John Trotwood Moore (1858–1929) was an American journalist, writer and local historian.

[1] Moore graduated from Howard College, now known as Samford University, where he studied the classics, and was a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity.

[4] His column, called "Pacing Department", included short stories, poems and local histories.

In 1897, Moore decided to publish a collection of his columns, entitled Songs and Stories from Tennessee.

[6] Moore was contemptuous of low-class whites and criticized Thomas Dixon for writing sensationalist novels.

[1][3] His racist ideas were reinforced by his reading Joseph Widney's 1907 Race Life of the Aryan Peoples, a book recommended to him by Theodore Roosevelt, which Moore proceeded to review favorably.

[1] Moore was appointed as the State Librarian and Archivist for Tennessee by Governor Albert H. Roberts in March 1919.

[3] He was invited to give a speech at the dedication of a bronze plaque in honor of President Jefferson Davis at St. John's Episcopal Church in Montgomery, Alabama, in May 1925.

[3] After his first wife died in 1896, Moore married Mary Brown Daniel on June 13, 1900.

[3] They resided in South Nashville, Tennessee, where they organized possum hunts and literary gatherings.

[3][5] The governor of Tennessee ordered state offices closed and flags to fly at half-mast.