With the help of a group of investors, including John R. Cole, Charles H. Richardson, James E. Johnson, and William H. Daly, the Home Protector became the Afro-American on August 13, 1892.

[4] John H. Murphy Sr. was born into slavery and served in the Civil War in the United States Colored Troops, reaching the rank of sergeant (NCO).

Active with the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Baltimore, a denomination founded in the early 19th century in Philadelphia as the first independent Black religion in the United States.

With The Afro-American, Murphy promoted unity in the Black community of Baltimore, as well as combating racial discrimination in the city and working for children's education.

[7] The publication began to grow to reach more cities and to rise in national prominence after his son Carl J. Murphy took control in 1922, serving as its editor for 45 years.

[10] Through the summer of 1932, the Baltimore AFRO-American published revealing personal letters from prominent African-American scientist and Howard University professor Percy Lavon Julian.

The AFRO-American also campaigned against the Southern Railroad's use of Jim Crow cars, and fought to obtain equal pay for Maryland's Black schoolteachers.

The AFRO-American has employed many notable Black journalists and intellectuals including Langston Hughes, William Worthy and J. Saunders Redding.

In the mid 1930s it became the first Black newspaper to employ a female sportswriter when it hired Lillian Johnson and Nell Dodson to serve on its staff.