Richard Benjamin Moore (9 August 1893 – 1978) was a

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate) ...

-born Afro-Caribbean

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life o ...

activist, writer and prominent

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

. He was also one of the earliest advocates of the term

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

, as opposed to

Negro In the English language, ''negro'' is a term historically used to denote persons considered to be of Black African heritage. The word ''negro'' means the color black in both Spanish and in Portuguese, where English took it from. The term can be ...

or "

black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ...

Early life

Richard Benjamin Moore was born on 9 August 1893 in

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...

, to Richard Henry Moore and Josephine Thorne Moore. In Barbados, the family was considered to be in the middle class in terms of socioeconomic status. Richard Henry Moore the family's moneymaker, worked as a

preacher A preacher is a person who delivers sermons or homilies on religious topics to an assembly of people. Less common are preachers who preach on the street, or those whose message is not necessarily religious, but who preach components such as ...

and building contractor in Barbados. Richard B. Moore’s mother died when he was three years old. Moore’s father later remarried to Elizabeth Mclean and soon died in 1902 when the young Richard was nine years old. With both biological parents dead, Moore was raised by his stepmother, Elizabeth Mclean. Mclean wanted to carry out Richard Sr.'s wishes of giving Richard the best education, so she aided Richard in traveling to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. Moore migrated to the United States and arrived in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

on 4 July 1909. However, Moore would not become a naturalised citizen until 11 September 1924. Although African Americans were free in the United States, they were far from being treated equal to

European-Americans European Americans (also referred to as Euro-Americans) are Americans of European ancestry. This term includes people who are descended from the first European settlers in the United States as well as people who are descended from more recent E ...

. Moore was immediately faced with

ethnic discrimination Discrimination is the act of making unjustified distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong. People may be discriminated on the basis of race, gender, age, rel ...

when it came to employment and educational opportunities. Although trained in Barbados to do clerical work, he was forced to turn to other jobs such as an elevator operator and work in a silk manufacturing firm.

Political activism

The struggles that Moore encountered and observed made him become a strong advocate for the rights of African Americans. In 1919, he joined the

African Blood Brotherhood The African Blood Brotherhood for African Liberation and Redemption (ABB) was a U.S. black liberation organization established in 1919 in New York City by journalist Cyril Briggs. The group was established as a propaganda organization built on th ...

(ABB), which was an organization formed to defend African Americans from

race riots An ethnic conflict is a conflict between two or more contending ethnic groups. While the source of the conflict may be political, social, economic or religious, the individuals in conflict must expressly fight for their ethnic group's positi ...

and lynching. Moore, along with other African-American advocates, joined the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of t ...

in the early 1920s. Moore joined the Socialist Party, partly because the Socialist Party was then transforming itself into a force to fight against segregation. Moore was a frequent political candidate of the Communist Party. In 1928 he ran for the

US Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washin ...

in New York's 21st congressional district."Red Ticket Goes on Ballot in NY State", ''Daily Worker,'' vol. 5, no. 241 (11 October 1928), p. 3. In

1934 Events January–February * January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established. * January 15 – The 8.0 Nepal–Bihar earthquake strikes Nepal and Bihar with a maxi ...

, Moore ran on the Socialist ticket for

Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals refers to the position of chief judge on the New York Court of Appeals. They are also known as the Chief Judge of New York. The chief judge supervises the seven-judge Court of Appeals. In addition, th ...

. In 1935, he became the organiser for the

International Labor Defense The International Labor Defense (ILD) (1925–1947) was a legal advocacy organization established in 1925 in the United States as the American section of the Comintern's International Red Aid network. The ILD defended Sacco and Vanzetti, was activ ...

in the

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the Can ...

Territory. He used his position in that organisation to speak on behalf the Scottsboro Boys, a case in which nine young African-American males were accused of raping two young European-American women. In 1942, Moore was expelled from the Communist Party because he was accused of being an African-American nationalist and kept African-American issues on the front burner. He continued his efforts for equal rights in America. He also played a leading role in Caribbean advocacy groups. Moore, like his friend Hubert Harrison, was a bibliophile, collecting over 15,000 books and pamphlets on the African-American experiences worldwide. That collection of books is currently housed in a library that Moore developed in Barbados. Moore also ran the Frederick Douglass Book Center in Harlem. Moore wrote a few books himself, including ''The Name "Negro": Its Origin and Evil Use'' (1960) and ''Caribs, Cannibals and Human Relations'' (1972). He also had essays and articles published in various magazines and journals, including the ''Negro Champion'', ''Daily Worker'', and ''

Freedomways ''Freedomways'' was the leading African-American theoretical, political and cultural journal of the 1960s–1980s. It began publishing in 1961 and ceased in 1985. The journal's founders were Louis Burnham, Edward Strong, W.E.B. Du Bois and its f ...

''.

Death

Moore died in his homeland of Barbados in 1978, at the age of 85.

Footnotes

External links

Richard B. Moore Papers, Sc MG 397
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library.
The African American Registry

Access My Library: Richard B. Moore

In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moore, Richard Benjamin 1893 births 1978 deaths Barbadian emigrants to the United States Barbadian male writers Members of the Communist Party USA American civil rights activists Barbadian communists Activists from New York City

Early life

Political activism

Death

Footnotes

Further reading

External links