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For the next 20 years, he served as a school teacher, the chairman of the Sumter County Republican Committee, and as a customs inspector for the Port of Charleston. Mr. Murray also worked many years as a farmer. He was later elected one of the first African American United States congressmen representing the state of South Carolina. Murray served two terms.
During his second term, Mr. Murray also worked as an inventor. He created many different kinds of farm equipment, but his most noted invention was his improved edition of the cotton chopper, patented on June 5,1894.
Murray was placed in a sub freshman class until 1877 when the school reverted to all-white, and Murray was no longer welcome. In that same year, he married a young woman named Ella Reynolds. The following year, he completed his education at the State Normal Institute.
In 1905, Murray's wife, Ella, divorced him after he moved to Chicago. Why, you ask? Because George Murray was sentenced to three years of hard labor after being convicted of forgery by an all-white jury. Mr. Murray decided to escape to Chicago, Illinois to pursue a literary career. During the time he was there, he wrote two books, "Race Ideals: Effects, Cause, and Remedy for the Afro-American Race Troubles" (1914) and "Light in Dark Places" (1926).
George Washington Murray was born in Sumter County, South Carolina on September 22, 1853. His parents were slaves which also made him a slave. That is until he was 13 years old when the emancipation proclamation was put into effect in 1863. During that time, he taught himself how to read and write. George attended public schools until age 18. In the fall of 1874 he joined the University of South Carolina.
-Thomas Edison
George Washington Murray died of a severe stroke in Chicago, Illinois, on April 21, 1926. Mr. Murray was a remarkable person. Not only did he hold many titles besides inventor, in his lifetime he helped other black inventors get the acknowledgment they deserved.