SUPPORT THE DRIVE TO PLACE MOORES
ON NEW POSTAGE STAMP

For too long, Harry T. and Harriette V. Moore were prophets without honor in their own county. The civil rights martyrs were assassinated in a dynamite bombing of their Mims home on Christmas night 1951. No local ambulance would take the couple to the nearest hospital in Sanford ‚ because they were black. No local florists would deliver flowers to their funerals ‚ because they were black. And despite numerous investigations ‚ state, local and federal ‚ their double murder has never been solved.

We do know this: The Moores died because they were indefatigable in their efforts to register blacks to vote, and to open other doors to equality for all people. On any scale, by any measure, theirs is a story of heroes would not change the course of their brave deeds, even though threat of death was a constant companion.

It wasn't until 40 years after their killing that countywide attempts were made to honor the Moores and the sacrifices they made. And they have been honored in a big way in Brevard in the '90s. The County courthouse is named for them. Brevard Community College has named its multicultural center for them. Their homesite is a park where a replica of their home is going to be built.

And now there is a movement to honor the Moores nationally and globally.

"I tried to think of a way that not only Americans but people throughout the world would be reminded of their work to bring about equality. So I thought of a U.S. postage stamp. Although, like a diamond, it may be small, the value is great as it will be seen by more people around the world than a building or a monument," said Rebecca Boettcher, the Satellite Beach resident and gift shop owner whose idea it was to so honor the Moores.

"A stamp also serves to remind us of their ultimate sacrifice so that we rise above the hatred that caused their deaths and follow their example of giving the gift of compassion and love to our fellow man, so that this world becomes a better place for all our children."

So Boettcher has started the campaign to obtain 40,000 signatures to present to the U.S. Postal Service.

"I am asking people to notify relatives, friends and organizations in other states to write letters and sign petitions, as well as to show national support in requesting a definitive postage stamp be made in their honor," she said.

The Moores lived and died here. Brevardians have done what they can to honor these pioneers in what was their own back yard. Now all of us need to join Boettcher's effort to see that this couple killed 17 years before Martin Luther King Jr. was struck down by an assassin's aim in the same fight for freedom, take their rightful place not only in Brevard County history books, but also as giants in the American struggle toward liberty and justice for all.

As the poet Langston Hughes wrote about the Moores and their timeless lesson:
When will men for sake of peace
And for democracy
Learn no bombs a man can make
Keep men from being free?
It seems that I hear Harry Moore.
From the Earth his voice cries,
No bomb can kill the dreams I hold
For freedom never dies!