Transcripts For CSPAN2 The Original Black Elite 20170312

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] if everyone could be seated, for those of you have it taken away knowledge very thrilled to be here and we recognize that we have a large audience. We are thankful for your presence. There he can and very you being here. Let me just check, it is they see it available for someone to take . [inaudible conversations] good afternoon. Im pam jackson, dirt at the library of congress are part of the National International outreach unit and we are very pleased to be with you today for this afternoons talk. A very exciting topic with a really great group of people. Should mention todays talk is part by the debut of ap africanamerican Cultural Association here at the library of congress and they will have a special part in our program that will be introduced shortly. I should mention that here for our extra audience for the most part to remind us internally the library of congress is their focus and should, desire to be recognized and provide the public where americas first Cultural Institution and an entire issue to provide a rich and enduring source of knowledge we care about inspiring creativity and intellectual in numbers of people everywhere. Todays topic in booktalk is designed to further the librarys mission in that way. And i to at the for the book includes the young Reader Centered poetry and Reader Center and its mission to promote books and reading and libraries and literature, poetry for the purpose of having a forum dedicated societies. Now more than ever illiteracy is critical to uphold it, defended, and he and preserving vibrant and robust democracies. We have now for 2017 titled ourselves of the different views of democracy. To do that for being here for part of that because it does promote and extend the ache of it that to a culture of reading it to make sure that the library of congress is really focusing on one anchor of it that we created sustain a culture that values literacy and literature and we do that with todays talk as well. This is a quick saturday to mention that the center for the buck administers the library of Congress Literacy award and we are currently soliciting application for prize money from the library of congress for literacy organizations that you should visit us at read. Gov literacy wars to learn about the program. Onto todays focus as they get started i wanted you to stakes. A a sql reach data checker devices, make sure they arent silent or vibrate. Our second point is we are recording today for the librarys broadcast of the honor of having ceased being with us today for this booktalk. As you participate and ask questions at that point of the program, please though youll be recorded and a part of our webcast and we can also visit us every. Gov to see more than 250 author talks and webcast that we have available for the talks that weve had over the years. I also mentioned if you have not already, the book for todays talk is available for sell and we encourage you to obtain their own copy if you have not done so good to know that shell be available for book signing after todays talk as well. Finally the chief criteria for deciding the books to feature in our books and beyond series has to do with connection to the library of congress and certainly todays book is offered certainly todays book is offered in a very different ways of celebrating, honoring and acknowledging the extraordinary figure of personalized library of congress employees and cultural lives as americans. But also because the research was done here and thats an important part of what the Library Links to promote and encourage which says we have a vast rich set of collection that matter to people and we can only share that if people engage with them, find out what to do, write about them, publish and come to talks about them. Thats one of the things they care about and do it celebrate the book. To further our program and talk about it, im going to introduce the library of congress historian, john y cole. John is a special feature a special secret are biased because he is the founding era for the buck and was part of the initiative that led to the legislation that created us were four years ago we are celebrating that would acknowledge and appreciate john who has a very special relation ship with todays author of the subject of the book, mr. Daniel berry wholl introduce our author and a couple key components of the rest of the program. Thank you for your attention. Enjoy the talk. [applause] is pam has mentioned, i am john cole. Im here not only to help celebrate Daniel Murray and above away, but also to acknowledge some special guests we have today. Were surveyed Daniel Murray family, descendents of Harold Murray who harold do i have that right . And most of them have made a trip to mexico to be with us today. Id like them to stand in he acknowledged in a special welcome for the library of congress. [applause] he would have via participatory history going on today and part of my remarks are going to be aimed at the family as well as some of our other special gas that we also have a special daniel berry project that i would like you to learn about before those of you who dont know the full story again emerged in elizabeths wonderful talk in his boat. I am hoping that jerry jones. Where are you, will tell you a little bit about the association and especially a special project. Lets give the association and. [applause] good afternoon, everybody. Maybe the steering jones. And the Program Director at the African American culture association. On behalf of our president and our Board Members coming weeks ahead. Thank you for being here today. We have 150 members of the Daniel Murray association. The b. C. The hands of the members of the room so everybody can see you. Thank you for coming today. We have a special honor, not on april 28th. The Tony Morrison society displays seen around the world historical markers for africanamerican culture. The society has been chosen as one of those places that will get a marker. But they tell you it was a long process about two years ago went to talk with the people at the Tony Morrison society. We had to go to the congress to come to the library of congress and the architect of the capitol because through it so they dont play someone zoom on capitol hill. We have to go to the congress to get the library from the architect of the capitol to agree that we can place the bench at the library of congress in honor of Daniel Murray. [applause] the project is almost complete. We have 5000 for the bench and were also going to have a celebration so we are raising money for that celebration. And being told Something Else i dont remember exactly what that is. We are going to be happy the presentation on the 28th, which is a friday. The last friday in april. We hope you all can join us at that time and will be celebrate the life and legacy of Daniel Alexander payne wary. I want to thank mr. Kohl for allowing me to get appeared today and i hope you all can join us at a time. Thank you. [applause] we are squeezing a few more members of the family had. But we are doing it. I first learned about Daniel Murray back when i was a Young Library is before it given the center for the book was created which was 39 years ago. Ive learned that i was in the collections librarian and i was assigned to work on a collection called the color doppler collection that has many labels across the front of them. The library the congress decided to do some things about this collection of oral good. Part of it was to put an end to the collection and part of it to start up the valuable pamphlets they were going to be part of debris division. And a partner. Dorothy who is the director of the Howard Library and she helped me out this and we sorted many of the duplicate than some of the special books for the Daniel Murray collection that was left after mr. Murray died were made part of the librarys permanent collection. I wrote an article about it for one of the first articles i ever wrote in 1978. Guess what, 37 years later now i have found myself writing another article about Daniel Murray and i have learned so much about him and much of what i have learned really comes from this wonderful book we are going to hear more about today for the author. I must say that ive never forgotten what really struck me about mr. Murray with his passion about the important of literature and the way that literature and the literature of africanamericans could tell their story and a permanent fashion that he devoted his life as you will hear to this as one of the several projects he was involved in that it was his passion and the books of the love of literature that hes left behind is now part of his legacy of the library of Congress Library of congress. Tuesday the collections have worked on and many many others have worked on but also through the work of the association. This tradition. I first met our author, beth taylor a couple of decades ago when she was director of interpretation at Thomas Jeffersons monticello. Thats who holds a phd from the university of california bird we have spent more than 20 years in Museum Education and research including battle to monticello, but also director of education at James Madison montpelier. Her museum and a great experience as a researcher at her writing skills lead naturally to ballet career as an independent scholar is turning out wonderful books on important subjects. Her first book, slaves to the white house, Paul Jennings said the madison published in 2012 as the New York Times bestseller at the National Book award nominee. It also brought her to the library of congress for the first talk about her book and at the same time brought her to the library of congress National Book festival to talk about the book. Shes now back and we are just delighted. She is now among her other life than lecturing fellow at the Virginia Foundation of the humanities which i must say is the home of the Virginia Center for the book. So our lives come together in many ways. Today, the library of congress is very pleased to help her launch this june. Port history, a book about Daniel Murray and his remarkable family. Yes also that she herself describes it, a book about the original black elite and what has now become a forgotten era in american history. Thank you from introducing this era that would be a period of our history into another generation that has so much to learn from the story that you so skillfully tell. May i present Elizabeth Dowling taylor. [applause]. That i stumbled across Daniel Murray. Daniel murray, one of his first contributions to the library of congress as he was an assistant librarian of congress at a time when such professional appointments for black men were rare, and he started by putting together a list of 27, excuse me, 270 titles by africanamerican authors. And one of them was the memoir by Paul Jennings which the White House Historical association considers to be the first memoir of life behind the scenes in the white house. Precious few copies of it have been made, and i would maintain that it was not for this by Daniel Murray, this wasnt the only important memoir or other notable works, that wouldve been lost to obscurity altogether. My book is a biography of Daniel Murray pioneer in the black history movement, major race activist, model civic citizen and prominent member of washington dc his black elite. But it is also the story of a larger narrative. And that is a remarkable rise and disastrous decline of africanamerican prospects over the span of his lifetime, 1851 18511925. The rise of prospect for African Americans after emancipation brought, as one ex slave put it, a glorious harvest of good things. In particular, the 14th and 15th amendments to the United States constitution which granted americans of every color all rights, including the right to vote. But later the federal government in the name of reconciliation with the former Confederate States brought about early abandonment of reconstruction and ushered in a denial of the rights of africanamericans that were embedded in that very constitution. There was renewal in the south of oppression of africanamericans that included stigmatization, discrimination, segregation, intimidation, terror. Now, i have long been given my work at monticello and montpelier, and i know how important it is, how central it is to understanding american history. Bubut i was a little bit slowern understanding that that period between emancipation and the modern Civil Rights Era is just essential. Sometimes you mention the word reconstruction to americans and theyre not sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. And im going to share with you a personal anecdote about my own ignorance prior to my intensive study of this era. I had a picture, a picture in my head, of africanamerican legislators in the halls of Congress Looking like buffoonish rubes, hayseeds in their teeth. I am as part of my research in this current book, as difficult as it was, watched the birth of a nation, the original 1950 movie it was the second time i i was watching it. I recall that id watched it in High School Come in a humanities class. No discussion about the content. The whole point was to discuss his innovative film techniques. When i watched it this time there was a particular screenshot, and there it was, shabbily dressed africanamericans in the legislative chamber, one of them, their feet up on a desk looking enormous and closeup, and in the background was his colleague gnawing on an enormous chicken like. That was my picture. That was in the picture in my head. And it showed you how strong Popular Culture can be, especially visual images. And indeed, this movie captivated the American Public and put in their heads lots of false images that were not countered by our schooling because of the inaccuracy of our schooling in presenting these parts of our history. So to be sure, there were 23 africanamerican gentleman who served in the halls of congress and in the senate, and they did so with distinction. So yes, reconstruction was a good thing. It ended too early. What followed was a bad thing, and that of course was the jim crow era. And again africanamericans were abandoned by the federal government and allowed to be virtually reenslaved by White Supremacists. Now, we have to recognize all of our history, own all of our history, including the chapters that we are ashamed of. And only then can we do a better job of considering the solutions to the legacies of these shameful chapters, if we have a full picture. Now, in telling my story of rise in reversal, i wanted from the beginning to personalize it in the lived experience of one man and his family. I chose Daniel Murray and his family because i admire him and because, as it turns out, he was even a better choice than i realized initially. And that is because his art fit the overall arc of the narrative almost perfectly. I also chose to focus on the black elite for two reasons. One was to underscore the heterogeneity of the africanamerican experience. In our own time we hear common reference to a phrase that is one of my pet peeves, the black community, as if 42 million americans formed an indistinguishable block. Africanamericans are certainly not a monolithic group today, but nor were they even in the time before the civil war. The second reason that i focused on the black elite is because they put and highest delete the absurdity of a white supremacy. They were not works in progress. They had achieved high levels of education, accomplishments, gentility. They were prosperous. They were doctors. They were lawyers. They were businessmen. They were entrepreneurs. They were district or federal Office Clerks or held higher titles. So they gave the lie to the contention by White Supremacists the black americans were incapable of contributing to mainstream society. Now, Daniel Murray was born in washington sister city of baltimore, and he came here at about age 18, after the civil war. Someone who lived it was a caterer command at the time he was the proprietor of one of the two restaurants in the United States Capital Building. Now, in the Capital Building that was a restaurant on the congressional side and on the senate side. And on the main floor of the capital was a library of congress. Thats where it got its start and that is where it remained until 1897 when it moved over to the dedicated new structure that we now know as the jefferson building. So Daniel Murray worked as a waiter for his brother in the senate restaurant, and they are, even as a waiter, he rubbed shoulders with the high and mighty concluding not only lawmakers, but the librarian of congress, ainsworth stoppard. Stoppard came to think highly of murray, and he took him under his wing. He hired him into the library. Murray started their in 1871 when he was 19. As i was just in the cab company today i, for the first time, they could out, did the math to figure out murray was an employee of the library of congress for 52 years. And it just turns out that he spent 26 in the Capital Building and 26 in the jefferson building, divided equally, yes, quite a career. But we will to the sad part. So he worked in the library of congress, and stoppard trained him as a librarians trade, but in other ways, too. Including teaching him how to make Research Inquiries and gather data and encouraged him to pursue languages. They were very close. Stoppard was a true mentor to murray and he advanced him readily. He got the title of assistant librarian of congress and he was indeed his personal assistant. That was all well and good, but murray never relied, thank goodness, on his library of Congress Salary alone. And many in the black elite at a second stream of income. Inquiries casey was a real estate and building entrepreneur in murrays case he was active in civic life. I mean decade after decade after decade picky was the first africanamerican to be elected to the influential board of trade. He also married well. The black elite in washington was a very exclusive group, make no mistake, a judge to have ace certain package of quality to be admitted. Most were lightskinned. Most had money but neither one of those alone or even the two combined would be enough. The more important question was who are your people quacks are you already related to established members of the black elite quacks do you hail from a family line with the notable civil war heroes or abolitionists. And evans did and an abundance. She was on the abolitionist town of overland ohio and she had attended Oberlin College before her family moved to washington dc. And she was from a long line of abolitionists. Two of her relatives were two other young men who sacrificed their lives as two of john browns raiders at harpers ferry. Ferry. Another one of her relatives was rubble, and he was the first black citizen to serve in either house of congress. So this was match. Daniel murray and annamarie were married in 1789. Thank you. [laughing] listening very well. Married in 1879. And they brought, they had built for themselves and opulent house, especially in terms of interior design in northwest washington on f street. Murray was the first africanamerican to live in that block. He integrated that block and there were other black families to follow. Now, there was a time for the black elite in washington and for africanamericans at large where everything was going swimmingly. The. From 18651875, so the passage of the 13th, 14th, 15th amendments, and also any number of civil rights measures culminating in the Civil Rights Act of 1875, which granted access, regardless of color, to all public facilities. Now, im not saying that color prejudice in washington ever went away altogether. Of course it did not, but it was a definite trend in that direction to the point where incidents of discrimination would be called out as bucking the trend. Murray and his cohorts were primed to think of themselves as americans first, people of color second. No apology for color. They were ready, it was the logical next step, to assimilate into society at large. Nobody knew that that Civil Rights Act of 1875 would be the last civil rights bill passed by congress for 80 years. As w. E. B. Du bois later lamented, the slave went free, stood for a brief moment in the sun, then turned back toward slavery. And historians will tell you that the end of reconstruction was the election of 1876. Rutherford b hayes was able to assume the presidency the next year, this was a contested election, but democrats conceded a series of electoral votes if hayes promised, which he did, to remove the last of the federal troops in the south that were enforcing reconstruction commitments. Now, i would say that was the beginning of the end. Sure enough changes came swiftly for africanamericans in the south. But for murray and other members of the black elite in washington it was a slower progress and it was a staggered process. It took them until the decade of the 1890s to face the fact that there was a backward slide, that it was real and that they were not to be considered exceptions, regardless of their accomplishments and their refinements. When the rug was pulled out from under all africanamericans, those in the black elite only had further to fall. More and more the only thing that was important was that one fatal drop of african blood. In washington with each passing year there was more segregation and more discrimination. In 1897 murray finished a case of personal reversal. Ive talked about how well his career at the library of congress was going. This was until the change in sentiment in washington as more southern racists were coming with their rather brand of racism to washington. And those black congressmen and senators were being replaced by southern, shall we say, colleagues. Probably not a good word. Murray lost the support of Ainsworth Stauffer after he was no longer the librarian of congress. He stayed on as chief assistant librarian and it had been he who had conceived of the whole need for a dedicated Library Building because the books were overflowing to the max in the spaces they had in the capital. There had to be a great increase in staff and had to be a new organization of staff. Initially murray was chosen to be the chief of the new division of periodicals. But after spofford could not support him, the new library of congress enacted a reorganization that denoted murray from his high position and sent his salary flying backwards. Not just what he had been making before he got a raise along with the new title, but what had been making maybe a decade before. And i will say now, his salary never rose again for the remainder of his quartercentury service to the library of congress. Now, what was the problem with murray being head of the periodical division . White man, about three white men had to report to murray. White underlings. That would not do. Now, im happy to insert here that today we are all, Daniel Murray would be thrilled to know that the librarian of congress is an africanamerican, to whom all 3000 and some library of congress employees report to. [applause] he might question it was a woman, that he would be happy to know it was an africanamerican. [laughing] now, the administration of Woodrow Wilson, Woodrow Wilson was southern bred as remaining members of his cabinet and it was their idea for the first time the federal offices should be segregated according to color. Africanamericans were worked work and screened off areas. They had to use colored only toilets, the same thing with the luncheon. This extended, sad to say, to the library of congress. One day murray finds out theres a separate cloakroom for black men only. And in the lunch room theres a sequestered area for africanamerican employees. In the public cafeteria, while not public after all because neither visitors nor employees of color are welcomed to eat in the public cafeteria. Now, what the people in the black elite found out is that, as ive indicated, they were to be segregated and stigmatized with the rest of the race. But they were not going to take these changes laying down. They were going to sit back and wait on white largess. They got organized, and in 1898 the first truly National Civil Rights Organization in america was formed, the national afroamerican council, and Daniel Murray served on the First Executive committee and was the chief of its legal and legislative bureau. And he and they worked very hard on a host of issues, anti lynching, anti jim crow, and perhaps most notably they were the first Civil Rights Organization to challenge in the court system the maneuvering that the Southern States had done to get around the right to vote that every black american was guaranteed in the United States constitution. Now, im sure that many of you are not familiar with the in aac. Youve heard about the Niagara Movement. Of course we all know about the naacp, but as the story and logan has pointed out, the national afroamerican council has not gotten the credit it deserves as a primary precursor of these other organizations. Membership is much greater and it lasted much longer than the Niagara Movement certainly, and the naacp, when they put together their goals, their approach, their strategies, especially the idea of fight it out in the courts, that all came from the in aac that murray was so involved with. But there was an Even Stronger political stance that he talked, passion as john called earlier, and that was the belief that scholarships can be put to the cause of negro protests. So murray says that prejudice is the handmaiden of ignorance. And he has started out with his list of 270 works by africanamerican authors. Believe me, that was only the beginning. The man became obsessive about carrying out this work. He was allowed to work on it if he had time here and there at the library of congress, but most of it he did in his own time. And it just, it mushroomed and he worked on trent moved on. He moved on to biography as well. And then he moved on from africanamericans to europe, to euro africans as well, and he moved from literature to all fields of endeavor, and then as he would put it, the colored race throughout the world. And in the end, and he has mounds and mounds of sketches, 25,000 biographical sketches. And he had his goal was to produce a six volume, 800 pages each, what he called murrays historical and biographical encyclopedia of the colored race throughout the world. This was his grand vision. This was his opus. Sad to say that he never did get to see it published. There was no publisher willing to underwrite an endeavor like that. Carter wilson, he tried, too. W. E. B. Du bois, he tried, too. And it wasnt until the last century of the 20th century, the last year, excuse me, of the 20 century that an encyclopedia africana saw printers ink. Now, i am happy to say, and despite that little dig i had at murray about women earlier, because its true that men at the time were loath to give women the intellectual credit they gave themselves. But on the other hand and a murray was an activist two, race activist. And her husband was very supportive of what she did. They were like a power couple the way that mary churc church l and Robert Correll were, for example. Some of you may be familiar with that couple. Everything was Early Childhood intervention. You know, murray said the true test of the progress of a people is to be found in their literature. While anna maintained that it was in the home that indicates any substantial progress of a race. And her idea was that if you cant have proper upbringing in the home, as believing, the black elite were careful to do with their children, very carefully, cultivated, if that cant always be the case in the home, then the next best thing is the kindergarten. And anna murray is the mother of public kindergartens in washington d. C. This would be both from white and for black people. She became, you become as time went by her interest in kindergarten became more over the part of the cause. And she identified Early Childhood intervention as one of the solutions to the race problem. And she went all over the country as a race speaker, very well received. She was quite an order or come and she always presented a striking appearance order because there was a strong genetic tradition in the evans family to have premature white hair. And so here she was at a very young age, still in her 20s, and she had this beautiful white hair she was tall and slender and very many descriptions of her are available because she made such a striking appearance. But as i say, for all of this action, there wasnt any real progress. Thats one reason why i admire murray and anna for their Civic Service on race issues and other issues come is because it is frustrating. They waited in and they stayed in the water and they stay there and kept fighting decade after decade. In the black elite, they certainly were disillusioned. Many found that their jobs were lost or stalled as Daniel Murray did. That their incomes were decimated or irregular. They were not denied access to public facilities. They face humiliation and disrespect on a daily basis. And most important of all they lost the prize washingtonians as well as southern blacks lost the boat. Now, i would like to turn to the next generation. You know, the murrays had seven children. There were six sons and one daughter. A cent and a daughter died as little children, and they were buried in a park like setting in an interracial cemetery in washington, but later it was deemed that cemetery was a health hazard, and marie had to exhume the bodies of his little children, could find no other interracial cemetery that would accept them. Tried to 30 different places, and they ended up having to go to a new cemetery, which especially at that point, was described as nothing more than a potters field, although a cemetery, where all the Murray Family members were buried were buried. And so many other leading members of the black elite, like blanche or langston and im referring to woodlawn cemetery. It was especially ghoulish with a little girl. She had died of diphtheria, and so her body had to be drenched in a solution of chlorine of line before can be reinterned. Now, there were five remaining sons. Well think of the american dream, one aspect of it is that one wants to see ones children do better than ones self. This was not to be. If thats true, then the murray generation as of a generation with his sons have much to be disillusioned about. His sons went to top colleges, all five have college degrees. Some went, when went to harvard. Three of them went to cornell. Of course, at the schools discrimination was showing its ugly head. The generation before, and africanamerican could go to cornell or go to harvard and there wasnt any discussion about separate dormitories. But now the schools would tell you in deference to students from the south who found having to read with black odious, all of a sudden there was. Moreover, if you got to the experience, nevertheless, and of what you mention as an aside that one of murrays sons, nathaniel, was one of the six africanamericans at Cornell University founded the First Black College fraternity, and that of course was the way to get around the isolation and to bond and to support one another. But when they finish with their college education, they found that the job pickings were slim to none, that they were very few Career Opportunities open to them. And thats why murrays sons nathaniel and henry spent their working lives and the colored Public School system in washington. Some of you may be surprised to know, some of you may already well know this, that at the time when referring to, the colored school system, the Public School system in washington was par exelon. All the way up to the cat catskl which would be howard university. And a good reason for why that was so is because there were so many shall we say overeducated black men and women who found such career, Career Opportunities so limited in range that so many of them can even with phd his ended up working in the Public School system. Now harold had great job success, but he had to go to another country to find it. Namely, mexico. Some of you may be who know washington history may be familiar with known professionally as madame. She was a wellknown opera singer. But you might not know is that she was anna murrays niece, and she faced the same kind of prospects. She had to go to europe to have more career opportunity. She had a life goal of singing with the metropolitan Opera Company in new york city, but because of her collar that was never allowed. Only two of their sons had children. One had two children, and harold had ten children. [laughing] so we shouldnt be too surprised that all of the murray descendents that are with us today our descendents of Harold Murray. Im honored, were all honored, your ancestors would be thrilled to know that you made a great effort to make the trip you today to honor his memory and her memory as well. Well, in closing, i have a paramount to say about what this book can show us. Its a cautionary tale. Theres no mistake about that. Most americans cherish our founding ideals, individual rights, equal treatment under the law, religious liberty. We like to think these ideals were not always honored. We have shameful chapters in our past. Enter my my going away we can redeem ourselves as a nation is to honor those ideals in the future, even in times of hyped up fear. We like to believe that theres an american master narrative and that is one of increasing freedom over time. This story gives light to that. The american master narrative is not one directional and he can reverse direction again at any time. I think the most extreme time that is happening in our past is the one that i just described. And here was a case where the constitution spoke loud and clear, but was discounted. Moreover, we like to think of our nation as first and foremost the country of laws. But not only the southern governments but the United States government turned their backs on crime as serious as arson and lynching. So, yes, i think its a cautionary tale. Today we struggle with the element of wanting our individual rights, but worrying about increased security. We have to be very careful how much of the latter we are willing to give up to fortify the former. And in this kind of Political Climate we need to worry about the ideas that are floating out there. Some americans are more real americans than others. The very concept of religious liberty, one religion being favored over another. If religious liberty doesnt exist for all, then it doesnt exist. And this idea that profiling, whether it be africanamericans or muslims or arab looking people, the problem isnt that we just have to stop describing it as politically correct, its not politically correct. Its just correct. So i would wonder if we shouldnt move from estate of caution to a state of action . Writes one must be rights accorded. Our founders understood that. For a self represented government to succeed it takes a free press and it takes a vigilant and informed citizenry. Writes one must be rights guarded, or else as in this case, they will need to be rights rewind and it was a slow and torturous klein backup for African Americans. I told you there is no happy ending to this story, but i would may be close by echoing the words of congressman john lewis, get in the way. Get in trouble. Good trouble. Thank you so much. [applause] we are squeezed for time when elizabeth is going to take him shes going to answer three questions. So lets have, does someone have a question for her . In the back. Yes . Could you expand upon Daniel Murrays Business Career . Yes. I was asked to expand on Daniel Murrays Business Career. You know, he was welltodo. In fact he was one of the most welltodo black americans in washington, for sure. And as i mentioned he never relied on his library of Congress Salary. And its dead he was a very in acquiring real estate. You look at the original black in washington. We are talking about the very names like hook and brandt and whirly. These were people who were here early. They had a leg up, and that included the opportunity to buy land that later became prime real estate. Murray cana right after the war and he had those early pickings, too. He also invested in stocks and bonds. He had numerous houses. He was both a building entrepreneur. He hired 50 black man at any one time, and his fatherinlaw and his mother was his construction for men. And he built way over 100 structures in washington sometime. Sometimes these were hr friends. Sometimes they were spec houses. In one case he built three houses near logan circle. One for himself and to direct, and he built his house on at street, he rated all three of those. He also had properties in maryland. So he was a savvy investor, and given the stall he had in the library of congress, that served him well. Yes. Can you give us more of an insight into their political activism and the people they worked with wax not only in the naac but also in many of the struggles that africanamericans of their class and of the race were focused on that were both local because its washington d. C. , but the fact of the washingtonians were became national in the implications . Thank you, mary. Im going to talk a little bit more about murray and his cohorts and their efforts to make change, both politically and otherwise. I do want to mention first his association with the board of trade. That was a very influential body, given the government in washington. Annemarie was the first africanamerican elected to the board of trade, and you know that the number of blacks increased but it never kept pace with the overall increase of numbers on the board of trade. And then there were fewer and fewer africanamericans, not only proportionally but Daniel Murray was part of that board of trade until he died in 1925. 1925. I think he may well again have been the only africanamerican on the board of trade at the end of his life. There were two issues that he was compassionate about that he worked on with the board of trade and got to see ultimately after decades of effort success with both of them. One was established in washington manual trade high schools. Manual education i should say, because murray was very sure that this wasnt about training for trades. This is about acquiring, employing both the head and hand to understand drawings and to be able to manufacture something from two dimensions to three dimensions and so on. And eventually he and other members of the board of trade were able to see to such high schools establish in washington. One for white pupils in armstrong for black pupils. And her brother bruce was the principal for many years. And the other was to establish in washington a Free Public Library open to all. The library of Congress Books dont circulate there of course and at this time they didnt have extended hours so that was are important. That eventually was realized with what was initially called the carnegie library, mount vernon square. And of course has led directly to the Martin Luther king jr. Library. So those were two those are two elements that he worked on that he could see through to fruition. Fruition. There were so many others that he did not. The national afroamerican council, some of the people involved including t thomas Fortune Cookie was really the instigator, along with Bishop Alexander walters who was the president for so long. Murray, and aggressive enough, and is not a lawyer but he was chosen to be the head of the legal and legislative bureau. Part of the reason for that is over his time in the library of congress and at one point he had been assigned to the law library, he had not only a selftaught through ground in law but he gained much experience writing legislation, and he, whether it be with africanamericans supporters or whether it be with white congressmen and senators, and he knew how to network, there were many cases where legislation that was presented by a congressman or senator was in fact written by Daniel Murray, including the whole tax plan for washington d. C. , changing the structure which was another board of trade activity. But again and again washingtonians had a fight against jim crow come into the city. They had birddog that issue because over and over again it would come up. You know, another active participant in the naac was george white, and introduced the first antilynching legislation, and then there was one after another all the way into the 1920s. And none of them ever got through. Now, what murray worked really hard on was, in louisiana there was a grandfather clause, was part of their new constitution which was a way to suppress almost entirely the black vote. They in their constitution called for a literacy requirement, but they said that if anyone was the descendent of a man who could vote in 1865, and they were exempt. They were grandfathered out. Well, i mean obviously thats such an obvious way of getting around the intent of the 15th amendment. And murray and the other officers in the naac took this on. And as i say it was the first time that a National Civil Rights Organization said lets fight it out in the courts. They didnt get as far as the Supreme Court on a technicality but they certainly laid the groundwork for that approach in the future. We are going to change our mind and keep at the two questions. [laughing] it is with very deep appreciation that we have you here and that you shared the knowledge you shared. First of all the talk with no notes, my gosh. It was really awesome but i think one of the things id like to say to how much we care about reading and writing, not just because we do it but because then we could to share it and the way you shared today and make it come alive and make it real for us. I feel now personally mentor to by Daniel Murray from this talk, even more so than from the work on the page, although the words on the page are actually exquisite. First of all if you havent bought this, ill buy it. Its outside. There will be book signings, elizabeth will be generous to stay with us for a book signing outside shortly so make sure you do that. Again, on behalf of the center for the book and on behalf of the library of congress, i thank you for being with us and joining us today in partnership with the daniel a. P. Murray association, who has a special gift for the family, which is this black americans in Congress Book that they have a copy for each of the members of the family who are with us today. [applause] thank you for that. Thank you. And we would very much like to honor and celebrate you, your heritage, your gift, your families gift, the gift that Daniel Murray is to us is tremendous and huge. We can all take away from this talk. However much we knew before we came into the room we certainly have an opportunity to take away from the room a very special incentive to take action. So thank you very much for joining us today. Thank you for your attention. Take care. Have a great afternoon. 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