"We Owe a Debt to Her, She Taught Us How to Think": Eloise Moore and Her Impact on Queen Mother Moore and Twentieth-Century Grassroots Black Nationalism

Abstract

Eloise Moore was excited. She bolted into the Harlem apartment of her sister who later became known as “Queen Mother” Audley Moore.1 Looking back decades later, she recalled that her sister exclaimed, “‘Harlem is ablaze.’ And I said, ‘What do you mean, ablaze?’” She said, “‘A parade. There’s a big parade, there are thousands of people there for the freedom of the Scottsboro boys.’”2 Queen Mother Moore described a massive protest in Harlem in the early 1930s in support of the “The Scottsboro Boys.” They were nine African American young men aged twelve to twenty-one who in March 1931 were falsely accused of raping two white women aboard a freight train in route from Chattanooga to Memphis. Authorities apprehended the youth near Scottsboro, Alabama. Once there, they were tried by an all-white, Jim Crow court. Eight of the young men were sentenced to death. In response, the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) organized a worldwide amnesty movement demanding the freedom of the young men during the height of the Great Depression. Under the leadership of the Communist Party, the Scottsboro case came to symbolize Jim Crow, lynching, imperialism, poverty, and racial oppression on a global scale. Due to the efforts of Communists and their allies, the Scottsboro youth were spared the death penalty.3 Audley Moore apparently had never taken part in a Scottsboro action prior to Eloise Moore’s appeal.4 In response to her sister’s urging, Audley Moore