Mollie Moon

Unsung History

Stories of the Civil Rights Movement don’t often center the fundraisers, often Black women, whose tireless efforts made the movement possible; today we’re featuring one of those women. Mollie Moon, born in 1907, the founder and first chairperson of the National Council of Urban League Guilds, raised millions of dollars for the Civil Rights Movement, using her charm and connections to throw charity galas, like her famed Beaux Arts Ball, where everyone wanted to be seen. Her long service to the movement eventually earned her the President's Volunteer Action Award from President George H. W. Bush in 1989.

Joining this episode to tell us all about Mollie Moon and the funding of the Civil Rights Movement is Dr. Tanisha C. Ford, professor of history in The Graduate Center, at CUNY, and author of Our Secret Society: Mollie Moon and the Glamour, Money, and Power Behind the Civil Rights Movement.

Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “Crazy Blues,” composed by Perry Bradford and performed by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band in 1921; the recording is in the public domain and available via the Library of Congress National Jukebox. The episode image is from the cover of Our Secret Society; Image: Harper Collins.

Additional Sources:

• “Socialite Mollie Moon Used Fashion Shows to Fund the Civil Rights Movement,” by Tanisha C. Ford, Harper’s Bazaar, March 8, 2021.
• “Mollie Moon, 82, Founding Head Of the Urban League Guild, Dies,” by Peter B. Flint, New York Times, June 26, 1990.
• “Mollie Moon: A Real Voice,” by Lev Earle, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester, March 25, 2021.
• “Henry Lee Moon (1901-1985),” by Susan Bragg, BlackPast, June 19, 2011.
• “Louise Thompson and the Black and White Film,” by Denise Lynn, Black Perspectives, AAIHS, April 15, 2021.
• “Harlem Community Art Center,” Mapping the African American Past, Columbia University.
• National Urban League Guild.
• “Funding a Social Movement: The Ford Foundation and Civil Rights, 1965-1970,” by Rachel Wimpee, Rockefeller Archive Center, November 4, 2020.

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