On this day, April 23, in 1963, a former U.S. Marine and postal worker from Baltimore was shot and killed in Alabama during a one-man march to deliver a letter to the Mississippi governor urging the end of racial segregation.
William Lewis Moore, who was white, wore a sandwich board, “Turn toward Peace.” He never made it to the governor’s mansion. About 80 miles into his trip, he was shot twice in the head with a .22-caliber rifle.
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Moore’s letter said, “The white man cannot be truly free himself until all men have their rights.” He asked Gov. Ross Barnett to “Be gracious and give more than is immediately demanded of you.”
Two men were arrested, including a grocer and known Ku Klux Klan member, but no one was ever convicted in Moore’s slaying. His case remains unsolved.
The FBI announced in 2009 that Moore’s was one of more than 100 civil rights-era cold cases that have been reopened.
– Scott McCabe
