“M” is for Murray, George Washington (1853-1926)

“M” is for Murray, George Washington (1853-1926). Congressman. Murray was born an enslaved person near Rembert in Sumter District. He attended the University of South Carolina and taught school in Sumter County. During the last two decades of the nineteenth century, he acquired an influential role in Republican Party affairs. He came to be known as the “Republican Black Eagle” and served as a delegate to several Republican National conventions. In 1892 Murray successfully ran for Congress in the Seventh Congressional District. Serving in the House of Representatives from 1893 to 1897, he was often a maverick. Although a Republican, he frequently voted with the agrarian Populist bloc on such issues as the unlimited coinage of silver. Defeated for reelection in 1898 George Washington Murray was the last African American to represent South Carolina in Congress for nearly a century.