John Henry Murphy, Sr. (1840-1922), born enslaved and a Civil War veteran with the United States Colored Troops, borrows $200 from his wife Martha and founds the “Afro-American” newspaper, merging three church bulletins. It soon becomes the most successful weekly in the East, challenging Jim Crow and arguing for racial justice.
Murphy trains his five sons in the newspaper business who take over the newspaper upon his death. His son Carl runs the newspaper for 45 years and turns it into a national publication with 13 editions.
The Afro leads the “Clean Block” campaign in the 1930s to improve life in the inner city. It also fights Jim Crow restrictions on the nation’s railroads. During World War II, the newspaper has war correspondents around the world. Today the 4th and 5th Murphy family generations are still running the Afro, making it the oldest family-run African American newspaper in the country.
