Signs carried by Moore when he was murdered: 1963
Coroner Noble Yocum of Etowah County, Al. examines the personal effects of William L. Moore, the civil rights worker slain on a lone march, April 24, 1963—the day after Moore was gunned down.
Moore was, a postal worker and Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) member who had participated in and staged civil rights demonstrations in Baltimore, Annapolis and Washington, D.C. before his fateful march..
He was assassinated in Attalla, Alabama April 23, 1963, during a single person protest march from Chattanooga, Tennessee to Jackson, Mississippi, where he intended to deliver a letter to Governor Ross Barnett, supporting civil rights.
Moore became involved with the civil rights movement purposefully, but at the same time almost by accident.
He had earlier picketed for peace in his adopted home town of Binghamton, N.Y., but decided he wanted to join the civil rights movement in Baltimore where ongoing demonstrations were taking place.
Moore found work as a substitute letter carrier while in Baltimore.
Students at Morgan State University were attempting to desegregate the Northwood theater February 15, 1963 when Moore happened by. Twenty-six students were sitting-in at the lobby and the theater manager was reading them a trespass notice.
Moore decided to join them and was arrested along with the students. Altogether, 151 black and one white, Moore, were arrested that day.
White students from Johns Hopkins and Goucher then joined the protest in the coming days
On February 21st the theater desegregated.
The next day Moore decided to stage a 35-mile march from Baltimore to Annapolis wearing two sign-boards: one reading “End Segregation in Maryland” and the other “Equal Rights for All Men.”
He was unable to deliver his letter to the governor, but talked to an aide at length and delivered the letter to him.
On his second march he walked to the White House. He arrived at about the same time that Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was being released from the Birmingham jail after protests in that city.
His letter to President John F. Kennedy said that he intended to walk to Mississippi and "If I may deliver any letters from you to those on my line of travel, I would be most happy to do so."
For his third protest he planned to walk from Chattanooga, Tennessee to Jackson, Mississippi and deliver a letter to Governor Ross Barnett urging him to accept integration. He was wearing sandwich board signs stating; "Equal rights for all & Mississippi or Bust".
In an account of his Baltimore sit-in and Annapolis walk written for the CORE newsletter, Moore wrote:
“Perhaps it was this walk which gave me the idea for my forthcoming walk in the south. When I wrote my friend, Jim Peck, about the southern walk, he replied that possibly this would be more effective as a group action and that, furthermore it would be extremely dangerous for a lone individual.”
“However, I had made up my mind. I felt that a white3 mailman, here in the south, delivering a letter to Governor Barnett would have a certain impact. I definitely plan to take this walk during my vacation.”
On April 23, 1963, about 70 miles into his march, Moore was interviewed by Charlie Hicks, a reporter from radio station WGAD in Gadsden, Alabama, along a rural stretch of U.S. Highway 11 near Attalla.
The station had received an anonymous phone tip about Moore's location. In the interview, Moore said: "I intend to walk right up to the governor's mansion in Mississippi and ring his doorbell. Then I'll hand him my letter." Concerned for Moore's safety, Hicks offered to drive him to a motel. Moore insisted on continuing his march.
Less than an hour after the reporter left the scene, a passing motorist found Moore's body about a mile farther down the road, shot twice in the head at close range with a .22 caliber rifle. The gun's ownership was traced to Floyd Simpson, whom Moore had argued with earlier that day, but no formal charges were ever filed against him. Moore died a week short of his 36th birthday.
Moore's letter was found and opened. In it, Moore reasoned that "the white man cannot be truly free himself until all men have their rights." He asked Governor Barnett to: "Be gracious and give more than is immediately demanded of you...."
CORE organized a group to try to complete Moore’s walk in May 1963. The group was pelted with rocks by white rioters, injuring a number of marchers.
On May 8th, police stopped the march at the Alabama line and arrested everyone in the group. According to an account written for the CORE newsletter, a mob of whites in a nearby field shouted “Get the goddam communists!” “Throw them n____s in the river!” and “Kill ‘em, Kill ‘em!”
Following a memorial service at the murder site, another group of CORE marchers tried again. Before they took two steps, they were all arrested.
The march was finally completed when two people started out April 23, 2008. Ellen Johnson and Ken Loukinen walked the 320 miles from Reece City, Alabama, near where Moore was killed, and delivered Bill Moore's original letter to the capitol at Jackson, Mississippi.
Bob Zellner, a long-time activist and first white Field Secretary of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, was with them and attempted to present the letter to Governor Haley Barbour on May 6, 2008, but Barbour refused to meet with the party.
No one was ever tried for Moore's murder..
For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHsmLvyqDg
The photographer is unknown. The image is an Associated Press photograph housed in the D.C. Library Washington Star Collection.
Signs carried by Moore when he was murdered: 1963
Coroner Noble Yocum of Etowah County, Al. examines the personal effects of William L. Moore, the civil rights worker slain on a lone march, April 24, 1963—the day after Moore was gunned down.
Moore was, a postal worker and Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) member who had participated in and staged civil rights demonstrations in Baltimore, Annapolis and Washington, D.C. before his fateful march..
He was assassinated in Attalla, Alabama April 23, 1963, during a single person protest march from Chattanooga, Tennessee to Jackson, Mississippi, where he intended to deliver a letter to Governor Ross Barnett, supporting civil rights.
Moore became involved with the civil rights movement purposefully, but at the same time almost by accident.
He had earlier picketed for peace in his adopted home town of Binghamton, N.Y., but decided he wanted to join the civil rights movement in Baltimore where ongoing demonstrations were taking place.
Moore found work as a substitute letter carrier while in Baltimore.
Students at Morgan State University were attempting to desegregate the Northwood theater February 15, 1963 when Moore happened by. Twenty-six students were sitting-in at the lobby and the theater manager was reading them a trespass notice.
Moore decided to join them and was arrested along with the students. Altogether, 151 black and one white, Moore, were arrested that day.
White students from Johns Hopkins and Goucher then joined the protest in the coming days
On February 21st the theater desegregated.
The next day Moore decided to stage a 35-mile march from Baltimore to Annapolis wearing two sign-boards: one reading “End Segregation in Maryland” and the other “Equal Rights for All Men.”
He was unable to deliver his letter to the governor, but talked to an aide at length and delivered the letter to him.
On his second march he walked to the White House. He arrived at about the same time that Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was being released from the Birmingham jail after protests in that city.
His letter to President John F. Kennedy said that he intended to walk to Mississippi and "If I may deliver any letters from you to those on my line of travel, I would be most happy to do so."
For his third protest he planned to walk from Chattanooga, Tennessee to Jackson, Mississippi and deliver a letter to Governor Ross Barnett urging him to accept integration. He was wearing sandwich board signs stating; "Equal rights for all & Mississippi or Bust".
In an account of his Baltimore sit-in and Annapolis walk written for the CORE newsletter, Moore wrote:
“Perhaps it was this walk which gave me the idea for my forthcoming walk in the south. When I wrote my friend, Jim Peck, about the southern walk, he replied that possibly this would be more effective as a group action and that, furthermore it would be extremely dangerous for a lone individual.”
“However, I had made up my mind. I felt that a white3 mailman, here in the south, delivering a letter to Governor Barnett would have a certain impact. I definitely plan to take this walk during my vacation.”
On April 23, 1963, about 70 miles into his march, Moore was interviewed by Charlie Hicks, a reporter from radio station WGAD in Gadsden, Alabama, along a rural stretch of U.S. Highway 11 near Attalla.
The station had received an anonymous phone tip about Moore's location. In the interview, Moore said: "I intend to walk right up to the governor's mansion in Mississippi and ring his doorbell. Then I'll hand him my letter." Concerned for Moore's safety, Hicks offered to drive him to a motel. Moore insisted on continuing his march.
Less than an hour after the reporter left the scene, a passing motorist found Moore's body about a mile farther down the road, shot twice in the head at close range with a .22 caliber rifle. The gun's ownership was traced to Floyd Simpson, whom Moore had argued with earlier that day, but no formal charges were ever filed against him. Moore died a week short of his 36th birthday.
Moore's letter was found and opened. In it, Moore reasoned that "the white man cannot be truly free himself until all men have their rights." He asked Governor Barnett to: "Be gracious and give more than is immediately demanded of you...."
CORE organized a group to try to complete Moore’s walk in May 1963. The group was pelted with rocks by white rioters, injuring a number of marchers.
On May 8th, police stopped the march at the Alabama line and arrested everyone in the group. According to an account written for the CORE newsletter, a mob of whites in a nearby field shouted “Get the goddam communists!” “Throw them n____s in the river!” and “Kill ‘em, Kill ‘em!”
Following a memorial service at the murder site, another group of CORE marchers tried again. Before they took two steps, they were all arrested.
The march was finally completed when two people started out April 23, 2008. Ellen Johnson and Ken Loukinen walked the 320 miles from Reece City, Alabama, near where Moore was killed, and delivered Bill Moore's original letter to the capitol at Jackson, Mississippi.
Bob Zellner, a long-time activist and first white Field Secretary of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, was with them and attempted to present the letter to Governor Haley Barbour on May 6, 2008, but Barbour refused to meet with the party.
No one was ever tried for Moore's murder..
For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHsmLvyqDg
The photographer is unknown. The image is an Associated Press photograph housed in the D.C. Library Washington Star Collection.