African American Education Robert R. Moton’s 1917 Tuskegee Fundraising Appeal for Black Students

Tuskegee Institute

Manuscript & Autographs

Moton, Robert R. typed letter signed on Tuskegee Institute letterhead, dated March 9, 1917, documents Tuskegee Institute’s donor outreach during Robert Russa Moton’s early presidency, revealing how HBCU fundraising operated through personal appeals to white Southern patrons and providing primary-source evidence for the study of African American education, philanthropy, and institutional continuity after Booker T. Washington’s death. Moton succeeded Washington as head of Tuskegee in 1915, making this letter an early document from his administration as he worked to sustain one of the best-known Black educational institutions in the United States.

Moton, Robert R. Typed Letter Signed to W. A. Holmes. Tuskegee, Alabama: Tuskegee Institute, 1917. 1 page. Signed by Robert R. Moton. The letter is addressed to W. A. Holmes of Virginia and asks for support “to help in the perpetuation of the Tuskegee Work,” specifically for “sixteen hundred Negro boys and girls.” Moton frames the appeal through his Virginia birth and upbringing, writing that he is making “this very personal plea” as he begins a “new and very great undertaking,” and states that contributions would aid “the fitting of these sixteen hundred Negro boys and girls for service to the white and black people of their communities.”

The letter documents Tuskegee’s institutional communication system through official letterhead, direct donor solicitation, and language linking Black vocational education to interracial community service. Expected fold lines and handling creases, discoloration at top corners, and small loss at bottom left corner; very good. Focused evidence of early Moton-era Tuskegee fundraising and the financial networks supporting Black education during the First World War era.

Item #16275

Price: $450.00