Normal school
In 1880, Adams was approached on behalf of two white candidates seeking election to the Alabama Senate. He was asked what it would take to get the votes of the community's black citizens. Rather than requesting and/or accepting personal gifts, a common practice, he made a deal with the Democratic Party in Montgomery, promising to secure the African-American vote if funding would be provided for a Normal school for African Americans at Tuskegee. He and a banker, George W Campbell another former slave-owner skillfully convinced the Alabama Legislature to begin funding of US$2,000 annually for a "Negro Normal School in Tuskegee" starting in 1881. ("Normal schools" were so named because they taught future teachers educational standards or "norms".)