CCE Fellow has deep understanding of Richmond city

BY JOAN TUPPONCE

First-year students participating in John Moeser’s tour of Richmond during UniverCity Day learn more about the city in one day than many of its longtime residents do in a lifetime. Moeser, senior fellow at the Bonner Center for Civic Engagement, has had an interest in Richmond and City Council since 1970.

“No one in the city has his breadth and depth of expertise and experience,” observes Doug Hicks, CCE’s executive director. “He is a leading expert on Richmond politics, race and community development. He is a gift to the University.”

A native of Lubbock, Texas, Moeser came to Richmond in 1970 to teach at VCU. He decided to focus his dissertation, which he was completing at the time, on Richmond’s City Council.

“I became a student of Richmond politics, which has carried forward to this day,” he says. “I’ve done a lot of writing on the city’s racial history and the relationship of cities to counties.”

Moeser’s interest in politics dates back to his days in junior high school in the late 1950s when he was elected secretary of the student body. He went on to earn three degrees in political science: a B.A. from Texas Tech University, M.A. from the University of Colorado and Ph.D. from George Washington University.

His penchant for urban studies is less obvious. Moeser laughs at the irony of a boy from agricultural northwest Texas—where the tallest structures are grain elevators—growing up to become an expert on urban studies.

“I’m still fond of that part of the country,” he says. “The horizon in Lubbock is so vast with such a sense of grandeur of nature.”

Since moving to Richmond, Moeser has been active in the community. He is a board member of Richmond Metropolitan Habitat for Humanity, past board chair of the William Byrd Community House and a two-time chair of the Richmond Human Relations Commission. In 2003, he was appointed to the Urban Policy Task Force by then-Gov. Mark Warner, and in October 2008, he received a Richmond History Maker award from the Valentine Richmond History Center for fostering regionalism.

“It was humbling,” he says. “I had no idea I had been nominated.”

After the award, City Council appointed Moeser to the city’s Charter Review Commission. The nine-member commission is chaired by John G. Douglass, dean of the law school.

“The charter needed to be reviewed,” Moeser says. “We are deciding on the changes that need to be made.”

Hicks was aware of Moeser’s past accomplishments and his expertise when he asked the retired VCU professor to join the CCE as its first visiting fellow. “It was an incredible opportunity for us,” he says. “Hundreds of our students have benefitted from hearing him talk about poverty in Richmond, the mayoral system and other topics.”

Most of Moeser’s research stems from his interest in post World War II Richmond political history and race relations in the metro area. He has written several books and publications on the two subjects.

“Richmond’s political history is steeped in race,” he says, noting that the decade of the 1970s was an “ugly time in Richmond history. Whites were leaving by the thousands because of annexation. We lived in the annexed area then, and people were hostile toward the city.”

Before coming to Richmond, Moeser and his wife had lived in Washington, D.C. and participated in the Poor People’s Campaign led by Martin Luther King Jr.

“When we moved to Richmond, it was like going back to the 19th century,” he recalls. “We didn’t like Richmond at that time, but now it’s our home, and it’s a wonderful place to live.”

He believes that many of the problems facing Richmond today are regional in nature. “The city in the economic and social sense is the entire Richmond area,” he says. “We have got to look at this whole area as a single city.”

In addition to his freshmen outings, Moeser also guest lectures in University classes, talks with students about graduate school and volunteerism, and plans and leads bus tours of the city for faculty, staff and adults involv-ed in the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. Moeser’s tours travel through a variety of Richmond neighborhoods, including Windsor Farms, Ginter Park, Highland Park and Jackson Ward. One location that has a huge impact is the area near Main Street Station.

“That was ground zero for slavery. It was the major center for slave exportation,” Moeser says. “When you hear the term ‘sold down the river’ it refers to the James River. That area always leads to a rich discussion.”

Moeser clearly enjoys every aspect of his work at Richmond. “I have always thought highly of the University,” he says. “The years here have been some of the most delightful of my professional life.”