By Savannah G.M. Wood,
Special to the AFRO
During the past three years, I have been immersed in the AFRO American Newspapers’ archives. As Executive Director of Afro Charities, I am working with the AFRO to care for this collection and make it more publicly accessible.
As a descendant of the AFRO’s founders, I often find myself giving in to the desire to linger in the “Murphy” section of this collection, pulling files from the many boxes that line the shelves.
When I first moved back to Baltimore in 2019 to do this work, I’d been thinking about the AFRO’s origin story. As I’d been told, Martha Howard Murphy lent her husband, John Henry Murphy, $200 to buy the AFRO name and printing press at an auction. The AFRO became prosperous. Our family still owns and operates it. The end.
But where did that initial money come from? How did Martha Murphy, a formerly enslaved Black woman, have that much disposable cash — equivalent to approximately $6,800 today — at the turn of the 20th century? I had shelved this question in the back of my mind, adding it to a running list of research curiosities that I would get around to when I had time. Martha had other plans.
One afternoon, I lifted the lid of an unusually shaped box to find the clearest image I had encountered yet of my great-great-grandmother. There she was, tucked away in her funeral scrapbook, with a full obituary pasted next to her image.
Martha was born enslaved in Montgomery County, Md. Her father died a wealthy farmer and philanthropist, a far cry from his early adult life as the human property of slave traffickers with prominent family names. Upon his death, Martha received land, which she ultimately sold to her brother, providing her with the funds to purchase the AFRO.
She was a co-founder of Baltimore’s Colored YWCA (CYWCA) and its president for nearly 20 years. Letters of condolences from fraternal organizations and Black newspapers across the country lined the remaining pages of this scrapbook, confirming just how greatly respected she was within and outside of Baltimore.
Since that fateful afternoon, I’ve come to recognize Martha’s spirit guiding my work. By following the threads unspooling before me, I made my way to her place of birth – the land that also birthed the AFRO.
Through research into Maryland’s public records, I learned that the land she and her family had been enslaved on was now owned by the State of Maryland. I reached out to Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources right as they were submitting two grant proposals to restore the remaining structures on the site, and to document the land’s history, connecting it to the living legacy of the AFRO.
This year, with funding from the Maryland General Assembly and the African-American Heritage Preservation grant program of the Maryland Historic Trust, the Maryland Park Service is restoring one of two family homes that remain on the site. To complement this work, they will also blaze the Howard Family African-American Heritage Trail, which will bring visitors into the world of Enoch George Howard and Harriet Howard – Martha’s parents. Visitors will learn about our family’s journey from enslavement to self-emancipation and leadership on the local and national stage for the cause of civil rights.
Through this land, I’ve connected with cousins near and far, who unbeknownst to me, had been meeting for annual family reunions for the past 30 years. I’ve started making art about this story, including a forthcoming experimental documentary that took me to Chicago to interview two cousins who spent summers on this land into the 1960s.
The deeper I go, the clearer Martha’s image appears. After returning from Chicago, I found two new photographs of her, including one of her as a young woman. Just last month, an Afro Charities board member emailed me a posting on eBay. I clicked the link and saw that an antiques dealer in Ellicott City was selling a commemorative plaque from the former CYWCA building dedicated to Martha Howard Murphy. At every turn, she shows up as if to say, “Don’t forget about me.”
This August, the AFRO will celebrate 130 years in print. As we mark this momentous occasion, I am struck by how Martha’s gift of $200, and her father’s gift of land, have become a gift for an entire community.
The AFRO archives hold the stories of thousands of Black people who have come before us and the paper remains a powerful means to document our lives for future generations.
Savannah G.M. Wood is Executive Director of Afro Charities, and the great-great-granddaughter of Martha Howard Murphy and John Henry Murphy, Sr.
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