American Historical Ephemera and Photography

10 1/2 x 15 1/2 x 2 1/4 in. black synthetic file folder containing a collection of printed documents and and two silver gelatin photographs (some rust to staples with copies of 1960 presidential campaign documents slipping off staple, some toning at the edges; nametag has split off along one side).

File folder containing the programs and reports issued during the 1966 White House Conference on Civil Rights entitled "To Fulfill These Rights", including tickets and an invitational letter issued to Dr. William Murphy, professor at the Law School of the University of Missouri. These include the "List of Participants", "Councils' Report and Recommendations to the Conference", "Speeches", "Program", and "The Report of the White House Conference 'To Fulfill These Rights'". Also included are memoranda issued to attendees, maps of the venue, book of tickets signed by William P. Murphy containing two remaining tickets, Dr. William P. Murphy's invitation to the conference in envelope, nametag, and a copy of the Civil Rights Digest published August 1864 entitled "A Summary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964".
With some political ephemera.

Also included are a collection of documents pertaining to the 1960 Presidential Campaign of John F. Kennedy including: "Students for Kennedy-Johnson Victory Manual" issued by Dick Murphy, Kennedy-Johnson Campaign Coordinator for Young Voters Activity detailing how to establish campaign clubs, how to debate, and how to handle publicity and advertising for the campaign. Item includes a further letter from Richard P. Murphy dated 1 September 1960, laying out arguments for securing the votes of America's college students. Also included are a campaign pamphlet entitled "Kennedy: Leader for the 60s", "Prosperity at Home Can Insure Liberty Abroad: The Major Issue in the 1960's", "You Can Vote: Summaries of State Registration and Voting Laws" issued by the Democratic National Committee, and a folio containing a publicity photograph of John F. Kennedy and portrait photo of Jacqueline Kennedy.

Dr. William P. Murphy was born in Memphis, Tennessee on 30 September 1919. Murphy received his Doctorate from Yale University, and taught at the University of Mississippi at Oxford from 1953 until 1962. Murphy's background lay in the area of Labor Law, which he used in the following years to help intellectually transform Unionization in the American South into an acceptable constant. In 1954, Murphy's career trajectory was forever changed with the United States Supreme Court's decision in Brown V. Board of Education, which overturned the 1896 decision of Plessy V. Ferguson, and formally rendered segregation unconstitutional. Initially, Murphy attempted to offer an interpretation of integration that appealed to the States' Rights movement of the period while affirming that integration was now the supreme law of the land. The backlash from white supremacists resulted in Dr. Murphy's premature exit from Oxford. From 1962 until 1971, Dr. Murphy continued to teach at the University of Missouri, which retains a lecture series named in its honor focusing upon Civil Rights issues. Finally, he joined the faculty of the University of North Carolina, where he continued to teach Labor Law, and served as a labor arbitrator until his death on 29 September 2007, shortly before his 88th birthday. Dr. Murphy was survived by his wife of 57 years, Louise Joy Upshaw Murphy, and their three sons, William, Robert, and Stephen.