Queen Mother Moore

Queen Mother Moore was an African-American civil rights leader and a black nationalist who was associated with activists such as Marcus Garvey, Nelson Mandela, Rosa Parks, and Jesse Jackson. She was a figure in the American Civil Rights Movement and a founder of the Republic of New Afrika. Queen Mother Moore was the inspirational woman who first motivated Len Garrison in his mission to establish Black Cultural Archives. Marcus Garvey and wife Amy Ashwood Garvey created the largest Black liberation movement in the early 20th century. This movement was called the Universal Negro Improvement Association which organised more than 6 million people worldwide. This organisation produced newspapers and multiple businesses. Garvey and Amy inspired Black activists for generations after their deaths including Queen Mother Moore who was extremely active during the 1960s. Queen Mother Moore and other activists were inspired by Garvey's activism method of 'doing for self'.
Queen Mother Moore was a major influence on the creation of Black Cultural Archives which is Britain's first Black heritage centre. Black Cultural Archives was founded in the 1980s by Len Garrison and 11 other founder members. In 2006 Len Garrsion spoke of Queen Mother Moore's influence:
'Queen Mother Moore came over from the United States in 1981 and she so inspired me and one or two other people who were around at the time, in terms of what she said, her teachings, and essentially what she was about-she had been involved with the Civil Rights Movement in the United States for so many years, and she had set up an institution of her own. She would always say, one of the things we should do was to memorialise our ancestors.[...] The whole idea then of a monument, a living monument, was the genesis of an idea from which the Black Cultural Archives was born. So we setup the African People's Historical Monument Foundation, soon after Queen Mother Moore's visit. She actually said to me that she would like me to continue her work here. She gave me this charge. I was already doing it anyway, so this just came as an additional empowerment.'