"Carl-Murphy" (January 17,1889-February 25,1967)

Was an African American Journalist,publisher,civil rights leader,and educator.


Dr.Carl Murphy was born in Baltimore,Maryland;his parents were John Henry Murphy Sr. & Martha Howard Murphy.He graduated from Howard University in 1911,Harvard University in 1913,and the University of  Jena Berlin in 1913.Carl  served as professor of German and chairman of the German department at Howard University between 1913 and 1918 it was in that year he joined the staff of the Baltimore Afro-American newspaper,by his daddy John Murphy Sr.


In 1922,upon his daddy's death,Dr.Murphy assumed control of the paper and in the next four decades solidified the Afro's place  as a major African American newspaper.At its peak,the Afro-American published more than a dozen editions in Baltimore;Washington,D.C.;Richmond,Virginia;and Newark, New Jersey.Carl built up the Afro-American from a journal of 14,000 circulations to more than 200,000;employing more than 200 workers.


In addition to his responsibilities to the Afro,Carl became actively involved with the Baltimore branch of the NAACP .In December 1932,he declared the NAACP's intention the challenge racial segregation at the University of Maryland.By 1935,with the help of NAACP attroneys Charles Hamilton Houston and Thurgood Marshall,the NAACP forced open the university's law school,with a strategy that would be used successfully across the Jim Crow South.Perhaps Carl's most significant single contribution to the Baltimore Afro American cause came in 1935 when he engineered the election of Lillie Carroll Jackson to the presidency of the local NAACP branch.A perfect complement to Carl's more subtle leadership style,the straightforward  and tireless Carroll remained in the post until 1970.
Under the leadership of  Carl,the Afro newspaper was deeply involved in the organization of Dr.Martin Luther Jr's "March on Washington for jobs and Freedom."The paper designed a team of  columnists and reporters to aid in the demonstration's promotion,and dispatched another team of journalists to detail its progress.In its 80th anniversary issue,the Afro called Carl "a man with a purpose."Carl ran the paper for 45 years.He was a lifelong mason mason, member of President Herbert Hoover's 1930 Commission to Haiti and a member of the Electoral College for 1960 Presidential election.His impact was felt far beyond his home in Baltimore,Maryland.As a result of Baltimore's separate but unequal racial order,Carl and the Afro staff were very concerned with the usatisfactory education being provided to African American children and the complicity of Baltimore's white power structure in this provision.During the 1920s the newspaper intensified its campaign its campaign for a first rate school system,in order to provide African American children with upward mobility in American society as well as remunerative and fulfilling employment for for African American educators.Thes efforts serve as the foundation for a stable and prosperous African American middle class.


To peers and contemporaries,the diminutive Carl was a giant.Following the landmark U.S. Supreme Court Decision in Brown v.Brown of Education (1954),Thurgood Marshall publicly acknowledged a debt of gratitude to Carl.For his effort on behalf of civil rights,the NAACP awarded him its highest honor,the Spingarn Medal,in 1955.Morgan State University,on whose board Carl had served as a trustee for decades,named its Fine Arts Center in his honor.Carl Murphy died on February 25,1967,the very the Maryland General Assembly repealed a 306-year state law banning interracial marriage,a battle the Afro publisher and civil rights leader had waged for decades.Carl met his future wife,Vashti Turley Murphy,while she was a student in his German class at Howard University;they married June 20,1916,just before he returned to Baltimore to run to run the paper.Vashti taught school in Washington D.C.,and got her B.A. degree from Howard in 1913.In 1911,while studying at Howard,Vashti and 22 other women founded the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc.