A letter to the editor written by the Reverend John L. Moore of the Colored Farmers’ National Alliance and Cooperative Union appeared in the National Economist newspaper, published in Washington, D.C., on March 7, 1891. It was reprinted from a newspaper in Jacksonville, Florida, that had featured an attack on leaders of the Colored Farmers’ National Alliance for its support of the Lodge election bill—a proposed congressional bill that would provide for the federal supervision of elections in the South. Moore’s letter is a testament to independent black leadership in the South during the post-Reconstruction period, a period often portrayed as a time of political inaction among southern African Americans. The letter, referred to here as “In the Lion’s Mouth” (usually noted as simply “Moore’s letter” in documents), is in reference to a metaphor used by Moore in which he saw African Americans and white independents increasingly placing themselves in a politically vulnerable situation by allowing professional politicians to represent their interests instead of fi elding candidates of their own.