Derek Moore
Derek Moore was a Black American Maryland Transit Administration employee in Baltimore, Maryland, the husband of Alyssa Moore, and the father of five daughters and Andre Moore. His shift work helped support the eight-person Moore household and set part of its daily rhythm.
Family Life
Derek was the household’s quiet foundation. His care appeared through provision and repeated action rather than extended explanation: work shifts and tasks completed. His hours threaded through the crowded household’s mornings and evenings while Alyssa handled much of its verbal and administrative coordination.
Andre’s needs shaped the household long before obsessive-compulsive disorder was named. Derek helped maintain the routines and practical accommodations that allowed Andre to move through the home. He had few words for the later criminalization and incarceration of his only son and carried much of that grief in private.
Relationship with Andre
Derek’s presence remained steady after Andre entered the criminal-legal system. He made visits, called, sent commissary money, and took days off when the family needed him, all without requiring Andre to narrate his distress before receiving care. Where Alyssa translated Andre to institutions, Derek gave the family continuity through showing up.