Freeman H. M. Murray (September 22, 1859 - February 20, 1950) was an intellectual, civil rights activist, and journalist in Washington D.C. and Alexandria, Virginia. He was active in promoting black home-ownership, opposing Jim Crow laws and lynching, and supporting positive representation of African Americans in public art. He was a founding member of the Niagara Movement and was an editor of its journal, the Horizon, along with W. E. B. Du Bois and Lafayette M. Hershaw. Alongside his other work, Murray was an important intellectual leader and wrote an influential book of art criticism. In this, Murray was one of the first historians of African American art. His work expressed a desire that art take seriously the representation of African Americans and that slavery not be overlooked in favor of representation of heroes and glory in public art.
Personal life
Freeman Henry Morris Murray was born September 22, 1859, in Cleveland, Ohio. His father was John M. Murray and was of Scottish descent and was disowned by his family for marrying a black woman. John was a member of the 12th Ohio Infantry in the US Civil War and died at Bull Run Bridge on August 27, 1862, in the preamble to the Second Battle of Bull Run. His mother was Martha Bently, whose father was Irish and mother was Native American and African American. The couple owned a tailoring business in Cleveland. After his father died, his mother moved the family to Cincinnati, Ohio. After primary school, Murray attended Mount Pleasant Academy to train to be a teacher, one of three black students. He graduated from the academy in 1875. Murray was a bibliophile and learned French and Latin while continuing to work with his mother's father, Daniel Bentley in his whitewashing and painting business. Daniel Bentley was a major inspiration for Murray, having run a station on the underground railroad during the time of slavery and continuing to work for African American progress after the civil war. Soon, Murray moved to Covington, Kentucky, to take a job teaching. He also took an apprenticeship for the Cincinnati Enquirer where he gained editing and publishing experience. Later in life he studied at Howard University in Washington, DC and eventually learned five languages.
In 1883, Murray married Laura Hamilton. They had five children. One daughter, Kathleen Paige Murray, worked for the Niagara Movement. In 1898 his daughter, Mary Vivian, and his wife died of tuberculosis. On September 1, 1898, Murray married his live-in nanny and mistress, Delilah - who was a cousin of Laura. They had one daughter, Florence Rogers. Murray had at least two other daughters, Kathleen (Luckett) and Florence, and two sons, F. Morris and William M. Freeman H. M. Murray was struck by a car driven by prominent Alexandria doctor William Allen Fuller, and died two days later on February 20, 1950, in Washington, DC.
Move to Washington, D.C. In 1884, Murray passed the civil service exam in Ohio and moved to the Washington, DC area where he was appointed to a position in the Pension Division of the War Department, making him the first black person from Ohio to be appointed to a federal position. Murray moved to Alexandria, Virginia, where he started a real estate business. He purchased a large manor house which he considered a "post Civil War Underground Railroad System", as a safe house for African Americans at risk of persecution and lynching. With his brother, John, he created the Murray Brothers Printers and Publishing Company.
Murray was very active in African-American politics and activism. He worked with Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, Lafayette M Hershaw, James M Waldron, William Monroe Trotter, and W. E. B. Du Bois. Murray was particularly active working with Wells to fight lynching. After Douglass died, Murray became caretaker of the Frederick Douglass Memorial Cemetery. Murray frequently wrote and spoke in opposition to Booker T. Washington, questioning Washington's strategies for failing to recognize the radical nature of the change needed.
In April 1890, W. B. Dulaney, Rev. R. H. Porter, William Gray, and Murray formed the New Era Building Association to aid blacks to purchase homes and invest savings. In December 1891, Murray, Rev. H. H. Warring and Rev. Porter were elected by a group of Alexandria blacks to oppose segregated coach laws before the Virginia Legislature in Richmond.