DR. ROBERT RUSSA MOTON
Born only two years after the civil war ended, Dr. Robert Russa Moton entered a world still clinging to the vestiges of slavery. He grew up on a sprawling plantation in Amelia County, Virginia. His mother, Emily, served in the big house, and his father, Booker, labored as a field hand. The Motons understood that their son, while blessed by emancipation, would be handicapped if he did not receive a good education. Emily Moton had risked her life by secretly learning to read during slavery. But even in freedom, she concealed her rudimentary reading ability from the plantation master and misses. Each night, under the fear of discovery, she shared her limited knowledge with her son.
During one of their late-night lessons, they were discovered. But the master of the plantation did not reproach Mrs. Moton. In fact, he allowed his youngest daughter to teach both mother and son. Dr. Moton’s early experience of learning how to read impressed upon him the great value of education and stirred in him a thirst for new ideas, greater knowledge, and a deeper understanding of the world around him.
When the time came for Dr. Moton to go to college, his certain poverty did not discourage him. He worked in a lumberyard and eventually saved enough to attend Hampton Institute. After graduating from Hampton in 1890, he began working for the school as Commandant overseeing the discipline of young men.
He completed his post-graduate work in 1895. At Hampton University, Dr. Moton became exposed to influential black thinkers of the day. Booker T. Washington became not only a mentor, but a dear and trusted friend. Together they traveled throughout the South talking to black groups about racial progress.
In 1905, Dr. Moton married Elizabeth Hunt Harris. She died the following year. While the sorrow of losing Elizabeth never passed, Moton’s heart eventually began to heal. In 1908, he met and married Jennie Dee Booth, a home economics instructor at Hampton University. Together they raised five children. Jennie worked alongside Dr. Moton and equally matched his commitment to improving the lives of African Americans.
Over the next decade, Dr. Robert Russa Moton became one of the most recognized names, not only in the black community, but in America. At the death of his friend, Booker T. Washington, he left Hampton University and became the second president of Tuskegee Normal School. Under Dr. Moton’s leadership, the Tuskegee endowment grew from $2.2 million to $7.7 million. Such an endowment allowed Dr. Moton to transform Tuskegee into one of the premier institutes dedicated to training and educating African Americans. During the 1925–1926 academic year, Tuskegee announced its first college-level courses. Soon after, the Institute offered its first BS degrees in education and agriculture.
Dr. Moton’s influence on African American society in the 1920s, ’30s, and ’40s is unparalleled. In 1922, when speakers were being considered to deliver the keynote address at the dedication ceremony of the Lincoln Memorial, Dr. Moton was the obvious choice. President Harding delivered remarks, as did Robert Lincoln, the memorialized President’s son. But the primary task fell to Dr. Moton who had by now grown accustomed to addressing men and women of political importance. This address, however, was different. With one speech, he had the power to reach tens of thousands with a message of racial unity and progress.
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Dr. Moton stood with his trademark dignity and grace and looked out over the crowd numbering well over 50,000. He praised Lincoln for being willing to make a stand and unravel the thread of inequality that had been woven into the fabric of our nation. On behalf of the “Negro” people of the nation, Dr. Moton pledged, “With malice toward none, with charity for all, we dedicate ourselves and our posterity, with you and yours, to finish the work which he began, to make America an example for all the world of equal justice, equal opportunity for all.” After delivering these final words full of hope for unity and equality, he returned to his seat in a roped off, “colored only” section. He did not allow such ironies in his life to deter him from his mission of racial progress.
His relationship with Julius Rosenwald, the Chairman of the Board for Sears and Roebuck, led to hundreds of Rosenwald Schools being built throughout the South to educate black students.
Dr. Moton was largely responsible for the construction of a Veteran’s Hospital in Alabama for black soldiers returning from World War I. Despite protest from the white community and threats by the Ku Klux Klan, he saw to it that black administrators and doctors governed the facility. W.E.B. DuBois praised Dr. Moton’s fight to have the hospital staffed by black medical professionals.
Dr. Moton served as an advisor to Presidents Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Countless universities and organizations honored Dr. Moton, including the National Negro Business League, which elected him president. He served for more than twenty years in that position.
In 1935, Dr. Moton retired to Cappahosic, Holly Knoll—his Georgian-style home on the banks of York River in Gloucester, Virginia. For him, retirement did not mean giving up his lifelong work of building bridges to solve the problems of the day. Coveted was the invitation to “Come to Cappahosic.” At Cappahosic, the greatest African American minds converged to debate and address issues of African American advancement.
When Dr. Robert Russa Moton died on May 31, 1940, his accomplishments were great. Unfortunately, he has become one of the unsung heroes of the African American community. In the eight decades since his death, Dr. Moton’s name may be forgotten, but his legacy of faith and ideas lives on through the work of The Gloucester Institute.
DR.FREDERICK D. PATTERSON
Frederick Douglass Patterson was born on October 10, 1901, in Washington DC as the youngest of five children, to Mr. William Ross Patterson and Mammie Lucille Patterson.
Through hard work and determination, Patterson obtained three professional degrees by the age of 31, a Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine, a Master's in the same subject both from Iowa State University and a Doctorate of Philosophy from Cornell University. As a brother of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated, he distinguished himself as the only African American at the time to work at the Iowa State University Veterinary Clinic. He later taught veterinary medicine at Virginia State University. After four years as a professor, he moved on to become their Director of the School of Agriculture.
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In 1928, Dr. Patterson moved to Tuskegee and began his time working as the Director of the Veterinary Program for the Institute.
Dr. Patterson married Dr. Moton's eldest daughter Catherine Elizabeth. Upon Dr. Moton's retirement, Dr. Patterson began to rise into the national spotlight. Shortly after Dr. Moton left his position as president of Tuskegee Institute, Dr. Patterson became the third president of Tuskegee Institute. As president, he introduced new programs, most notably the commercial aviation program which paved the way for the Tuskegee Airmen in 1941. After Dr. Moton's passing, Dr. Patterson took ownership of Holly Knoll and reformed it into the Moton Conference Center complete with dormitories, training facilities, and a replica of Dr. Moton's original childhood cabin, to preserve the legacy and work of Dr. Moton. Under his leadership, the conference center saw many great Civil Rights leaders such as Thurgood Marshall, Oliver Hill, Ezell Blair Jr., David Richmond, Franklin McCain and Joseph McNeil, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, and Congressman John Lewis.
The most notable organization founded at Holly Knoll was the United Negro College Fund through Dr. Patterson and Mary McLeod Bethune in the attempt to raise funds for Tuskegee Institute and other historically black colleges. Today the UNCF still exists as an organization in partnership with 37 different HBCUs across the country conducting educational research and reform through the Frederick D. Patterson Research Institute, lobbying on Capitol Hill, and providing over 11 million dollars a year in scholarships to minority students. After Dr. Patterson's retirement, the UNCF took over his work at Holly Knoll and effectively held ownership of Holly Knoll and the surrounding property.
In 1988, Dr. Fredrick D. Patterson was buried at the Tuskegee Institute.
KAY COLES JAMES
Charles and Kay James purchased Holly Knoll in 2005, with the vision to completely restore the campus and use it to educate the next generation of leaders. Holly Knoll’s significance is
manifested in its ties to the civil rights movement and its notoriety as a gathering place for problem solvers of the time. Holly Knoll has served as an intellectual and cultural hub for African American leaders, providing a venue for them to engage in debates surrounding issues central to the black community. As president of the Gloucester Institute, Mrs. James spent a year developing a strategic plan and pilot programs to rekindle Holly Knoll’s significance for today’s challenges. The Gloucester Institute (TGI) was officially launched when it received tax-exempt status in 2007.
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Today, three programs are fully operational - the Emerging Leaders Program, the Moton Forum,and Moton Fellows Program. Over the last few years, these programs have touched hundreds of African-American students, providing them with the skills, knowledge, and intellectual foundation required to succeed in the corporate, government, and academic realms. Our students are graduates of our country’s top Ivy League schools, working in nonprofits, and serving in leadership roles in the government, academic, and corporate spheres. Holly Knoll is on the National and State of Virginia historic landmark registries.
At Holly Knoll, also known as The Moton Conference Center, you will find a replica of Dr. Robert Russa Moton’s childhood home (pictured above). It is our honor to keep his legacy alive and continue the work that he and so many others before us started long ago.
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“FINDING A WAY OUT”
BY: DR. ROBERT RUSSA MOTON
“Whatever of labour and pains may have gone into this story, I shall feel amply repaid if it encourages any member of my race to greater faith in himself, as well as in other selves, both white and black; and shall help him to make his life count for the very most in meeting and solving the great human problem which we in this country call the ‘race problem.’”
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"WHAT THE NEGRO THINKS"
BY: DR. ROBERT RUSSA MOTON
1929 foreword: This volume aims to place on record some facts concerning a phase of the Negro problem of which, up to this time little has been known outside of the race; that is, what the Negro, himself, thinks of the experiences to which he is subjected because of his race and colour. The subject has lately excited a growing interest, especially among those who would approach the problem of the Negro's presence in America with sympathy and understanding.
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"CHRONICLES OF FAITH: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF FREDERICK D. PATTERSON"
BY: FREDERICK D. PATTERSON
Patterson, orphaned soon after birth in 1901, became a veterinary scientist at Tuskegee Institute and soon thereafter--at the depths of the Depression--was selected as president of that most important institution. It was at Tuskegee that Patterson formulated the idea and the organization--the United Negro College Fund. In doing so he made a place for himself in U.S. and world history by providing the model of cooperative fund raising that enabled financially starved private black colleges to survive and serve the youth of the segregated North and South.
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"KAY JAMES (TODAY'S HERO SERIES)"
BY: KAY C. JAMES
The pro-life activist recounts her difficult childhood, the influence of Christianity in her life, and her work in state and federal government.
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"WHAT I WISH I'D KNOWN BEFORE I GOT MARRIED"
BY: KAY C. JAMES
Building a marriage is a lifelong endeavor for both men and women. Most marriage books cover the three C's--communication, compromise, and consideration -- but fail to address many issues critical to a healthy relationship. Family advocate Kay James calls these the "things I wish I had known before I got married": advice on finances, sex, children, and dealing with the extended family. Noting that the apostle Paul exhorted older women not to inspire or counsel younger women, but to teach them how to be wives to their husbands, Kay offers a lifetime's wealth of wisdom for creating an unbreakable marriage relationship.
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"TRANSFORMING AMERICA: FROM THE INSIDE OUT"
BY KAY C. JAMES
The author, a White House appointee in the Bush administration, identifies and presents her views and prescriptions for four pivotal issues facing church and society: poverty, homosexuality, abortion, and racism.
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"NEVER FORGET: THE RIVETING STORY OF ONE WOMAN'S JOURNEY FROM PUBLIC HOUSING TO THE CORRIDORS OF POWER"
BY: KAY C. JAMES
In an inspirational account of her life and humble beginnings, the White House official fondly remembers her childhood in the "projects" and offers readers her insights into poverty and racism. National ad/promo.