Born: 1863

Died: 1938

Area of Expertise: Civil Rights and Theology

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Inducted into Hall of Fame: 2018

Hall of Fame Presentation by Kenvi Phillips (PDF)

Dr. Jesse Edward Moorland was a YMCA executive and member of the Howard University Board of Trustees (1907-1940). In 1914, he donated his personal library to Howard University to establish the Moorland Foundation (later the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center).

Moorland married Lucy Corbin Woodson in 1886, a partnership maintained until her death in 1939. An ordained Minister, Dr. Moorland graduated from Howard University’s Theological Department and pastored two churches before taking the position as the second African American secretary of the YMCA.  

In 1914, Dr. Jesse E. Moorland, a Black theologian who was an alumnus and trustee of the University, donated his private library, at that time considered one of the most significant collections of  Black related materials in existence. Dr. Moorland’s donation reflected the efforts of African Americans to take a leadership role in the documentation, preservation, and study of their own history and culture. His collection provided the catalyst for the centralization of the University Library’s other Black related materials, which became known collectively as the Moorland Foundation. In 1946 Howard University acquired the large personal library of Arthur B. Spingarn, an attorney, social activist, and prominent collector of books and other materials produced by Black people. The Moorland-Spingarn Research Center is named for these two benefactors whose collections provided the foundation upon which later development could be built.