James H. Robinson

Robinson spent his early childhood in the Bottoms, a poor, polluted part of downtown Knoxville, before his family moved to Cleveland when he was about ten. He graduated from Lincoln University as valedictorian in 1935, was ordained in 1938 and led Harlem's Morningside Presbyterian Church, soon renamed the Church of the Master. After tours abroad in 1951 and 1954 he urged the church to send engineers and doctors instead of missionaries, which led to Operation Crossroads Africa in 1958. By the 1970s more than 4,000 students had served.

What the plaque says

James H. Robinson This leader and visionary grew up in the poor area of Knoxville known as "The Bottoms." As a child he collected laundry from the more affluent for his mother to wash. At age ten, Robinson moved with his family to Cleveland, Ohio. He completed high school and enrolled in Western Reserve University. Later, he enrolled at Lincoln University, a historically black university in Pennsylvania. Graduating as valedictorian in 1933, he became an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church and thereafter dedicated his life to social justice and mutual understanding, both in the United States and abroad. Continued In 1958, he founded Operation Crossroads Africa, credited by President John F. Kennedy as the progenitor of the Peace Corps. In 1962, he served as vice president of the Peace Corps and joined the State Department's Advisory Council on African Affairs. His speeches in Canada sparked the formation of Canadian Crossroads International. His efforts enabled thousands of students and other volunteers to work in countries in Africa and throughout the world.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Blount Mansion — steps away
  The 1792 frame house of William Blount, governor of the Southwest Territory, Knoxville's only National Historic Landmark, where the people he enslaved are named.
• Beck Cultural Exchange Center — 1.2 mi
  Knoxville's Black history museum and archive, opened in 1975 in the 1912 Dandridge Avenue house the community bought for $22,500.
• Green McAdoo Cultural Center — 16 mi
  The 1935 school in Clinton that sent twelve Black students down Foley Hill to desegregate Clinton High School in August 1956, now a museum with bronze statues of the Clinton 12.
• Museum of Appalachia — 18 mi
  John Rice Irwin's 65-acre collection of moved log cabins and mountain objects north of Knoxville, opened in 1969, with a cabin believed to be Mark Twain's father's.

More markers nearby

• Blount Mansion — steps away
• Old Knox County Courthouse — 0.2 mi
• Treaty of Holston — 0.2 mi
• Staub's Theatre — 0.3 mi