Vol. 76/No. 18      May 7, 2012

Harry Moore organized the Brevard County National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1934 and became the president of the Florida State Conference of the organization. In 1937, he filed the first lawsuit in the South demanding equal pay for teachers who were Black. In 1944, he set up the Progressive Voters’ League. He also led independent investigations into Florida lynchings and pressed for the indictment of those responsible.

Moore was centrally involved in the fight against the notorious frame-up of four African-American youths in Groveland in 1949. He spoke at scores of public meetings and demanded Lakeland Sheriff Willis McCall be charged and tried for the murder of Samuel Shepherd, one of the defendants whom he killed while in his custody. Moore and his wife were lynched on Christmas Day 1951 by a bomb placed under their bed. Local, state and federal authorities never charged anyone with the crime.

The panel kicked off the 9th Annual Moore Heritage Festival of Arts and Humanities, named in his honor. This year’s opening takes place against the backdrop of the national outcry against the killing of Trayvon Martin in nearby Sanford by neighborhood watchman vigilante George Zimmerman.

The murder of Harry and Harriette Moore took place in the midst of a number of Klan and white supremacist attacks in Florida, including the bombings of Jewish community centers in Miami.

The NAACP responded by urging national action, demanding that those responsible be prosecuted. They urged the trade union movement to call a national political strike to back the demand and set up a special committee to press for action.

The Socialist Workers Party joined the campaign. The front-page editorial in the Jan. 7, 1952, Militant was “Avenge Harry Moore—End Jim Crow Terror!” and subtitled “NAACP, Labor Must Give Lead For Mass Action.” The party worked with local NAACP branches to organize public protests and pressed for the unions to act. In response to this call, 5,000 people marched in Los Angeles.

Farrell Dobbs, the party’s national chairman, wrote a letter to 25 national unions and civil rights organizations, urging them to join the campaign to combat racist violence.

He proposed they follow the NAACP’s action call by holding a national march on Washington, and that they organize defense guards to protect lives, homes and meeting places from the Ku Klux Klan.

The annual Moore Heritage Festival in Cocoa is aimed at keeping Harry Moore’s fighting heritage alive.
 
 
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Havana event takes up fight against discrimination  
 
 
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