Charles R. Moore

On June 23, 2014, Moore drove from his home in the Dallas suburb of Allen, Texas, to Grand Saline, a notorious sundown town about 75 miles east of Dallas. He parked his car in a shopping center parking lot on the far eastern part of the city. He then proceeded to pour gasoline on himself and set himself ablaze. Bystanders retrieved a store fire extinguisher and put out the blaze. He was taken by helicopter to Parkland Hospital in Dallas, and died there later that night.

While serving in San Antonio in 1972, Moore organized a meeting of Methodists to bring attention to the injustice of the Vietnam War. When the United Methodist bishops held a worldwide meeting in Austin in 1995, Moore's 15-day hunger strike ended only after the bishops acknowledged their role in contributing to stigma and ostracism of gays and lesbians. Moore helped organize the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (TCADP), which operates as a resource for those opposed to capital punishment. In 2000 he received awards from Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) and TCADP.

Moore was born near Grand Saline and grew up in a town he described as a stronghold of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) that was blighted by racial discrimination. As a 10-year-old boy, he was deeply affected by accounts of people of color who had been brutally decapitated and had their heads placed on poles. Moore graduated from Tyler Junior College in 1954, then earned a B.A. degree from Southern Methodist University (SMU) in 1956 and a B.D. from Perkins School of Theology at SMU in 1956. He served in various Texas churches from 1953 until 1965 when he began post doctorate studies at Harvard Divinity School and Boston University. In the mid 1960s he moved to Chicago and began working for the Ecumenical Institute. This work took him to Africa, Brussels, India, and the Middle East. In 1990, Moore led Grace Methodist church in Austin, Texas, where he opened the doors to gays and lesbians.

He was an actor, known for The Little Foxes (1941), Queen of the Mob (1940) and The Trial of Mary Dugan (1929).

Charles Robert "Charlie" Moore (July 18, 1934 – June 23, 2014) was an American Methodist minister, social justice and anti-racist activist who drew attention to himself when he committed suicide by setting himself on fire in the East Texas town of Grand Saline, Texas. He also drew attention to how the United Methodist Church (UMC) treated gays and lesbians by going on a hunger strike years earlier. He had aligned himself with several progressive, liberal and left-leaning causes throughout his life, leaving behind a typed letter urging the community of Grand Saline and the United States to repent for its racism.

Charles R. Moore was born on April 23, 1893 in Chicago, Illinois, USA as Charles Randolph Moore.