The South: In Bill Moore's Footsteps

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Later that afternoon, Simpson and a friend, still curious, hopped into Simpson's old black Buick, overtook Moore a few miles down the road. Simpson now insists that he "truthfully felt sorry for the fellow." It was in that sympathetic spirit, he says, that he warned Moore: "You'll never get past Birmingham."

Just after dusk, a motorist found Moore lying at the side of the road, still wearing a sign reading: "Equal Rights for All." His civil rights crusade was over, he had been shot twice with a .22 caliber rifle. Floyd Simpson was arrested a few days later and, on evidence that the police have not yet disclosed, charged with first-degree murder.

The ten integrationist marchers who followed Moore last week were trying to finish his trip. They were not allowed to do so. Was it all just a hopeless pursuit of the impossible? In Binghamton, Mayor John J. Burns did not think so: "This taught all of us a lesson. He was scorned here. I think now we're all sorry he was. Maybe the next time someone wants to picket the courthouse, we will tolerate brave people."