Murphy Bell
Murphy Wilbert Bell (March 27, 1921 – June 11, 2008) was an American attorney from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who was active in the civil rights movement of the 1950s through the 1970s. In 1972, Bell and radical attorney William Kunstler of New York City represented the black activist H. Rap Brown on federal gun violations, which led to Brown's going underground. Brown was later sentenced to federal prison without parole in a separate [...] case. Bell also represented the Congress of Racial Equality, founded by James Farmer, Jr., in Chicago in 1942.
Bell was born in Baton Rouge to Lucas Bell and the former Elnora Butler. He attended Perkins Elementary School and graduated from historically black McKinley High School. He studied at the large historically black institution Southern University in Baton Rouge, where he received both bachelor of science and Juris Doctorate degrees. He was inducted into the Southern University Law School Hall of Fame and was honored among the "Golden Alumni" during the 2007 commencement ceremonies..
Known affectionately to family and friends as "Daddee", Bell early in life joined the Mount Zion First Baptist Church, under pastor Gardner C. Taylor. In 1944, he married the former Edna Alfra Tea (March 23, 1920–December 15, 2004) of Boyce in northern Rapides Parish. The couple had three children: Cynthia Bell Watson and husband Mercellus, of Shreveport, and Murphy Fairfax Bell, Sr., and wife Jacqueline, and Edna Tea Bell Boyd, all of Baton Rouge. Bell had four grandchildren, including Murphy F. Bell, Jr. He remained with Mount Zion under the leadership of the Reverend T.J. Jemison until he joined St. Michael's Episcopal Church, also in Baton Rouge.
He was affiliated with the Louis Martinet Legal Society, the National Bar Association, and the American Bar Association. He was a United States Navy veteran of World War II, having served in the Pacific Theater. He was a member of the Masonic lodge and Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity.
Bell began his career in the private practice of law in 1957 and went on to present cases before the Louisiana Court of Appeal, Louisiana Supreme Court, and the United States Supreme Court. He was formerly the director of the East Baton Rouge Parish public defender’s office and the director of Capital Area Legal Services. Southern Law Center Chancellor Freddie Pitcher, Jr., lauded Bell's determined defense of civil rights leaders: :I would rank Murphy as one of the top lawyers in Baton Rouge — black or white. I always admired how he went to the wall in representing his clients,” Pitcher said.
In 1971, Bell ran unsuccessfully as a Democrat for the Louisiana House of Representatives. At the time, he declared his belief in “ total service, total commitment to the eradication of unequal justice and unequal opportunity in our great nation.”
Bell fought to desegregate school districts around Louisiana. He also defended Emmit J. Douglas, a former state NAACP president who was arrested in 1970 after having attempted to dine in an all-white establishment in Baton Rouge. Bell also was a former NAACP president.
In 1980, Bell sued the City of Baton Rouge and East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Ossie Brown regarding the accidental police shooting death of a black teenager, Clarence Morrison, Jr.. In the suit, which failed, Bell claimed that Brown had used the investigative procedures of the DA's office as "legal backup" to cover for police error.
Bell died in Baton Rouge, two weeks after having been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Services were held on June 17 at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church, with the Reverend Stewart B. Cage, Jr., officiating. Interment was in Port Hudson National Cemetery. Bell's death occurred five days after the passing of another Louisiana civil rights pioneer, former Shreveport City Councilman Herman Farr, a Baptist clergyman who served from 1978–1982.