Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 25, 2013)
Opinion Remember the Moores at Christmastime Late on Christmas night terror- ists bombed a wood-framed house in Mims, Florida. Harry Moore, 46, died instantly. His wife Harri- ette, 49, would die days later. They were African-American civil rights leaders. That was 1951. No one was convicted. Too few remember. The explosion was heard for miles. Neighbors rushed to their single story home usually kept so neat to find splintered wood, bro- ken glass, and a gaping hole where the bedroom used to be. As the couple slept, terrorists had placed a bomb under their home near the bedroom. That Christ- mas Day marked their 25th wedding anniversary. The Moores had been com- m u n i t y activists standing up for justice when others were too afraid. In 1934, Harry Moore started the Brevard County NAACP. He organized Florida’s first NAACP conference. Harriette Moore was a teacher. Harry Moore was a principle. When Black and White teachers received very different salaries for the same work, Harry Moore NNPA C OLUMNIST Gloria J. Browne- Marshall helped Black teachers file the first lawsuit brought in the Deep South to equalize salaries. The Moores believed race pride, education, and determination would defeat the racial prejudice facing Black stu- Fear erases memories. No arrests were made. dents in segregated Florida. Harry Moore investigated the 1943 lynching of Cellos Harrison, African-American. According to the organization Civil Rights and Restorative Justice, the lifeless body of Cellos Harrison was found near Florida’s State Road 84. He had been lynched in retali- ation for the unsolved murder of a white service station owner killed three years earlier. Then, in 1944, there was the lynching of 15-year-old Willie James Howard, African-Ameri- can. He had been taken to the Suwannee River by Phil Goff, a White Florida legislator, who was the father of a girl to whom Howard had given a Christmas card. The boys’ body was found the following day. Harry Moore took affidavits, wrote letters, and called for a federal investigation. Although no one was arrested for these crimes Harry and Harri- ette Moore contin- ued their fight for lynching victims in Florida long after others gave up. In spite of intimida- tion, the Moores pushed for voting rights. Harry Moore formed the Florida Progres- sive Voter’s League. Registering Black voters and challenging White political power resulted in the loss of both of their teaching jobs. However, Harry gained a position leading the Florida branches of the NAACP, as Executive Secretary. But, by 1951, Harry Moore was probably considered too radical for the NAACP. Several years prior to the NAACP’s famous case of Brown v. Board of Education, the Moores were pushing for inte- gration of public facilities and statewide civil rights legislation. Although the NAACP wanted him removed, Harry Moore refused. Harry Moore said he “placed his life on the alter” for racial justice. The Groveland case only increased the danger. Two years earlier, Florida’s Groveland com- munity was the site of mob vio- lence when four young black men were accused of raping a White woman. They were convicted and sentenced to die. Harry Moore investigated. When the Groveland defendants were beaten in jail Moore levelled charges of police brutality. Whites rioted when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Groveland death sentences. Then, while driv- ing back to court, the local sheriff shot two of the handcuffed Grove- land defendants, killing Sammy Shepard. Sheriff Willis McCall claimed they had tried to escape. Harry Moore called for the arrest of the sheriff. It was November of 1951. The Moore’s house was bombed that Christmas. An FBI investigation pointed to three klansmen. But, fear erases memories. No arrests were made. The FBI file was closed in 1955. There were attempts to re-open the case. In 1978 an informant died of cancer days before he was scheduled to testify about the killings. In 1991 the case was reopened but failed to deliver results. After nearly 50 years, Florida’s NAACP and Department of Justice succeeded in gaining a full investigation. In 2004, Florida Attorney Gen- eral Charlie Crist revealed the 4 men he believed conspired to kill the Moores. Their names are: Earl Brooklyn, Tilman Belvins, Joseph Cox, and Ed Spivey. By that time, these Klansmen, long suspected of committing this crime, were all deceased. However, the sacrifice of the Moores remains a part of civil rights history. In Brevard County, Florida, a beautiful re-creation of their home is open to all who wish to consider the price of freedom. This memorial park and cultural center, created in their honor, is on 11 acres of land once owned by civil rights activists. Freedom has never been free. This year remember Harry and Harriette Moore. They paid the ultimate price for freedom on Christmas Day. Gloria J. Browne-Marshall, an Associate Professor of Constitu- tional Law at John Jay College in New York City, is the author of “Race, Law, and American Socie- ty: 1607 to Present,” and a legal correspondent covering the U.S. Supreme Court, United Nations, and major court cases. Twitter: GBrowneMarshall Did the Fed Remove the Punch Bowl Too Fast? Last week the Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee announced it will ease back on its “pedal to the metal” monetary easing policy. The Fed will remain in an expansionary mode, just slower. To an optimist, this is a sign from an independent authority that the economy is stabilized and on a sus- tained path forward. Unem- ployment rates are falling, job creation over the last few months is averaging more than 200,000 net new jobs a month, the Gross Domestic Product (the value of all goods and serv- ices made in America in a year) rose 4.1 percent last quarter, led by investment, and housing starts increased to a five-year high in November. Those are good signs. President Obama could take a bow. Republi- cans, who have conceded nothing to the president on economic policy, would be left with more whining. But it may be too early to remove the punch bowl. The Fed believes the good signs in the economy A FL - CIO William Spriggs prove its policy is moving the economy forward. It is obviously true that with Congress locking the presi- dent into endless debates on shrinking the government and slowing the economy that the Fed is the only economic poli- cymaker trying to expand the economy. Clearly, if the Fed did not take action, things would be worse. But that is dif- ferent than whether the policy actually is mov- ing the economy. Here the story is more difficult. The Fed controls interest rates, and so can encourage more investment to take place-the low cost of money makes more investment projects profitable. Private- sector investment is recovering. It has returned, in real amounts, to its pre- recession levels in equipment and intel- lectual property, but still lags in construc- tion. But, as a percent of the GDP, private investment is a smaller share of GDP than its pre-recession peak of about 19 percent of GDP. Worse, while interest rates are low, ments. They have been reducing investments since 2008 and are at levels that are near 13-year lows. At precisely the time invest- ments in our schools, roads, ports, sewer and water sys- tems can be made at record low interest rates, the public sector is de-investing. This lack of robust investment is critical because a higher share of GDP needs to go to invest- ing in America’s future. A healthy recovery needs to see rising wages for workers. public investment is declin- ing. At the federal level, government investment has been falling since 2010, mostly led by defense reductions. State and local governments are in worse shape on making invest- More investment, public and private, is needed so we have the public and private capital-buildings, machines and roads-to fuel and sus- tain our growth. With such low interest rates yielding only modest levels of investment, it isn’t clear how easily the Fed could stimulate the economy if it slowed again. So, slowing things down has great risks. Clearly, higher interest rates are not going to stimulate more investment. The real problem is that the “real” economy-the wages of workers, employ- ment and output-are not back to pre-recession levels. Instead of investing to expand America’s capacity, too many firms are using low interest rates to bor- row money to buy back their company’s stock. That borrowing does not increase potential out- put, but it does make the price of stocks rise and therefore the pay and bonuses of corporate CEOs continues to soar. It is a key reason the 1% continue to see their incomes rise. A healthy recovery needs to see rising wages for workers. But, with more than 1.2 million fewer jobs than in 2008, and more than 2.8 job seekers per job opening, there is little pres- sure for wages to rise. The record low share of young people employed has result- ed in a smaller share of Americans working. That makes households very fragile, because each work- er has to stretch his or her pay further to support oth- ers. Republicans think the solution is easy on that score-simply cut the gov- ernment out of helping sup- port the incomes of the unemployed or the under- employed, whose wages are so low they need the Sup- plemental Nutrition Assis- tance Program (food stamps) to eat. Such stingi- ness does not reduce the dependence of workers; it just makes the 99 percent piece of the pie shrink. It may not be too late for Congress and the president to pull their weight and con- duct the expansionary poli- cy needed to restore public investment to ensure Ameri- ca’s growth. But the econo- my is frailer with the Fed taking away the punch bowl. Follow Spriggs on Twit- ter: @WSpriggs. Contact: Amaya Smith-Tune Acting Director, Media Outreach THE SKANNER ON YOUTUBE You can view videos of interviews from local stories on The Skanner's own YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/user/TheSkannerNews December 25, 2013 The Seattle Skanner Page 5
