April 4th was a highly-anticipated day for the Memphis community this year.  While our fair city became the somber backdrop of the remembrance of the assassination of Rev. King at the Lorraine Motel/Civil Rights Museum, I was busy doing something else; my mind was occupied with the best way to pay tribute to my late father during these festivities.

Back in 1968 while my mom was working and coming home to care for a toddler daughter, my dad was working and spending spare time involved in civil rights activities with various organizations.  As a matter of fact, when Rev. King came to the city on behalf of the sanitation workers who were courageously seeking fair wages and working conditions, my dad took up the fight and marched with them, although he was not a sanitation worker.  The fact that he believed in standing up for what was right, regardless of whether or not it directly impacted him is one of the values I most admired about him. My mother often says that my sister looks more like my dad, but that I act more like him; I tend to think that being active in social justice causes like this one is a characteristic that I inherited from him.

When the opportunity to march with the NAACP on MLK50 presented itself, I jumped at the chance to retrace my father’s footsteps with the organization to which he belonged as a lifetime member. Little did I know that we would file past the Universal Life Building that served as my dad’s employment base and as a bustling business hub for the black community for quite some time.  Left vacant for many years in downtown Memphis, the building had just been revitalized and reopened just prior to MLK50.  Above is a pic of my dad (he’s the tall one 🙂 ) with coworkers outside of the building in the 60s, and to the right are pics of the building as it stands today, with my pose in front of its antique signage.

Nearly 6 weeks after the remarkable event that brought numerous dignitaries, activists, and Common (he was the most notable figure for me, to my husband’s chagrin – lol) to Memphis, there has been a shift in focus to 10 days in May that will always hold major significance.  Those 10 days mark the period from my wedding anniversary to my late father’s birthday, and Mother’s day falls between them; talk about a roller coaster of emotions!  On one hand, I obviously love to re-live the one day when I got to be a princess (if you’ve never heard one of my favorite comedians, Jim Gaffigan, perform his stand-up on weddings, do yourself a favor and watch it on YouTube!) And marriage, although it is also a roller coaster, continues to be a beautiful institution to pay tribute; I’m planning on keeping my husband this week :-).  Mother’s day is priceless, coming on the heels of marital day memories, and words cannot begin to express the joy of the gift of being a mom.  On the other hand, though, as I look to this weekend and the 4th year without my dad’s presence on this Earthly side for his birthday, the void of his absence is heartbreaking.

And this brings me to the last point of this post. I happily took my husband’s name when I walked down the aisle nearly a decade ago.  However, because I have always been tremendously proud of the parents who raised me and the accomplishments I achieved with their support as a Moore, there was never a question that I would maintain my maiden name as part of my legal name. Sometimes that translates into people inadvertently adding a hyphen, which drives me bananas (I’ve just never cared for a hyphen for my personal use), and sometimes it means that people refer to me as the late actor Dudley Moore (which is actually just as fun and funny to me as people take it to be.)  Nonetheless, I’m pretty adamant about having my Moore continue to play a prominent role in my identity now more (Moore – ha!) than ever since my dad passed.  Now, integrated into my memories of my dad, MLK50, Memphis, and my personal May Days, the Maiden Moore is a critical part of my dad’s legacy.