Scope and Content Note
The Moton Family Papers bridge the years 1850-1991 with the main body of the material concentrated between the years 1930 and 1940. The collection is composed of the personal papers of Robert Russa Moton (1867-1940), second principal of Tuskegee Institute, and his wife, Jennie Dee Booth Moton (1880-1942), and depicts their commitment to the promotion of educational and economic opportunities for African Americans and to the improvement of race relations during the years immediately preceding and following Robert Moton's retirement from Tuskegee Institute in 1935. Also included is a small group of personal papers of their daughter, Charlotte Moton Hubbard (1911-1994). Hubbard's papers reflect her career in community and government service from the early 1940s to 1970. The principal materials in the collection include correspondence, memoranda, reports, minutes, circular letters, and related printed material.
As Booker T. Washington's successor at Tuskegee Institute, Robert Russa Moton was widely recognized as a chief representative of his race. With the school as a base, Moton expanded his service to the African American community through associations with individuals and organizations dedicated to racial harmony and increased opportunities for African Americans. The Robert Russa Moton Papers, which are divided into general correspondence and subject files, demonstrate his endeavors during the final decade of his life. The General Correspondence file contains communications between Moton and various educators, philanthropists, and fund-raisers, as well as items relating to personal and family affairs.
The Subject File documents Moton's work with several educational, business, and philanthropic organizations. He held positions in the National Negro Business League, Negro Rural School Fund (Jeanes Fund), Phelps-Stokes Fund, Commission on Interracial Cooperation, National Urban League, and Colored Work Department of the Young Men's Christian Associations (YMCA). He also served on the boards of Black financial and educational institutions, including Tuskegee Institute Savings Bank, Dunbar National Bank of New York, Fisk University, Hampton Institute (now Hampton University), and Lincoln University.
Although the bulk of the material contained in Moton's papers was generated in his retirement years, a significant number of items located in the Subject File recount Moton's association with the above-mentioned organizations and institutions during the late 1920s and early 1930s. Of particular interest is his correspondence with Albon L. Holsey of the National Negro Business League pertaining to the establishment in the early 1930s of the Colored Merchants Association, a national cooperative of Black grocery stores. Also located in the Subject File are materials pertaining to Moton's participation in 1923 in securing professional and administrative appointments for African Americans in the newly established Tuskegee Veterans Administration Hospital for Negroes, his service on the American National Red Cross Colored Advisory Commission on the Mississippi Valley flood disaster in 1927, and his chairmanship in 1930 of the United States Commission on Education in Haiti. Both the Subject File and General Correspondence file contain a scattering of personal items, including correspondence and financial and legal documents.
Prominent correspondents in the General Correspondence file include Jessie Daniel Ames, Daniel W. Armstrong, Tom M. Blanton, George Washington Carver, Melvin Chisum, Everard W. Daniel, Jackson Davis, R. Hayne King, Elizabeth Mason, Alvin J. Neely, Frederick D. Patterson, John J. Scott, William M. Scott, Lyman Beecher Stowe, Robert R. Taylor, Bessie Tower, and Cora E. Varner. Significant or frequent correspondents in the Subject File of Moton's papers include Will Winton Alexander (Commission on Interracial Cooperation), Walter Francis White (NAACP), Albon L. Holsey and C. C. Spaulding (National Negro Business League), Eugene Kinckle Jones, Jesse O. Thomas, and L. Hollingsworth Wood (National Urban League), Arthur D. Wright (Negro Rural School Fund), Anson Phelps Stokes and Thomas Jesse Jones (Phelps-Stokes Fund), and Channing H. Tobias (YMCA).
The papers of Jennie Dee Booth Moton, wife of Robert Russa Moton and his partner in advocacy, reflect her service to the Black community after her husband's retirement from Tuskegee in 1935. Her papers are arranged into two groups revealing her activities as a field agent for the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) and as president of the National Association of Colored Women. The Agricultural Adjustment Administration File includes correspondence with her supervisors, other field agents, and home demonstration agents, as well as statistical reports and brief narrative accounts of her travels and activities on behalf of Black Americans in the rural South. The National Association of Colored Women File focuses on Jennie Moton's administration of the organization and includes communications with her fellow national officers. A small file comprised principally of carbon copies of correspondence and memoranda (1924-1934) from Robert R. Moton's office to Jennie Moton in her capacity as director of the Department of Women's Industries at Tuskegee Institute is located in the Tuskegee file in the Subject File of the Robert Russa Moton portion of the papers, and a small group of speeches by Jennie Moton is located in the Miscellany series.
Significant and frequent correspondents in Jennie Moton's Agricultural Adjustment Administration File include Thomas M. Campbell, D. A. Currie, I. W. Duggan, Helen M. Hewlett, E. A. Miller, Mrs. I. W. Rowan, and Camilla Weems. Jessie Daniel Ames, Susie V Bouldin, Ada Belle DeMent, Annie B. Gillam, Bertha L. Johnson, Mrs. W. T. Johnson, Alberta Mundy, Charlotte Payne, Ella P. Stewart, Sallie W. Stewart, and Mary F. Waring are notable correspondents in the National Association of Colored Women File.
The small group of papers of Charlotte Moton Hubbard among the Moton Family Papers exhibits her activities in education, community service, and government service from the early 1940s to 1970. From 1942 to 1945 she served with the Federal Security Agency aiding local communities in organizing recreational facilities for military personnel. Drawing on her background in community service, Hubbard in 1954 assisted in the production of a manual to prepare District of Columbia recreation staff for the impending integration of public facilities. She joined the State Department's Bureau of Public Affairs in 1963 and one year later was appointed deputy assistant secretary of state for public affairs. With this appointment, she served as the highest-ranking Black woman in President Lyndon Johnson's administration. Hubbard administered various public affairs programs, including national and local foreign policy conferences and communications with domestic media and nongovernment organizations until her retirement 1970. Her papers include letters from her mother, Jennie Dee Booth Moton, and other family members. A series of additional papers of Charlotte Moton Hubbard includes corresondence, reports, playscripts, printed matter, and biographical material, 1933-1974.
The Miscellany series includes printed articles by and about Robert Russa Moton, speeches by Jennie Dee Booth Moton, assorted mementos, and a facsimile of an account book of the Committee of Vigilance, Boston, Massachusetts, 1850-1861.