Education
Moorland attended Northwestern Normal University in Ada, Ohio. Then he moved to Washington Doctorate. C., where he attended the Theological department of Howard University and earned his masters degree in 1891.
Moorland attended Northwestern Normal University in Ada, Ohio. Then he moved to Washington Doctorate. C., where he attended the Theological department of Howard University and earned his masters degree in 1891.
Born in Coldwater, Ohio, he was the only child of a farming family. He was ordained a Congressional minister. That same year he was hired as secretary of the Washington Doctorate. C. branch of the Young Men’s Christian Association. Moorland devoted himself to black social organizations, such as the National Health Circle for Colored People, as important for building community strength.
In 1914, Kelly Miller, a leading African-American intellectual, persuaded Moorland to donate his large private library on blacks in Africa and in the United States as the foundation for a proposed "Negro-Americana Museum and Library" at Howard University.
This collection formed the foundation of the Moorland–Spingarn Research Center. Together with historian Carter G. Woodson, he co-founded the Association for the Study of African American Life and History in 1915.
Jesse Moorland died in New York at the age of 76.
Moorland was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.