One of the things that makes Atlanta a sort of utopia for Black Americans is the number of Black-owned businesses within its borders. According to a recent report by the Pew Research Center, only three percent of American companies are owned and primarily operated by Black people. In comparison, just over 11 percent are owned by Asians, while Hispanics own eight percent of companies.
While Florida leads with the most Black-owned businesses, totaling 21,000 according to Pew, Georgia, with just under 17,000, has Atlanta, which is the city with the most Black-owned businesses in America.
The continued success of Black-owned businesses is vital to Atlanta’s lifeblood and reputation as one of the dwindling number of larger “Black cities” in the United States, alongside sister cities such as Chicago, Washington, D.C., Houston, and Philadelphia, respectively.
Murray Brothers Funeral Home, Inc., located in Southwest Atlanta off Cascade Road, is one of many family-owned Black businesses that began and continue to operate in Atlanta. Founded by Hubert Murray on Labor Day, September 7, 1981, Murray Brothers is a name synonymous with Black business in Atlanta.
From Hubert to Kenneth to William and beyond
On a cool Tuesday morning in late October, inside the funeral home’s chapel, William Murray, Jr. and his youngest sister, Ayako Murray, stood on either side of their father and stared into the photographer’s camera.
“Hubert Murray used to walk around Booker T. Washington High School, telling people he was going to open up a funeral home,” Murray, Sr., the family’s master storyteller, said. “I believe he was inspired by our uncle, Norris Gunby.”
A photo of Hubert rests in a frame on a dresser in the hall of Murray Funeral Home.
Murray, Sr. recalled Gunby, originally from Lincolnton, Georgia, traveling the 130-plus miles to Atlanta to see family and discuss the idea of opening a funeral home. When Murray family members, back in what Murray Sr. called their “ancestral home,” passed away, they all trekked back to Lincolnton for funerals.
“You had to go, there wasn’t no way out of it,” Murray, Sr, said.
Gunby owned several businesses in Lincolnton, one of which was the funeral home he eventually opened. Years later, the family would open Murray Brothers Funeral Home. Murray, Sr, and his family were living in Pennsylvania when he got the call to come home and help out on a family project.
“I worked 12 hours a day, seven days a week, and 30 days later on Labor Day, we opened Murray Brothers Funeral Home,” Murray, Sr. said.
The first Murray Brothers was located at 195 Senoia Rd. in Fairburn, and the second at 502 Pryor St., SW, in Atlanta. What began as a trip to buy additional furniture for the funeral home at an auction turned into an expansion. A local funeral home, J. Austin Dillion, had closed, and Hubert Murray ended up securing the building and everything in it.
“He met the owners, they came to an agreement, and then he said, ‘Look what we got,’” Murray, Sr. said.
Today, William Murray, Sr., along with his children William Murray, Jr., Zenia Murray McCray, Ayako Murray, and Candis Mathis, continue to represent the family name in the bereavement and funeral services business. There’s only one location in Cascade, which was purchased in 1991, but the reach of Murray Brothers is citywide.
Murrays have always run the business; Hubert ran the business up until his passing in 1991. Kenneth Earl Murray, Sr., ran the business for 26 years, and Murray, Sr. ran the business for five years. Kenneth was featured in a May 1976 issue of Ebony magazine. On the cover were the gleaming domes of singer/songwriter Isaac Hayes and actor Telly Savalas. The story was titled, “The Shaved Head Syndrome: What’s It all About?” Murray wasn’t bald; he was a sought-after interior designer and was included in a list of “The 100 Most Influential Blacks.”
The company reorganized, and William Murray, Jr., was elected managing partner in November 2023. Along with his sister Zenia, they are the future of the business. Having grown up in the funeral home, the company would be passed down.
“I can always remember as a kid, I would say that I never wanted to work in a funeral home,” Zenia said.
Zenia’s fifth-grade teacher brought a copy of a homework assignment, “What are you going to be when you grow up?” to the funeral of her mother, with whom she shared a name, and showed it to her. The assignment said she would be a funeral director one day. Zenia laughed while retelling the story.
“I guess I lied,” she said.
Today, she is one of the funeral directors alongside Ron Jenkins.
“We can all agree on how blessed we are to have served the public all these years,” Jenkins, an unofficial member of the Murray family, the other funeral director, and the funeral home’s head embalmer, said.
A native of Beaufort, South Carolina, Jenkins, came to Atlanta to attend mortuary school at Gupton-Jones College of Funeral Service in Decatur. On his first-ever visit to Murray Brothers, he would wind up helping bring boxes in off of a delivery truck.
Jenkins remembers Kenneth Earl Murray, Sr., asking him three questions, one of which was when he wanted to move into the living quarters at Murray Brothers. That was in 1986, and he has been at Murray Brothers ever since.
“He gave me a chance of a lifetime,” Jenkins said.
William Murray, Jr., Jenkins, and Zenia all shared stories of working with families. The common thread of all of the stories was the quality of service Murray Brothers is expected to deliver to families during one of the worst times. Zenia continues that tradition by opening a funeral home, McCray Family Funeral Service & Cremation, in Bankhead.
“It’s a hell of an accomplishment,” Murray, Jr. said.
Murray Brothers handled the funeral service for Atlanta’s first Black mayor, Maynard Jackson, and the funeral for Bobby Brown’s sister, Elizabeth Brown. William, Jr. remembers watching the late Whitney Houston walk into the church and take to the pulpit to sing, “I Love the Lord.”
Having Houston sing at a service was something William Jr. said he would never forget, but he remained professional.
“This position is a calling, so people look at you a certain way,” said William, Jr., who has been married to his wife Valarie for the past 28 years, said. “Murray Brothers is the standard, and we handle things in a professional manner.”
Planting Seeds
Towards the end of a recent interview with the family one afternoon, Murray, Sr., brought a plate of peppers, bean sprouts, and mustard greens from his garden to the table. A member of the Georgia Master Gardener Association, he learned how to garden by watching his late mother, Myrtice Murray. Murray, Sr., believes there’s power in providing nourishment from the earth.
“It’s important because they label anything, but if you grow it yourself, you will know what you’re eating,” he said. “With gardening, I am able to reach out and touch people. It’s good for your mind, soul, and spirit.”
Murray, Sr. said Murray Brothers has helped start gardens at local churches, including Lindsey Street Baptist Church, Zion Hill Baptist Church, and Salem Bible Church. At Thanksgiving time, Murray, Sr. said he has been able to give back to the community that has helped make Murray Brothers a household name in Atlanta for many years. He gives back through the garden.
“On some instances, I have been able to give out two or three hundred bunches of collard greens for families at Thanksgiving,” he said, calling his efforts, “creating goodwill.”
Murray, Sr., handed the reporter a piece of mustard greens off the plate next and asked him to try it. “It’s spicy. You bite it twice, you’ll say it ain’t nothing, but bite it a third time and you’ll get to sweating.”
He took a tiny ghost pepper off the plate and waved it around.
“You’ll need to wash your hands if you touch that one,” he joked.
Explaining what the family business has done for the community for the past 44 years, Murray, Sr. simply said, “We care for the dead, but we also care for the living.”
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