May 31, 2003 - AFRO Editorial
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Judge William "Bill" Hughes Murphy Sr., who died on May 22, was a community leader, civic activist, legal pioneer and civil rights and civil liberties advocate. The fact that he endured years of legal segregation and racial bias did not prevent him from making a prominent mark on the City of Baltimore, the community of Cherry Hill and the nation.
He was born in segregated Baltimore in 1917 and was raised on Druid Hill Avenue in a neighborhood of role models who believed that one could get ahead with a good education and hard work. Judge Murphy learned early the value of money and the importance of saving. At the age of 10, he began his working life as a newsboy for his family's company, the Afro-American newspapers, and saved most of his earnings.
He fought to enter the University of Maryland Law School and although he was drafted during World War II, that did not deter him from returning to school and earning his law degree.
Once in law practice, it seemed nothing could stop him from breaking down barriers that included, among other things, becoming a founding partner of Brown, Allen, Watts, Murphy & Russell, the first African-American law firm to desegregate a major downtown office building, One Charles Center.
His quest for public offices should be an example for all those who {face repeated obstacles in life}. In the 1950s, few African Americans ran for public office, but that didn't stop Bill Murphy. He ran unsuccessfully for the Maryland House of Delegates twice, for the Baltimore City Council, and for the Orphan's Court. But 20 years later, in 1970, he was elected a judge of the Municipal Court, now the Maryland District Court, and served for 33 years. Through years of hard work, he and his partners changed {the makeup of the legal profession in our city} from domination by Whites to a diversified institution.
Judge Murphy was an advocate for African Americans in the legal profession and in the brokerage industry. He persuaded dozens of young people to go to law school, some of whom are now prominent attorneys and judges around the nation. In 1980, his son, William H. Murphy Jr., was elected judge of the Circuit Court. Judges Murphy, senior and junior, thus became the first father-and-son team in Maryland history to preside simultaneously.
He lobbied major brokerage houses in Baltimore to hire more African-American stockbrokers and investment managers. He was an advocate for freedom of speech and association. In the 1950s, he appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee as the {lawyer for} his brother, George B. Murphy Jr., a labor organizer and an ally of Paul Robeson, and who once worked for the AFRO.
Whether it was as president of the Monumental City Bar Association, as a founding member of the judicial council of the National Bar Association, as chairman of the board of Provident Hospital, as founder of Cherry Hill Community Presbyterian Church, as a life member of the NAACP, as president of the board of Ideal Federal Savings and Loan, as the organizer of a program to present successful former residents of Cherry Hill as role models for current Cherry Hill youth, as a board member of a drug treatment organization, the Chemical People Task Force of Cherry Hill, or twice as president of the PTA of Cherry Hill School No. 159, where his five children attended, Judge Murphy was determined to uplift every community in which he worked, prayed or lived.
The {AFRO} will certainly miss Mr. Murphy, a grandson of the paper's founder, John H. Murphy Sr. Judge Murphy was a major stockholder and competent advisor to the four publishers/chairman of the board who ran this newspaper during his lifetime. He helped this newspaper grow. As we all celebrate his life 3 p.m. June 1 at the Carl Murphy Fine Arts Center at Morgan State University in Baltimore, we invite the public to pay tribute to this great man.
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