QCT Charlotte Pilgrimage Toursm Black History Month 2025 Feb. Travel Article
By Trend Magazine Online™,
I came to learn of Mr. William E. (Bill) Gary via a Facebook 📱
post by Dr.
Marvin Dunn of Miami 🌴, Florida ☀️, who I consider a fellow History
Keeper 📜 like my late Aunt
Enid whose most high-profile achievement of preservation is the Historic
Hampton House 🏛️ in my hometown of Miami 🌆. I learned of Dr. Dunn via
my late first cousin Mr.
Kenneth Jerome Curtis, an avid photographer 📸 who captured some of Black
Miami’s 🏝️ history on film, including the Hampton House 🏨. That post
caught my attention because it featured shackles ⛓️ from the slavery era in the United
States 🇺🇸, which lasted 400 years from circa the 1500s to the 1800s.
Those shackles are on display in the Harry T. and Harriett V. Moore
Museum and Complex 🏛️, located in Mims 🏡, Florida 🌞, just
about 5 miles northwest of Titusville 🚀, home to the Kennedy
Space Center 🌌.I have driven past that small town 🏡 of less than 7,500 residents (2025) and just over 17 square miles while sightseeing along my favorite Florida Highway 🛣️ (A1A) many times, unaware that history had been preserved in a city where African-Americans/Blacks ✊🏾 account for less than 8% of the population. I was even more surprised at the speed 🚀 at which Mr. Gary, the President 🏅 of the HT&HV Moore Museum and Complex 🏛️, responded to my interview request. It turns out that we share common ground 🌎 in both professional and personal history. We are both retired electrical engineers ⚡ who relocated from our hometowns and have made significant strides 📜 in preserving history 📖. I have done so in Charlotte 🏙️, NC 🌲, while Mr. Gary has been dedicated to his work in the Titusville 🏡, FL 🌞 area. Additionally, we both have faced racism 🛑 in our mission to ensure that the truth 📢 is not overshadowed by propaganda 🚫. Here are his poignant responses 🗣️ to our queries.
♦Trend Magazine Online™ -- As President of the Harry T. & Harriette V. Moore Cultural Complex, what inspired you to take on this role, and what has been the most rewarding part of preserving their legacy?Mr. Gary -- I came into the role of President of the Harry T. & Harriette V. Moore Cultural Complex Board of Directors quite by serendipity, as has many other leadership positions I have held. I had been asked to help with a fundraising effort for the Moore Cultural Center based on my reputation as a community activist and leader of the local NAACP branch. After the fundraiser was over, I was asked to join the Board of Directors, which I did having become familiar with Harry & Harriette Moore through my association with the Florida State Conference of NAACP. As so often happens, my first year on the Board the then President became ill and had to step down, I asked to take on the role of President and although my professional background was electrical engineering I have always loved reading about history and the Moores story is great history. As an engineer who was working for NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) I was very much “results oriented” and I believe in making a difference in whatever endeavor I took on. My first goal was to secure the funding to complete the Moore Park’s amenities i.e. Moore Replica Home, Reflecting Twin Pools w/Fountain, Gazebo, Civil Rights Walking Trail, and Community Pavilion along with establishing the Moore Park and Museum as the epicenter of civil rights in central Florida and to do that we needed to be known outside Brevard County. So, I would say that the most rewarding part of preserving the Moores legacy was to work with officials of the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) to have a display in that museum of Harry & Harriette Moore, that put us on the national and international stage.
♦Trend Magazine Online™ -- The Moore Home Replica is a centerpiece of the memorial. Can you share the journey of bringing this vision to life and what it represents to visitors?
Mr. Gary -- The Moore Home Replica was the first amenity we added to the Moore Park grounds and it came about again unexpectedly but it was on my radar. I took over as president of the Moore Cultural Complex Board in 2005 and had developed good relationships with several local politicians including the County Commissioner (Truman Scarborough) who represented the North Brevard district and the one who was responsible for getting the funding to purchase the property where the old Moore homesite once stood. I received a call from him one Saturday morning telling me he could bring some funding to Moore Park if we wanted to build the Replica House, but I needed to go before the Board of County Commissioners to get it approved and he suggested I visit each commissioner and state my case before the commission voted on the matter. I took time off work several afternoons over the next two weeks to meet with the various commissioners and present my case for funding to build the replica house. I also met with a local state legislator (Bob Allen) whom I had a relationship with to request additional funding for the house construction. Since there was no existing house or drawing to work with, I arranged for a friend of mine who was an architect to meet with Evangeline Moore and get as many details as she could remember so he could draw up plans for the house. These plans were used to develop construction drawings that we put out for contractors to bid on. A contract was awarded by the county, and work began on the house. Even though the county had a construction supervisor assigned to the project, he was not very good so I would go out to the site several times a week to make sure the house was being constructed according to plans and approve any changes – this is where my experience as a Lead Design Engineer with NASA came into play as I had experience in the construction of multimillion dollar facilities at NASA and was very familiar with working with architects/engineers and construction contractors. I spent the next year traveling across Florida to various antique shops, thrift stores, etc. to find furnishings of the 1930/40’s era to outfit the house based on Evangeline’s description of what she remembered. I contacted a company in California to build two custom mannequins of the Moores which sit at the kitchen table as Harry often did when writing letters on civil rights matters. The ribbon cutting for the home replica was held in December 2009. When visitors first come into the Home Replica most are in awe of the accuracy of the furnishings and surprised to see Harry and Harriette sitting at the kitchen table. I think based on feedback from some visitors they feel a sense of wonderment and "how could this have happened in America", and no one has been prosecuted for the murder of this man and his wife and at the same time I think the Home Replica represents a sense of perseverance and preservation of history. The most moving part of the home replica happened when we invited Evangeline Moore (the Moores surviving daughter) to come a few days before the official grand opening for a tour of the house. Upon entering the house and walking around, her words were “I am finally home,” which meant since the bombing of her parents in 1951 she and her sister Peaches had no place to call home in Florida.
♦Trend Magazine Online™ -- The Moores are often referred to as pioneers of the Civil Rights Movement. How does the Cultural Complex educate the public about their contributions and the broader civil rights struggle?Mr. Gary -- Harry & Harriette Moore were the pioneers of the early civil rights movement and paved the way for much of the advocacy we see today. The Moore Cultural Complex Board has been very proactive in making the general public aware of their many contributions to the cause of civil rights with events like the Harry & Harriette Moore Festival of the Arts and Humanities, Healthy Living Festival, Moore Freedom 5K Run, getting the Moores enshrined in the Florida Civil Rights Hall of Fame; having Harry Moore named a “Great Floridian” by the Florida Secretary of State, being listed on the U. S. Civil Rights Trail, having s display in the NMAAHC museum in Washington, D.C., naming of the main Brevard County Courthouse and numerous other buildings /streets after the Moores. In addition, presenting a resolution to the Brevard County School Board to “reinstate “ the Moores as teachers Emeritus that provides for an annual field trip for eighth grade Brevard students, creating a Moore Legacy TASK Force to include a Moore history curriculum which is currently taught in fourth, fifth, seventh and tenth grade. In addition, creating a Moore children’s book which is in the public and elementary school libraries, as well as producing the stage play “Fearless,” and beginning production on a new Harry T. Moore documentary, numerous speaking engagements and presentations, and the thousands of visitors who come to the Moore Cultural Center and Museum yearly.
♦Trend Magazine Online™ -- Securing over $1.5 million in funding is an incredible achievement. What challenges did you face during this process, and how were you able to overcome them?Mr. Gary -- The challenges involved with securing legislative funding is one of relationship building, perseverance, trust, and integrity. As I mentioned earlier, I have made it a point to try to build good relationships with politicians and government officials of all persuasions. Many of them are willing to help but one has to be practical, a good communicator, and willing to put in the “hoop jumping” that comes with getting money from political entities. Again, my experiences working for NASA were put to good use when writing Community Budget Requests, knowing the right jargon to use and writing the request in a way that could benefit the state was very helpful and once the funding was awarded, we had to make sure that it was used for the purpose it was requested.
♦Trend Magazine Online™ -- You’ve been deeply involved in events like the Healthy Living Festival and Freedom 5K Run/Walk. How do these initiatives strengthen community ties and honor the Moores' legacy?
Mr. Gary -- Events like the Moore Freedom 5K Run/Healthy Living Festival and others serve as an outreach to community members who may not normally visit the Moore Park and Museum and is a way of engaging community members locally as well surrounding communities. This is a way of honoring the Moores on a much more humanistic level in that visitors can become familiar with the Moores from a very everyday down-to-earth perspective.
