Harry T. and Harriette V. Moore Museum
celebrates 20 years
Nestled in Brevard County is the Harry T. and Harriette V. Moore Cultural Complex and Memorial Park. The historical site and museum celebrated a big milestone on Saturday when organizers and supporters celebrated the museum’s 20th anniversary.
Fearless: The Harry T. Moore Story
FEARLESS: The Harry T. Moore Story
Rated PG
October 13-15, 2023
TITUSVILLE Playhouse
Based on the life and times of Harry T. and Harriett V. Moore. An amazing retelling of the night of December 25, 1951, with history that has happened in our own backyard. The play tells the story of that eventful night and the ramifications that sparked from that evening. Presented in cooperation with the Moore Cultural Complex and Museum we are very proud to present this moving and relevant play to our community.
Harry T. & Harriette V. Moore Grave Site and Memorial Service
After a two-hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the annual Harry T. and Harriette V. Moore Memorial and Grave Site Service returned to North Brevard County with a bang. Organizers, led by Moore Cultural Complex Board of Directors President William E. (Bill) Gary had planned for a grand event and grand it was. It was the first time in the history of the event that the big three of NAACP leadership were in attendance at the service; Mr. Leon Russell, Chairman National Board of Directors of the NAACP, Mr. Derrick Johnson, Esq. President/CEO of the NAACP and our very own Dr. Adora Obi Nweze, President of the Florida State Conference of NAACP Branches were all front and center.
On a sunny warm Saturday afternoon with the Moores graves brightly decorated with beautiful wreaths and poinsettia plants in gold and green wrapped containers adorning the graves the Astronaut High School ROTC Color Guard deftly marched around to the head of the graves to “present the colors” as the official start of the Grave Site program. Program participants included Ms. Jada Reid, Central Brevard NAACP Youth Council; Mr. Malachi Gibbs, 1st. VP Fl State Conference NAACP Youth & College Div.; Ms. Brooklyn Taylor, Jacksonville NAACP Youth Council; Mr. Colin Mitchell, President Fl State Conference NAACP; Ms. Angelica Sosa, Moore Cultural Complex Student Intern/EFSC Student; Mr. Isaiah Henry, Titusville High School/EFSC Dual Enrolled Student and Ms. Sannye Jones, Advisor Fl State Conference NAACP Youth and College Div.
​
All participants and attendees then proceed to the Moore Memorial Park and Cultural Center for the Moore Memorial Service program with guest speaker Mr. Derrick Johnson, Esq., President/CEO NAACP. Those on the program at the Memorial Service included Ms. Cynthia Slater, President Volusia County Branch NAACP as presiding officer; Rev. Joyce Harvey, Pastor Shiloh A.M.E. Church (where the Moores were members); Ms. Gloria Bartley, Board Member Moore Cultural Complex; Ms. Barbara Graddy lead the audience in song; Greetings were provided by Mr. Dan Diesel, Mayor of Titusville; Mr. Donald Hart, 1st. VP Fl State Conference NAACP; Mr. Colin Mitchell, President Fl State Conference NAACP Youth and College Div.; Ms. Sonya Mallard, Coordinator Moore Cultural Center and Museum. Mr. Leon Russell gave a rousing introduction to the speaker of the hour Mr. Derrick Johnson. Mr. Johnson had a very timely speech for the audience in which he extolled the value of our public-school teachers and warned against being distracted by non-important issues and topics like CRT (Critical Race Theory) which is a graduate level/law school topic that 80% of the population has no idea what it means but is being among other things to demonize our schools and teachers. He talked about how we must keep focused on the real issue, like ensuring our teachers are allowed to teach our children to be critical thinkers, to question the status quo, and be creative in their imagination of how things should be. Don’t allow ourselves or our children to become sheep and follow blindly the narrative that some in our society would have us believe. “We hold the power, the power is in our vote don’t give that up”.
​
The program concluded with Closing Remarks by Mr. William (Bill) Gary President of Moore Cultural Complex Board of Directors followed by Dr. Adora Obi Nweze, President of Fl State Conference of NAACP Branches.
​
All attendees were invited to partake in the delicious food provided by the Moore Cultural Complex Board at the end of the program.
​
​
A COMMUNITY CONVERSATION
CRITICAL RACE THEORY
A COMMUNITY CONVERSATION
CRITICAL RACE THEORY
Florida Frontiers TV
Episode 17 - Harry T. Moore
BLACK HISTORY MONTH PROGRAM
HTM Seventy Yr Old Murder
Seventy years ago on December 25, 1951, domestic terrorists bombed the Mims Florida home of Harry T. & Harriette V. Moore killing Harry and fatally injuring Harriette. This year due to the surging COVID-19 virus we have canceled the annual Harry T. &. Harriette V. Moore Memorial Service but they are not forgotten. There have been many acknowledgments over the years, including a collaboration with the Brevard Teacher’s Union and Brevard School Board, developing a Harry T. & Harriette V. Moore Legacy curriculum among other things, to be taught to all Brevard public school students. It is with great appreciation and gratitude that the HT & HV Moore Cultural Complex Board of Directors continues to play a vital role in the education, appreciation, and celebration of these two martyrs of the civil rights movement and their significant contributions to the betterment of society.
Historic Lynching Case
Donald v. United Klans of America
Thirty-seven years ago The Southern Poverty Law Center filed one of the most important cases in its 50-year history: a civil suit on behalf of Beulah Mae Donald, the mother of a 19-year-old lynching victim named Michael. Donald v. United Klans of America resulted in a historic $7 million verdict against the hate group responsible for Michael’s murder, bankrupting and destroying the notorious United Klans after decades of racist violence and terrorism.
70 Years After Their Deaths, Slain Civil Rights Leaders Could Get Their Jobs Back
In 1946, their fight to better the lives of Black Americans in the Jim Crow South cost them their jobs. Six years later, it cost them their lives.
Today, Harry and Harriette Moore — a pair of Mims educators sometimes called the "first martyrs" of the modern civil rights movement — are still broadly unknown, even in the county they called home.
December 25 also marks the 69th anniversary of the violent murders of two Floridians whose names I hope you know:
HARRY T. and HARRIETTE V. MOORE
On Christmas night, 1951, Harry T. and Harriette Moore celebrated not only Christmas as believers but their 25th wedding anniversary. That evening, a bomb (put in by the KKK - no arrests were ever made) went off in their house, eventually killing this couple.
This family was a target because Harry T. Moore was then with the Florida NAACP and was successful in registering African-Americans to vote. Florida had one of the highest levels of African-American registration because of this work. Both he and his wife worked also for equal pay for African-American teachers. Harry T. Moore was raised by a single mother whose husband died when Harry was nine. Harry T. Moore’s mother (Rosa Moore, seen below after her son’s murder) worked in many hard jobs - including laboring in cotton fields - to provide for the family and would live to see her son murdered and the hands of her son’s murderers washed clean.
Brevard County Groups Push to Preserve Legacy of Local Civil Rights Pioneers
Two groups in Brevard County are making plans to ask the school board to preserve the legacy of two civil rights pioneers, Harry T. Moore and Harriette V. Moore who died after their Mims home was bombed on Christmas night in 1951.
OTHER NEWS ARTICLES
February 26, 2020
December 14, 2019