E. Jefferson Murphy

Emmett Jefferson Murphy, who wrote as E. Jefferson Murphy, (July 2, 1926 - June 19, 2013) was a historian of Africa. He had a distinguished career with the African-American Institute, and wrote a series of favorably reviewed books on African history between 1969 and 1981. His History of African Civilization is a classic textbook on African history.

Born in Thomasville, Georgia, on July 2, 1926, Murphy began his career as an African specialist while serving as visiting lecturer in social anthropology at South Africa's University College of Fort Hare (then the only college for non-whites in apartheid South Africa). He served the African American Institute in Washington (U.S.), New York City (USA), Accra (Ghana, and Dar-es-Salaam (Tanzania) between 1954 and 1970. From 1965 to 1970 he was the Institute's Executive Vice President in New York, retiring in that year to return to the academic field.

From 1971 to 1973 he completed his doctoral studies, then became full-time consultant to Carnegie Corporation of New York. In 1975 he was named Coordinator and Chief Executive Officer of Five College, Inc., the consortium linking Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith colleges and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Murphy retired as coordinator in 1988, to serve as Five College Professor of African Studies, based at Smith College, until his retirement in 1991.

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