Harry T. & Harriette V. Moore Homesite

2180 Freedom Avenue, Mims 32754

Brevard County's Civil Rights Heritage

The Harry T. and Harriette V. Moore Memorial Park commemorates the lives of two pioneering American black civil rights workers. Opened on April 9, 2004, the 5,000 sq. ft. Cultural Center is located in the 11.93-acre Harry T. and Harriette V. Moore Memorial Park — the property of the original Moore family homesite. The Harry T. and Harriette V. Moore Cultural Complex, Inc. nonprofit organization is pursuing grants and funding for future development that will include a replica of the destroyed home and a mausoleum with relocated graves.

Harry and Harriette were leading human rights activists in Brevard County, in Florida, and in the nation. They organized the first Brevard County Branch of the NAACP in 1934, and he led the Florida organization and the fight for equality and justice until their deaths. As executive secretary of the Progressive Voters League, he helped break down registration barriers and was responsible for the registration of tens of thousands of black Americans throughout Florida.

They were murdered in their home in Mims when a bomb was exploded under their bedroom on Christmas evening, 1951, their 25th wedding anniversary. It was the first killing of a prominent civil rights leader, and was a spark that ignited the American civil rights movement.

Harry T. Moore is remembered by his students for his dignity, his determination, his compassion, his discipline, and the great value he placed on education. He is remembered by those with whom he worked, as a gentleman of learning, ethics, courage and persistence; who had a deep appreciation for the values that make America great.

• Harry T. & Harriette V. Moore Cultural Center
  Memorial Park & Cultural Center Hours
  Monday through Friday 9:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.
  Saturdays 12:00 noon - 4:00 p.m.

Learn More About the Moores...

• Visit the Center
  
  
• Books, Historical —
  
  Before His Time: The Untold Story Of Harry T. Moore, America's First Civil Rights Martyr, New York: Free Press, 1999; University Press of Florida; New Ed edition (February 17, 2005)
  
  African Americans in Florida By Maxine Deloris Jones, Kevin M. McCarthy, Pineapple Press Inc , 1993
  
  Window on Freedom: Race, Civil Rights, and Foreign Affairs, 1945-1988
  edited by Brenda Gayle Plummer, UNC Press, 2003
  
  
• Books, Historical Fiction —
  
  Lay that Trumpet in Our Hands, Susan Carol McCarthy, Bantam, 2003
  
  
• Video—
  
  Freedom Never Dies: The Legacy of Harry T. Moore, University of California Extension Center for Media and Independent Learning
  
  
• Moore Murder Investigation—
  www.myfloridalegal.com/HarryMoore
  
  Executive Summary - PDF
  
  
• Links to Articles—
  
  A Briefcase of Racial Violence
  
  Personal Papers Returned to Daughter
  
  Results of Harry T. Moore Murder Investigation
  
  Harry T. Moore -- Black Biography
  
  

Home | Back | Top