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William L. MooreWilliam L. Moore (28 April 1927-23 September 1963) was a postal worker who staged lone protests against racial inequality, and was murdered on his final protest. He was born in Binghamton, New York and lived in Baltimore, Maryland. All three of his protests consisted of walking to a capitol and hand-delivering letters he had written denouncing racial segregation. On his first march he walked to Annapolis, Maryland, the state capitol. On his second march he walked to The White House. He arrived at about the same time that Martin Luther King, Jr. was being released from Birmingham jail. His letter to John F. Kennedy notified the president that he intended to walk to Mississippi and asked "If I may deliver any letters from you to those on my line of travel, I would be most happy to do so." For his third protest he planned to walk from Chattanooga, Tennessee to Jackson, Mississippi and deliver a letter to Governor Ross Barnett urging him to accept integration. He was wearing two signboards "END SEGREGATION IN AMERICA" and "EQUAL RIGHTS FOR ALL MEN". On 23 September, about 70 miles into his march, a reporter from WGAD in Gasden interviewed him along US Highway 11, in Etowah County, Alabama near Attalla, Alabama. He stated "I intend to walk right up to the governor's mansion in Mississippi and ring his door bell. Then I'll hand him my letter." The reporter left Moore to continue his march. A passing motorist found his body a mile further down the road, shot twice in the head at close range with a .22 caliber rifle. The gun's owner was traced to Floyd Simpson, whom Moore had argued with earlier that day. No arrests were ever made. Moore's letter was found and opened, in it Moore reasoned that "the white man cannot be truly free himself until all men have their rights." He asked Barnnett to "Be gracious and give more than is immediately demanded of you...." Phil Ochs wrote a song about William Moore after his murder. See also American Civil Rights Movement References - Charles D. lowery and John F. Marszalek (editors), Encyclopedia of African-American Civil Rights, pp. 365-366
- Taylor Branch, Parting The Waters, p. 748.
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