By Micha Green
AFRO D.C. and Digital Editor
mgreen@afro.com

Carl Murphy was only 5 feet 3 inches tall, but he was a neighborhood colossus. When he took over for his father and the publication’s founder, John H. Murphy, in 1922, he transformed the journal from a circulation of about 14,000 to a significant daily employing hundreds and reaching more than 200,000.

Murphy was an important neighborhood, national, and foreign organizer who worked as an adviser to African American leaders and history makers such as Thurgood Marshall, giving money, coverage, and solid guidance outside of the public view.

“He was definitely a community activist, but I think he was definitely more behind the scenes than in front of the camera,” said Murphy’s great granddaughter, Savannah Wood, Director of AFRO Archives and AFRO Charities. “From what I’ve seen of his work and legacy, he was an activator, motivator, and fundraiser for a variety of causes on both local and national levels.” He wouldn’t exactly be at the front of the line at a demonstration, but he would have all of his writers there, all of his connections sending money in to support causes, to move cases to the next level for appeals, and that type of thing, and he was a strategist.”

Murphy had the ability to use the power of the press for advocacy as the editor of a widely distributed Black daily. “Through our archives and previous issues of the paper, you can see how campaigns were mounted over time, and how the press played a role in that, and he was really spearheading that charge,” Wood explained.

Murphy, on the other hand, was not only a powerful editor; he was also intelligent, having earned a bachelor’s degree from Howard, a master’s degree from Harvard, and a doctorate from Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, Germany in 1913, before both World Wars. He even presided over Howard’s German section. He possessed a wealth of information, and many individuals, including future Supreme Court Justice Marshall, valued his advice.

“He was really instrumental in ensuring Thurgood Marshall’s success in his studies,” Wood added. “They remained close for a long time and they really worked together to push the Brown v. Board case forward and there were several other more local cases.”

Murphy, who wanted overall justice, treated landmark and community action cases equally. He had a keen sense of the community’s requirements for real equity as a publisher and justice advocate.

While they claimed that anyone could apply for this position, only White people were able to attend the training program for it, so there was a big uproar about that and pushback on that, Wood recalled coming across a letter about the Enoch Pratt Library system in the archives. Apparently, they had some sort of training program that by default, somehow was not open to Black people. Therefore, there are numerous minor instances that are easy to overlook where I really took the lead and exerted pressure to achieve equality for Black people on a local and national level.

On the day Murphy died, February 27, 1965, Maryland enacted a landmark legislation making interracial marriage lawful, a cause he battled for until the end. Despite his wise advice and effective voice in significant advances towards Black rights, it was Murphy’s AFRO impact that made his activism known and recognized. According to Wood and documentaries like The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords, the Black press has long been a source of action and a path towards a more equitable and just world.

“Because Black people have always been oppressed in this country, the Black Press has always had to be an activist press.” So even the creation of the paper was an act of activism, and everything published since then has pushed a cause. It doesn’t attempt to be impartial; instead, it advocates for Black people’s equality and respect in this nation,” Wood stated. Studying Murphy’s forms of community action in the press and behind the scenes teaches a lesson that Wood believes is essential for everyone to remember when considering how they can contribute to current justice battles.

“Think about all of the other roles that exist in civil rights movements and activist movements that aren’t necessarily frontline protestors.” “Everyone has a role to play based on their skill sets,” Wood explained. “Carl Murphy’s story demonstrates that he had this tool at his disposal, that this news organization and the news and the press can hold people accountable in a very specific way, and he used that tool to do so, and it’s a call for all of us to figure out what tools we have and how we can contribute.”