Murphy, John Henry Sr.

Impact on the world

Born enslaved in Baltimore, Murphy earned his freedom by enlisting in the U.S. Colored Troops in 1864, rising to sergeant and fighting in Grant’s Wilderness Campaign before returning home to work as a whitewasher and, later, superintendent of an AME Sunday school network. Borrowing $200 from his wife Martha in 1897, he purchased the printing equipment of the struggling Afro-American at a bankruptcy auction and merged it with his own Sunday School Helper newsletter, building the combined paper into the largest Black-owned newspaper on the Atlantic coast and the third largest in the nation by the time of his 1922 death, when it had roughly 100 employees and 14,000 subscribers. Murphy served as president of the National Negro Press Association starting in 1913 and used the paper to expose discrimination in Baltimore housing, education, and employment, helping preserve Black political power in Maryland at a time when neighboring Southern states were moving to disenfranchise Black voters entirely.

Life & background

Born into slavery in Baltimore on Christmas Day, 1840, to Benjamin Murphy III and Susan Colby Murphy, John Henry Murphy served in the Union Army’s 30th U.S. Colored Infantry Regiment during the Civil War, then worked as a whitewasher and Sunday-school administrator before purchasing the Afro-American in 1897. He led the growing paper until his death in Baltimore on April 5, 1922, at age 81, passing control to his son Carl J. Murphy, also profiled in this collection, whose descendants continue to run the paper into the 21st century.

Sources

1. Explore Baltimore Heritage; Baltimore Magazine; Baltimore Histories