Black History Month: Albert Murray

Albert Murray was an author and poet, born just before the United States entered World War One, born to a poor unmarried 16-yr old girl in southern Alabama. Murray was adopted by a family near Mobile, Alabama–a community unique because most of the residents were descendants of the ‘Clotilda’, the last ship to smuggle slaves into the United States 1860 (with the ship owners and investors scuttling the ship to destroy evidence that slaves had been brought into the US).

The community Murray lived in was called Africatown, created by the Clotilda survivors and descendants where they could practice West African traditions from their home–in that regard, those survivors were lucky…they knew exactly where they came from. One of those who survived was Cudjo Lewis and he became an inspiration for Murray’s story-telling (and eventually became ‘Unka Jo Jo’ in Murray’s first published novel).

Murray went on from there to writing after spending WW2 serving in the Army Air Force and then on to college. Indeed, that first novel didn’t come out until Murray was 58…inspiration for everyone that you can begin a career, follow a passion at any point.

The thing with Murray is–he held some unpopular views. Why? –because he saw the world as a complex place. One observation causing consternation: “Even in its most rigidly segregated precincts,…the so-called black and so-called white people of the United States resemble nobody else in the world so much as they resemble each other.”

Murray caught heck for drawing parallels between those groups, but is he wrong? Don’t poor people of all skin shades share most concerns? Shouldn’t the emphasis be on what is the same rather than different?

Murray also despised social scientists, politicians, and activists who portrayed black Americans as a uniform block–because when that happened, it was always with the appearance of blacks being nothing but poor, uneducated, and downtrodden. This infuriated Murray. To his way of thinking, “The background experience of us Negroes includes all of the negative things that go with racism and segregation; but it also includes all of the challenging circumstances that make for ambition, integrity and transcendent achievement.”

Murray saw the problems placed in front of him as obstacles to overcome–that overcoming obstacles made him stronger, made his accomplishments all the more satisfying…that anything handed to him was charity, not a success. Indeed–this made Murray take a staunch conservative view. Liberals (his use of the word) only saw the moral failings and problems of segments of black society and ignored everything else–willfully preventing “the full splendour and variety” of black lives.

Isn’t he right about stereotypes? You hear ‘drug user’ and an image comes to mind–poor black guy…nevermind that stats show the usual user is a rich white kid. Mention art and people think of graffiti rather than Gordon Parks or Jean Michel Basquiat.

But with that said, Murray held the black separatists of the 1960s and 1970s with contempt. They weren’t serious about Africa–because they weren’t African. They were American. They weren’t radical–they were selfish and unwilling to put in the necessary work to succeed in America because: “So far as white people are concerned, the most revolutionary, radical and devastating action any U.S. Negro can engage in is to compete with other Americans for status, employment, total social equality and basic political power.”

Again–is he wrong? Isn’t the great threat to those who hold power to do what is necessary to break that hold (the Civil War 1861-65; Women’s Suffrage; the Civil Rights Movement)?

Murray, man–he’s not wrong with his observations and he plays no favorites: “The deliberate debasement of the black image has been so viciously systematic…that the scope of white malevolence is hard to exaggerate” but then immediately castigates the “fakelore of black pathology”, noting that slavery was a century before and that by playing up past tragedy/trauma, black Americans permitted themselves to remain disadvantaged–it was easier to complain and point at slavery than to actually go to school, save money, and advance up the ladder of the American dream.

Again–is he wrong? Not just with black ‘fakelore’ but with all the groups which complain about being held down? Isn’t it easier to tear down something or complain–than actually do something about your situation? It is ALWAYS easier to blame others than accept personal responsibility.

*** I won’t lie–I haven’t read Murray. I came across a quote and went down the rabbit hole from there learning about him. I appreciate he calls things directly. What I appreciate today in 2022 most though–he sees the similarities between all of us rather than the differences, and that those similarities unite us in our humanity. It’s a beautiful philosophy and I wish more would look for those similarities. I wish people would seek to overcome obstacles rather than shake a fist at the sky when blocked.

Murray died at 97 a decade ago. It’s a pity–reading his literary criticism and his biography, I think he’d be an amazing man to talk to .