Carl J. Murphy
1889–1967

Editor, civil rights activist, educator

In a lifespan of seventy-eight years Carl James Green-bury Murphy managed to achieve major success in three areas. He is most noted for his career as president and chief editor of one of the nation's leading black newspapers, the Baltimore Afro-American. However, his works as a civil rights activist as well as an educator are equally notable.

Carl Murphy was born in Baltimore on January 17, 1889. He was one of ten children born to John Murphy Sr., and Martha Howard Murphy. His parents believed that the education of blacks was vitally important in the struggle for racial equality. Martha believed that Carl was her most scholarly child primarily because he had graduated second in his class of forty at Baltimore's Douglass High School. Beginning at an early age Carl became engaged in the national debate among African American leaders regarding the best methods of educating the race and providing leadership in a segregated society. While one faction of the leadership supported education for the masses, others supported the idea of limiting resources for the "talented tenth" of the race. The Murphy family's position was that all African Americans needed proper training in both academics as well as in trade skills. Issues about education, race relations, and leadership roles in charting a new direction for the African American community would later resurface for Murphy while he was the head of the Baltimore Afro-American newspaper.

Chronology

1889

Born in Baltimore, Maryland on January 17

1911

Receives B.A. with honors from Howard University in Washington, D.C.

1913

Receives MA from Harvard University

1914

Travels to Gena University in Germany

1914

Returns to the United States and teaches German at Howard University

1916

Marries co-founder of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Vashti Turley in Washington, D.C.

1918

Moves to Baltimore, Maryland

1922–67

Becomes head of the Baltimore Afro-American newspaper

1929

Moves to Morgan Park Community in Baltimore, Maryland

1935–66

Becomes Head of Baltimore Branch of NAACP Legal Redress Committee

1939–53

Serves as Charter member of Board of Trustees at Morgan State College

1940

Becomes member of the Robert R. Moton Commission to Haiti

1942–49

Serves as member of Maryland Council of Defense

1948

Receives honorary doctorate from Lincoln University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

1953–67

Serves as chairman of the Board of Trustees at Morgan State College

1954–55

Serves as president of the National Newspaper Publisher Association (NNPA)

1955

Awarded the Spingarn Medal by the NAACP

1960

Receives honorary doctorate from Wilberforce University in Ohio

1967

Dies in Baltimore, Maryland on March 3

While this debate continued at the national level, Murphy and his friend Jimmy Waring Jr. were receiving tutorial lessons by a fellow named Paul Brock. Waring's father, who was principal of Douglass High School, brought Brock into the school to work with selected students. Brock would often times refer to Carl, Jimmy, and two other students as the "talented tenth." The title gave Murphy the desire to pursue higher education. He believed that the most educated among African Americans had the responsibility to assist in the improvement of the race. Brock's belief in Murphy's ability to succeed prompted Murphy to consider college. In the early 1900s Murphy entered Howard University. He graduated in 1911 with a B.A. in German. He then had the opportunity to study at Harvard University. He was one of only two blacks in Harvard's Graduate School, and by 1913 he was awarded an M.A. in German. Murphy left the United States before the outbreak of the First World War to study at Jena University in Germany; the outbreak of the war, however, caused him to return home in October 1914.

Prior to joining the Baltimore Afro-American newspaper, Murphy became a German professor at Howard University. Murphy taught Vashti Turley, an education major at the university and co-founder of Delta Sigma Theta, the sorority for black professional women. The two courted and eventually married in 1916. Vashti Murphy began a career as an elementary school teacher in Washington, D.C. Between 1916 and 1918 Carl Murphy worked part-time for the Afro-American as an associate editor, while he taught full-time at Howard. Later John Murphy Sr. wrote a letter to Carl asking him to leave Howard and return to work for the Afro-American full-time. During the summer of 1918 both Carl and Vashti left Washington for good to join his father and his brothers at the Afro-American news organization.

Carl Murphy replaced George F. Bragg as editor of the newspaper. Murphy's presence and immediate success at the Afro-American won him his family's faith and support. Following the death in 1922 of their father, Carl Murphy was elected by his family as president and chief editor of the newspaper.

Murphy's forty-nine year tenure as editor and head of the Afro-American Company began in 1918 and ended in 1967. During his term Murphy covered a range of issues both at the national and international level. He used the editorial page to challenge local, national, and international injustices ranging from lynching, race and gender discrimination, poor housing, and poor schools, to full citizenship for all Americans. He launched an editorial attack against the U.S. government for its military occupation of Haiti. Murphy sent Afro-American reporters abroad to describe the experiences of black soldiers during the Second World War. Following the war, he wrote in support for the decolonization of Africa. He frequently communicated with prominent leaders and the many organizations they represented. These included Thurgood Marshall, the NAACP legal counsel and later U.S. Supreme Court Justice; NAACP leader Walter White; Urban League executives Eugene K. Jones and Lester Granger; Mary McLeod Bethune of the National Council of Negro Women; scholars W. E. B. Du Bois, Carter G. Woodson, Rayford W. Logan; and countless others.

In a 1992 interview with Fern Ingersoll, Frances L. Murphy II, Murphy's youngest daughter, gave a description of her father's dedication to civil rights struggles and to the leadership of the newspaper. She provided detailed accounts of conversations that took place between Murphy and influential black leaders such as Crisis editor and scholar W. E. B. Du Bois; former newspaper editor for the Kansas City Call and NAACP executive secretary Roy Wilkins; educator and activist Mary McLeod Bethune; and African American congressman Oscar DePriest. Breakfast meetings were conducted away from the Afro-American's main office often in the Murphy home to avoid interruption. NAACP campaigns, political conferences, and political hopefuls sought support from Murphy through the Afro-American news.

Murphy and the NAACP

Frances Murphy recounted numerous occasions when her father and Du Bois would walk through their Baltimore neighborhood, Morgan Park, discussing strategies for handling civil rights cases and fund raising. The Morgan Park neighborhood was developed in 1917 and attracted African American faculty and staff of Morgan College. While living in this community, Murphy was credited for organizing fourteen people in the Afro-American office in 1935 to form an active Baltimore branch of the NAACP. Two of the most noted group members were Thurgood Marshall and Lillie Jackson. Marshall served as solicitor general while Jackson held the office of branch president for more than thirty years.

Murphy's role in the NAACP was chairman of the Legal Redress Committee during the early tenure of Thurgood Marshall. Murphy's main role was to raise money to fund court cases and pay attorney fees. Murphy was noted for giving his own money when he was unable to raise enough funds to cover legal fees and court costs. Frances Murphy recounted a statement made by Thurgood Marshall regarding Murphy's commitment to civil rights and his support of the NAACP. Marshall said that if it were not for Carl Murphy, there would not have been any money to file court cases such as those for equal salaries for Baltimore teachers, integration of the fire and police department, and challenges against the University of Maryland's Law School admission policies. The groundwork for the Supreme Court's push for school desegregation was laid in 1935 with the Donald Murry case. The success of that case opened the university's Law School to all citizens. Murphy continued to give freely of money and talent. By the time of his death the Baltimore Branch of the NAACP was so successful that it had supported two young African Americans who won office in Maryland's House of Delegates. The two senators were Clarence Mitchell III and Verda Welcome.

Murphy's leadership style had a profound impact on others. In 1939, he was able to persuade the Methodist Church to hand over control of Morgan College to the state of Maryland. His devotion to Morgan as both a trustee and chairman of the trustee board won him considerable favor among his colleagues. His leadership as chairman helped Morgan develop into one of the nation's leading institutions of higher education.

Legacy with the Afro-American Newspaper

Murphy wanted to broaden the circulation of the Afro-American beyond Baltimore's black community. Under his leadership the newspaper continued its growth by establishing bureaus in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, New York, Newark, and Richmond. There were even some subscribers in Africa. The superior guidance of Murphy won the Afro-American the title of most successful black publication in the mid-Atlantic region. Frances Murphy noted that the only differences between the national edition of the Afro-American in Baltimore and the other city editions was that local news in various other cities was covered along with the national news coverage. The front page incorporated local news but the editorial page remained untouched. She also stated that Carl Murphy was very interested in providing readers with an understanding of the connection between local experience and national occurrences such as civil rights cases that were being filed in the courts, school integration, and equal pay and employment. He would often outline during meetings how major stories would impact each other. Therefore, managing editors and city editors were asked to keep those issues in mind when deciding on the layout of the paper.

Like his father, Carl Murphy believed in equal rights for both men and women. He encouraged all five of his daughters to learn the business, particularly since they were to inherit it. They were also encouraged to pursue academic careers in journalism and work for the Afro-American. Two of Murphy's daughters, Frances L. Murphy and Elizabeth Murphy Moss, became chief officers of the Afro-American Company after his death. Frances was chair of the board and chief executive officer from 1971 to 1974, and Elizabeth became vice-president and treasurer of the company. Elizabeth was the first black female war correspondent for the Afro-American during World War II. Murphy's vision for the business also included equal pay and equal rights for both male and female reporters. Frances Murphy stated, "We had a fight going on for survival. The people in the white press did not have that kind of fight; they were just out there doing a job. Ours was more than a job, people depended on us."

Alongside its astute journalists, the Afro-American newspaper also relied upon prominent black intellectuals for news reports and for their insightful political commentary. For example, Rayford W. Logan, one of the most distinguished historians of the African Diaspora, was asked by the Afro-American to provide an exclusive report on his travel to Haiti as well as to provide political commentary on the experience of Haitians under U.S. occupation.

Sending its reporters worldwide in search of news and commissioning reports from noted black scholars and leaders made it possible for the Afro-American to provide its readers with firsthand information. The editors believed that sending their own reporters to report news firsthand could create unity among African descendents worldwide. They hoped to create a Pan-African solidarity that would facilitate the black struggle for social, political, and economic justice. During the occupation of Haiti, Murphy traveled to Haiti along with the Moton Commission members and reported Haitian news to the paper. In 1933, William N. Jones, Afro-American editor, received an invitation from Liberian minister Barclay to travel to Liberia as its goodwill ambassador. Jones reported his findings to the Afro-American and also developed an economic plan for Liberia entitled the "Save Liberia Plan." The plan was designed to develop networks between Liberians and African Americans.

The use of black intelligentsia to report, analyze, and disseminate news regarding the plight of Africans abroad was another strategy adopted by the Afro-American. Contributing writers such as Logan, Nnamdi Azikiwe, and several others added to the paper's sophistication and integrity. Key leaders chosen were major proponents of a Pan-African ideology, which the paper wholeheartedly supported. The publisher, editors, and writers for the Afro-American supported and developed plans for political networks and economic ties with blacks in Haiti and Liberia. Regarding the crisis in Ethiopia, the Afro-American encouraged African American participation in the war, black migration to Ethiopia, and political networks between Diaspora communities. Clearly, the Afro-American response to identity questions was answered in its weekly coverage of Diaspora news.

Through his forty-year tenure as the head of the Afro-American, Murphy used the pages of the newspaper to respond to the misrepresentation of blacks in the mainstream press and to tell the story of the black experience from the black perspective. Along with other black publishers, he highlighted the living conditions of blacks, their concerns, their problems, and most important, their achievements. His achievements as newspaper man, civil rights activist, and educator illustrate what influence newspapers can have in shaping public opinion.

REFERENCES

Books

This Is Our War. Baltimore: Afro-American Company, 1944.

Periodicals

"Delta Co-Founder." Baltimore Afro-American, 5 December 1972.

"Publisher Thought of 'Little People,'" 80th Baltimore Afro-American, Anniversary Addition, 20 August 1972.

"Remembering Mr. Carl during Black Press Week." Baltimore Afro-American, 16 March 1971.

"The Afro: Seaboard's Largest Weekly." Baltimore Afro-American, 17 March 1971.

Interviews

Murphy, Frances Louise II. "Women in Journalism." Interview by Fern Ingersoll. 25 October through 3 December 1992. Washington Press Club Foundation, Washington D.C.

Dissertations

Farrar, Hayward. "See What the Afro Says: The Baltimore Afro-American, 1892–1950." Ph.D. diss. University of Chicago, 1983.

Muhammad, Baiyina W. "'What is Africa to Us?': The Baltimore Afro-American's Coverage of the African Diaspora, 1915–1941." Ph.D. diss., Morgan State University, 2004.

                          Baiyina W. Muhammad