ABSTRACT
The accomplishments of Freeman Henry Morris Murray (1859-1950) are vast. He has been lauded as an advocate for racial equality and civil justice through his impressive achievements as “a teacher, lecturer, newsman, editor, printer, publisher, civil rights activist, author, businessman, and real estate investor” (Boime 1990, 155). He was born to a white Scottish father and a mother of mixed racial heritage. His father, John Murray, was a staunch abolitionist who joined the Union army in 1861 and was killed in the battle at Bull Run Ridge in Virginia. Within months, his mother Mary contracted inuenza and died. Freeman, who was only two years old when this happened, was placed, along with his older brother John, in the care of their maternal grandparents, the Bentleys, who were very active in the Underground Railroad in Mount Healthy, Ohio. Murray, who lived in Cleveland (1859-1862) and then Cincinnati (1863-1865), moved along with his wife Laura to Alexandria, Virginia, in 1883.1 There, he built two large houses, one of which contained numerous hidden underground passages and served as evidence of his longstanding personal involvement in the Underground Railroad networking system. These experiences would later play a major role in Murray’s perspective on civil justice and racial politics. Although his skin was light enough to allow him to pass as white, Murray suered from blatant racism-a fact that would mold his character as an activist for civil justice. It was also this same intensity of racism that forced Murray into isolation, solitude, and study, to the point where self-directed education became his solace and his strength.
