The Andrew Goodman Foundation’s Statement on the Passing of Bob Moses
With the heaviest of hearts, we mourn the death of Bob Moses, a prominent figure in the Civil Rights Movement, a dear friend, and an esteemed member of The Andrew Goodman Foundation’s (AGF) Advisory Board. The Andrew Goodman Foundation exists to live the legacy of Andrew “Andy” Goodman, James Earl Chaney, and Michael Schwerner, three civil rights workers who were murdered by the Ku Klux Klan for their heroic participation in 1964’s Mississippi Freedom Summer Project, of which Mr. Moses was the architect.
Mr. Moses served as a Field Secretary for the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and as a member of the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO). Known for courageously registering thousands of Black Americans to vote, community organizing, and foregrounding local leadership, Mr. Moses recruited and trained many of Freedom Summer’s volunteers. In fact, Andrew Goodman received training from Mr. Moses in Oxford, Ohio, on June 19, 1964, just days before his tragic murder in Mississippi.
Robert Masters, Chair of AGF’s Board of Directors, reflected: “I know that both Andy and I, as well as hundreds of other college students, were moved by Bob Moses to go to Mississippi to fight for the right to vote and to stand up for equality in our country. During our week of training in Ohio, before heading South, he was a constant presence. His quiet dignity, thoughtful words, and powerful story kept us together, calmed our fears, and made it possible to go on. Like late Congressman John Lewis, Bob Moses was a one-in-a-million person, both an intellectual and a spiritual leader.”
Before joining the Civil Rights Movement, Mr. Moses had been a math teacher at the Horace Mann School in the Bronx. In 1982, he received a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, and subsequently started the Algebra Project, which uses mathematics as an organizing tool for Quality Education as a Constitutional Right (QECR) for all students. Mr. Moses saw education, and particularly math literacy, as directly related to the fight for civil rights.
We are grateful to Mr. Moses for his training and leadership, which played a pivotal role in changing the course of history and expanding civil rights for all Americans. We dedicate ourselves to continuing his legacy and offer our sincere condolences to the Moses family.
