Mollie Lewis Moon, born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1907, graduated from Meharry Medical College’s School of Pharmacy in 1928. She worked as a pharmacist in several states before moving to New York, but her most enduring legacy is as the founder and president of the National Urban League Guild.
Established in 1942, the Guild served as the fundraising arm of the National Urban League, a leading civil rights organization advocating for economic and social justice for African Americans and fighting racial discrimination.
Historian Tanisha C. Ford, author of Our Secret Society: Mollie Moon and the Glamour, Money and Power Behind the Civil Rights Movement, described Moon as a “fundraiser extraordinaire” who helped raise millions to fuel the Civil Rights Movement. Ford wrote, “She was a force behind the mutual aid network that connected Black churches, domestic and blue-collar laborers, social clubs, and sororities and fraternities across the country.”
Moon also launched the League’s annual Beaux Arts Ball, a black-tie gala that became a staple of New York’s social calendar. Through events that brought together the elite of both Black and white society, she raised millions to support the League’s racial equality programs. Remembered as much for her activism and humanitarian work as for her social influence, Moon led the Guild until her death in New York City in 1990.
