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ERIC Number: EJ961992
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2011
Pages: 4
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0037-7724
EISSN: N/A
Letter to President Harry Truman about the Murder of Harry T. Moore
Jones, Megan
Social Education, v75 n6 p322-325 Nov-Dec 2011
In late December of 1951, a news story out of Mims, Florida, shocked the nation. The story contained elements of prejudice, discrimination, injustice, lynching, rape, bombings, and murder. The story not only made headlines across the country, but also the world. On the evening of December 25, a bomb was placed under the floor joists of the bedroom of Harry T. Moore, a former schoolteacher and the executive secretary of the Florida chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), while he, his wife, and daughter slept in their beds. Moore had drawn attention to himself through his civil rights activities, which included registering African Americans to vote, fighting against unfair labor practices, and exposing cases of lynching and police brutality. His campaign against what he believed was the wrongful conviction of three African American males accused of raping a white woman, known as the Groveland case, however, attracted the immediate attention of the Ku Klux Klan. Moore died as a result of his injuries, followed by his wife nine days later. He was the first NAACP official murdered in the modern civil rights struggle. The public outcry following the shocking murder of Harry and Harriette Moore was swift. Letters, cards, and petitions poured into the White House from labor unions, private citizens, community organizations, and schoolchildren from across the country. According to White House mail clerk R.G. Moore, by March 1952, approximately 6,245 cards were being held in the mailroom regarding the bombing in Florida. One of those letters addressed to President Harry Truman was written by Miss Arden Rappaport, a student at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York. Rappaport's letter and the others suggest a potential teaching method. In this article, the author describes suggested activities. (Contains 3 online resources.)
National Council for the Social Studies. 8555 Sixteenth Street #500, Silver Spring, MD 20910. Tel: 800-683-0812; Tel: 301-588-1800; Fax: 301-588-2049; e-mail: membership@ncss.org; Web site: http://www.socialstudies.org
Publication Type: Historical Materials; Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: Teachers
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Florida
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A