Social Education 75(6), pp 322–325 ©2011 National Council for the Social Studies Teaching Difficult Topics with Primary Sources Letter to President Harry Truman about the Murder of Harry T. Moore Megan Jones

In late December of 1951, a news story out of Mims, , shocked the nation. The story members of the 7th South Club, contained elements of prejudice, discrimination, injustice, , rape, bombings, and murder. American Labor Party 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, I am white, born Christian and a former schoolteacher and the executive secretary of the Florida chapter of the National Protestant, but I know the history Association for the Advancement of Colored People, while he, his wife, and daughter slept of Nazi Germany, where such inci- in their beds. Moore had drawn attention to himself through his civil rights activities, which dents started with actions against included registering African Americans to vote, fighting against unfair labor practices, and Communists, then spread to labor exposing cases of lynching and police brutality. His campaign against what he believed was the union reprisals, the actions against wrongful conviction of three African American males accused of raping a white woman, known Jews and finally against Catholics, as the Groveland case, however, attracted the immediate attention of the . Moore Protestants, conservatives, including died as a result of his injuries, followed by his wife nine days later. He was the first NAACP those who had looked aside in the official murdered in the modern civil rights struggle. beginning. I am only too well aware that our treatment of the Negro, of The public outcry following the shocking the United States not only preaches Jews and of other minorities in the murder of Harry and Harriette Moore was high moral values, but lives and acts North leaves much to be desired. I swift. Letters, cards, and petitions poured by her own dictates and principles. can only say that I do as much as I into the White House from labor unions, can to change conditions here for private citizens, community organizations, As with the others who wrote to the presi- the better, and that I feel sure that and schoolchildren from across the country. dent, she expected him to do something. The conditions should be improved all According to White House mail clerk R.G. writers all implored, directed, and told the over our country so that it will be a Moore, by 1952, approximately 6,245 president, better place for all of us to live in. cards were being held in the mailroom regard- –Mary E. Kiplinger, ing the bombing in Florida. One of those let- You, as President, must bear the full a citizen from ters addressed to President Harry Truman was burden for the shocking murder of New York, NY written by Miss Arden Rappaport, a student Harry Moore ... your civil rights at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New proclamations are fine, but actions Teaching Method York. She challenged the president, speak louder than words. Rappaport’s letter and the others suggest a We, as a nation standing for freedom –Vivian Schatz, a citizen from potential teaching method. Just as they ask and equality for all men, must pur- Brooklyn, NY the president to do something, you can ask sue the ruthless undemocratic men your students to take on the role of the presi- who killed this citizen for trying to What are you going to do about it, dent and insist that they do something. Begin assert the natural rights of his people. Mr. President? We call upon you by providing students with a copy of the letter. These men should be apprehended to enforce our Constitution. Encourage additional research into the life and punished as living examples that –A petition issued and signed by and civil rights activities of Moore and the

Social Education 322 November/December 2011 323 Social Education 324 treatment of African Americans in Florida evidence on the mobs responsible of the Ku Klux Klan, but were deceased by between 1934 and 1951. Direct students to for these outrages. And this week the the time the report was released. To this day, respond to Rappaport’s letter as though they United States Government began to the Moore case remains unsolved. were President Truman. Remind students to present evidence to a Federal grand consider what actions the president can take jury at Miami. Additional Resources according to powers of the executive branch Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and outlined in the Constitution (e.g., ensure that The federal grand jury he referenced in the Museum www.trumanlibrary.org/ laws are faithfully executed, refer the case to speech had been convened as a result of the whistlestop/study_collections/truman the Department of Justice, deliver a speech FBI investigation in 1951. Immediately fol- civilrights/index.php to Congress and the American people) as lowing the Moore bombing, over 75 special Freedom Never Dies: The Legacy of they craft their responses. Suggest that their agents were sent to Brevard County, Florida, Harry T. Moore from PBS. www.pbs.org/ responses be in the form of a letter, a speech, where they interviewed over 1,500 people. harrymoore or a list of action items. Invite students to share In June 1953, the federal grand jury their responses during a class discussion. described the Klan activity in Florida as The Harry T. & Harriette V. Moore a “catalog of terror.” The presiding judge, Cultural Complex, Inc. www.harryhar- Additional Information however, dismissed the case, ruling there riettemoore.org/ After discussing their responses, tell students was no federal jurisdiction in the incidents. that on October 11, 1952, Truman gave a As a result, the investigation was officially About the Featured Document: speech in Harlem, NY, that encapsulated closed in 1955. Letter from Arden Rappaport to President Harry much of his actual response, and highlighted That was not the end of the story, though. Truman, January 21, 1952; Case File 114-18-208, the efforts of his administration: In 1978 and again in 1992, the case was re- section 7; Classified Subject Files, 1930–1987; General Records of the Department of Justice, opened by the Florida Department of Law Civil Rights Division, Record Group 60; National It was also last year that the Nation Enforcement, but no new evidence was uncov- Archives, Washington, D.C. was shocked by the bomb murder in ered until 2005. On August 16, 2006, Florida Florida of Harry T. Moore and his Attorney General Charlie Crist announced wife. These tragic deaths came shortly the conclusion of his 20-month investiga- Megan Jones is an education specialist at the after the bombings of synagogues and tion. The report named four suspects found National Archives in Washington, D.C. Jones man- Catholic churches and of the housing to be directly involved in the bombing, two of ages the Constitution in Action Lab in the National project at Carver Village. For several whom had been suspects in the original 1951 Archives Building. For more information about the lab, see: www.archives/gov/NAE. months the FBI has been gathering investigation. All four suspects were members

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