Queen Mother of the modern Black reparations movement

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Audley Moore, a disciple of Marcus Garvey, is considered the mother of the Black reparations movement in the United States.

Editor's note: The Post is highlighting significant and uniquely American stories every week in 2026 as part of our yearlong salute to U.S. history from a Black persepective.

Queen Mother Audley Moore (1898-1997) commanded respect for Pan-African advocacy, especially in the United States. 

Recognized as mother of the modern reparations movement for Black Americans, Moore mentored influential activists from her homes in Philadelphia and Harlem. Even as an influential activist, Moore is less well known than many of her peers and protégés, who included Marcus Garvey, Nelson and Winnie Mandela and Malcolm X. 

Moore was a civil and human rights leader and Black nationalist who was also founder of the Republic of New Afrika, was born Audley Moore in New Iberia, Louisiana. She moved to Harlem after attending a speech by Black nationalist leader Marcus Garvey and later became a leader and life member of the UNIA, founded in 1914 by Garvey. 

Moore participated in Garvey’s first international convention in New York City and was a stock owner in the Black Star Line shipping. Along with becoming a leading civil rights figure, Moore worked for numerous causes for over 60 years. Her last public appearance was at the Million Man March in 1995.

Moore was the founder and president of the Universal Association of Ethiopian Women and the Committee for Reparations for Descendants of U.S. Slaves. She was a founding member of the Republic of New Afrika, where she continued the fight for self-determination, land, and reparations.

In addition, Moore was bishop of the Apostolic Orthodox Church of Judea. She was a founding member of the Commission to Eliminate Racism, Council of Churches of Greater New York, where she staged a sit-in for three weeks. She was a founder of the African American Cultural Foundation, which led the fight against usage of the word “Negro” to describe Black people.

In 1957 and 1959, Moore presented petitions to the United Nations demanding self-determination, the end of genocide, land and $200 billion in reparations to compensate for four centuries of slavery. 
The petitions also called for compensations to be given to Black Americans who wish to return to Africa as well as those who wish to remain in the U.S. 

During her first trip to Africa in 1972, Moore was bestowed the chieftaincy title “Queen Mother” by the Ashanti people in Ghana, an honorific which became her informal name in the U.S.

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