Moore, Richard B. (Richard Benjamin)

Born in Barbados in 1893, Richard Benjamin Moore was a civil rights advocate, communist leader and intellectual, a bibliophile and a champion of Caribbean and African self-determination, who migrated to the United States in 1909 and played an influential role in social and political circles in Harlem for more than fifty years.

Moore's early organizing efforts included a 1915 unsuccessful import-export venture known as the Harlem Pioneer Cooperative Society, a printing shop and the Harlem Tenants League, which lobbied the New York State Legislature for rent control and better housing conditions in Harlem. His lasting contributions, however, were his leadership role in the African Blood Brotherhood organization in the early 1920s, and in the International Legal Defense which spearheaded the legal defense of the "Scottsboro Boys."

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