivated by Hoover's promises, Moton ensured that the Color Advisory Committee never fully reveals the violations in the Delta, and Moton championed Hoover's nomination for the African-American population. However, after being elected President in 1928, Hoover ignored Robert Moton and the promises he made for his black constituency. In the next 1932 election, Moton withdrew his support for Hoover and switched to the Democratic Party.
Moton is a member of the Gamma Sigma graduate chapter of the Phi Beta Sigma fraternity, along with George Washington Carver.
Moton went on to retire from Tuskegee in 1935 and died at his home in Gloucester County, Virginia, in 1940 at the age of 73 where he was buried at the Hampton Institute. Tuskegee Institute named the field in which Pilots were trained during World War I after Robert Moton, in honor of everything he did for the institute.
Maps Robert Russa Moton
Inheritance and honor
- The Tuskegee syphilis experiment, one of the most famous biomedical research studies in US history, began when Moton headed for the Tuskegee Institute. A clinical study conducted between 1932 and 1972 in Macon County, Alabama, by the US Public Health Service, was notorious for ethical issues, for failing to inform participants of their diagnosis and not treating them, even after penicillin proved to be effective in the 1940s against syphilis. This study follows the untreated natural development of untreated syphilis in rural poor blacks who think they receive free health care from the US government.
- Moton supports research and provides institutional resources, including medical personnel. The study finally closed in 1972 amid an ethical controversy. The victims of the study included many men who died of syphilis, 40 affected wives, and 19 children born with congenital syphilis.
- Moton Field, the initial training base for Tuskegee Airmen during World War II, was named after him. Moton had died years before the Army began formal training of African-American military pilots at the Tuskegee Institute. But under his leadership, the school has established a commitment to aeronautical training with facilities, techniques, and technical instructors. This resource is a factor in the Tuskegee Institute's participation in the Civil Pilot Training Program, a national effort that eventually led to the training of African-American pilots in Tuskegee.
- Holly Knoll, a nursing home in Gloucester County, has been known as Robert R. Moton House and is designated a National Historic Landmark U.S. in 1981.
- The former High School RR Moton, located in Farmville in Prince Edward County, was designated as the US National Historical Headquarters in 1998. It is now the Robert Russa Moton Museum, the center of civil rights studies in education.
- Primary school has been named for her in Hampton, VA, Miami, FL, Westminster, MD, Easton, MD, Emporia, VA, and New Orleans, LA.
- In 1932, Moton was awarded the Spingarn Medal of the NAACP.
Public services
Moton plays a role in various aspects of public service.
- 1918, he traveled to France at the request of President Woodrow Wilson to inspect the US black troops stationed there.
- 1923, he played a leading role in the establishment of Veterans Administration Hospital for Negro, Tuskegee, Alabama.
- 1927, Chairman of the American Red Cross, Colorful Advisory Committee of the Great Mississippi Flood .
- 1932, Chairman of the US Education Commission in Haiti.
Publications
References
Further reading
External links
- The Gloucester Institute
- Finding an Exit: Autobiography , Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & amp; Co., 1921, c1920.
- Robert Russa Moton Museum, Farmville, Virginia
- Dr. Robert Russa Moton Award
- The work by Robert Russa Moton in Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Robert Russa Moton on the Internet Archive
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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