MIMS, Fla. — Harry Moore and his wife, Harriette Moore, were pioneering civil rights activists.
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They lived in Mims, a rural part of Brevard County, and taught in segregated public schools in the county from 1925 to 1946.
By 1934, the Moores’ had started the Brevard County NAACP, leading a movement to open branches across the state.
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In 1941, Harry Moore became president of the Florida State Conference of NAACP branches.
During that time, he was able to help register over 100,000 Black voters in Florida.
Harry Moore led the fight against injustices on behalf of the state’s African American population on a number of fronts, including voting rights and the equalization of pay for the state’s black teachers.
He also served as an advocate against racial violence and lynching in Florida.
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Harry Moore brought attention to the lynching of teenager Willie James Howard in 1944 and to the miscarriage of justice in the Groveland rape case in 1949.
On Christmas night in 1951, a bomb exploded under the bedroom of the Moores’ Mims home.
The couple had gone to bed after celebrating both Christmas and their 25th wedding anniversary.
Harry Moore was killed in the bombing. Harriette Moore died nine days later.
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Despite a nationwide outcry and a massive FBI investigation, no one was arrested for the couple’s killing.
It took more than half a century before the case was reopened and four Ku Klux Klan members were identified as being directly involved in the murders, the NAACP said.
A replica of the Moores’ home now stands on the same site of their original home.
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The interior is designed to look the same way it did on the night of the bombing.
The Harry and Harriette Moore Cultural Complex is located in Mims and is open to the public for tours.
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