"Robert Russa Moton"(August 26,1867-May 31,1940)

Was an African American educator and author.He served as an administrator at Hampton University Principal of Tuskegee University in 1915 after the death of Dr.Booker T.Washington,a position he held for 20 years until retirement in 1935.He was born in Amelia County Virginia.Robert graduated from Hampton University in 1890.He married Elizabeth Hunt Harris in 1905,she died in 1906.He then married his second wife,Jennie Dee Both in 1908.He had three daughters,Charlotte Moton Hubbard,a State Department Aide;Cathrine Moton Patterson;and Jennie Moton Taylor.In 1891 Robert was appointed commandant of the male student cadet corps at Hampton.He also wrote a number of books.The First Pan African Congress in Paris in 1919.Robert was a member of the Gamma Sigma graduate chapter of Phi Beta Fraternity,Inc., along with George Washing Carver.Moton Field,initial training base for the Tuskegee Airmen,was named after him.Robert had died the year before the Army commenced formal training of African-American military pilots at Tuskegee University.Under his leadership,the school had established a commitment to aeronautical training school with facilities and engineering and technical instructors.These resources were a factor in Tuskegee Institutes's participation in the Civilian's Pilot Training Program,a nationwide endeavor which eventually led to the training of African American pilots at Tuskegee.The Tuskegee Syphilis experiment biomedical research study in the U.S. history,commenced while Robert headed Tuskegee University.The program was an infamous clinical study conducted between 1932 & 1972 Macon County,Alabama by the U.S. Public Health Service to study the natural progression of untreated syphilis in poor,rural African American men who thought they were receiving free health care from the U.S. government.Robert endorsed the study and provided institutional resources,including medical personnel.The study was shut down in 1972 amid ethical controversies.The victims of the study included numerous men who died of syphilis,wives who contracted the disease,and children born with congenital syphilis.Holly knoll,retirement home in which he lived Gloucester County,was named a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1981,termed the Robert R.Moten House.