
Amzie Moore had not yet become a civil rights leader when he built his modest brick-veneered house, using the first Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loan to an African American in Bolivar County. The one-story, hipped roof residence features a porticoed entrance and picture windows in the front living and dining rooms. After World War II army service, Moore participated in all the important civil rights organizations in Mississippi, co-founding the Regional Council of Negro Leadership (RCNL) in 1950 and becoming first president of the Cleveland chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1955. He was a guiding force behind Freedom Summer activities in 1964. Moore’s house became a “revolving dormitory” during the voter registration drives of the 1960s. Martin Luther King Jr., John Lewis, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Thurgood Marshall stayed here, as well as student activists. Moore owned a Pan-Am service station and attached cafe, still standing at 801 S. Davis Avenue.