Walthall M. Moore

Walthall M. Moore, Sr. (May 1, 1886 - April 8, 1960) was an American politician from St. Louis who served in the Missouri House of Representatives.He was the first African American to serve in the Missouri state legislature.Moore was a member of the 51st, 53rd, 54th, and 55th General Assemblies.On December 29, 1911, he married Miss F. A. Ferguson in Marion, Indiana.

Moore represented a constituency where three-quarters of voters were white.He is also known for helping to upgrade and change the name of Lincoln Institute to Lincoln University, a school founded in 1866 by veterans of the United States Colored Troops.Moore was a delegate to Republican National Convention from Missouri in 1928.Until Missouri's capital Jefferson City passed a public accommodations law in the late 1960s, African-American legislators were forced to stay either in private homes or in a dormitory at Lincoln University.