Citation for Robert P. Moses

Robert P. Moses was a Freedom Rider in the 1960s and is founder of The Algebra Project, an innovative program that teaches mathematics literacy to children to prepare them for higher education and success in life. Educated at Hamilton College and Harvard University, Moses taught mathematics at the Horace Mann School in New York from 1958 to 1961 before leaving to work full time in the civil rights movement with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. He was the main organizer of Freedom Summer, in 1964. He endured numerous beatings and incarcerations in the course of his work for civil rights. He earned his doctorate in philosophy from Harvard, was awarded a MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant in 1982, and founded The Algebra Project later in that decade. Moses teaches math at Lanier School in Jackson, Miss., and lives in Cambridge, Mass.
Robert P. MosesRobert P. Moses. Activist. Political organizer. Teacher. Yours is a lifelong commitment to civil rights and social justice. Born and raised in Harlem, educated at Hamilton College and Harvard University, you taught mathematics at the Horace Mann School in New York before leaving to work full time in the civil rights movement. As a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, you organized voter registration drives in the South and were a leader of the Freedom Summer project. Your passion now focuses on another fundamental civil right—economic access through mathematical literacy. You founded The Algebra Project, which uses real-life experiences to teach mathematics to underprivileged schoolchildren and which has dramatically increased academic achievement among the 40,000 students enrolled. You have said: “The absence of mathematical literacy in urban and rural communities throughout this country is an issue as urgent as the lack of registered voters in Mississippi was in 1961 … and solving this problem requires exactly the kind of community organizing that changed the South in the 1960s.” Your work has been honored by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, which awarded you a “genius grant” in 1982, and by the Heinz Family Philanthropies, which gave you the Heinz Award in the Human Condition in 2000. You have helped lead the civil rights movement into the 21st century with your unwavering conviction that all children can learn and all children deserve high-quality education.

By the authority of the Board of Trustees of Colby College, I confer upon you, Robert P. Moses, the degree of Doctor of Education, honoris causa. The hood with which you have been invested and this diploma which I place in your hand are visible symbols of your membership in this society of scholars, to all the rights and privileges of which I declare you entitled.

Conferred May 28, 2006