Robert Russa Moton

Robert Russa Moton was born in Amelia County, Virginia, on 26 August 1867, and was educated in a local freedman's school and at Hampton Institute (now Hampton University). He served as an administrator at the institute from 1890 to 1915, when he succeeded Booker T. Washington as president of Tuskegee Institute. There Moton led the school to full collegiate accreditation. An advisor to five U.S. presidents and a founder of the Urban League, he retired to Holly Knoll (10 miles northwest) in 1935. Moton died on 31 May 1940. Holly Knoll was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1981.