Reported By Greg Pallone
MIMS -- It’s been years in the making, and this weekend, a piece of Brevard County history will officially be unveiled.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony for The Harry T. and Harriette V. Moore Family Home Replica is scheduled for Sunday at the Moore Memorial Park.
EVENT DETAILS
3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 22
2180 Freedom Ave., Mims
PLUS
» See an animated Slideshow of the Home Under Construction!
The Moores were early champions of civil rights.
Harry formed the first Brevard County chapter of the NAACP and then 50 other Florida chapters.
He and his wife were fired from their teaching jobs for their activism.
On Christmas night in 1951, which was the Moore’s 25th wedding anniversary, a bomb exploded under their Mims home, fatally injuring the couple.
Mr. Moore died on the way to the hospital, and Mrs. Moore died days later, one day after her husband’s funeral.
The crime remains unsolved.
Now a new home stands in the same spot -- in the memorial park bearing their name.
“I think it vindicates them, and shows that this community has not forgotten the Moores and what they stood for,” said William Gary from the Moore Cultural Complex.
The park was dedicated to the commemoration of their lives, to promoting awareness of their contributions to the early civil rights movement, and to preserving African-American history.
The Cultural Center is a repository of Moore family artifacts and historical documents featuring strategic events, beginning with the Emancipation Proclamation ending slavery in America.
It was through the efforts of The Harry T. and Harriette V. Moore Cultural Complex Inc., that a $100,000 grant from the Florida Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs was secured to assist in the construction of the replica.
Evangeline Moore, the couple’s daughter and sole surviving child, along with her only child, Drapner “Skip” Pagan, will be present Sunday for the public unveiling.
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