By Sean Yoes
Special to the AFRO
The crowd gathered for the second annual “Madeline Wheeler Murphy Day” was silent inside the darkened Baum Auditorium at Medstar Harbor Hospital as they listened intently to a warrior woman from another time speak truth to power.
“The students whether they were Black, whether they were White, or whether they were polka dotted. It was wrong for them to take over a university,” bellowed the Rev. St. George Cross during a taping of the long-running Baltimore public affairs show, “Square Off,” in 1989.
“Doggone it, you wouldn’t have your job today with HUD if it hadn’t been…for all the student demonstrations that came about,” shot back Madeline Wheeler Murphy, Cross’s constant television nemesis and the bane of many other “conservative” thinkers she encountered.
“No Madeline, I got my job because I perform well,” Cross retorted.
“Oh bull, St. George. Bull! And if you believe that you’re as bad as Bryant Gumbel,” Wheeler fired back.
The in-studio fireworks between Cross and Murphy were sparked during a discussion about the three-day student takeover of a Howard University administrative building in 1989. Among the things they were fighting for was a more Afro-centric curriculum and the removal of ultra-conservative Republican strategist and dirty political trickster Lee Atwater from Howard’s Board of Trustees.
The row was vintage Murphy, the indefatigable journalist and former columnist of the Baltimore AFRO-American Newspapers, firebrand community organizer, fearsome wife and mother.
The second annual “Madeline Wheeler Murphy Day” celebrated the life of a true renaissance woman and one of the matriarchs of Baltimore’s legacy of Black liberation.
“On Madeline Wheeler Murphy Day and throughout the year, The Youth Resiliency Institute honors Mrs. Wheeler Murphy’s legacy by organizing workshops and art-based projects that illuminate her remarkable contributions,” said Navasha Daya, co-founder of The Youth Resiliency Institute, the organization based in Cherry Hill that produced the Murphy event.
“We strive to carry forward her understanding of the power of building sustainable independent Black institutions, encouraging young people to embrace their heritage while championing a culture of Black excellence,” Daya added.
Almost 20 years after her death in 2007, Murphy continues to inspire new generations of Black women leaders.
“Madeline Murphy was a force of nature– brilliant, unafraid, and decades ahead of her time,” said Baltimore City Councilwoman Phylicia Porter, who represents the 10th District.
“Even though she is not here with us, her legacy reverberates through the voices and victories of Black women, of Baltimore City activism, and of our shared history. I and the entire city stand taller because she carved the path,” added Porter, who participated in a panel discussion during the Murphy Day celebration, along with this reporter; Ann McLean, former chairperson of the Cherry Hill Development Corporation; Kendall Shaw, Youth Resiliency Institute youth cultural arts organizer and Devin Green, Youth Resiliency Institute youth cultural arts organizer.
There was also an impromptu participant in the conversation about Madeline Murphy, her son the legendary attorney William H. “Billy” Murphy Jr. The Cherry Hill native was determined to attend the event honoring his dynamic mother and seeing her in action once again triggered a visceral reaction in him.
“It was a shock to my system because I hadn’t seen my mother in action in a long while and it moved me, it moved me deeply—not just what she was saying but that it was her,” he said.
The renowned lawyer added that he was grateful to Daya and Hill for being so intentional in honoring his mother.
“It’s wonderful that these two community organizers have focused on my mother based on what they learned that she did while she was alive,” Murphy said. “And I was surprised and delighted about that.”
Fanon Hill, co-founder of the Youth Resiliency Institute said he and his wife Navasha have been personally inspired by Madeline Murphy and her trailblazing husband, the late Judge William H. Murphy Sr., one of the earliest Black graduates of the University of Maryland Law School, and one of the most important members of Baltimore’s exceptional cadre of Black lawyers in the 20th century.
“Individually, Mrs. Madeline Wheeler Murphy and her beloved husband, Judge William H. Murphy Sr. mentored countless residents of Cherry Hill, spanning all age groups. Together, as a husband and wife team, their vision and partnership fostered a shared aesthetic that connected cultural pride with political struggle,” Hill said.
“Navasha and I remain profoundly honored to introduce the legacies of the Murphys to new generations in Cherry Hill and beyond. This is especially important during a period of hyper-gentrification affecting our communities at the local level while presidential executive orders simultaneously downplay how race, racism, and Black Americans themselves have shaped the nation’s story,” Hill added.
Speaking of racism and the 47th president, Madeline Murphy’s son Billy made an astute observation about his mother’s pugnacious journalism style in reference to the seeming dearth of journalistic fortitude within the White House Press Corps in particular.
“She would have been in Trump’s face,” Murphy said. “She was fearless.”
Billy Murphy has exhibited that same fearlessness throughout his storied legal career. He says it is only one of the virtues bestowed upon him by his parents.
“Everything that’s good about me I learned from my mother and father. I’ll take responsibility for all the rest,” Murphy said. “Everything good I’ve done in the world came directly from them.”
