Bob Moses’s heroic combat for voting rights ought to encourage right this moment’s motion, civil rights leaders say

Bob Moses, who died this week at the age of 86, was an unconventional civil rights activist. He did not enliven the crowd with fiery speeches and was not known for leading marches, but few leaders have evoked such veneration.

Moses helped put blacks’ struggle for the right to vote on the national radar when many judges, politicians, and ordinary Americans were indifferent to the issue. He was beaten and nearly killed several times while registering black voters in Mississippi in the 1960s. Still, he never gave up.

“It looked pretty grim at the time, too,” said Diane Nash, a civil rights activist and former student seat leader who Moses knew. “Even back when they used literacy and survey tests and claimed they weren’t doing it for racial reasons as they know, Bob can certainly be an inspiration to those who are committed to freedom.”

While activists and lawmakers in Washington, DC, protest and demand that Congress pass federal voting law to counter election restrictions at the state level, Moses left them a blueprint for how to win in the most hostile of circumstances, civil rights activists say.

President Joe Biden and ex-President Barack Obama praised Moses for his undying struggle for the right to vote.

Biden released a statement Monday saying that, despite every bullet, arrest, and relentless brutality he faced, Moses was led with “unusual grace, calm, and humility,” calling on oppressed black voters and calling on Congress to end For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.

“Let’s build the coalition of Americans of all races and backgrounds that he once formed to meet the urgency of the moment,” said Biden. “And let’s follow his overwhelming legacy and ensure that every American is treated with the dignity and respect he deserves.”

Obama said he was inspired by Moses.

“Bob Moses was a hero of mine,” tweeted Obama. “His calm confidence has shaped the civil rights movement and has inspired generations of young people who want to make a difference. Michelle and I send our prayers to Janet and the rest of the Moses family.”

A “permanent” leader

Much of the tributes to Moses centered on his work as a suffrage organizer in Mississippi during the civil rights movement. It had a well-deserved reputation as the most harrowing place in the south for blacks to vote. When Moses arrived in Mississippi in 1961, only about 5% of blacks of voting age were allowed to register to vote. In many districts no blacks were registered to vote.

Moses was instrumental in putting voting rights on the national agenda – by empowering the common people. He was a central organizer of the Mississippi Freedom Summer, a project that invited a multiracial group of volunteer students to come to the state and work with local organizers to register black voters. He served as field secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

One of the most important realizations of Moses is that ordinary people can become powerful agents of change. He was influenced by the organizer Ella Baker, who said: “Strong people do not need strong leaders.” Moses was known for working with local leaders and empowering them to take the lead long after the media and other civil rights activists left.

Melanie Campbell, president of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, said she admired Moses for his “consistency” in the suffrage movement.

Campbell said that although she never met Moses, his legacy should teach today’s activists that the struggle for suffrage or civil rights cannot be won overnight.

“He never left the movement,” said Campbell. “The fight for justice is endless, you have to keep the ball moving.”

A humble leader

Moses also earned respect for his courage. Those who met Moses often noticed the Zen-like calm he exuded even in the face of great physical danger. Once when he was attacked by a white mob in Mississippi, local sheriffs rushed to his side – joined the mob and hit him on the head with blackjacks. Like civil rights icon John Lewis, he never used force to fight back.

Even when speaking to the black tenants he met in Mississippi, Moses was calm and respectful, said Bernard Lafayette, a civil rights campaigner who worked with Moses and other civil rights campaigns.

“His approach was very different,” says Lafayette. “He wouldn’t yell and shout to tell people to vote. He sat down and talked to them and figured out what they wanted to achieve and then linked that to the vote.”

Derrick Johnson, president of the NAACP, told CNN that Moses’ life should also inspire voting leaders to focus on the outcome of their struggle rather than the notoriety that comes with it. Moses, he said, was not a “self-promoter”.

Moses “put community interests before his own ego,” said Johnson, who was friends with Moses. “In the age of social media, there are a lot of people who are more concerned with the number of followers, clicks and likes than the desired outcome they are fighting for.”

‘The organizer of the organizers’

With Mississippi Freedom Summer, Moses helped change the way voting rights evolve. It drew national attention to the brutal conditions that blacks in the South faced in their campaigns. Three civil rights activists were killed trying to register black voters that summer. The Voting Rights Act, known as the crown jewel of the civil rights movement, was passed the following year, 1965.

One of this summer’s legacies was how it changed the local Mississippi blacks whose talents Moses nurtured. Many went into politics and became community leaders. One of the most famous examples of local leadership was Fannie Lou Hamer, a tenant who became a charismatic suffrage organizer.

Moses also showed in Mississippi that electoral lawyers did better when they put their agenda aside and worked together. The civil rights movement was full of rivalries and competition between groups. But under Moses’ leadership, many groups have been able to put their dueling agendas aside, at least temporarily, says Ravi Perry, historian and chairman of the political science faculty at Howard University.

“At a time when people had so many different ideas about how to make change, he could hear these different arguments and build consensus,” says Perry. “He was the organizer of the organizers.”