BALTIMORE — Celebrating a historic past and preserving that history for generations to come. The Afro Charities held a groundbreaking Friday at the Upton Mansion in West Baltimore.
When finished, it will become the home of The Afro-American newspaper, as well as a cultural and research center with more than a century of archives chronicling African Americans in Baltimore and nationally.
“We stand on land that once bore the weight of bondage, bondage, in a community where African-American luminaries built lives, businesses, and a legacy of resilience,” says Dr. Frances “Toni” Draper, publisher of The AFRO. “And today we break ground for something new, something bold, something transformative.”
The AFRO was founded by John Murphy Sr., a former slave and Civil War sergeant, in 1892 with his wife, Martha. Five generations later, it is still run by the Murphy family, one of the oldest continuously published Black publications in this country.
