Harry Tyson Moore

The Civil Rights Movement in Florida began with the early work and untimely death of Harry Tyson Moore, an African-American civil rights worker in Brevard County. Moore was a teacher, a principal, and a civil rights worker. In 1934, he organized and became president of the first Brevard County branch of the NAACP. He graduated from Bethune-Cookman College with a Normal Degree in 1936 and later finished his B.S. Degree in 1951. In 1937, he organized a lawsuit against the Board of public education seeking equal pay for both Black and White teachers; it went to court in 1939 and was the first civil rights lawsuit in the Deep South. He became the Executive Director of the NAACP of the Florida State Conference from 1947 to 1951. In 1945, he formed the Progressive Voters League of Florida, became its Executive Director, and organized voter registration drives. During those Jim Crow days, his outspoken leadership as a Black man had severe consequences, and he and his wife were both fired from their teaching positions. He and his wife were murdered in their home in Mims by a bomb detonated under their bedroom on Christmas Eve 1951, which was their 25th wedding anniversary. Their deaths marked a historical first, as they were the only husband and wife martyred for the Civil Rights Movement, and Harry T. Moore was the first NAACP executive to be assassinated. President Truman and Florida Governor Fuller Warren received countless protest letters and telegrams, and although the FBI launched an extensive investigation, the murders have never been solved.

Mims, Florida · United States