About NAACP of Martin County
Our Mission
The mission of the NAACP is to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic rights of all persons, and to eliminate race-based discrimination. ALL people are welcome and encouraged to join us.
NAACP of Martin County History
In 1950, a field representative by the name of Harry T. Moore came to Stuart to bring awareness of why the NAACP would be so important in our county. He was introduced by members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference: Civil Rights Activists Lily B. Parson and Ralph Clark; they met monthly at St. Paul AME Church in Stuart.
On Christmas night 1951, the Moore's home in Mims, Florida was bombed. Harry Moore died in an ambulance on the way to a black hospital 30 miles away. His wife died nine days later. The murder case was investigated, but no one was ever prosecuted.
The NAACP fell by the wayside until the late 1960s. But the need for the nation's oldest civil rights organization was rekindled and the first president, Nathaniel Green, was elected. At that time, segregation was in full bloom. The Martin County courthouse still had “White only - Colored only” water fountains and public restrooms.
