Amazon Anita Hackley-Lambert Category:  Biography Publisher: BookSurge, LLC ISBN-10:  1419641190 Type: Non-Fiction Pages: 288 Copyright: July 31, 2006 One of a handful of African Americans to be formally educated in the United States during the 19th century, Murray broke from the confines of racial injustice and worked beside such heroic social reformers as W.E.B. Du Bois, William Monroe Trotter, and Ida B. Wells. This biography unfolds with Murray standing on the podium at Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia in 1906 presenting the opening address at the Second Annual Conference of the Niagara Movement, the first civil rights movement of the twentieth century of which he was a co-founder. His involvement and commitment to the Niagara Movement and its related publication The Horizon: A Magazine of the Color Line, plus his co-founding of the NAACP and his other contributions to African American civil justice have been painstakingly researched and meticulously annotated. This biography guarantees an exceptional individual his rightful place in American history.

F.H.M. Murray: First Biography of a Forgotten Pioneer for Civil Justice -- by Anita Hackley-Lambert
As reviewed by New York Times best-selling author Ellen Tanner Marsh
Anita Hackley-Lambert isn’t just an accomplished biographer and writer. She’s the great-granddaughter of the subject of this fascinating new biography — that of Freeman Henry Morris Murray. Murray crossed the color line during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to fight for justice for African Americans, and in this first ever biography, Hackley-Lambert lovingly and colorfully brings her great-grandfather’s story to life.
As a child, Murray faced rejection for the color of his skin, and although he searched for an identity and a feeling of belonging, he learned to excel in the face of adversity. As an adult, he fought for African Americans, forcefully driving home the point (which he called his Enlarged Vision Model) that they could change their social status by becoming better educated, grabbing at opportunities, and simply working harder. This very model helped him in his own life: refusing to take no for an answer, he studied hard and entered an astonishing array of professions as a teacher, civil servant, lecturer, newsman, editor, author, publisher, printer, and founder of several newspapers and businesses. In addition, he never stopped trying to help his people, most remarkably by creating his own Underground Railroad in Virginia that operated undiscovered for several decades.
This stunning biography unfolds against a teeming backdrop of American history. From John Brown’s raid on the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry to the Civil Rights movement and the assassination of Martin Luther King, this is a testament to the remarkable time and the remarkable man who lived through it.
Hackley-Lambert’s great-grandfather lived to age 90, when he was struck down in an accident. He died shortly after, but what he left behind is an extraordinary story, and we have his great -granddaughter Anita Hackley-Lambert’s devotion to thank for it .


F.H.M. Murray: First Biography of a Forgotten Pioneer for Civil Justice
“Anita Hackley-Lambert has written a fascinating and compelling book. Based on years of research and family interviews, this biography of Freeman Henry Morris Murray (1859-1950) uncovers deeply buried family mysteries and sheds new light on various aspects of black history, such the Underground Railroad before and after the Civil War, the Niagara Movement, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, and African-American life in Washington, D.C. and Alexandria, Virginia. An impressive and important labor of love.”
--Charles Patterson (historian, author and editor)