Frederick Douglass Moon

Frederick Douglass Moon
Born(1896-05-04)May 4, 1896
Fallis, Oklahoma Territory
DiedDecember 16, 1975(1975-12-16) (aged 79)
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S.
Burial placeTrice Hill Cemetery,
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S.
Other namesF.D. Moon
EducationOklahoma Colored Agricultural and Normal University (BS)
OccupationsEducator, writer, community leader
SpouseLeoshia Harris (m. 1935)

Frederick Douglass Moon (May 4, 1896 – December 16, 1975), also known as F. D. Moon, was an American educator, writer, and community leader.[1] He was the first African American president of the Board of Education of Oklahoma City, and played a major role in the desegregation movement in the city.[2][3] Moon was nicknamed, the "Dean of Black Educators".[4]

Early life and education

Frederick Douglass Moon was born on May 4, 1896, in Fallis, Oklahoma Territory, to African American parents Pollie Twiggs and Henry Clay Moon.[2] His parents had migrated from Pine Bluff, Arkansas. His early education was at segregated schools in Lincoln County, Oklahoma.[2] Moon attended the Chester School, a Black school led by Rev. Charles C. Chester, and in summers he picked cotton.

Starting in the 9th grade, Moon enrolled at Oklahoma Colored Agricultural and Normal University (now Langston University) in Langston, Oklahoma, because there were no local high schools for Black students.[2] He graduated from Oklahoma Colored Agricultural and Normal University (high school diploma and a B.S. degree, 1929); and from the University of Chicago (M.A. degree, 1938).[2]

Career

Moon started teaching in 1921 at Crescent, Oklahoma.[2] He was elected president in 1929 of the Oklahoma Association of Negro Teachers.[2] Starting in 1931, Moon was a teacher and principal at Douglass High School in Wewoka, Oklahoma, where he helped the school with accreditation with the North Central Association.[2]

From 1940 until 1961, Moon served as the principal of Frederick A. Douglass High School in Oklahoma City.[2] On October 28, 1945, Moon spoke at the 13th annual convention of Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) in support of Negro History Week (now Black History Month), where he shared A Fifth Freedom for the Negro, which was published by The Negro History Bulletin.[5] Moon's writing rejected the idea of racial hierarchy and race-based pseudoscience, and work to gain civil rights.[5]

In 1972, Moon was elected to the Board of Education of Oklahoma City.[2] In 1974, he served as its first Black president of the Board of Education of Oklahoma City, during the period of federally mandated desegregation within the local public school system.[2]

Moon held a civic leader role in his community, he served as a director for the YMCA, was president of the Oklahoma City Urban League, and president of the Langston Alumni Association.[2] He was vice president of the National Association of Secondary Principals, vice president of the American Association of School Administrators, and a member of the National Education Association.[2]

Late life, death, and honors

Moon was in declining health by 1974, and he died on December 16, 1975, in a nursing home in Oklahoma City.[4][6][7] Around 400 people attended his funeral and service at the Tabernacle Baptist Church in Oklahoma City, including some 100 of his former students.[8]

In 1954, the School Board of Oklahoma City dedicated the F. D. Moon Middle School (formerly known as the Old Douglass High School) in his honor at 600 North High Avenue, eventually it was renamed the Page-Woodson School;[9] and in May 1975, the School Board of Oklahoma City dedicated the F. D. Moon Middle School (formerly known as the F. D. Moon Center, and the Kennedy School) in his honor at 1900 NE 13th Street.[4][8][10][11]

He was a 1988 inductee of the Oklahoma African-American Hall of Fame, and the Oklahoma State Department of Education's Educators Hall of Fame.[12][13] Moon is one of the many educators honored in 2022 within the Page Woodson Commemorative Plaza in Oklahoma City, part of a housing redevelopment of the Old Douglass High School campus at 600 North High Avenue.[14][15][16]

In February 2023, the Oklahoma State Department of Education's Educators Hall of Fame had images removed by Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters, this included the images of Moon, Francis Tuttle, and Joy Hofmeister.[17][18] Walters claimed that the images were removed because the state does not want to highlight "union leaders and association heads".[18] The issue of these removed images had started earlier under the leadership of Janet Barresi, when she held the office of Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction a few years prior, however during that insistence it had been controversial and the images had been rehung shortly thereafter.[17]

Publications

  • Moon, F. D. (1945). "A Fifth Freedom for the Negro". Negro History Bulletin. 9 (3): 65–68. ISSN 0028-2529.[5][19]
  • Moon, F. D. (1958). "Higher Education and Desegregation in Oklahoma". The Journal of Negro Education. 27 (3): 300–310. doi:10.2307/2293764. ISSN 0022-2984.
  • Moon, F. D. (1962). "The Negro Public College in Kentucky and Oklahoma". The Journal of Negro Education. 31 (3): 322–329. doi:10.2307/2293870. ISSN 0022-2984.
  • Moon, F. D. Organization and Administration of High School for Negroes in Oklahoma.
  • Moon, F. D. Teacher Integration in the Border States.

References

  1. ^ Garry, Vanessa; Isaac-Savage, E. Paulette; Williams, Sha-Lai L. (September 1, 2023). Black Cultural Capital: Activism That Spurred African American High Schools. IAP. p. 138. ISBN 979-8-88730-394-9.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Welge, William D. (January 15, 2010). "Moon, Frederick Douglass". The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. Oklahoma Historical Society. Retrieved January 4, 2026.
  3. ^ Osborne, Deon (February 17, 2023). "Ryan Walters removes portrait of famous Black educator F.D. Moon". The Black Wall Street Times. Retrieved January 4, 2026.
  4. ^ a b c "Dean of Black Educators Dead at 79". Okmulgee Daily Times (obituary). December 17, 1975. p. 4. Retrieved January 5, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ a b c Snyder, Jeffrey Aaron (February 2018). Making Black History: The Color Line, Culture, and Race in the Age of Jim Crow. University of Georgia Press. p. 132. ISBN 978-0-8203-7159-7.
  6. ^ "Dr. F. D. Moon Dead at 79". The Daily Oklahoman (obituary). December 17, 1975. p. 20. Retrieved January 4, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ "Black Educator Moon Dies". The Lawton Constitution (obituary). December 16, 1975. p. 3. Retrieved January 5, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ a b "Educator Moon Praised at Rites". The Daily Oklahoman. December 21, 1975. p. 22. Retrieved January 5, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ "The Old Douglass High School has new life as apartments and community center". KFOR Oklahoma City. April 5, 2017. Archived from the original on March 24, 2022. Retrieved January 5, 2026.
  10. ^ Watson, Christy (July 19, 1999). "Moon Middle School". The Oklahoman. Retrieved January 5, 2026.
  11. ^ "Dedication Slated of F. D. Moon Center". The Daily Oklahoman. May 20, 1975. p. 50. Retrieved January 5, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ "Dr. Frederick Douglass (F.D.) Moon". NTU Art Association.
  13. ^ "Oklahoma Educators Hall of Fame". Oklahoma State Department of Education. Retrieved January 5, 2026.
  14. ^ "'Lifeblood of the Community'". The Oklahoman. January 27, 2024. pp. A1 – A2. Retrieved 2026-01-04 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ Lackmeyer, Steve (August 23, 2019). "Moving forward: Community, neighborhood the goal of Page Woodson developer". The Oklahoman. Archived from the original on January 5, 2026. Retrieved January 5, 2026.
  16. ^ "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Douglass High School, Old,". National Park Service. Retrieved January 4, 2026. With accompanying pictures
  17. ^ a b Martinez-Keel, Nuria (February 16, 2023). "'Big shock' over removal of Hall of Fame teacher portraits from Oklahoma Education Department". The Oklahoman. Retrieved January 5, 2026.
  18. ^ a b Martinez-Keel, Nuria (February 18, 2023). "Hall of Fame teacher portraits removed". Tulsa World. pp. A12. Retrieved January 5, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ^ Who's Who in the South and Southwest. Marquis Who's Who. 1973. p. 522. ISBN 978-0-8379-0813-7.

Further reading

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