Harry T. Moore Documentary Collection

Harry T. Moore (1905-1951) was the founder and secretary for the Brevard County NAACP in Florida. He and his wife Harriette Moore were killed in a bombing of their home on Christmas night 1951. Moore had been an early leader in the civil rights movement in Florida. He fought for equal pay for African American teachers, led the state's first African American voter registration drive, organized the first state conference for the NAACP, and advocated against police brutality against Black people. Born in Houston in Suwannee County, Florida, in 1905, Moore was raised by his mother and aunts after his father's death in 1915. He graduated from Florida Memorial High School in Live Oak in 1925. Before becoming involved in civil rights activism, Moore became a teacher in his home town of Houston, then moved to Brevard County to take a position as an instructor and principal at a Black elementary school in Mims. In 1934, Moore was introduced to the NAACP by a neighbor which prompted him to become involved in founding the Brevard County Branch.

Harriette V. Simms was born in 1902 in West Palm Beach Florida. She graduated from Bethune-Cookman College with an Associate's Degree in 1941 and began teaching elementary school classes at Titusville Colored (Black) School in Mims where she met Moore. They married on December 25th 1926, twenty-five years exactly before they were both killed by an explosion in their home. They had two daughters: Annie "Peaches" Rosalea and Juanita Evangeline. In 1946, both Harriette and Harry Moore were fired from their teaching positions with Brevard County because of their civil rights activism.

A bomb detonated under the Moore house on December 25, 1951. Placed specifically under the Moore's bedroom, the bomb injured the Moore's while they slept. Harry Moore died on the way to the hospital. Harriette Moore died nine days later from her wounds. Despite an extensive FBI investigation, no arrests were made. In 2005, the state of Florida - under the direction of State Attorney General Charlie Crist - reopened an investigation into the bombing. The investigation concluded that the Moore's were killed by members of a central Florida branch of the Ku Klux Klan, headed by Klan members Earl J. Brooklyn, Tillman H. Belvin, and Joseph Neville Cox.