"Her voice rings out amid the bustling crowd of convention-goers: "Now let me tell you: Benjamin Franklin said, 'Those who seek temporary security rather than basic liberty deserve neither.' I'm demanding reparations. That's all I can see now. That's the answer for our people." She is paraphrasing Franklin's quote, one whose meaning is frequently misconstrued, but the invocation of the Founding Father lends both heft and irony to her calls for redress from the American government."
"A laudable new biography, Queen Mother: Black Nationalism, Reparations, and the Untold Story of Audley Moore, by the historian Ashley D. Farmer, uses Moore's story to chart a trajectory of Black-nationalist activism in the United States, from Garveyism in the 1920s (Moore belonged to the New Orleans chapter of Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association, or UNIA) to the 1995 Million Man March for Black-male unity and self-empowerment."
William Greaves's documentary Nationtime captures Audley Moore preaching reparations in a crowded convention hallway, paraphrasing Benjamin Franklin to lend authority and irony to her demands. Moore wore a burgundy-and-navy-floral kaftan and matching headwrap, handed typewritten papers to passersby, and drew listeners. Moore belonged to the New Orleans chapter of Marcus Garvey's UNIA and traced a long trajectory of Black-nationalist activism from 1920s Garveyism to the 1995 Million Man March. Her radical ideas, including advocating a separate Black nation in the South, attracted ridicule but influenced figures such as Malcolm X, Muhammad Ahmad, and Charles J. Ogletree Jr. She received limited recognition in civil-rights histories.
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