Florida Senate - 2015                            (NP)    SR 1638
       
       
        
       By Senator Thompson
       
       
       
       
       
       12-03636A-15                                          20151638__
    1                          Senate Resolution                        
    2         A resolution remembering the outstanding contributions
    3         of pioneer leaders and martyrs Harriette Vyda Simms
    4         Moore and Harry T. Moore in commemoration of the 50th
    5         Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act.
    6  
    7         WHEREAS, Harry T. Moore was born on November 18, 1905, in
    8  Houston, Florida, the only child of Johnny and Rosalea Alberta
    9  Moore, and
   10         WHEREAS, in 1919, Harry T. Moore enrolled in the high
   11  school program of Florida Memorial College, where he excelled in
   12  his studies and earned the nickname “Doc” from his classmates,
   13  and
   14         WHEREAS, Harry T. Moore graduated from Florida Memorial
   15  College at the age of 19 years with a “normal degree” and
   16  accepted a teaching job at the only black elementary school in
   17  Cocoa, located in Brevard County, and
   18         WHEREAS, during his first year in Brevard County, Harry T.
   19  Moore met 23-year-old Harriette Vyda Simms, an elementary school
   20  teacher and civil rights pioneer who was later blacklisted due
   21  her political activities, and within a year they were married,
   22  and
   23         WHEREAS, Harry T. Moore was promoted to principal of the
   24  Titusville Colored School, where he taught ninth grade and
   25  supervised a staff of six teachers, and
   26         WHEREAS, in 1934, the Moores started the Brevard County
   27  Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of
   28  Colored People (NAACP), and in 1937, in conjunction with the
   29  all-black Florida State Teacher’s Association, and backed by
   30  NAACP attorney Thurgood Marshall in New York, filed the first
   31  lawsuit in the deep South seeking to equalize the salaries of
   32  black and white teachers, and
   33         WHEREAS, the lawsuit filed by Harry T. Moore spawned other
   34  federal lawsuits in Florida that eventually led to equal
   35  salaries, and
   36         WHEREAS, in 1941, Harry T. Moore organized the Florida
   37  State Conference of the NAACP and soon became its unpaid
   38  executive secretary, writing letters, circulars, and broadsides
   39  that protested unequal salaries, segregated schools, and the
   40  disenfranchisement of black voters, and
   41         WHEREAS, in 1943, Harry T. Moore launched an investigation
   42  into each of the lynchings that had occurred in this state, and
   43         WHEREAS, in 1944, Harry T. Moore organized the Progressive
   44  Voters’ League, which over the next six years registered more
   45  than 116,000 black voters with the Florida Democratic Party, and
   46         WHEREAS, the success of his efforts is reflected in the
   47  fact that the number of voters registered by the Progressive
   48  Voters’ League represented 31 percent of all eligible black
   49  voters in this state, a percentage that was 51 percent higher
   50  than in any other southern state, and
   51         WHEREAS, on Christmas Day in 1951, Harry T. Moore was
   52  killed by a bomb that was placed beneath the Moores’ home
   53  directly under his bed, and his beloved wife, Harriette, died
   54  nine days later as a result of the blast, and
   55         WHEREAS, the murders of Harry T. Moore and Harriette Vyda
   56  Simms Moore have never been solved, NOW, THEREFORE,
   57  
   58  Be It Resolved by the Senate of the State of Florida:
   59  
   60         That the outstanding contributions of American Civil Rights
   61  movement pioneers and martyrs Harriette Vyda Simms Moore and
   62  Harry T. Moore are recognized and their sacrifices, which helped
   63  to usher in the Voting Rights Act in the United States, are
   64  respectfully remembered.