Acel Moore Interview
By Leah Davis & Lamont Henry
Acel Moore is a journalist, a musician, a war veteran and a Philadelphia high school alumni. Over the years he has worked to provide opportunities and training to aspiring young journalists in the Philadelphia area. Early on he helped create what became the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists. Later, he started an annual program to teach students to be journalists. In the past few years he became the Philadelphia coordinator of Prime Movers, a program that partners experienced journalists and university interns with public high schools to start new journalism programs.
Moore started working for the Philadelphia Inquirer in 1962 as a clerk. Even in his younger years he was a hard worker. This attitude led him to become a reporter in 1968. Over his four decades in journalism he won over 100 awards, including prestigious awards like the Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on unfair treatment of prisoners at Fairveiw State Hospital in 1977. On November 19, 2009, he was honored with the Philadelphia Education Fund's Alumni "Eddy."
When Acel Moore worked for the Inquirer he wrote a commentary called the Urban Perspective twice a week. In this column, he covered politics, education, people, and how the government affects lives. During his years in the industry he also had a television show called The Black Perspective. Moore said the show discussed current events and was like Meet the Press. "We had a major audience. It was displayed in about 200 cities," he said.
One of Moore's most significant works of journalism was the article on the Fairview State Prison that won him the Pulitzer Prize. He worked on this article for a year and a half. Moore wrote how inmates there had no rights. They were beaten and taken advantage of and in some instances killed. Moore began working on this article because he was asked to further develop on a currently brewing story. While investigating, he and his partner Wendell Rawls found more than what they bargained for. They received helpful information from anonymous victims and witness inmates. This article influenced the way mental patients are treated. Ever since it was composed, inmates in mental hospitals have rights and must be certified by psychiatrist to be considered mentally ill.
Moore is now using his influence to help young people in the area. " Young people are the future. I wanted people to do what I did. Everybody should be able to express how you feel." This is why Moore introduced the Prime Movers program.
Prime movers started in Philadelphia in 2007. It is a program for young students to help improve their journalism skills and educate them on current events. Prime movers partners with 12 major Philadelphia media outlets and Temple University. The 22 schools in Prime Movers have predominately minority populations. Moore said the reason it is important for minorities to be in the media is that "It questions you about your history." He wants students in the Prime Movers program to be able to produce a broadcast, to ask critical questions and to be comfortable writing.
Acel Moore offers inspiration to all journalists, young and old. Some of his success may come from believing as a young man that he had to work twice as hard as everyone else to be considered on the same level with his peers. He said he considers the Philadelphia Education Fund's award to be a great honor considering past award winners like singer Jill Scott and the first black astronaut Guion Bluford. Not many people take the time out to inspire our youth From the Germantown Clipper newspaper staff we would like to say thank you and congratulations.
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