Andre Moses White was the Founder and Inaugural President of the Moses White Foundation.
A native of Tampa, Florida, Andre Moses White was the third child of Moses and Lucille White’s seven children. (You may know Moses White as the man who created the Florida Classic which was the first interracial college game played in the southeast United States between Florida A&M and the University of Tampa.)
White attended Middleton High School in Tampa. With the help of legendary football coach Jake Gaither, White moved to Tallahassee (with his brother Alton White who was attending FAMU). In Tallahassee, Andre White finished high school as a Lincoln High School Tiger and attended FAMU where he obtained a BS in Physical Education with a minor in Health Education.
After graduating from FAMU, White was drafted by the Denver Broncos as a Tight End. He also played for the San Diego Chargers and was one of the first African-Americans to sign with the Cincinnati Bengals.
Following a career-ending injury, White returned to Tampa and served as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Officer for Hillsborough County where he is most well-known for fighting to remove the confederate flag from the county seal – a feat that was only accomplished in 2016.
Following in his father’s footsteps in food and entertainment, White continued the legacy of Moses White’s Cozy Corner BBQ restaurant and later became the Road Manager for Marvin Gaye, and long-time confidant and business colleague of James Brown.
Following a stroke, White and his family moved to Atlanta in the late 1980s where he and his son started The Georgia Sentinel, a progressive news outlet for Atlanta’s African-American community. While building his business there, White became the President of the Auburn Avenue Merchants Association. As President, White re-established the Auburn Avenue Festival, hosting the return of James Brown and the Famous Flames for a free reunion concert for the community.
At the age of 71, White wrote a patriotic anthem called We’re Americans where he took a bold stand for American values. White worked with his son’s media company, Savant Media Ventures, to produce and release the song which is now available in all digital outlets. White quickly followed this anthem with a prolific song called My Man in which he describes the desire to have men stand up and stop fighting, respect women, and solve the community’s problems. Both songs are under his middle name, Moses White.
White continued his artistic adventures and served on the board of Wayfield Food Stores. For the nearly 30 years, White proudly played Santa Clause at the Wayfield Food Stores throughout the inner-city communities of the Metropolitan Atlanta area, bringing joy to thousands of kids and their families during the holidays.
White was the Founder of the Moses White Foundation, an idea he developed in 2016. He served as President of the Foundation until his death in 2020.
White lived in Atlanta with his junior high school sweetheart and fellow FAMU Alumnus Joyce Dupree White. White and his wife, Joyce, both passed away from COVID-19 in 2020.