A LEGACY LOST - The Story of Harry T. Moore

A LEGACY LOST - The Story of Harry T. Moore, civil rights pioneer from Mims, Florida

Daughter of civil rights activist seeks recognition for her father's contributions.

Nicole Blake, Contributing Writer, UCF Future (campus newspaper)
Friday, 9 Feb. 2007

People in Brevard County don't know the story of Harry Moore and that is not right, said the daughter of civil rights martyrs Harry T. and Harriet V. Moore on Tuesday, 6 Feb. 2007, speaking at the campus library of the University of Central Florida (UCF).

"It should be in history books already,", Evangeline Moore said. "I am trying to get daddy's story to be in the next history book because that's exactly where it belongs."

During an event sponsored in part by the African American Studies Program, Moore shared the events of her father's life with a group of about 20 UCF students, faculty and other members of the community. The chronological order in which she told her father's history dated back to his early years in grade school and led up to the murders of both him and his wife.

Before Harry Moore's death, he was an early pioneer of the civil rights movement who became notable during the 1960s and gave rise to advocates such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. Although Moore did not live to see the Brown vs. the Board of Education verdict, he taught black students, registered more than 100,000 blacks to vote and investigated lynchings and police brutality during the pre-mature stages of the movement.

He had also been warned numerous times about his involvement with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Evangeline Moore said.

The legacy is so important because it's history that is 45 minutes away," said Zach Nissen, a political science major. "It happened within our professors' generations:,

On Christmas night, 1951 - which was the Moore's 25th wedding anniversary - a bomb exploded underneath their bedroom in their Brevard County home. Evangeline Moore's older sister was home that night and soon discovered their father and mother buried underneath the furniture, Moore said.

Her parents were sent to a distant hospital in Sanford (30 miles away), because it was the closest facility with a black ward. Her father was pronounced dead at the hospital and her mother died nine days later from her bomb injuries.

"The bomb exploded and the 20th century Moses was gone", she said.

Moore compared her father to Moses because she said that she felt God called her father to lead African-Americans from being second-class citizens in the same way that God sent Moses to free the Israelites from the Pharaoh.

I know that my father was sent by God to lead his people out of bondage at a time when no one else had the courage," Moore said.

Celeste Fergusoron, assistant director of the Multicultural Academic and Support Service, sympathized with Moore and attempted to imagine how Moore dealt with the loss of her parents. Moore said that she suffers every Christmas and dislikes when that time of the year comes.

"To have to experience the death of your parents is horrible enough, but both of them and in such a violent manner," Ferguson said. "I just could not imagine what she felt as a young person. As a parent and one with parents, you just relate so much."

Moore was not present during the bombing but recalled the night that her uncle met her at the train station and told her about the incident.

"I knew something was wrong when I did not see my mom and dad," she said.

After her parents' deaths, Moore and her sister had to endure two funerals and threats on their lives, Moore said. The FBI focused on whether or not her father was a communist and if her parents' civil rights were violated.

Murder wasn't the focus of the investigation.

Recently, a satchel was discovered by a member of the North Brevard Historical Society about a half-mile away from the site where the Moores' house once stood. It contained letters that Harry Moore wrote and affidavits from his own investigations. Evangeline Moore believes that the briefcase was not discovered all these years because there was an ongoing conspiracy.

Despite these beliefs, she said that the papers allowed her to remember her life and what she did as a child.

"It's close to my heart," Moore said, "just touching them."

The case was re-opened in 1978 by the Brevard County Sheriff's Office and the State Attorney' s office in Brevard when Klansman Edward L. Spivey contacted officials to inform them of a fellow Klansman's involvement in the bombing, but no arrests were made. In 1991 the Florida Department of Law Enforcement launched an investigation whose resulting report was 18 pages long, Moore said.

During Florida's gubernatorial elections in 2006, Attorney General Charlie Crist released his 20-month investigation and released the names of four dead Kiansmen who were thought to be. involved in the bombing. Evangeline Moore said that this was the only murder investigation following her parents'death.

Moore encouraged students and teachers to help her spread the story about her father because his legacy is all that remains.

"When the Lord calls me to heaven, I will stop," Moore said.

Cantreal Ridley, the program assistant of African American Studies, admired Evangeline Moore's commitment to telling others about what her father did and who he was.

"She is really dedicated to her parents' legacy," Ridley said. "With our generation, we are so complacent with the way things are, and we are not seeking out change, and she is dedicated to showing people how it is possible to change things. Her father put forth a lot of effort to contribute to change in Florida."

Harry T. & Harriette V. Moore Memorial Park
& Cultural Center is located at:
2180 Freedom Ave.
Mims, FL 32754

Directions From Titusville, FL:
Travel North US-1 pass Parrish Medical Center,
pass traffic light at Dairy Road & US-1,
pass Louis Bar-B-Que Restaurant,
turn left on Parker street, go one block to Freedom Ave. and turn left.
Moore Memorial Park is at the end of the street.

Harry T. & Harriette V. Moore Cultural Complex, Inc. Board of Directors
Phone: (321) 385-1264
Fax: (321)385-1254

E-mail: hhmfestival@aol.com
Mailing Address:
Moore Cultural Complex, Inc.
P.O. Box 817
Mims, FL 32754