Uncrowned Community Builders

Frances L. Murphy II, Washington publisher emeritus and editorial page editor of the Afro-American Newspapers, was an associate professor and head of the journalism sequence at the State University at Buffalo from 1975 to 1984. She is the sister of Carlita Murphy Jones of Buffalo and sister -in-law of the Rev. Leeland Jones, former Buffalo city councilman.

Ms. Murphy was married to the late Charles Campbell, a material control analyst for General Mills, one of the company's few Black supervisors at the time.

When Ms. Murphy first came to Buffalo she was hired as a lecturer at Buffalo State for their new Journalism Sequence, a department staffed by mostly English professors who had little or no journalism experience. She eventually was granted tenure and then given leave to do research. On her retirement from Buffalo State College, she was granted emeritus status. Ms. Murphy had taught at Morgan State University and had been chairman of the board of the Afro-American Newspapers. At the Afro she had come up through the ranks at this newspaper which was founded by her grandfather John H. Murphy Sr. in 1892.

During the summer, Ms. Murphy conducted Urban Journalism Workshops for minority high school students, which started in 1978 with a grant of $3,369 from the Newspaper Fund, Inc. and an additional grant from the Buffalo Evening News. The purpose was to give minority journalists a realistic picture of professional journalism by having them write, publish, and edit their own newspaper.

An article by Frances Murphy written in 1977, stated that when she attended a convention of the Association for Education in Journalism, she was greatly encouraged by Thomas Engelman, executive director of the Newspaper Fund, Inc., to apply for a grant to conduct a workshop in journalism to encourage minorities to become involved in news writing.

She then wrote a proposal and took it to the managing editor of the Buffalo Evening News and arrangements were made for the News to give Ms. Murphy a matching grant. The proposal was later approved by the Newspaper Fund board along with 14 other grants throughout the country.

Ms. Murphy recruited high school students from the metropolitan area who then were invited to live on campus for two weeks, where they were fully saturated with how newspapers worked. Then they did stories for their own workshop newspaper. At the end of the two weeks, The Buffalo News published the newspaper and inserted it into its own daily newspaper.

In later years, the News hired some of the students who had come through the workshop and who had graduated from Buffalo State College in the journalism school. Ms. Murphy was also the advisor to the student chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi and received the highest award from the organization-- "The Frankie Award"-- for her nickname, Frankie.

For a couple of summers in order to enhance her editing skills Ms. Murphy worked on the copy desk of the Buffalo Evening News and sat in on executive editorial meetings with the opportunity for input.

While in Buffalo Ms. Murphy was an active member of the Buffalo Branch of the NAACP and served on the branch's board of directors, worked with ACT-SO and was elected to the National Board of Directors. She also served on the Board of Trustees of the NAACP Special Contribution Fund. She was also a member of St. Philip's Episcopal Church where she served on the search committee to secure a new pastor who later became a bishop.

She is a life member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., an organization of which her mother, Vashti Turley Murphy, was a co- founder. She is also a member of The Links, Incorporated.

A graduate of the University of Wisconsin School of Journalism, Ms. Murphy earned a B.S. degree in education from Coppin State College and an M.Ed. degree from the Johns Hopkins University. She also studied at the University of Southampton, England.

Since leaving Buffalo she has taught journalism at Howard University (1984 to 1991) and been publisher of the Washington Afro-American Newspaper. She is now publisher emeritus of the Washington Afro and editor of the editorial page of both the Washington and Baltimore Afro-American Newspapers.

In D.C., she is a past president of the Episcopal Church Women of St. Luke's Episcopal Church and past president of the Capital City Chapter of The Links, Incorporated. She is a life member of the Washington Urban League.

Now living in the family home in Baltimore which her parents, Carl and Vashti Murphy built in 1929, Ms. Murphy is on the vestry of St. James' Episcopal Church where she sings on the Gospel Choir, is a greeter and warden (chair) of St. Agnes Guild. She is vice president of the Baltimore Chapter of The Links, Incorporated and serves on the board of directors of Stadium Place, formerly the Memorial Stadium which is now being redeveloped for homes for seniors and a YMCA. She is also listed in Who's Who Among Black Americans, Who's Who in America and on the History Makers website.

Her children are the Rev. Frances "Toni" Draper, pastor of John Wesley AME Zion Church in Baltimore (Andre Draper, owner of Wells Printers); Dr. James E. Wood Jr., head of orthopedic surgery at Harbor Hospital, Baltimore (Robin, Safe and Sound Inc.); Susan Murphy Wood, wife of Dr. Lance Barnes of Biloxi, Miss.; and stepsons, David Lloyd Campbell, engineer at NASA (Marlene, engineer) and Charles "Bud" Campbell, professor at Erie County Community College (Barbara, University of Buffalo). She has 17 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren with others on the way.