George B. Murphy Jr.

George Benjamin Murphy Jr. (1906–1986) was an American newspaper editor, journalist, publicist, advertiser, and civil rights leader in Maryland and Washington, D.C. He was born into a prominent Black family which published the Baltimore Afro-American and worked as editor-in-chief of its Washington, D.C. edition. He was active in the Socialist Party of America and the Communist Party USA.

Early life and family George B. Murphy Jr. was born in 1906 in Baltimore, Maryland. His father was George B. Murphy Sr. (1870–1955), was an educator. His paternal grandfather was John H. Murphy Sr. (1840–1922), who was formerly enslaved and became a prominent newspaper publisher. His brother was William H. Murphy Sr. (1917–2003), a noted lawyer and judge.

Murphy Jr. attended Douglass High School in Baltimore.

In 1932, the committee Ford–Foster Committee for Equal Negro Rights was formed by socialist African Americans, led by William N. Jones, and including Murphy Jr., Countee Cullen, Eugene Gordon, and others, who publicly denounced the Republican and Democratic parties for their African American policies. They supported the Communist Party USA candidate ticket, William Z. Foster for United States president and James W. Ford, for vice president. During World War II, he served in the United States Army, and was stationed in the Pacific.

Death and archives He died of a stroke on November 29, 1986, at Howard University Hospital in Washington, D.C. Howard University has an archive of Murphy Jr.'s papers; and the University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries hold letters written by Murphy Jr.