The Legacy Museum, Tuskegee University

“The Department of Health and Human Services will award a planning grant to Tuskegee University to pursue establishing a center for bioethics in research and healthcare. The center will serve as a museum of the study and support efforts to address its legacy and strengthen bioethics training.”
-President William Jefferson Clinton, May 16, 1997

The Legacy Museum was established as a way to honor the participants in the United States Public Health Service Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male in Macon County, Alabama. Plans included an exhibition that would place the study in the context of Tuskegee University’s history in medicine, science and public health of African-Americans. These plans also included a commissioned creation that would serve to honor the contribution and memory of the 600 men who were unknowingly the subjects of the longest non-therapeutic study in the history of the United States of America. This most pertinent museum would also display rich art, artifacts and archival collections to introduce students and the general public to the field of bioethics.
This great museum not only serves as a reminder of the many tragedies that have befallen African-Americans throughout history, but also as a communication medium that portrays the prospective and the transcendence of some of our nation’s strongest and brightest individuals. The Legacy museum is a cornerstone for the concentration of which it was founded. Our mission is to convey the messages housed here at the Legacy, thus, encouraging all those we encounter to leave their OWN legacy.

Curator-Dr. Jontyle Robinson

Dr. Jontyle Robinson is Curator of the Legacy Museum.
She received early admittance to the Atlanta University private Lab School.
Jontyle is a graduate of Clark College, The University of Georgia and the University of Maryland, College Park. She was the first African American to receive an MA in Art History from the University of Georgia since the institution was founded in 1785. She is the first African American to receive a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland in the school's 161-year history. Dr. Robinson is a member of Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society.
She received early tenure at Spelman College and was curator of a new museum at Spelman that she helped to develop and create, the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art.
The Legacy Museum at Tuskegee University is the second museum that Dr. Robinson assisted in developing and creating.
She has been curator of the Legacy Museum since 2008.
She is the Founding Executive Director of the Alliance of HBCU Museums and Galleries which started at Tuskegee University.

Collections Manager/Educator- Theo M. Moore

Theo Moore graduated from Troy University in 2012 (main campus) with a Bachelor of Science in History. He continued his education on the graduate level and received his Masters in Adult Education-History in 2015. During his years at Troy University, Moore was very active on campus with organizations such as: NAACP, History Club, and Omega Psi Phi fraternity Inc. These organizations ultimately influence Moore’s focus on African American history.
Moore initially wanted to become an author by publishing some of his research from graduate school. However, he was more concerned with how his work would reach underserved audiences, especially low poverty areas. As a U.S. history teacher in the Alabama School System for several years, Moore realized that technology has an astronomical effect on children and adult learning. This will ultimately drive him to start his own non-profit company Historical Vision Productions (@hiztoricalvp) that will create short-film documentaries that concentrate on uplifting underserved communities through the subject of history.
Moore is honored to join the Tuskegee family and looks forward to contributing to the Legacy Museum. at Tuskegee University.