Harry T. Moore

Harry Tyson Moore (November 16, 1905 – December 25, 1951) was an African-American educator, a pioneer leader of the civil rights movement, founder of the first branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in Brevard County, Florida, and president of the state chapter of the NAACP.

Harry Tyson Moore was born on November 18, 1905, in Houston, Florida.

Both the Moores completed college degrees at Bethune Cookman College, a historically black college in Daytona Beach.

Both their daughters also earned college degrees at Bethune Cookman College.

In the early 1930s, Moore had become state secretary for the Florida chapter of the NAACP.

Through his registration activities, he greatly increased the number of members, and he worked on issues of housing and education.

He investigated lynchings, filed lawsuits against voter registration barriers and white primaries, and worked for equal pay for black teachers in public schools.

Moore also led the Progressive Voters League.

In 1934, soon after the birth of their daughters, the Moores founded the Brevard County chapter of the NAACP.

Moore also helped organize the statewide NAACP organization.

Through his registration activities, he greatly increased the number of members, and he worked on issues of housing and education.

He investigated lynchings, filed lawsuits against voter registration barriers and white primaries, and worked for equal pay for black teachers in public schools, although they were segregated.

Following a 1944 US Supreme Court ruling against white primaries, between 1944 and 1950, he succeeded in increasing the registration of black voters in Florida to 31 percent of those eligible to vote, markedly higher than in any other Southern state.

Following a 1944 US Supreme Court ruling against white primaries as unconstitutional (which the Democratic Party had used as another means of excluding blacks from politics), between 1944 and 1950, Moore succeeded in increasing the registration of black voters in Florida to 31 percent of those eligible to vote, markedly higher than in any other Southern state.

In 1946 both Moores were fired from their teaching jobs because of their activism; Harry Moore was working to gain equal pay for Black public school teachers in the Brevard County segregated school system.

Such economic retaliation was widely used in Southern states to discourage activism.

Harry Moore accepted a paid position with the NAACP in order to survive economically.

Moore also led the Progressive Voters League.

In July 1949, four black men were accused of raping a white woman in Groveland, Florida.

Ernest Thomas fled the county and was killed by a posse; the other three suspects were arrested and beaten while held in custody, forcing two to confess.

Rumors accompanied the case against a background of post-war tensions resulting from problems in absorbing veterans into jobs and American society.

In Groveland, a white mob of more than 400 demanded that the sheriff, Willis V. McCall, who had hidden the prisoners to protect them, hand the prisoners over for lynching.

The mob left the jail and went on a rampage, burning buildings in the black district of town.

McCall asked the governor to send in the National Guard, but six days were needed to restore order.

The three young men, one 16 years of age and a minor, were found guilty by an all-white jury.

The judge sentenced 16-year-old Charles Greenlee to life in prison; Sam Shepherd and Walter Irvin were sentenced to death.

Executive Director of the Florida NAACP, Harry T. Moore, organized a campaign against what he saw as the wrongful convictions of the three men.

With NAACP support, appeals were pursued.

Harry T. Moore and his wife, Harriette Moore, also an educator, were the victims of a bombing of their home in Mims, Florida, on Christmas night 1951.

As the local hospital in Titusville would not treat Blacks, he died on the way to the nearest one that would, a Black hospital in Sanford, Florida, about 30 miles to the northwest.

The murder case was investigated, including by the FBI in 1951–1952, but no one was ever prosecuted.

In April 1951, a legal team headed by Thurgood Marshall won the appeal of Shepherd and Irvin's convictions before the U.S. Supreme Court.

A new trial was scheduled.

County Sheriff McCall was responsible for transporting Shepherd and Irvin to the new trial venue in November 1951.

His wife died from her wounds nine days later, on January 3, 1952, at the same hospital.

This followed their both having been fired from teaching because of their activism.

Moore has been called the first martyr of this stage of the civil rights movement that expanded in the 1960s.

Two more investigations were conducted in the 1970s and 1990s.

A state investigation and forensic work in 2005–2006 resulted in naming the likely perpetrators as four Ku Klux Klan members, all long dead by that time.

Harry T. Moore was the first NAACP member and official to be assassinated for civil rights activism; the couple are the only husband and wife to be killed for the movement.