William L. Moore
Age 35
His sign read “Equal Rights for All. Mississippi or Bust.”
Attalla, Alabama
April 23, 1963
In April 1963, William L. Moore had enough vacation days saved up to take a civil-rights-inspired journey. The white civil rights activist planned to walk from Chattanooga, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi, to hand-deliver a letter to Mississippi’s governor Ross Barnett, urging Barnett to rethink racist state policies.
Moore was a Baltimore postal worker who had a history of activism, fighting for the rights of Black people and those with mental illness, according to reporting by The Baltimore Sun. A former Marine, Moore was a member of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and had participated in a number of protests.
On April 21, Moore arrived by bus in Chattanooga, where he began what he thought would be a 400-mile trip. Often barefoot, Moore wore a sandwich board that read, on one side, “End Segregation in America — Black or White, Eat at Joe’s,” and on the other read, “Equal Rights for All. Mississippi or Bust.” His one-man protest attracted local media coverage and the curiosity of residents in towns he passed through.
Moore was on the third day of his journey when he was shot and killed. The Alabama Highway Patrol found his body on the side of the road, with two .22 caliber bullet wounds to his head and neck.
Initial Investigation
The lead suspect in the case was Floyd Simpson, who ran a small grocery store in Collbran, Alabama, along Moore’s route. According to a letter the Department of Justice sent to Moore’s family, Moore had encountered Simpson more than once on the day he was killed: first at Simpson’s store and again when Simpson and another man approached Moore farther down the road. Moore noted in his journal: “A couple of men who had talked to me before drove up and questioned my religious and political beliefs. ‘Now I know what you are,’ [said one of the men.] And one was sure I’d be killed for them.”
According to The Baltimore Sun, investigators believed Simpson had links to the Ku Klux Klan. Witnesses had reported seeing a car that matched Simpson’s near where Moore’s body was found. And an Alabama analyst concluded that shell markings on the bullets from the scene of the crime matched a shotgun belonging to Simpson, although an FBI analyst later said the evidence wasn’t conclusive.
In September 1963, a grand jury declined to indict Simpson.
Till Act Status
According to a Department of Justice memo, the FBI began a review of the case in January 2010. Investigators reviewed news reports and FBI records, and interviewed a former sheriff and others associated with the case. But according to the memo, “an exhaustive review conducted by the FBI and attorneys from the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division did not produce any new leads.” The memo also noted that Simpson, “the most probable subject involved in the murder,” had died in 1998 and that prosecution was unlikely because the statute of limitations had long run out.
The FBI ended its investigation in 2012.
Case Status closed
Closed 08/02/2012
Themes
- Closed All Subjects Deceased
- Closed Cases
- Men
About the Project
This multiplatform investigation draws upon more than two years of reporting, thousands of documents and dozens of first-hand interviews. FRONTLINE spoke to family and friends of the victims, and witnesses, some of whom had never been interviewed; current and former Justice Department officials and FBI agents, state and local law enforcement; lawmakers, civil-rights leaders and investigative journalists, to explore the Department of Justice’s reopening of civil rights-era cold cases under the 2008 Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act.
In addition to an examination of the federal effort, the project features the first comprehensive, interactive list of all those whose cases were reopened by the Department of Justice. Today, the list stands at 151 names. Among the victims: voting rights advocates, veterans, Louisville’s first female prosecutor, business owners, mothers, fathers, and children.
The project consists of a web-based interactive experience, serialized podcast, a touring augmented-reality exhibit, documentary and companion education curriculum for high schools and universities.
A project like Un(re)solved would not be possible without the historic and contemporary contributions of universities, civil rights groups, and the press, particularly the Black press, who have ensured the ongoing public record of racist violence in the United States. To pay homage to these groups, the web interactive begins with a quote from journalist, activist and researcher Ida B. Wells, one of the first to document with precision the horrors of racial terror in America. “The way to right wrongs,” she wrote, “is to turn the light of truth upon them.”
At the outset of the project, FRONTLINE forged a relationship with Northeastern University’s Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project (CRRJ), bringing them on as an academic partner. Launched in 2007 by Distinguished Law Professor Margaret Burnham, CRRJ is a mission-driven program of interdisciplinary teaching, research and policy analysis on race, history, and criminal justice. Their work has expanded beyond the names on the Justice Department’s list, archiving documents in over 1,000 cases of racially motivated homicides.
With support from the CRRJ, FRONTLINE reporters gathered what could be known about the individuals on the list, conducting interviews with family, friends and witnesses, delving into newspaper archives and gathering documentation including headstone applications, draft cards and archival photographs.
At the heart of the project has been a drive to center the voices of the families of those on the list. FRONTLINE partnered with StoryCorps to record nearly two dozen oral histories with victims’ next of kin, which are featured both in the web-based interactive and traveling AR exhibit. These oral histories will also be archived in the National Library of Congress.
To lead the creative vision for the web experience and installation, FRONTLINE partnered with Ado Ato Pictures, a premier mixed reality studio founded by artist, filmmaker, and technologist Tamara Shogaolu.
Shogaolu rooted the visuals in the powerful symbolism of trees. In the United States, trees evoke the ideal of liberty, but also speak to an oppressive history of racially motivated violence. In Persian myth, trees are humanity’s ancestors, while in Toraja, Indonesia, they serve as sacred burial sites.
“I was really inspired by looking at the role of the tree as a symbol in American history” Shogaolu said. “It’s been looked at as a symbol of freedom, we look at it as a connector between generations, and also there’s the association of trees with racial terror.” When designing the creative vision for Un(re)solved Shogaolu wondered whether she might be able to reclaim the symbol of the tree. “As a person of color, we’re often terrified of being in isolated places in the woods. And I thought it was kind of crazy that there are natural environments that instinctually give great fear because of this connection with racial terror and I wanted to reclaim that — to turn these into beautiful spaces.”
Un(re)solved weaves imagery of trees, which also recall family ties, into patterns and textures from the American tradition of quilting. Among enslaved African Americans forbidden to read or write, quilts provided an important space to document family stories. Today, quilting remains a creative outlet rich with story and tradition for many American communities.
We invite you to enter this forest of quilted memories — a testimony to the lives of these individuals, and the multi-generational impact of their untimely, unjust loss.
(Credits to come)