Biography
Atmore prisoner indicted in the 1974 Atmore-Holman rebellion who was 'found hanging' in the Escambia County jail before his 1975 trial; a fellow prisoner swore officials had planned his death. Deceased. The Black Panther Vol. 19 no.3 (1979).
Workers World reports that Frank X. Moore was found hanged in the Escambia County Jail at Brewton on April 26, 1975. That newspaper date is retained as an attributed claim because contemporary sources disagree on the precise April day. It says his mother Sara Moore was notified twelve hours later and challenged the official suicide account. The report describes completion of a ten-year grocery-robbery sentence and release in 1974 followed immediately by rearrest over the January 18, 1974 Atmore uprising, with bail set at $40,000. The rounded ten-year term is not a calculated actual custody total. A June 4 Birmingham rally demanded an investigation of his death. Source: https://www.workers.org/wp-content/uploads/ww1975-0613-v17n24.pdf#page=12
Frank X. Moore died in the Escambia County Jail in Brewton in April 1975 while awaiting trial on charges arising from the Atmore-Holman rebellion. Contemporary reports disagree over the exact day. His mother challenged the official account of suicide. A November 1974 transfer from Atmore to county jail did not establish a release to freedom.
The Black Panther, June2,1975, PDF page 8; Workers World, June13,1975, PDF page 12.
A contemporary July 7, 1975 Black Panther report identifies Frank X. Moore as an Inmates for Action leader and Atmore-Holman Brother who died in Escambia County Jail. It names Sheriff G. S. Byrne as responsible for that jail and reports community meetings and protests in Birmingham over Moore’s death. The report supplies no exact death day or additional custody endpoints.
The Black Panther, July 7, 1975, volume XIII no.20, PDF page 9.
