Robert Parris Moses grew up in Harlem, attended Hamilton College and received a master’s degree in Philosophy from Harvard.
After an early career of teaching math at the Horace Mann School in New York, Dr. Moses directed the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee’s Mississippi Project 1961-1964, directed the Council of Federated Organizations, led the Mississippi Summer Project of 1964, and was instrumental in the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, which challenged the Mississippi regulars at the 1964 Democratic Convention. He went on to teach mathematics for the Tanzanian Ministry of Education.
In 1982, Dr. Moses began a five-year MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, and founded the Algebra Project, which uses mathematics as an organizing tool to guarantee quality public school education for all students. Over the past two decades, AP grew from teaching math in one school in Cambridge, Mass., to more than 200 middle schools across the country, developing successful models of whole-school and community change. Dr. Moses has received several honorary doctoral degrees, including Harvard, Princeton, University of Michigan, and is the recipient of numerous awards. In 2000 he received the Heinz Award from the Heinz Family Foundation for his efforts to make math instruction available to children of all backgrounds.