Today, we live in a hook-up culture – a culture that promotes casual sex. One hundred years ago, a hook-up was not about casual sex. It was the precursor to a lifetime commitment. In 1911, my grandparents, Carl Murphy and Lula Vashti Turley “hooked up” at Howard University in Washington, D.C. – he, the German professor, and she, the German student; he, born in 1889, and she, five years earlier; he the Alpha man and she the co-founder of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.; he, the son of the founder of the Afro-American Newspaper; and she, the D.C. school teacher. It wasn’t until after she was graduated from Howard in 1913 that she invited the young handsome professor “to call”. But this was no ordinary hook-up! It was a courtship extraordinaire based on a strong faith in God, on who they were as individuals, as well as on who they hoped to become as a couple. Their remarkable letters ---published for the first time—are inspirational and instructive, as they reveal intimate details about their whirlwind courtship. “You love me then because my eyes are bright? Beauty will fade, but not the God in me, love that, beloved, to eternity”.

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