J. Washington Moore

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J. Washington Moore (March 16, 1866 – January 2, 1965) was an American lawyer and politician from Tennessee. He led the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity as Eminent Supreme Archon (president) from 1891 to 1894. He served in the Tennessee House of Representatives in 1903 and later was Nashville’s City Attorney in the 1930s. From 1942 to 1963 he was a United States Commissioner.

Moore was born in Collierville, Tennessee, near Memphis. He attended Vanderbilt University, earning a Bachelor of Arts in 1890 and a Bachelor of Laws in 1891. At Vanderbilt he joined the SAE fraternity and the Dialectic Society. In 1888 he spoke against women’s right to vote in a contest, arguing they did not want to vote.

A Democrat, Moore supported labor unions, saying the labor movement is part of the broader move toward human freedom. He began his legal career in Nashville in the late 1890s and was named Assistant Attorney General of the Tenth Judicial Circuit in 1910.

Moore married Mary Robina Armistead in 1892. They had four children. He died in Nashville on January 2, 1965, at age 98, and was the oldest living SAE member at his death.