His guilt over attempting to sell insurance policies to families who could barely afford food led to him joining the NAACP in the early 1950s.
Friend, fellow veteran, and pharmacist, Aaron Henry also took up the reins of activism by founding and becoming the first president of the Clarksdale, Mississippi branch of the NAACP.
Henry organized the local group to have two white men indicted for the kidnapping and rape of two young black girls.
This work mainly included traveling throughout the state giving "pep talks" to local chapters and investigating racially motivated murders.
Moore, president of the Cleveland, Mississippi chapter and state vice-president of the NAACP, had become frustrated with the legalistic and slow moving national office, and respected the idealism and devotion of the new student movement in other parts of the country.
That summer he volunteered in the corner of the Atlanta SCLC office with the small staff of the newly formed Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).
On this tour, Moore shared a vision with Moses that included a statewide, grassroots, voter registration drive spearheaded by students.
[3] The SNCC and NAACP McComb project coincided with the early days of the Freedom Rides sponsored by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE).
Governor Ross Barnett, promising the Kennedys peace, ordered state and local police to enforce the law.
John Doar of the Justice Department arrived in Mississippi to begin investigating claims of people who were prevented from voting and found local support from Aaron Henry.
As Freedom Riders converged upon Jackson, Mississippi, Henry and the Clarksdale NAACP attempted to set up a meeting with the Governor Barnett.
This again worried the national NAACP office, but Evers reassured them that strong chapters in Mississippi would prevent the student movement from gaining local ground.
Tougaloo College students joined with SNCC workers to create the Non-Violent Action Group to sponsor workshops on nonviolent philosophy, and hold local sit-ins and demonstrations.
[5] Evers slowly warmed up to the dedication of the young activists of 1961-1962 and asked the national office for permission to endorse the direct action activities.
Despite national objections, Henry sent requests in support of the Clarksdale registration drives and boycotts to King in Atlanta and Tom Gaither of CORE.
Gaither and Moses joined forces in a memo to national SNCC and CORE offices about a coordinated voter registration drive throughout Mississippi focusing primarily on areas where blacks made up 45 percent of the population.
This need, and the vision discussed in the Jackson meeting, gave birth to the statewide revamp of the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO).
CORE staff members Michael Schwerner and wife Rita arrived in Meridian, Mississippi in spring to prepare for the new volunteers.
Zion Methodist Church in Neshoba County only a few days before traveling to Oxford, Ohio with other COFO workers to train the volunteers.
The trio was arrested following a traffic stop outside Philadelphia, Mississippi, for speeding, escorted to the local jail and held for several hours.
During the investigation, it emerged that members of the local White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, the Neshoba County Sheriff's Office and the Philadelphia, Mississippi Police Department were involved in the incident.
At a meeting on March 15, 1964, it was decided that an alternate party should be formed to challenge the regular state delegation to the Democratic National convention to be held on August 24.
Upon arriving in Atlantic City, the MFDP staged various protests inside and outside the convention hall, the most famous being Hamer's "Is this America?"
The delegation's rural members, backed by SNCC workers, cast their vote with Hamer, who responded "We didn't come all this way for no two seats."
With the MFDP taking over most political activities, the remaining COFO staff began to sponsor medical services, and provide legal assistance in rural areas.
At a SNCC executive committee, Jim Foreman called for the dismantling of COFO citing the withdrawal of the NAACP, and the growing political influence of the MFDP.
In his account, Wiley Branton presents the idea of COFO at the VEP Clarksdale meeting solely for the purpose of distributing funds.
Payne so wholly incorporates the "local view" into his work that he barely mentions the influence of VEP funds in COFO's creation or maintenance.
Likewise, in their autobiographies, Henry and Moses view the founding of COFO as an effort to unify all the organizations within the state and make no mention of outside influences.
Like the whole Civil Rights Movement, COFO's ultimate effectiveness is debated, but for a time, it brought together rivals and people of competing philosophies to build a better society.