While at Lincoln, Robert majored in Government and had a minor in Journalism.  In addition to his activities with the athletic teams at Lincoln University, he was sports reporter/editor for four years with the Clarion Newspaper, sports editor for the 1965-1968 Achives and a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.  As a sophomore and member of the History Club, he was the catalyst for organizing Lincoln students to travel and participate in the march from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery, Alabama in the spring of 1965.  In 1966, he was selected to attend an intensive summer studies program at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.  When he returned to campus in the fall of 1966, he assumed the position of President of the Student Government Association and in 1967, received the SGA “Man of the Year” award.  Additionally, he was selected to the 1967 edition of “Who’s Who in American Colleges and Universities”.  Robert graduated with a B.S. degree from Lincoln in June 1968 and was commissioned as a 2^nd Lieutenant in the United States Army.  He became an armor officer and spent ten years with the U.S. Army Reserve, before leaving with the rank of Captain.He received a deferment from active duty to attend Howard Law School, in Washington, D.C., and graduated in the top 10% of his law school class with a Juris Doctorate degree in 1971.  He was admitted to the Alabama State Bar in August 1971, the District of Columbia Bar Association in 1980, and the United States Supreme Court.  He was a regulatory staff attorney for the Atomic Energy Commission from 1971-74; An Earl Warren Legal Fellow with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in New York City; private practice of law in Birmingham, Alabama, before returning to the Washington, D.C. in 1976.  He reentered federal practice with the Energy Research and Development Administration, and the Department of Energy, and since 1978 has been engaged primarily in providing legal counsel on international nuclear trade agreements and national defense programs.

Robert’s civic activities include serving two two-year terms as a member of the Kings Contrivance Village Board in Columbia, Maryland.  Additionally, he was elected and served two years on the Columbia Association Board of Directors and the Columbia Council.  In 1989, he was selected as one of the Outstanding Young Men in America.  He was a charter member of the Central Maryland Chapter of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society and served as parliamentarian and for the national organization.