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| George W. Murray From Wikipedia |
George Washington Murray (b. September 22, 1853; d. April 21, 1926)
South Carolina. Born enslaved. Mulatto.
Occupation: farmer, politician, teacher.
South Carolina. Born enslaved. Mulatto.
Occupation: farmer, politician, teacher.
George W. Murray was born on a plantation in Sumter County, South Carolina to unknown enslaved parents. Little is known about Murray's childhood. His parents died before the end of the Civil War, and Murray took up farming while a teenager. In 1871, he began working as a teacher despite a lack of formal education.
Murray registered at University of South Carolina on October 5, 1874. He entered into the college preparatory (or sub freshman) class, but by 1876, he had entered the college class and was following the classical studies track. The university was closed before he completed his education.
After leaving the university, Murray returned to Sumter and continued working as a teacher and farmer. He was very successful, and by 1880 he owned 64 acres of land.
Starting in 1880, Murray became interested in politics and began to gain prominence within the state Republican Party. He was appointed as a customs inspector at the port in Charleston in 1890 and served until 1892. After stepping down as inspector, he ran for U.S Congress, seeking to represent the 7th congressional district in the House of Representatives.
Murray defeated a number of candidates, including the incumbent Thomas E. Miller, for the Republican nomination. The subsequent election was controversial. In one county, votes for Murray were thrown out because of alleged ballot irregularities, and when official returns were published, no result was announced for the 7th district. Following established procedure, the matters was brought before the State Board of Canvassers. The board decided to accept most of Murray's votes and awarded him the election by a tiny margin: Murray received 4,995 votes to his Democratic opponent's 4,955.
Murray represented South Carolina's 7th congressional district in the 53rd Congress (from 1893 to 1895). He was the sole African American in Congress. His first speech was a speech opposing a proposed repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, an act favored by free silver advocates. Another notable speech was a speech opposing an appeal of laws that provided federal supervision of elections. (A major concern for African Americans was that unsupervised election would lead to African American disenfranchisement.) Both speeches were ultimately unsuccessful as both repeals passed.
Murray ran for reelection in 1894, although for a different district (the 1st congressional) because of redistricting. As in the previous election, the election saw widespread allegations of voting misconduct, but this time the outcome was different. Murray lost the popular vote election by a wide margin (3,913 to 5,650 votes for his Democratic opponent), and while he brought an appeal to the Board of Canvassers, this time the board upheld the outcome. However, Murray brought a further appeal to the House of Representatives. The House award him the seat, although it took them until June 4, 1896 to reach this decision, so Murray missed much of the 54th Congress.
Murray defeated a number of candidates, including the incumbent Thomas E. Miller, for the Republican nomination. The subsequent election was controversial. In one county, votes for Murray were thrown out because of alleged ballot irregularities, and when official returns were published, no result was announced for the 7th district. Following established procedure, the matters was brought before the State Board of Canvassers. The board decided to accept most of Murray's votes and awarded him the election by a tiny margin: Murray received 4,995 votes to his Democratic opponent's 4,955.
Murray represented South Carolina's 7th congressional district in the 53rd Congress (from 1893 to 1895). He was the sole African American in Congress. His first speech was a speech opposing a proposed repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, an act favored by free silver advocates. Another notable speech was a speech opposing an appeal of laws that provided federal supervision of elections. (A major concern for African Americans was that unsupervised election would lead to African American disenfranchisement.) Both speeches were ultimately unsuccessful as both repeals passed.
Murray ran for reelection in 1894, although for a different district (the 1st congressional) because of redistricting. As in the previous election, the election saw widespread allegations of voting misconduct, but this time the outcome was different. Murray lost the popular vote election by a wide margin (3,913 to 5,650 votes for his Democratic opponent), and while he brought an appeal to the Board of Canvassers, this time the board upheld the outcome. However, Murray brought a further appeal to the House of Representatives. The House award him the seat, although it took them until June 4, 1896 to reach this decision, so Murray missed much of the 54th Congress.
Murray's political career effectively came to an end in 1897. At the 1895 state Constitutional Convention, the constitution was revised so as to effectively disenfranchise African American voters. Murray ran for reelection in 1896, but he predictably lost the popular vote to the white Democratic candidate by a comfortable margin. As before, he tried to challenge this result through appeals to the State Board and to Congress, but this time, the outcome was upheld.
Murray's defeat in the 1896 election marked the beginning of African Americans' exclusion from South Carolina politics. For almost one hundred years (until 1993), no African American would represent South Carolina in U. S. Congress.
Murray's defeat in the 1896 election marked the beginning of African Americans' exclusion from South Carolina politics. For almost one hundred years (until 1993), no African American would represent South Carolina in U. S. Congress.
After losing the election, Murray returned to farming in Sumter. Over the course of the 1890s, he expanded his farm and sold and leased property to tenant farmers. This created serious legal problems for Murray in 1903. Murray had sold land to Scipio Chatman and his son James. The Chatmans were African American farmers, and they began to dispute the terms of the sales agreement around 1903. After Murray served them a final eviction notice, the Chatmans charged Murray with forging a contact that he had presented at a legal proceeding.
Murray was found guilty of forgery. The judge fined him $250 (roughly the equivalent of $5000 in 2020) and sentenced him to three years hard labor on a chain gang or in the state penitentiary. Murray tried to appeal the decision, with his lawyer arguing that the forgery charge was part of a conspiracy to damage him as revenge for his political activity. After unsuccessfully exhausting his opportunities for appeal, he fled the state and moved to Chicago, Illinois.
Murray initially kept a low profile in Chicago. He divorced and remarried, and also worked a series of jobs including treasurer for a department store and secretary for a cleaning company. He began to play a more public role in 1909 when accepted an invitation to be the "orator of the day" at an Emancipation Day celebration.
Murray's public prominence brought him to the attention of the South Carolina legal system, and the sheriff of Sumter County began extradition proceedings against him in September 1909. The case was debated in the South Carolina press, and ultimately Murray was not extradited. The reasons for this are unclear, but Murray's biographer John Marszalek argues that the Governors of South Carolina and Illinois probably reached an informal agreement to allow Murray his freedom.
Murray had been jailed in Chicago while his extradition was being debated, and after he was freed, he left the city and went on a lecture tour for almost 10 years. He spoke on African American political issues and published his ideas as the book Race Ideals: Efforts, Causes, and Remedy for the Afro-America Race Troubles.
Murray returned to Chicago and largely stopped traveling around 1920. He focused on writing a second book Light in Dark Places.
Murray died in 1926. His funeral was covered on the front-page of Chicago's black newspaper the Defender and his funeral was attended by people such as John R. Lynch and Ida B. Wells-Barnett. He is buried in Lincoln Cemetery in Chicago.
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| George W. Murray From Race Ideals |
Sources
1). Marszalek, John F. 2006. A Black Congressman in the Age of Jim Crow: South Carolina's George Washington Murray. New Perspectives on the History of the South. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.
2). Culp, Daniel Wallace. Twentieth Century Negro Literature Or, A Cyclopedia of Thought on the Vital Topics Relating to the American Negro. J. L. Nichols & Company. 1902.
3). Gaboury, William J. "George Washington Murray and the Fight for Political Democracy in South Carolina." The Journal of Negro History 62, no. 3 (1977): 258-69.
2). Culp, Daniel Wallace. Twentieth Century Negro Literature Or, A Cyclopedia of Thought on the Vital Topics Relating to the American Negro. J. L. Nichols & Company. 1902.
3). Gaboury, William J. "George Washington Murray and the Fight for Political Democracy in South Carolina." The Journal of Negro History 62, no. 3 (1977): 258-69.
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