Harriette Moore | |
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| Born | Harriette Vyda Simms (1902-06-19)June 19, 1902 West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S. |
| Died | January 3, 1952(1952-01-03) (aged 49) Sanford, Florida, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Assassination by bombing |
| Occupation(s) | Educator,civil rights pioneer |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
Harriette Vyda Simms Moore (June 19, 1902 – January 3, 1952) was an Americaneducator andcivil rights worker. She was the wife ofHarry T. Moore, who founded the first branch of theNational Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) inBrevard County, Florida. Themurder of the Moores was the first assassination to happen during theCivil Rights Movement and the only time both a husband and a wife were killed for their activism.
Harriette Vyda Simms was born inWest Palm Beach, Florida, on June 19, 1902, to David Ira Simms (a wood lathe worker) and Annie (Warren) Simms. Her sisters were Valerie and Mae, and her brothers were George, Arnold, Rupert, and David Jr. The family relocated toMims, Florida. As a youth, Harriette spent summers working inMassillon, Ohio with her father. She attended the segregatedDaytona Normal Industrial Institute inDaytona Beach, Florida. She later graduated fromBethune-Cookman College, ahistorically black college in Daytona Beach, with anAssociate of Arts degree in 1941 and aBachelor of Science degree in 1950.
Simms taughtelementary school classes for many years inMerritt Island and Mims in Brevard County, and inLake Park, Florida until her death. In Mims, she helped to cook lunch every day for the pupils.
Simms metHarry Tyson Moore while she was teaching classes inBrevard County. He was then working as principal of theTitusville Colored School. They married on December 25, 1926 and had two daughters together: Annie Rosalea (known as Peaches, 1928–1972) and Juanita Evangeline (known as Evangeline, 1930–2015)..
Soon after the births of their daughters, the Moores founded theBrevard County chapter of the NAACP in 1934. Harry Moore later helped to organize the statewide NAACP organization.
In 1946, both Moores were fired by the Brevard County public school system andblacklisted for theirpolitical activities.
OnChristmas night, 1951, the Moores were fatally injured at their home in Mims by abomb that went off beneath their house. It was their 25thwedding anniversary. Harry died on the way to the hospital inSanford, Florida. Harriette died from her injuries nine days later at the hospital in Sanford.
Although the state called in theFederal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to investigate, no one was indicted for the bombing and murders of the Moores. Renewed attention was brought to the case by a 1999 biography of Moore, describing him as the first civil rights martyr, and a 2000 PBS program about his life and legacy.
The Florida Attorney General re-opened an investigation into the murders in 2005, 54 years later. In its 2005–2006 reinvestigation, theState of Florida concluded that the bombing murder of the Moores had been the work of violent members of a central FloridaKu Klux Klan group and named the four chief suspects, all of whom had died.[1] There were eleven other bombings against black families in Florida the year that the Moores were killed.[2]
The risk to activists and any blacks in the South was high and remained so. According to a later report from the NAACP's Southern Regional Council inAtlanta, the homes of 40 black Southern families were bombed during 1951 and 1952. Some, like the Moores, were activists, but most were either people who had refused to bow to racist convention or simply "innocent bystanders, unsuspecting victims of random white terrorism."[3]
Although the story of the Moores' lives faded into obscurity for many years, the late-20th-century reopening of the case provided a new appreciation for their work.
In 1999, Florida approved designation of the homesite of the Moores as aFlorida Heritage Landmark.[4] Brevard County started restoring the site. Supplemented by independent funding, by 2004 the county had created the Harry T. and Harriette Moore Memorial Park and Interpretive Center at the homesite in Mims.[5] Brevard County named its Justice Center after the Moores and included material there about their lives and work.[6]
TheState of Florida twice returned to the case but was unable to file charges, as most of the men suspected to have been involved in the crime had died. In 1999, journalistBen Green published a book based on his research of the case,Before His Time: The Untold Story of Harry T. Moore, America's First Civil Rights Martyr.
In 2005,Florida Attorney GeneralCharlie Crist reopened a state investigation of Harry and Harriette Moore's deaths. On August 16, 2006, Crist announced the results of the work of the stateOffice of Civil Rights and theFlorida Department of Law Enforcement. Rumors that had linked SheriffWillis V. McCall to the crime were proven false. Based on extensive evidence, the state concluded that the Moores were victims of aconspiracy by members of a central FloridaKlavern of theKu Klux Klan. The report named the following four individuals, all of whom had reputations for violence, as directly involved:
Both Brooklyn and Belvin died in 1952. The Moores' younger daughter, Juanita Evangeline Moore, joined former Attorney General Crist in the efforts to uncover the identity of her parents' killers. She was a 1951 graduate ofBethune-Cookman College and a retired government employee. She died on October 26, 2015, inNew Carrollton, Maryland.[8]
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