By Dr. Frances “Toni” Draper
AFRO CEO and Publisher
Twenty years ago, my husband and I moved into the 1929 house where Carl and Vashti Murphy raised their five daughters. It wasn’t long before we discovered several boxes of his letters and other memorabilia—including more than 100 original prayers on a variety of topics. Many of them were in a mimeographed book compiled many years before by my Aunt Bettye (Elizabeth Murphy Phillips Moss), and others were in a file organized by my mother, Frances L. Murphy II.
(Photo Courtesy of Amazon)
As I began sharing some of his prayers, I often was asked if they were available publicly. For nearly 15 years, my stock answer was “not yet” – not until a couple of years ago when I began writing my newest book Prayer and Pen: The Prayers and Legacy of Carl Murphy, Publisher of the AFRO-American (1922-1960). The book, released earlier this month published by Our Daily Bread Publishing, contains approximately 100 original Carl Murphy prayers and proverbs, as well as pictures, articles and other information from the extensive AFRO Archives.
Below is an excerpt from the chapter on Freedom:
The AFRO relentlessly crusaded for freedom and equality for Blacks from its inception in 1892 to the present. It consistently used and continues to use its platforms to advocate for civil rights, equality, and justice for African Americans locally in Baltimore, where it is headquartered, as well as across the United States and the world. The editorial page, as historian Hayward Farrar noted in his book The Baltimore AFRO-American, was the most important page in the AFRO. It was there that Carl Murphy, often writing under the pseudonym of John Jasper, crusaded not only for fair treatment of Blacks in housing, employment and education but for their advancement in every area of life.
The AFRO reported extensively on racial injustices, including incidents of police brutality, discrimination, and other forms of racial violence as it aimed to raise awareness and push for change. The AFRO, as a leader in the quest for justice for all, was not afraid to use the legal system to fight for civil rights. It supported and reported on legal challenges to segregation and discriminatory practices, contributing to the broader legal efforts of the civil rights movement, for issues such as fair housing and equal pay across industries. Long before the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954 and the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955, the AFRO was on the front lines at home and abroad. In fact, the AFRO sent more war correspondents, including Carl Murphy’s oldest daughter Elizabeth Murphy Phillips, to cover World War II than any other Black newspaper in the country. These journalists sent back firsthand dispatches of what it was like to fight for freedom on foreign soil and Carl Murphy compiled their stories into a 1945 book entitled “This is Our War” which was re-released in 2023 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the integration of the U.S. army. Another Carl Murphy daughter, Vashti Murphy Matthews, was a member of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion who received the Congressional Gold Medal in 2022.
With two daughters overseas and a lot going on at home, Carl Murphy sought the Lord for guidance daily. He was like Nehemiah with a weapon in one hand (his Bible) and his shovel in the other (his “pen”).
In 1963, the AFRO meticulously chronicled the “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom” where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his now-famous” I Have a Dream Speech.” As more than 240,000 people of all races and creeds prepared to gather in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., Publisher Murphy was busy amassing and army of journalists and photographers to cover “The March”. It was the AFRO and other Black newspapers who told the story behind the story. It was the AFRO that provided eyewitness accounts from ordinary citizens who traveled hundreds of miles to participate in the massive march. But before one AFRO story was written, Carl Murphy took the time to write a prayer asking God to march alongside the thousands who planned to descend upon the Nation’s capital.
Our Heavenly Father, we thank Thee that although Thou hast brought us to this pleasant land as slaves and chattels, Thou hast also stricken the chains from our arms and our legs and set us free; free in some areas, not in others; free in some respects, not in others. But most of all, there is freedom of speech and freedom of action. These next days, as we perfect our plans to march on Washington and demonstrate our intentions to be fully free at any cost, strengthen the courage of our leaders, reassure the weak, confound our enemies, and on Wednesday, August 28, 1963, march with us. Amen.
And immediately after the March, he wrote:
For those who went to Washington this day and leaving their homes and traveling long distances to stand before the nation and bear witness to their demands for freedom now, for citizenship now, and for employment now — make real Thy promise. Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of right, for they shall be comforted.
We pray that their challenge to this nation shall not be in vain and that freedom shall come to all men in our day. AMEN.
Our Heavenly Father, we have been taught all our lives to love our country and our enemies.
But it is our country and our enemies who rob us of our dignity, exploit our labor and make us very little above the rank of servant.
And so, if we would be free, we must be prepared by non-violence or through violence to work for it in defiance of our country and to the injury of our enemies.
So today we pray that we shall place freedom first for ourselves and all men and if we must violate our consciences or our laws to achieve it, we shall have no hesitation, no regrets. AMEN.
“Prayer and Pen: The Prayers and Legacy of Carl Murphy, Publisher of the AFRO-American Newspapers (1922-1967)” is available on amazon.com or wherever Christian books are sold.
Editor’s Note: Carl Murphy and Martin Luther King, Jr. both were born in January.
The post AFRO Publisher Carl J. Murphy (1922-1967): Fighting for freedom with ‘Prayer and Pen’ appeared first on AFRO American Newspapers.
