Robert Parris Moses
Encyclopedia
Robert Parris Moses is an American
, Harvard
-trained educator who was a leader in the 1960s Civil Rights Movement and later founded the nationwide U.S.
Algebra project
.
in 1952 and received his B.A. from Hamilton College in 1956. He studied philosophy
at Harvard and began teaching at the Horace Mann School
in Manhattan in 1958.
(SNCC). As director of the SNCC's Mississippi Project, Moses traveled to the South to try to register black voters. He faced nearly relentless violence and official intimidation. He and other organizers had asked for federal protection from the John F. Kennedy
administration.
By 1964 Moses had become Co-Director of the Council of Federated Organizations
(COFO), an umbrella organization
for the major civil rights groups then working in Mississippi. He was a leading SNCC figure, and the main organizer of COFO's Freedom Summer
project, which was intended to end racial disfranchisement. Mississippi's 1890 constitution included requirements for voter registration, such as poll taxes, residency requirements, and literacy test
s, which made it nearly impossible for blacks to register and vote. Because the literacy tests were subjectively administered by white voter registrars, even well-educated blacks had often been refused registration on literacy grounds. By the 1960s many blacks did not bother to try to register. Moses was one of the calm leaders that kept the group focused. On June 21st, as many of the protesters were getting settled and trained in non-violent resistance, three volunteers went missing. Their names were James Chaney
, and his two white co-leaders Andrew Goodman
and Michael Schwerner
. These three men had gone to investigate a church bombing near Philadelphia, Mississippi. These three men were arrested on alleged traffic violations. Their decomposed bodies were found six weeks later. Needless to say these murders would hit home for the volunteers for Freedom Summer. Moses gathered together the volunteers. In his quiet manner, and humble over-alls, he told the group this was what they were up against. He told volunteers that now that they have seen first-hand what could happen, they had every right to go home. He assured volunteers that no one would blame them for leaving. No one moved. All of the frightened volunteers stayed. Another factor to consider was that this was by no means the first murder of activists. Many African-American volunteers were angered by the fact that these murders were getting so much publicity because two of the victims were white. Many were frustrated by the thought that white bodies were more valuable than black ones. Moses' approach helped ease tensions. Even the volunteers working at Freedom Summer had to struggle with the idea of non-violence, with whites and blacks working together, and issues that went into making this movement go forward. Non-violence was not an easy sale. Blacks and Whites working together was also not a unanimous decision. These tensions were enormous. Arguably, Moses' leadership style was a major cohesive factor for a number of volunteers staying. Source: http://www.core-online.org/History/freedom_summer.htm, History of the South in Black and White (a history class taken at Duke University).
Moses was instrumental in the formation of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
, a group that challenged the regular Democratic Party
delegates from the state at the party's 1964 convention
.
When Stokely Carmichael
became SNCC president in 1966, the organization turned toward advocating black power
. Disillusioned, Moses quit the group. He then temporarily changed his name to Bob Parris and moved to Canada to avoid the Vietnam-war era draft. After getting remarried, Moses moved to Eastern Africa. From 1969-1975 Moses worked as a teacher in Tanzania
. In 1976 he returned to Harvard and did further graduate work in philosophy, after which he taught high school maths in Cambridge, Massachusetts
.
, and used the money to create the Algebra Project
, a foundation devoted to improving minority education in maths. Moses taught maths for a time at Lanier High School in Jackson, Mississippi
, and used the school as a laboratory school
for Algebra Project
methods.
In 2005 Moses was selected as one of twelve inaugural Alphonse Fletcher, Sr. Fellows by the Fletcher Foundation
, which awards substantial grants to scholars and activists working on civil rights issues. In 2006 Moses was named a Frank H.T. Rhodes
Class of '56 Professor at Cornell University
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Harvard
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
-trained educator who was a leader in the 1960s Civil Rights Movement and later founded the nationwide U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Algebra project
Algebra Project
The Algebra Project is a national U.S. mathematics literacy effort aimed at helping low-income students and students of color successfully achieve mathematical skills that are a prerequisite for a college preparatory mathematics sequence in high school...
.
Biography
Moses graduated from Stuyvesant High SchoolStuyvesant High School
Stuyvesant High School , commonly referred to as Stuy , is a New York City public high school that specializes in mathematics and science. The school opened in 1904 on Manhattan's East Side and moved to a new building in Battery Park City in 1992. Stuyvesant is noted for its strong academic...
in 1952 and received his B.A. from Hamilton College in 1956. He studied philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
at Harvard and began teaching at the Horace Mann School
Horace Mann School
Horace Mann School is an independent college preparatory school in New York City, New York, United States founded in 1887 known for its rigorous course of studies. Horace Mann is a member of the Ivy Preparatory School League, educating students from all across the New York tri-state area from...
in Manhattan in 1958.
1960s Civil Rights Movement
He began working with civil rights activists in 1960, becoming field secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating CommitteeStudent Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ' was one of the principal organizations of the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. It emerged from a series of student meetings led by Ella Baker held at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina in April 1960...
(SNCC). As director of the SNCC's Mississippi Project, Moses traveled to the South to try to register black voters. He faced nearly relentless violence and official intimidation. He and other organizers had asked for federal protection from the John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
administration.
By 1964 Moses had become Co-Director of the Council of Federated Organizations
Council of Federated Organizations
The Council of Federated Organizations was formed in Mississippi in 1962.A coalition of the major Civil Rights Movement organizations operating in Mississippi, COFO was formed to coordinate and unite voter registration and other civil rights activities in the state and oversee the distribution of...
(COFO), an umbrella organization
Umbrella organization
An umbrella organization is an association of institutions, who work together formally to coordinate activities or pool resources. In business, political, or other environments, one group, the umbrella organization, provides resources and often an identity to the smaller organizations...
for the major civil rights groups then working in Mississippi. He was a leading SNCC figure, and the main organizer of COFO's Freedom Summer
Freedom Summer
Freedom Summer was a campaign in the United States launched in June 1964 to attempt to register as many African American voters as possible in Mississippi which had historically excluded most blacks from voting...
project, which was intended to end racial disfranchisement. Mississippi's 1890 constitution included requirements for voter registration, such as poll taxes, residency requirements, and literacy test
Literacy test
A literacy test, in the context of United States political history, refers to the government practice of testing the literacy of potential citizens at the federal level, and potential voters at the state level. The federal government first employed literacy tests as part of the immigration process...
s, which made it nearly impossible for blacks to register and vote. Because the literacy tests were subjectively administered by white voter registrars, even well-educated blacks had often been refused registration on literacy grounds. By the 1960s many blacks did not bother to try to register. Moses was one of the calm leaders that kept the group focused. On June 21st, as many of the protesters were getting settled and trained in non-violent resistance, three volunteers went missing. Their names were James Chaney
James Chaney
James Earl "J.E." Chaney , from Meridian, Mississippi, was one of three American civil rights workers who were murdered during Freedom Summer by members of the Ku Klux Klan near Philadelphia...
, and his two white co-leaders Andrew Goodman
Andrew Goodman
Andrew Goodman was one of three American civil rights activists murdered near Philadelphia, Mississippi, during Freedom Summer in 1964 by members of the Ku Klux Klan.-Early life and education:...
and Michael Schwerner
Michael Schwerner
Michael Henry Schwerner , was one of three Congress of Racial Equality field workers killed in Philadelphia, Mississippi, by the Ku Klux Klan in response to their civil rights work, which included promoting voting registration among Mississippi African Americans...
. These three men had gone to investigate a church bombing near Philadelphia, Mississippi. These three men were arrested on alleged traffic violations. Their decomposed bodies were found six weeks later. Needless to say these murders would hit home for the volunteers for Freedom Summer. Moses gathered together the volunteers. In his quiet manner, and humble over-alls, he told the group this was what they were up against. He told volunteers that now that they have seen first-hand what could happen, they had every right to go home. He assured volunteers that no one would blame them for leaving. No one moved. All of the frightened volunteers stayed. Another factor to consider was that this was by no means the first murder of activists. Many African-American volunteers were angered by the fact that these murders were getting so much publicity because two of the victims were white. Many were frustrated by the thought that white bodies were more valuable than black ones. Moses' approach helped ease tensions. Even the volunteers working at Freedom Summer had to struggle with the idea of non-violence, with whites and blacks working together, and issues that went into making this movement go forward. Non-violence was not an easy sale. Blacks and Whites working together was also not a unanimous decision. These tensions were enormous. Arguably, Moses' leadership style was a major cohesive factor for a number of volunteers staying. Source: http://www.core-online.org/History/freedom_summer.htm, History of the South in Black and White (a history class taken at Duke University).
Moses was instrumental in the formation of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party was an American political party created in the state of Mississippi in 1964, during the civil rights movement...
, a group that challenged the regular Democratic Party
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
delegates from the state at the party's 1964 convention
1964 Democratic National Convention
The 1964 Democratic National Convention was the 1964 presidential nominating convention of the Democratic Party. It took place at the Atlantic City Convention Center in Atlantic City, New Jersey from August 24 to 27, 1964. Incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson -- who had been Vice President under...
.
When Stokely Carmichael
Stokely Carmichael
Kwame Ture , also known as Stokely Carmichael, was a Trinidadian-American black activist active in the 1960s American Civil Rights Movement. He rose to prominence first as a leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and later as the "Honorary Prime Minister" of the Black Panther Party...
became SNCC president in 1966, the organization turned toward advocating black power
Black Power
Black Power is a political slogan and a name for various associated ideologies. It is used in the movement among people of Black African descent throughout the world, though primarily by African Americans in the United States...
. Disillusioned, Moses quit the group. He then temporarily changed his name to Bob Parris and moved to Canada to avoid the Vietnam-war era draft. After getting remarried, Moses moved to Eastern Africa. From 1969-1975 Moses worked as a teacher in Tanzania
Tanzania
The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...
. In 1976 he returned to Harvard and did further graduate work in philosophy, after which he taught high school maths in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
.
Algebra Project
In 1982 he received a MacArthur FellowshipMacArthur Foundation
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is one of the largest private foundations in the United States. Based in Chicago but supporting non-profit organizations that work in 60 countries, MacArthur has awarded more than US$4 billion since its inception in 1978...
, and used the money to create the Algebra Project
Algebra Project
The Algebra Project is a national U.S. mathematics literacy effort aimed at helping low-income students and students of color successfully achieve mathematical skills that are a prerequisite for a college preparatory mathematics sequence in high school...
, a foundation devoted to improving minority education in maths. Moses taught maths for a time at Lanier High School in Jackson, Mississippi
Jackson, Mississippi
Jackson is the capital and the most populous city of the US state of Mississippi. It is one of two county seats of Hinds County ,. The population of the city declined from 184,256 at the 2000 census to 173,514 at the 2010 census...
, and used the school as a laboratory school
Laboratory school
A laboratory school or demonstration school is an elementary or secondary school operated in association with a university, college, or other teacher education institution and used for the training of future teachers, educational experimentation, educational research, and professional...
for Algebra Project
Algebra Project
The Algebra Project is a national U.S. mathematics literacy effort aimed at helping low-income students and students of color successfully achieve mathematical skills that are a prerequisite for a college preparatory mathematics sequence in high school...
methods.
In 2005 Moses was selected as one of twelve inaugural Alphonse Fletcher, Sr. Fellows by the Fletcher Foundation
Fletcher Foundation
The Fletcher Foundation is a nonprofit foundation that supports civil rights and environmental education. It was created with a $50 million endowment in 2004 by New York financier and philanthropist Alphonse Fletcher, Jr....
, which awards substantial grants to scholars and activists working on civil rights issues. In 2006 Moses was named a Frank H.T. Rhodes
Frank H.T. Rhodes
Frank Harold Trevor Rhodes was the ninth president of Cornell University from 1977 to 1995.-Biography:Rhodes was born in Warwickshire, England on October 29, 1926. He attended the University of Birmingham, graduating in 1948 with a Bachelor of Science degree...
Class of '56 Professor at Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
.
Books
- Radical Equations: Civil Rights from Mississippi to the Algebra Project ISBN 0-8070-3127-5
External links
- The Algebra Project
- NOW program on Bob Moses
- The My Hero Project: Bob Moses
- Robert Moses's oral history video excerpts at The National Visionary Leadership Project