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This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the Duplication Policy section for more information.
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Collection Overview
| Size | 19.5 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 14500 items) |
| Abstract | William Murphy, a white law professor, was on the law school faculty at the universities of Mississippi, Missouri, and North Carolina. He also worked as an independent labor arbitrator. The William P. Murphy Papers document his work as both a law school professor and as a labor arbitrator. Materials include correspondence, speeches, printed materials, teaching materials, oral history transcript, writings, and arbitration case descriptions and background materials. Topics of note include labor law, arbitration, the National Academy of Arbitrators, law school education, campus unrest over the Vietnam War, resistance to Brown v. Board of Education in Mississippi, politically motivated threats to academic freedom, and a fair housing ordinance in Columbia, Missouri. |
| Creator | Murphy, William P. (William Patrick), 1919-2007. |
| Curatorial Unit | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection. |
| Language | English |
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Information For Users
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Processing Information
Processed by: Nancy Kaiser, 2019
Encoded by: Nancy Kaiser, September 2019
Updated by: Davia Webb and Nancy Kaiser, November 2023
Since August 2017, we have added ethnic and racial identities for individuals and families represented in collections. To determine identity, we rely on self-identification; other information supplied to the repository by collection creators or sources; public records, press accounts, and secondary sources; and contextual information in the collection materials. Omissions of ethnic and racial identities in finding aids created or updated after August 2017 are an indication of insufficient information to make an educated guess or an individual's preference for identity information to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.
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Subject Headings
The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.
Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.
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Biographical Information
William Murphy, a white law professor, was on the law school faculty at the universities of Mississippi, Missouri, and North Carolina. He attracted controversy at Mississippi in the 1950s by teaching a Constitutional law course in which he argued that the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education meant that Mississippi had to proceed with school desegregation. At the University of Missouri, Murphy was involved in arbitrating cases resulting from student protests following the shootings at Kent State. In addition to his legal work, Murphy worked as an independent labor arbitrator, primarily in the Southeast. He was president of the National Academy of Arbitrators during 1986-1987.
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Scope and Content
The William P. Murphy Papers consist of correspondence and files that document his career as a law school professor at the universities of Mississippi, Missouri, and North Carolina, and his work as a labor arbitrator. Materials include correspondence, speeches, printed materials, teaching materials, oral history transcript, writings, and arbitration case descriptions and background materials. Topics of note include labor law, arbitration, the National Academy of Arbitrators, law school education, campus unrest over the Vietnam War, resistance to Brown v. Board of Education in Mississippi, politically motivated threats to academic freedom, and a fair housing ordinance in Columbia, Missouri.
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William P. Murphy Papers, 1951-2005.
Arrangement: as received from donor.
| Box 1 |
Correspondence, 1951-1966Correspondence while with U.S. Department of Labor in Nashville, Tennessee; at Yale Law School in New Haven, Connecticut, as a researcher working toward the J.S.D. degree (1954-1955); as a professor at the University of Mississippi School of Law (1953-1961); and as a professor at the University of Missouri School of Law. Correspondence is with other law professors, lawyers, political figures, and others. Of note is correspondence relating to the controversy over his position on how he would teach the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education at the University of Mississippi Law School, attacks on him by Mississippi political figures and the White Citizens Councils, newspaper coverage of that controversy, and evidence of support from various public figures and law faculty and students in Mississippi and elsewhere. |
| Box 2 |
Correspondence, 1967-1971Correspondence documents campus unrest related to the Vietnam War, service on the Missouri Human Rights Commission and Columbia, Missouri, and the debate over adopting an Open Housing ordinance; also includes some University of North Carolina correspondence. |
| Box 3 |
Correspondence, 1980s |
SpeechesIncludes speech on moral values in labor-management relations. |
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Speech on Constitutional history on Law Day at William and Mary, 1976 |
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Speech at Southwestern at Memphis, 1965William P. Murphy's 25th reunion of the Class of 1941; later renamed Rhodes College. |
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Panama Canal Company |
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Introduction to Professor Arthur Miller's book |
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Employment Discrimination casebook materialsEdited by William P. Murphy. |
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Quadrangle Books correspondence about revisions of text of bookQuadrangle was the publisher of William P. Murphy's book The Triumph of Nationalism: State Sovereignty, The Founding Fathers, and the Making of the Constitution , 1967; file includes some reviews of the book. |
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University of Missouri Law School photographs of faculty and students |
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University of Louvain, BelgiumWilliam P. Murphy was a visiting professor in 1982. |
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| Box 4 |
Arbitration cases, 2000-2005 |
Miscellaneous correspondence, 1987-2003 |
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William P. Murphy lecture seriesFiles about the William P. Murphy lecture instituted by University of North Carolina School of Law Class of 1990, and speakers at Murphy Lectures, beginning with Julius Chambers of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund; later speakers included Attorney General Janet Reno and other notable legal professionals. |
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| Box 5 |
Arbitration cases, 1998-2000 |
Arbitration decision notebooksSummaries of 588 arbitration decisions by William P. Murphy from #1, in 1956, through #588 in 1997. |
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Speeches on labor law |
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Seminars and symposiums |
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Foreign Service Grievance BoardIncludes letters of appointment and reappointment to the Foreign Service Grievance Board from Secretaries of State George Schultz and James Baker. |
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Miscellaneous labor law printed materials relating to William P. Murphy |
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Miscellaneous materials about the Supreme Court |
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| Box 6 |
Arbitration decisions, 1992-2005 |
Speeches on labor law |
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Box 6-7
Box 6Box 7 |
Miscellaneous speechesIncludes 1967 testimony to a Senate subcommittee in support of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. |
Box 6Box 7 |
News coverage of Open Housing Ordinance adoption in Columbia, Missouri, 1967 |
Box 6Box 7 |
News item about William P. Murphy talk on dissent on campus |
| Box 7 |
Lorillard arbitration decisions, 1988-1992 |
Panama Canal Commission |
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Puerto Rico food industry |
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Krey Meatpacking Company arbitration caseIncludes transcript of a radio interview with St. Louis civil rights and labor activist Robert Curtis. |
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Correspondence while at University of Missouri (up until 1971) |
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Correspondence while at University of North Carolina (1971 and later) |
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Labor Law Group |
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Conference on Crime Control, 1967 |
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Missouri historyIncludes writings by W.C. Curtis, a University of Missouri professor, concerning his participation in the Scopes trial in Tennessee. |
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Box 8-9
Box 8Box 9 |
Arbitration cases, 1956-1991Some cases decided in disputes between the union and Lorillard. |
| Box 9 |
Speeches, writings, lectures |
| Box 10 |
Legal seminar materialsTopics include labor law, grievance processing. |
Chapters of an unfinished treatise on labor law by William P. Murphy |
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| Box 11 |
Miscellaneous labor law correspondence and publications |
Department of Labor, Office of Solicitor, 1950 |
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National Academy of ArbitratorsIncludes two books published by the Bureau of National Affairs about the history of the National Academy of Arbitrators, of which William P. Murphy was president; these books and materials detail the evolution and professionalization of the practice of labor arbitration in the U.S. |
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| Box 12 |
Miscellaneous labor law publications and related materialsIncludes workshop materials. |
Biographical materialsIncludes workshop materials. |
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| Box 13 |
University of Mississippi, 1954-2005Acquisitions information: Accession 20230918.2 Includes clippings, correspondence, and other print materials related to controversy surrounding Murphy's support for Brown v. Board of Education and his membership in the American Civil Liberties Union. State legislators Wilbern Hooker, Ed White, and Edgar Lee alleged that Murphy and other faculty members were teaching subversive ideas at Ole Miss. There are also materials relating to Murphy's contract renewals, resignation from the University of Mississippi, and attempts to find employment elsewhere. Also included are materials from decades later that look back on that time period, including an oral history interview with Murphy, his records request to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History for files about him in the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission Records, and writings about Murphy's experience. |
University of Missouri, 1966-1973Acquisitions information: Accession 20230918.2 Includes clippings, correspondence, and other miscellaneous materials related to Murphy's academic freedom grievance and subsequent resignation from the University of Missouri in 1971. Murphy's grievance related to a politically motivated conflict with Dean of the Law School Willard Eckhardt over Murphy's arbitration work with students who had participated in anti-Vietnam war demonstrations on the University of Missouri campus in the wake of the Kent State shooting in the spring of 1970. Murphy mediated the demands of student protestors that followed the university's response to the demonstrations. Print materials include issues of The Maneater, 1970-1971, and the University of Missouri Faculty Bulletin, 1970-1971. |