Harry T. Moore, Wife Killed By KKK Firebombing of Their Home
Harry T. Moore, an African-American teacher, founded the NAACP chapter in Brevard County, Florida. On this day, he and his wife were killed when KKK members threw a bomb into their house.
Moore is believed to be the first NAACP leader murdered for his civil rights activism.
The great African-American poet Langston Hughes wrote the following poem in his memory:
- Florida means land of flowers
- It was on a Christmas night.
- In the state named for the flowers
- Men came bearing dynamite…
- It could not be in Jesus’ name
- Beneath the bedroom floor
- On Christmas night the killers
- Hid the bomb for Harry Moore.
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Learn more: Ben Green, Before His Time: The Untold Story of Harry T. Moore, America’s First Civil Rights Martyr (1999)
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Learn more about Harry T. Moore: http://www.pbs.org/harrymoore/harry/mbio.html
Watch the PBS documentary about Moore: Freedom Never Dies (2001)
Learn about the KKK today: http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-files/ideology/ku-klux-klan
Visit the National Museum of African American History and Culture here