February is Black History Month. The celebration was first recognized in 1926 when the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (known now as the Association for the Study of African American Life and History) sponsored National Negro History Week. They chose the second week of February to coincide with the birthdays of President Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass.
For the next 50 years mayors and city councils throughout the country passed local proclamations in observance of National Negro History Week, and in1976 President Gerald Ford recognized February as Black History Month saying we must “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”
In that spirit I would like to tell you about our colleague, Isaac Moore, Esq. Although official records no longer exist, Mr. Moore is thought to be CTLA’s first African American member. Mr. Moore attended the University of Colorado Law School, graduating in 1949, as the second African American graduate of CU Law School. As a practicing attorney, he helped many citizens of Colorado and mentored many other attorneys.
In addition to his work as a trial lawyer, he served in the Colorado House of Representatives from 1957-1960 and 1964-1966 where he co-sponsored some of the strongest civil rights bills in the nation in the areas of fair housing, open records, fair employment, and prison work release. One of his proudest sponsorships of a bill was that allowing different races to marry in Colorado. Mr. Moore was also monumental in the fight to give Hispanics a political voice in Colorado.
In 2016 the Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library Denver Public Library published the following bio graphical notes to remember the life and accomplishments of Mr. Moore: Isaac Edward Moore, Jr. was born on March 20, 1924 in Colorado Springs, Colorado, to Dr. Isaac Edward Moore (a medical doctor and World War I veteran from Vicksburg, Mississippi) and Katherine Brown Moore (a schoolteacher from Athens, Georgia). After Dr. Moore, Sr. died from tuberculosis, Katherine, Isaac, Jr., and Fred, Isaac’s brother, relocated to California.
Moore, Jr. graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School in Los Angeles and then attended the University of Southern California. Inspired by Thurgood Marshall (and a desire to return home to Colorado, he applied to and was accepted to the University of Colorado Law School. Amid racial in justices (sleeping in a coal shed and receiving little help from the faculty), Moore, Jr. graduated on June 12, 1949. He is recognized as the second African American to graduate from the CU Law School. After passing the Colorado Bar Examination, Moore was admitted to practice on September 13, 1949.
A strong proponent of social justice, he sought to bring about change as a member of the Colorado State Legislature. Moore served in the House from 1957–1960 and 1964–1966. During his tenure, Moore, along with former Lieutenant Governor George Brown (at that time, a state senator), co-sponsored some of the strongest civil rights laws in the nation of fair housing, open records, fair employment, and prison work release. Moore was the sponsor of an historic bill giving individuals the right to counsel following an arrest–even before the U. S. Supreme Court’s Miranda decision. He was particularly proud of his sponsorship of a bill legislating the right of different races to marry in Colorado. Other bills he passed include the non-segregation of cemeteries; the creation of restraining orders outside of divorce actions; and, blood tests in paternity suits.
He served in the Civilian Conservation Corps, was founder of LARASA (Latin American Research and Service Agency), and was of member of the Colorado Supreme Court Ethics Committee; the Tophatters, and both Kappa Alpha Psi and Sigma Pi Phi fraternities.
After retiring on August 20, 1998, Moore, Jr. moved to Memphis, Tennessee, with Alfreda Ingram Moore, his second wife (Moore’s first wife was the late Dorothy Williams Moore.) He died on October 16, 2003