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Services for Cecil Murray, a respected former pastor of First AME Church, are pending. He gained national attention for his efforts to bring peace after the 1992 Los Angeles riots and for promoting economic recovery through the FAME Assistance Corporation. This effort, known as the Fame Renaissance, garnered him over $400 million in corporate investment for the community. Murray, who died of natural causes at the age of 94, was celebrated as a spiritual giant by politicians, community and faith leaders.
“Today we lost a giant,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said. “Pastor Cecil Murray dedicated his life to ministry, community, and putting God first in all things. It was truly an honor. Today, my heart is with the First AME congregation and community as we reflect on the legacy that forever changed this city.”
“Rest in peace Dr. Cecil ‘Chip’ Murray, an outstanding man of God, tireless preacher and leader in Los Angeles,” Magic Johnson posted. “He was a very soft-spoken man, but a giant in the black community!”
During his 27-year tenure at First AME, from 1977 to 2004, the church’s membership grew from 300 to well over 18,000, making it one of the largest AME congregations in the United States and home to Nelson Mandela, Desmond It attracted famous visitors such as Tutu and Robinson. Countless celebrities, including former Presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush, all praised Mr. Murray’s efforts and, in many cases, asked for his support.
Born on September 26, 1929 in Lakeland, Florida, Murray became the first black student in Claremont’s School of Theology in 1964 and has since made significant contributions in every pastoral ministry. His career began with his congregation of eight at Purim AME in Pomona. He earned his $35 a week and eventually moved on to leadership roles in Kansas City and Seattle.
His influential work in Seattle, credited by parishioners with turning around finances and doubling the congregation to 2,000 people, caught the attention of Bishop H.H. Brookins, and in 1977 Murray He believed he could revitalize the troubled First AME Church in Los Angeles.
Brooks was right. By the mid-’90s, the church’s multi-million operating budget supported more than 40 ministries serving both church members and the community at large. The nonprofit housing corporation spans 13 complexes and serves more than 1,800 units, including housing for the elderly, the disabled, people with AIDS, and low-income families.
One legal clinic boasts legal dynamos like Tom Mesereau, who led Michael Jackson’s legal team, and its business arm, FAME Renaissance (founded in 1992 as an affiliate of the church), It operated several major social and business development programs aimed at creating wealth for people. Communities within Los Angeles County.
The $6 million Business Incubator and Technology Center, a 48,000-square-foot office complex located at Western Avenue and Adams Boulevard, is one of the few nonprofit incubators in the country and the largest of its kind. It is the first of its kind in California, and is partially produced by Wells Fargo State Farm.
Insurance, the Disney Company, the U.S. Department of Commerce, and grants from the city’s Community Development Department to fund and develop small business startups.
Murray believed that a huge church should mean huge possibilities, and since rent was scarce, he tried to find a way to say yes to every request.
“If someone says my son is in prison, the Department of Prisons gets into trouble. If they say, ‘I need a job,’ the job search goes up,” Murray told L.A. Focus in 2004. Ta. “Anything you can ask.”
In fact, in 1993, he set out to help every black woman in his congregation find a life partner to help them deal with the pain of loneliness. However, it was his political and social activities that attracted the most attention. Church and Murray were regularly involved in more than a dozen groups tackling everything from black-on-black crime to homelessness to emergency food and education.
“I think if any of us can empower ourselves, empower and serve the organizations we serve, then we have done our job,” Murray said.
Because of his efforts, the LA City Council unanimously voted to name the portion of West 25th Street adjacent to the church the Dr. Cecil L. “Chip” Murray Circle. A celebration is planned as part of his official retirement ceremony.
In the course of his mission, Murray became a hard-core newsmaker, taking center stage during the LA riots when cameras appeared to be recording Church and his every move, and much of the media’s attention to LA. began to be seen as a lightning rod for news affecting the African American community.
After retiring in 2004, Murray served as director of the Cecil Murray Community Engagement Center at the University of Southern California from 2005 to 2022, where he trained more than 1,000 faith leaders.
Looking back on his life, Murray often attributed his dedication to public service and social justice to his father’s high standards and personal struggles.
“My father was a wonderful human being,” Murray remembers fondly. “He would have the three of us stand up and read the Lincoln Gettysburg Address or the Langston Hughes classics, and I would learn three-part harmony and I would sing lead. He was always about freedom. and had the highest standards, but his sensitivity to struggle and fighting the KKK ultimately drove him to become an alcoholic.”
Watching his father’s fights made Murray sensitive to the struggle that all humans have to overcome their weaknesses and fears.
But change wasn’t something Murray feared.
“When it’s my day, I have to do my best to improve. And when I surpass my day, I take great care to realize that it’s no longer my day. I believe you have to pay.”
“Dr. Murray was like a father figure to many young men and women in the ministry,” said Pastor Mark Whitlock, who worked with Murray at Fame Renaissance. “He taught us to step out of ourselves, out of our fears and insecurities, and into God’s greater self, where there is nothing we cannot accomplish. now walk for the Lord…
“I will miss my father in the ministry, but more than that, the social justice movement has seen a huge loss, not just for Los Angeles, but for America.”
