Douglas E. Moore

Douglas E. Moore (July 23, 1928 – August 22, 2019) was a Methodist minister who organized the 1957 Royal Ice Cream Sit-in in Durham, North Carolina.

Moore entered the ministry at a young age.

After finding himself dissatisfied with what he perceived as a lack of action among his divinity peers, he decided to take a more activist course.

Shortly after becoming a pastor in Durham, Moore decided to challenge the city's power structure via the Royal Ice Cream Sit-in, a protest in which he and several others sat down in the white section of an ice cream parlor and asked to be served.

The sit-in failed to challenge segregation in the short run, and Moore's actions provoked a myriad of negative reactions from many white and African-American leaders, who considered his efforts far too radical.

Nevertheless, Moore continued to press forward with his agenda of activism.

Ultimately, however, Moore's plan of using the sit-in to challenge Durham's power structure proved successful.

A new wave of young African-American students, inspired by the actions of the Royal Ice Cream protestors, adopted Moore's agenda, helping to bring about the desegregation of the city's public facilities.

His actions also had effects that stretched far beyond the boundaries of Durham.

Working with activist leaders he had once spurned, including Martin Luther King Jr., and inspired by the actions of students in places such as Greensboro, North Carolina, Moore was able to organize additional sit-ins during the sit-in movement that spread all across the South.

His work with the sit-in helped to spur the creation of “local movement centers”, which facilitated the collective actions of African-Americans seeking to bring about an end to segregation throughout North Carolina and the region in years to come.

In addition, Moore's idea of a group that used the power of nonviolence, using Christianity as an ideological base, ultimately became the symbol of a new era of activism and civil rights in the United States.

Douglas Elaine Moore was born in 1928 in Hickory, North Carolina.

At an early age, he decided to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather and enter the Methodist ministry.

Shortly after earning a Bachelor of Arts from North Carolina College in 1949, Moore enrolled at Boston University as a divinity student in 1951.

His political leanings were evident early on, as he joined a radical leftist group on campus and participated in protests of social ills.

Moore also temporarily joined a student group called the Dialectical Society, which met every week for dinner and a discussion.

However, he found the talks largely dissatisfying, viewing them as far too passive and abstract.

In addition, he was not too fond of the leader of the Dialectical Society, the then-unknown Martin Luther King Jr. Referring to him as “just another Baptist preacher”, Moore invited King to join his student group.

However, King declined to do so, likely put off by its radicalness and activist agenda.

Moore soon parted ways with the Dialectical Society.

He earned his Bachelor of Sacred Theology in 1953 and his Master of Sacred Theology in 1958.

After graduating, Moore moved back to the American South.

He served as the minister for two small-town Methodist churches before becoming the pastor of Durham's Asbury Temple Methodist Church in 1956.

Soon after arriving in the city, Moore began to look for ways to challenge its power structure.

Despite the fact that Durham was known for having better-than-average race relations for the region, Moore quickly concluded that it was the “same as any other place: They [the whites] wouldn't give up nothing”.

He made several attempts to desegregate the city's public facilities.

After his family was denied admission to the then all-white Long Meadow Park swimming pool in 1957, Moore appealed to Durham recreation officers, to no avail.

Other efforts included petitions to the city council to end segregation at the Carolina Theatre and the Durham Public Library.

While these also resulted in little to no changes, Moore would make headlines later that year via what came to be known as the Royal Ice Cream Sit-in.

On June 23, 1957, the 28-year-old Moore led three African-American men and three African-American women into the segregated Royal Ice Cream Parlor.

They all sat down in the white section and asked to be served.

Moore later told a reporter, “We just decided we wanted to cool off, to get some ice cream or milk shakes.” The truth, however, was much more far-reaching than that.

Moore later said that the parlor was chosen in advance because of its location in a predominantly-African-American neighborhood.

He also indicated that he intended the sit-in to serve as a barometer – a way to see how much progress African-American protestors could make, as well as what they needed to achieve more in the future.

In the end, after being asked to leave by the owner of the parlor and refusing to do so, all of the protestors, including Moore, were arrested.

They were all convicted of trespassing and fined $10 plus court costs.

The sit-in soon turned into a protracted court battle: seeking an ally in his fight for the desegregation of public facilities, Moore hired Floyd McKissick, a prominent African-American attorney, to sue Royal Ice Cream.

At the same time, he and the other protestors appealed their convictions.

The case eventually made its way to the North Carolina Supreme Court, but the defendants ultimately lost.