In 1915 he was named principal of Tuskegee Institute, after the death of founder Booker T. Washington, a position he held for 20 years until retirement in 1935.

[2] In 1891, Moton was appointed commandant of the male student cadet corps at Hampton Institute, equivalent to Dean of Men, serving in this position for more than a decade.

He improved courses of study, especially in teacher training, elevated the quality of the faculty and administration, constructed new facilities, and significantly increased the endowment by maintaining his connections to wealthy white benefactors in the North.

Moton challenged these allegations, suggesting discrimination was motivating factor, and encouraged black soldiers to protest against segregation when they returned to the US.

In 1922, he was the keynote speaker at the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial, closing with "I... believe that all of us, black and white, both North and South, are going to strive on to finish the work which [Lincoln] so nobly began to make America an example for the world of equal justice and equal opportunity for all who strive and are willing to serve under the flag that makes men free.

[6] Moton sat on the boards of major philanthropic organizations with the likes of Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller Jr., and his influence was considerable.

The vast majority of the people stranded on the levee were African Americans, and they were desperate for food, potable drinking water and shelter.

Hoover formed the Colored Advisory Commission, led by Moton and staffed by prominent African Americans, to investigate the allegations of abuses in the flood area.

In return, Hoover implied that if he were successful in his bid for the presidency, Moton and his people would play a role in his administration unprecedented in the nation's history.

[8] Moton went on to retire from Tuskegee in 1935 and died at his home Holly Knoll, in Gloucester County, Virginia, in 1940 at the age of 72 where he was buried at the Hampton Institute.