Harry Tyson Moore

Harry Tyson Moore. Harry T. and Harriette V. Moore Memorial Park. , The Civil Rights Movement in Florida began with the early work and untimely death of Harry T. Moore, an African-American civil rights worker in Brevard County. Harry Tyson Moore was a teacher, a principal, and civil rights worker. He became the Executive Director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) of the Florida State Conference from 1947 to 1951. , , 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 went on to finish 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. This went to court in 1939 and was the first civil rights law suit in the Deep South. , , In 1945 he formed the Progressive Voters League of Florida and became its Executive Director. That same year he organized the voter registration drives. , , Being a Black outspoken leader has many consequences during those Jim Crows days, and Harry T. Moore 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, and it was their 25th wedding anniversary. Their deaths marked an historical first, as they were the only husband and wife martyred for the Civil Rights Movement. , , In addition, Harry T. Moore was the first NAACP executive to be assassinated. Both President Truman and Florida Governor Fuller Warren received countless protest letters and telegrams. An FBI extensive investigation was launched but the murders have never been solved.