Harry T. and Harriette V. Moore in Mims, Florida

Harry Tyson Moore and Harriette Vyda Simms Moore were Brevard County schoolteachers who became leaders of the early civil rights movement in Florida, and their home stood in Mims.

A 2020 Florida Department of State marker in Live Oak gives Harry T. Moore's early life: born November 18, 1905, in Houston, a rural community near Live Oak in Suwannee County, he graduated as valedictorian of Florida Memorial College in May 1925 and became an educator for Black schools in Brevard County (Florida historical marker, Harry Tyson Moore, Live Oak). His first teaching post was at an elementary school in Cocoa, where he met fellow teacher Harriette Vyda Simms of Mims. The couple married in 1926 and had two daughters, and he later became a principal in Titusville.

Brevard County's park page calls the Moores educators, parents and leaders of the early Civil Rights Movement, and places their original homesite in Mims, where the memorial park now stands (Brevard County, Harry T. and Harriette V. Moore Memorial Park). The state's LaGrange Mims Community Cemetery marker lists Simms among the family names of the north Brevard pioneering Black families who rest in that cemetery (Florida historical marker, LaGrange Mims Community Cemetery).

Harry Moore founded the Brevard County branch of the NAACP in 1934, pressed for equal pay for Black teachers, led the NAACP's Florida State Conference and helped build a statewide voter registration league, according to state historical markers.

The 1999 Harry T. and Harriette V. Moore Memorial Homestead marker in Mims says Moore worked to equalize the salaries of Black teachers with those of their white counterparts after being fired for demanding equal pay, and that his efforts to open the Democratic Party to Black voters created new political opportunities for minority citizens across Florida (Florida historical marker, Moore Memorial Homestead). The Live Oak marker credits his work with the formation of 50 NAACP branches in Florida and says that by 1943 his activism had expanded to lynchings and police brutality, including collecting sworn affidavits from victims' families on every lynching that had occurred in Florida (Live Oak marker).

The two state markers title his later NAACP role differently: the Mims homestead marker says executive director, and the Live Oak marker says he organized the Florida State Conference NAACP and served as its executive secretary. Both are given here as written on the markers, and both tie his career to Brevard County and the Moore home in Mims.

Brevard County states that the Moores were assassinated when a bomb exploded beneath their Mims home on Christmas night in 1951, and calls them among the first martyrs of the modern Civil Rights Movement; one state marker gives the date as Christmas Eve.

That wording is the county's, on its Moore Memorial Park page (Brevard County Moore Memorial Park page). The 1999 homestead marker and the 2020 Live Oak marker also give Christmas night 1951 and say the bomb was planted beneath the house (homestead marker; Live Oak marker). The 2003 LaGrange Mims Community Cemetery marker gives a different day, saying that on Christmas Eve, 1951, the Moores were killed when their home near the cemetery was bombed (cemetery marker). Official sources therefore differ on Christmas night or Christmas Eve, and this guide does not choose between them.

The Live Oak marker describes the Moores' deaths as the first assassinations of prominent civil rights leaders and one of the sparks of the broader Civil Rights Movement, notes that the poet Langston Hughes wrote the Ballad of Harry T. Moore in his honor, and records that the Moores were inducted into the Florida Civil Rights Hall of Fame in 2013 (Florida historical marker, Live Oak). The Titusville Historic Preservation Board's tour app calls them Brevard County civil rights martyrs (Explore Historic Titusville, 1900 to present tour).

The Moores are buried in the LaGrange Mims Community Cemetery at 1575 North Old Dixie Highway, marked by a 2003 Florida historical marker.

The cemetery marker tells the history of the ground: in the early 1900s a two-acre parcel north of LaGrange Church and Cemetery was given to the Mims colored community for a cemetery, the earliest marked graves date to 1903, and in June 1913 trustees of St. James Colored Missionary Baptist Church bought the parcel from the East Coast Cattle Company, after which it was called the Mims Colored Cemetery (Florida historical marker, LaGrange Mims Community Cemetery). The marker says the St. James congregation organized in 1894 after Black and white residents had worshiped together at LaGrange Community Church, and built its own church in Mims in 1904. It names the graves of Harry T. Moore and Harriette V. Simms Moore as the most noted in the north Brevard cemetery.

The Moore Memorial Park in Mims is an 11.93-acre county park on the Moores' original homesite at 2180 Freedom Avenue, with a cultural center and museum, a replica of the Moore family home and the Walk of Freedom.

Brevard County lists the park's features as museum exhibits and historical collections, arts programming, educational outreach exhibits, a research library on people of African descent, the replica home, the Walk of Freedom with reflecting pools and a fountain, and landscaped grounds under oak trees (Brevard County Moore Memorial Park page). The same Mims park page gives two sizes for the building: 5,000 square feet in its description and a 4,874 sq. ft. cultural center in its amenity list. Amenities also include restrooms, a bicycle roadway, a civil rights trail, a gazebo, a conference room, a picnic area and free parking, and a medium pavilion for up to 100 people can be reserved.

The state's 1999 homestead marker stands at 2180 Freedom Ave. near the replica house and identifies the property as the Moores' former homesite (Florida historical marker, Moore Memorial Homestead). The Titusville Historic Preservation Board's 1900 to present tour includes the Moore Center as a stop, describing the former homesite as a center for education and reflection on civil rights (Explore Historic Titusville tour). Brevard County says the cultural center is funded through the State of Florida and the Brevard County Board of County Commissioners.

The Moore Cultural Center in Mims is open Monday through Friday from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM and Saturday from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM, and closed Sundays, according to Brevard County.

Personalized tours of the Mims center are scheduled by calling (321) 264-6595, the same number for pavilion and facility rentals, and parking stays open to the public because the grounds remain a public park (Brevard County Moore Memorial Park page). The county invites visitors to donate or loan memorabilia and artifacts on African American history to the center. Events appear on the cultural center calendar on the county page, which is the place to check before a visit for closures or programs.

Last verified: October 21, 2026, against same-day reads of the Brevard County Moore Memorial Park page, the Florida Division of Historical Resources marker records for the Moore homestead, the LaGrange Mims Community Cemetery and the Harry Tyson Moore marker in Live Oak, and the Explore Historic Titusville 1900 to present tour.