The Reverend William Alexander began publishing the newspaper in 1889 in Baltimore, Maryland, as Home Protector. By 1892 it had been renamed the Afro-American, and in 1897, John H. Murphy Sr., a formerly enslaved man who had served as a soldier during the Civil War, purchased the newspaper’s printing equipment for $200 at auction. Murphy was quite the visionary, considering that in 1870, 80 percent of the Black population was illiterate—a direct effect of the South’s staunchly implemented anti-literacy laws. Under his direction, the paper became a platform to promote solidarity in the Black community and put the power of the press to the test: the paper shone a light on inequity and injustice. Editorial pages campaigned for African Americans to be hired as police officers and firefighters, pushed for the creation of a public higher education institution for African Americans, criticized Jim Crow cars on the railway, called for the integration of professional sports, partnered with the NAACP on civil rights cases, and during World War II sent correspondents to Europe, Africa, and the South Pacific to cover the war.
