Florida Historical Markers Programs - Marker Detail

Description: Lucy Moten School was built in 1932 at Florida A&M University’s (FAMU) with support from the Julius Rosenwald Fund and General Education Board. For more than 70 years, the school served as a training facility for African-American educators. The one-story brick building was designed in the Colonial Revival style. In 1935, FAMU President J.R.E. Lee, Sr., named the school in honor of Washington D.C. Miner Training School for Teachers principal, Lucy Ellen Moten (1851-1933), a protégé of Frederick Douglass. A Howard University graduate (1870), she was a pioneer of the “normal school” teacher training method during the early 20th century. Moten received her medical degree from Howard University in 1897. Her contributions as an educator and physician earned her national acclaim. In 1953, FAMU’s Lucy Moten School was placed under the College of Education as part of the FAMU High Developmental Research School (FAMU DRS) comprising grades K-12. In 2008, a new FAMU DRS was built on campus. The original Lucy Moten Elementary School building continues to be used by FAMU.