Amy Carol Webb: Music

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A few years ago at the Will McLean Festival, Ann Thomas charged us with writing songs about Harry T. Moore, who opened Florida’s first branch of the NAACP in 1934. While we need to tell the story of Harry T. and Harriette V. Moore and demand justice for their murder, when I did the research, I was struck by Harriette’s unsung role in it all – and thought it was time to sing it. ACW: Guitar, vocals • Grant Livingston: Vocals • Marie Nofsinger: Vocals. More about Harriette V. Moore at: www.naacp.org/about/history/moores_story/

Oh, Harriette

In nineteen-twenty-six Harriette married Harry T.
And went to work in Florida for the NAACP
By day she taught element'ry, by night she knocked on doors
To register the African vote, and teach folks what voting's for
Oh, Harriett

Harriette and Harry both got fired in forty-six
School board made no secret it didn't like their politics
So Harriett went teaching down at Mims' element’ry school
Readin', writin', 'rithmetic, equal rights and the golden rule
Oh, Harriette

Harriette did everything right by Harry's side
Tireless and tested until the day they died
She talked the talk and walked the walk of all that she believed
Fighting for justice in the land of liberty
Oh, Harriett

When children came to school hungry and alone
Harriette made lunches for them with food from her own home
She'd braid their hair and wash their face and teach them to be proud
She told them they were beautiful and strong inside out
Oh, Harriett

Then on Christmas night in fifty-one, Harriette put their girls to bed
And laid down next to Harry, twenty-five years since there were wed
But someone had planted dynamite beneath their bedroom floor
To try to stop justice that they were fighting for
Oh, Harriett

Harriette did everything right by Harry's side
Tireless and tested until the day they died
She talked the talk and walked the walk of all that she believed
Fighting for justice in the land of liberty
Oh, Harriett

Harriette and Harry, Florida’s first martyrs for the cause
Of level ground for humankind as God's and Nature's law
Oh, Harriett