(follow the link below to Wayne Moore's Dedication to My Mother)
Dedication to _My Mother
Birth: March 02, 1930 Wilmington New Hanover County USA Death: April 21, 2007 Wilmington North Carolina New Hanover County USA Longtime Community Organizer / Activist.
She attended Williston Industrial High School and was a graduate of Wadleigh High School, New York City. She attended University of North Carolina at Wilmington and obtained her Associate Degree from Cape Fear Community College. She worked for New Hanover County Schools and the Dept. of Crime Control & Public Safety of NC, where she retired after 20 years of service. She was actively involved in her community for which she received several outstanding awards and recognitions, and was past president of New Hanover County NAACP. She was a member of New Beginning Christian Church. She was a strong leader and she was active in the community. She was a peacemaker who preferred mediation and compromise. She raised eight children, essentially by herself, and remained involved in the community. While caring for her family, Moore took classes in early childhood education. She was active in the New Hanover County Democratic Women, the State Retirees Association, the Retired Teachers of the Cape Fear Area and was a volunteer with the New Hanover Regional Medical Center Auxiliary. In 1980, she was named Human Relations Woman of the Year for New Hanover County. She received the Wilmington Housing Authority's service award in 1986 and a Dedicated Service Award from Gov. Jim Hunt in 1995. Long active in the NAACP, she was elected president of the civil rights group's New Hanover County chapter in 2002. She was the mother of a member of the Wilmington 10 that thrust Moore into a national spotlight. In February 1971, her son, Wayne Moore, then 17, became one of the "Wilmington 10," charged with conspiracy and arson in the firebombing of Mike's Grocery downtown, during a period of racial tension following the desegregation of county high schools. Eight high school students, including Wayne, and two adult organizers, including future NAACP director Ben Chavis, were eventually sentenced to a total of 282 years in prison in connection with the bombing. Mrs. Moore, who was working with a Head Start program at the time, embarked on a campaign of speeches and letter-writing to have her son's conviction, and those of the other defendants, overturned. Eventually, Amnesty International adopted the case, charging the 10 were "political prisoners." A 1977 report by CBS' 60 Minutes noted that some witnesses in the case had recanted their testimony and suggested that some of the evidence against the defendants had been fabricated. Gov. Hunt refused to pardon the 10, but reduced their sentences in January 1978. In 1980, a federal appeals court overturned the convictions. She never publicly expressed animosity over the case. "I never hated anybody," she said shortly before her death. Dolores F. Moore, died of cancer at Lower Cape Fear Hospice Care Center at age 77.
"NC Governor Bev Perdue: Pardon the Wilmington Ten"
