Page 4 - Florida Sentinel 9-5-17

Reader With Heavy Heart Over Hurricane Devastation Says Continue To Pray
TAMPA – This past weekend, Americans were and remain on notice concerning Hurricane Harvey’s slow trail of devastation and ruin. As the hurricane capital of these United States, we, as Floridians know that weather forecasters, yes, even the best of them with all their modern science and technology, are only able to predict a hurricane’s course and impact. With that, all that people can do is take heed and govern themselves accordingly via our local, state, and national authori- ties.
Already poised in prayer because of an almost 400- year-old nationwide whirlwind of civil unrest, most Americans made effortless diversions to move their prayers from those of injustices of immorality and dis- gust to praying for our neighbors and their eventual safety and well-being.
The truth is, that until one has a heart or develops the kind of heart that is loving, compassionate, and long suffering, the rest of us need not wonder the whereabouts of human decency.
Since Hurricane Harvey’s landfall, I sat and watched various local and national news reports detailing every- thing from personal, private, and public acts of pa- tience and concern. Tears well in my eyes just to hear and see the grim desolation and determined heroism even those of our first responders and news reporters who risk life and limb.
While some Americans deem it necessary to their vital existence to coexist in current and past events, never realizing the dangers of living two lives or even one life that fails to move forward to progress and wel- come change is “a poor shame.”
Whereas almost 400 years of degeneracy and hatred will not go away in a season of goodwill because the sys- tem of “pride and prejudice” rules over the decency of “indivisible with justice for all,” let the whole of this Union be comforted in the fact that God is moved by both individual and corporate prayers of men, women, boys, and girls from all different backgrounds with one agenda: the preservation of doing the right thing.
God bless America! Let us always continue in prayer. Amen.
SHERNA BLAIR RICH
Local
Senior Citizens Visit Historic Civil Rights Museum
Among those who visited the City of Mims, Florida on the left side of the sign are from left to right: Janice Williams, Delores Washington, Mary Hills, Nedra T., Sylvia Kendrick, Alberta Harris, and Jeanette Stokes. Visitors shown on the right side from left to right are: Theresa Bennett, Elizabeth Bogan, Estella Acree, Steve Scott, Betty Bell, and Gladys Foster. Bob Massey, of Road Ready Tours, and Carshunda Wright are shown standing in the back.
BY IRIS B. HOLTON Sentinel City Editor
Last month, a group of senior citizens repre- senting Community Centers within the City of Tampa gathered for a day trip. The group trav- eled to the City of Mims, Florida with Bob Massey Road Ready Tours.
The group had representatives from Ragan Park Community Center, Spring Hill Commu- nity Center, and Woodland Terrace Community Center. Their destination was the Harry and Harriette T. Moore Civil Rights Museum, 2180 Freedom Avenue, Mims, Florida.
The group that included: Janice Williams, Delores Washington, Mary Hills, Nedra T., Sylvia Kendrick, Alberta Harris, Jeanette Stokes, Theresa Bennett, Eliza- beth Bogan, Estella Acree, Steve Scott, Betty Bell, and Gladys Foster.
The Harry T. and Harriette V. Moore Cul- tural Center and Museum, is named in honor of two educators, Harry Tyson Moore, (Novem- ber 18, 1905 to December 25, 1951), and Har- riette V. Moore, (June 19, 1902 to December 25, 1951). They were the parents of two daugh- ters.
A bomb was placed under the Mims, Florida home of the Moores on Christmas night 1951. It was the couple’s 25th wedding anniversary.
He died on the way to a hospital in Sanford. His wife died eight days later, on January 3, 1952. The Moores were the first and only hus- band and wife team to be murdered during the Civil Rights Movement.
Although the murders were never solved, the Moores legacy lives on with their induction into the Florida Civil Rights Hall of Fame, nu- merous buildings named in their honor, the Harry T. & Harriette V. Moore Memorial High- way, their inclusion in the Smithsonian's new National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the Harry T. & Harriette V. Moore Cultural Complex, Inc., in Mims, Florida.
The park located in the Cultural Complex, is on the original property where Moore family home site was located. It sits on 11.93 acres and has a replica of the house the Moores lived in at the time of the bombing. It opened on April
HARRIETTE AND HARRY T. MOORE
9, 2004.
The programs offered include visual, literary
and performing arts, museum and outreach ex- hibits.
Moore Activism
Moore was a pioneer leader of the Civil
Rights Movement. In 1934, Moore organized the first Brevard County Branch of the NAACP, and later organized the Florida State Conference of NAACP Branches.
Through his efforts, he increased the num- ber of members in the NAACP and organized more than 50 branches statewide.
Moore investigated lynchings, filed lawsuits against barriers designed to prevent voter reg- istration, and white primaries. He also worked for equal pay for Black teachers in public schools.
Using his affiliation with the Progressive Voters League, Moore is credited with having registered 116,000 African American voters at the time of his death.
After he and his wife were fired from the public school system because of his activism in 1946, Moore dedicated all of his time to work- ing for the NAACP.
Moore was the first NAACP activist mur- dered in the Civil Rights Movement.
The late Robert W. Saunders, Sr., of Tampa, replaced Moore after his death, be- coming the second Executive Secretary of the Florida State Conference NAACP.
After visiting the museum, the group en- joyed lunch at Loyd’s Restaurant, in Titusville, before returning home.
PAGE 4 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2017