Donald Moore was born in Lodge Hill, St. Michael Barbados. His father, Charles Alexander Moore was a cabinetmaker, in addition to being a member of the Barbados Harbour Police Force. Donald Moore was trained as a tailor in his native Barbados.
At the age of 21, Moore emigrated first to New York and then to Montreal. On 27 April 1954, Moore and his friend Bromley Armstrong led 34 representatives from the NCA, unions, labour councils and other community organizations to Ottawa. There, they met with and presented a brief to Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Walter Harris about Canada’s discriminatory immigration laws. The brief also outlined the impact of these discriminatory laws and made recommendations for change. Thanks to this initiative, the Canadian government eventually adopted the West Indian Domestic Scheme. This new policy allowed Black women to come to work in Canada as domestics. By 1955, Moore’s work with the Jamaican government, Barbadian government and Canadian government allowed Black domestic workers to also gain their permanent residency after one year of work in Canada.
