I am looking for any and all information about the family background and early life of T.R.M. Howard, a black doctor who was born in Murray, Kentucky on March 4, 1908. During the 1950s, Howard became an important civil rights leader in Mississippi. Howard's full name at the time of his birth was Theodore Roosevelt Howard (he changed it to Theodore Roosevelt Mason in honor of Dr. William Mason in the 1920s). According to the 1910 census, Howard's parents were Arthur Howard (age 20, born in Tennessee) and Mary Chandler Howard (age 18, born in Kentucky). Their occupations were laborers in a tobacco factory. His parents were later divorced. By the 1920 census, Mary was divorced and re-married to Maurice. Palmer (age 32), who was also born in Tennessee. In addition to Theodore, they had two small children (Mable, age 5 and Henry, age 1). Howard may have had some white ancestors (though I don't know the details) including, according to one account, a "full-blooded Irish grandfather." As a boy, Howard seems to have attended the black AME Methodist church in Murray (now apparently defunct). Does anyone know whether an AME church cemetery (or other black cemetery) exists in Murray for the late nineteenth and early twentieth century? David T. Beito