Murphy, Herman Robert (1912–1993)

Herman R. Murphy, the first president of the South Central Conference, also served as pastor, evangelist, and Sabbath School departmental director during his 47 years of ministry in the eastern United States.

Education and the Oakwood Strike of 1931

Born March 26, 1912, in Wilmington, North Carolina, Herman Murphy joined the Seventh-day Adventist Church at age 13 under the ministry of John S. Green.¹ He then went to Oakwood Junior College in Huntsville, Alabama, where he gained his secondary education before enrolling in the college.

Soon after beginning his college studies, Murphy became a prominent figure in the 1931 student strike, a landmark event in Oakwood’s history. The protest was in response to a pattern of inequalities and other unresolved grievances such as an insufficient curriculum, the excessive demands of a work-study system that greatly lengthened the time needed to complete some courses of study, unjust salaries for Black teachers and segregation of white and Black teachers, paternalistic attitudes and racial prejudice exhibited by some white teachers, the poor quality of some white teachers perceived as “rejects” from other Adventist colleges, and a scarcity of employment opportunities after graduation.²

Murphy was a leading light in the Excelsior Society, a student-initiated group that organized the strike in response to the school administration’s continued failure to address student concerns. On October 8, 1931, the students proclaimed a halt to classes and all student labor until further notice. The students called for a new curriculum that prioritized liberal arts education over vocational training, the recruitment of additional Black faculty, and—their principal demand—appointment of a Black president. Though they did not acknowledge it, the white Adventist leaders on the college’s board of trustees eventually acceded to the student body’s demands by appointing Black educator J. L. Moran as president in 1932. But prior to that, in the spring of 1932, the college administration demonstrated its authority by expelling Murphy and three other members of the Excelsior Society prominent in leading the strike: Ernest Moseley (1908–1971), Samuel Acton Rashford (1908–1982), Walter Wraggs Fordham (1911–1998), and Alan Arthur Anderson, Jr. (1911–1993).³

Murphy’s exile turned out to be short-lived. He studied business for a year at Morris Brown College in Atlanta, then returned to Oakwood to complete the two-year ministerial course, graduating in May 1934. He married Louise Olivia Crichlow on October 2, 1934, in Durham, North Carolina. She was an educator who would later teach at both the high school and college levels. The couple’s only child, Sylvia Murphy (Bryan), was born in 1935. After the marriage, the Murphys returned to Oakwood where, two years after his expulsion, the college hired Herman to manage the college press and teach printing classes.⁴

Early Years of Ministry

In 1935, after a year on staff at Oakwood, Murphy began ministry in the Kentucky-Tennessee Conference, assigned to Paducah, Kentucky. He then transferred to the Potomac Conference in 1936 where he established himself as a thriving evangelist and pastor, serving in Richmond, Staunton, South Boston, and Danville, Virginia.⁵ He was ordained to gospel ministry in June 1940 in Washington, D.C.⁶

Murphy’s success in winning new believers led to a call in 1942 from the Alabama-Mississippi Conference to serve as a conference evangelist, with responsibility for oversight of the Black work. Based in Birmingham, Alabama, where he also served as pastor, Murphy conducted four major evangelistic campaigns that resulted in 350 new members, and raised up several new churches.⁷

South Central’s First President

In early December 1945, Murphy was elected the first president of the South Central Conference (SCC).⁸ The SCC was one of two “regional” (Black-administered) conferences organized in the Southern Union after the General Conference approved establishment of such conferences in 1944. The SCC officially began operations on January 1, 1946, in Nashville, Tennessee, at the Hawkins Street home of the Louis B. Reynolds family. Later that year the conference acquired its first office at 1914 Charlotte Street. The SCC territory encompassed Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Tennessee, and the portion of northern Florida west of the Apalachicola River. The conference’s first annual camp meeting congregated on the campus of Oakwood College, June 27 through July 6, 1946.⁹

During Murphy’s eight-year administration the fledgling conference added several church buildings and made significant gains in membership and tithe. The SCC ended its first year (1946) with 2,456 members in 42 churches, and just under $40,000 in tithe receipts. By the end of his final year in office (1954) the membership had grown by nearly 2,000, with 56 churches reporting a total membership of 4,383. Tithe income had quadrupled to more than $163,000.¹⁰ Murphy hired impactful pastors such as Edgar Mimms, Lee Paschal, Charles Graham, and Charles Dudley, who would later become the SCC’s longest-serving president (1962-1993).¹¹

From Southwest Region to Northeastern

In 1954, Murphy accepted a call to be president of the Southwest Region Conference, headquartered in Dallas, Texas. After two years in that office, he moved to the New York City area in 1956 where he served as pastor-evangelist in the Northeastern Conference.¹² He was assigned as the first full-time pastor of the Bronx Church. He led the congregation in acquiring its own house of worship rather than continuing in rented space, and baptized more than 90 individuals during his four years there.¹³

In 1960, Murphy was transferred to the City Tabernacle Church in Manhattan. He then took on new responsibility in 1966 as director of the Sabbath School and Religious Liberty departments for the Northeastern Conference.¹⁴

Sabbath School Advocate

Murphy took particular interest in Sabbath school and earned both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in religious education in the School of Education at New York University.¹⁵ He stated that his greatest objective for Sabbath school was “that people be taught and helped to really dig down deep into the study of the Scriptures.”¹⁶

In 1976 Murphy was called to broader responsibility as Sabbath School Department director for the Atlantic Union Conference which, in addition to the Northeastern Conference, included the Greater New York, New York, Northern New England and Southern New England Conferences and the Bermuda Mission. While there he introduced an innovation called the Sabbath School Audit program as a means for bolstering attendance.¹⁷

Legacy

Elder Murphy retired in 1980 after four years at the Atlantic Union. During retirement he and Louise lived in the greater New York City area. He died in Bronx, New York, on August 26, 1993, and was funeralized at City Tabernacle Church on September 2.¹⁸

Herman R. Murphy left behind a remarkable legacy as a notable instrument for the development of the Seventh-day Adventist church, primarily in the southern and northeastern regions of the United States. His evangelistic preaching helped lead hundreds to dedicate their lives to Christ and the mission of the Adventist church. In the latter portion of his career he used his influence and position to promote in-depth Bible study as a central purpose of Sabbath School.

His most prominent contribution was his critical role in strengthening two major bulwarks of African American Adventism—Oakwood University and regional conferences. As a student-activist, his leadership in the strike of 1931, though deemed rebellious at the time, accelerated Oakwood’s journey to becoming a thriving university. Murphy’s leadership as president of two regional conferences and as pastor, evangelist, and departmental director in a third, did much to help make these conferences effective in advancing the rapid growth and flourishing of Adventism among America’s Black population.

Sources

Annual Statistical Reports. General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists Online Archives (GCA). http://documents.adventistarchives.org/.

“Church History.” Bronx SDA Church. Accessed August 30, 2021. https://bronxny.adventistchurch.org/about/church-history.

Davis, Leon. “H. R. Murphy Retires.” Atlantic Union Gleaner, December 23, 1980.

Davis, Leon H. “H. R. Murphy Joins Atlantic Union Conference Staff.” Atlantic Union Gleaner, July 13, 1976.

“Herman Robert Murphy obituary.” Southern Tidings, December 1993.

Murphy, H. R. “Colored Camp Meeting.” Columbia Union Visitor, September 12, 1940.

Murphy, Herman H. Secretariat IDE Files, RG 21, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventist Archives, Silver Spring, MD (GCA).

“Singleton and Murphy Adventist Executives.” Atlanta Daily World, December 22, 1945.

“South Central Conference History Timeline.” southernunion.com. Accessed November 3, 2021. https://www.southernunion.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/SouthCentral_HistoryTimeline.pdf

“Thanksgiving Service for Pastor Herman R. Murphy.” Program. Oakwood University Archives. Accessed April 19, 2023. https://oakwood.pastperfectonline.com/archive/78D8FB09-BDCE-45DF-8E91-206410840850.

Warren, Mervyn A. Oakwood! A Vision Splendid Continues, 1896-2010. Huntsville, AL: Oakwood University, 2010.

Notes

1. “Herman Robert Murphy obituary,” Southern Tidings, December 1993, 9.↩

2. Mervyn A. Warren, Oakwood! A Vision Splendid Continues, 1896-2010 (Huntsville, AL: Oakwood University, 2010), 131-134.↩

3. Samuel London, “Rashford, Acton Samuel (1908–1982),” Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists, January 29, 2020. Accessed April 18, 2023. https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=9HY8.↩

4. Leon H. Davis, “H.R. Murphy Joins Atlantic Union Conference Staff,” Atlantic Union Gleaner, July 13, 1976, 5; Leon Davis, “H.R. Murphy Retires,” Atlantic Union Gleaner, December 23, 1980, 4; Herman Robert Murphy Ministerial Internship Application, October 25, 1935, and Louise Olivia Crichlow Murphy Information Questionnaire, June 28, 1939, Interdivisional Employee File, Secretariat IDE Files, RG 21, File 46619, GCA.↩

5. “Herman Robert Murphy obituary.”↩

6. H.R. Murphy, “Colored Camp Meeting,” Columbia Union Visitor, September 12, 1940, 2.↩

7. “Herman Robert Murphy obituary”; Davis, “H.R. Murphy Joins Atlantic Union Conference Staff.”↩

8. “Singleton and Murphy Adventist Executives,” Atlanta Daily World, December 22, 1945, 1.↩

9. “South Central Conference History Timeline,” southernunion.com, accessed November 3, 2021, https://www.southernunion.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/SouthCentral_HistoryTimeline.pdf.↩

10. Annual Statistical Report for 1946 and for 1954, GCA, https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Statistics/Forms/AllFolders.aspx.↩

11. “Herman Robert Murphy obituary”; Calvin B. Rock, “Dudley, Charles Edward, Sr. (1927–2010)," Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists, January 29, 2020, accessed April 19, 2023, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=7CEK.↩

12. “Herman Robert Murphy obituary.”↩

13. “Church History,” Bronx SDA Church, accessed August 30, 2021, https://bronxny.adventistchurch.org/about/church-history.↩

14. “Herman Robert Murphy obituary.”↩

15. Davis, “H. R. Murphy Joins Atlantic Union Conference Staff.”↩

16. Davis, “H. R. Murphy Retires.”↩

17. Ibid.↩

18. “Thanksgiving Service for Pastor Herman R. Murphy,” program, Oakwood University Archives, accessed April 19, 2023, https://oakwood.pastperfectonline.com/archive/78D8FB09-BDCE-45DF-8E91-206410840850.↩