The Most Influential Woman You’ve Never Heard Of: Pauli Murray
A virtual discussion with Becky Stone, actor and historical educator, about the life of Pauli Murray.
Event Summary
Becky Stone will be introduced by Dr. Freda Scott Giles, retired Associate Professor of Theatre and Film, The University of Georgia
Pauli Murray took part in the movements for labor, civil rights, and women’s rights. Murray was the first Black person to earn a JSD from Yale, a National Organization for Women founder, a poet, an Episcopal priest, and life-long friend of Eleanor Roosevelt. When North Carolina’s Becky Stone (creator of historical interpretations of Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, Maya Angelou, and Josephine Baker) first performed her riveting historical interpretation of Murray, she was often asked “Why haven’t I heard of Pauli Murray before?” Join Athens Chautauqua Society for this virtual event.
Event Support
Sponsored by the Athens Chautauqua Society in anticipation of Stone’s “historical interpretation” of Pauli Murray on Sunday at 3 pm, June 12th at the historic Morton Theatre in Athens, Georgia.
Co-sponsored by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History-Athens Branch
June 12th performance is presented with the generous support of Athens Downtown Development Authority in partnership with Greenville Chautauqua
(Registration required to receive the free Zoom link to the discussion. See details below)
About Pauli Murray
The labor movement, the civil rights movement, and the women’s rights movement were all twentieth-century movements in which African American Pauli Murray (1910 –1985) took part. The first Black person to earn a JSD (Doctor of the Science of Laws) degree from Yale, a founder of the National Organization for Women, and eventually an Episcopal priest, Murray taught, wrote, and argued for human rights—all while becoming a poet under the mentorship of Stephen Vincent Benet and a life-long friend of Eleanor Roosevelt. She challenged everyone from the President of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill to the President of the United States. As an attorney, Murray’s out-of-the-box thinking helped bring about the 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v Board of Education of Topeka and the inclusion of women in Title IX of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Murray stirred the waters, provoked those in power into action, and moved us closer to a society that benefits all of us.
When Becky Stone first performed her riveting “historical interpretation” of this often forgotten activist at the 2003 Greenville Chautauqua Festival, the first question she was often asked was “Why haven’t I heard of Pauli Murray before?”
About Becky Stone
Becky Stone is an accomplished African-American storyteller/actress who moved to Fairview, North Carolina from her home in Philadelphia forty years ago. Since then, she has raised four children with her husband, an editor and publisher. Becky holds degrees from Vassar College and Villanova University. She has worked in education and theater, indulging her creative spirit in storytelling, acting, singing, and some dancing. She says, “I learn something every time I step in front of an audience—about the audience, about the art, about myself.” Becky has presented Chautauqua characters Pauli Murray, Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, Maya Angelou, and Josephine Baker, all but one developed for the Greenville Chautauqua.
BONUS: Dr. Leslie Goddard, nationally renowned historical interpreter who portrays Eleanor Roosevelt, will be featured in a short video discussing the special friendship between Mrs. Roosevelt and Pauli Murray. Dr. Goddard will be performing Eleanor Roosevelt in Athens, GA on April 22nd for an Athens Chautauqua Society fundraiser. Dr. Goddard will also portray Jacqueline Kennedy on April 21st at The Classic Center. Details on www.athenschq.org
Resource Guide
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Pauli Murray by Becky Stone
“My Name is Pauli Murray” on Amazon Prime
Bell-Scott, Patricia. The Firebrand and the First Lady: Portrait of a Friendship: Pauli Murray, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Struggle for Social Justice. Alfred Knopf, 2016
Very readable. Chapters alternate between the two women. The reader learns as much about Eleanor Roosevelt as Pauli Murray, an unlikely friendship suddenly becomes understandable.
Murray, Pauli. Pauli Murray: The Autobiography of a Black Activist, Feminist, Lawyer, Priest, and Poet. The University of Tennessee Press, 1989 (Originally published: Song in a Weary Throat. Harper & Row, 1987)
Murray’s autobiography is filled with details that may seem overwhelming, but you begin to understand her through the details of her life.
Murray, Pauli. Dark Testament and other poems. Silvermine Publishers, Inc., 1970
There are some powerful poems in this, her only collection. Some personal, some political, all movingly inspired.
Murray, Pauli. Proud Shoes: The Story of An American Family. Harper & Row, 1956
I found this book fun to read because of the colorful characters and how clearly Pauli Murray loves them. Not all of the memories are easy to handle, but there is joy in the fact that they are from a child’s perspective.
Rosenberg, Rosalind. Jane Crow: The Life of Pauli Murray. Oxford University Press, 2017
An all-encompassing, informative biography. Reveals Murray’s angst about her gender identity in a sympathetic way that changed my understanding of the issues involved in gender identity.
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“Hope is a song in a weary throat.”
“It was never hardship which hurt so much as the contrast between what we had and what the white children had.”
“It seemed as if there were only two kinds of people in the world – They and We – White and Colored. … It pervaded the air I breathed. I learned it in hundreds of ways.”
“I wondered why some people were called white and some called colored when there were so many colors and you couldn’t tell where one left off and the other began. Some folks were Aunt Pauline’s color – strawberries and cream – and some were like licorice. Some were cream chocolate and some were dark chocolate. Some were caramel and some were peanut butter. Some were like molasses taffy after it has been pulled awhile and some were like gingerbread. I’d heard somebody say colored people were like a flower garden but I thought they were more like good things to eat.”
“There was pride on both sides of the Fitzgerald family, but my greatest inheritance, perhaps, was dogged persistence, a granite quality of endurance in the face of calamity.”
“One person plus one typewriter constitutes a movement.”
“What is often called exceptional ability is nothing more than persistent endeavor.”
“Black women, historically, have been doubly victimized by the twin immoralities of Jim Crow and Jane Crow. … Black women, faced with these dual barriers, have often found that sex bias is more formidable than racial bias.”
“I’ve lived to see my lost causes found.”
“It had taken me almost a lifetime to discover that true emancipation lies in the acceptance of the whole past, in deriving strength from all my roots, in facing up to the degradation as well as the dignity of my ancestors.”
“It may be that when historians look back on 20th century America, all roads will lead to Pauli Murray . . . civil rights, feminism, religion, literature, law, sexuality – no matter what the subject, there is Pauli.” - Susan Ware, Historian
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1910
Born in Baltimore, Maryland to Agnes Fitzgerald and William Murray.
1914
Moved to Durham to live with grandparents and her aunt after whom she was named, Pauline Fitzgerald Dame. Pauli’s mother had died and her father was unable to take care of the children.
1926
Murray graduates high school at the head of her class and attends a New York City school in order to meet entrance requirements at Hunter College
1933
Graduates from Hunter College and works for the Works Progress Administration (WPA), Workers Defense League and the NYC Remedial Reading Project.
1938
Murray’s application to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill graduate school rejected due to her race. Writes a letters to the Chancellor, and President Roosevelt and sends a copy to the First Lady.
1940
She is arrested and jailed for protesting Virginia law requiring segregation on buses.
1941
Enters Howard Law School and encounters sex discrimination from faculty and students.
1944
Graduates from Howard Law School first in her class (and the only female). Applies for admission to Harvard Law School’s graduate program but is rejected because of her gender. Enrolls at University of California’s Boalt Hall Law School.
1951
Writes the States’ Laws on Race and Color for the Women’s Division of the Methodist Church, the “bible” for civil rights lawyers.
1960
Travels to Ghana and teaches at the Ghana School of Law in Accra.
1961
John F. Kennedy appoints Murray to the President’s Commission on the Status of Women (PCSW) Committee on Civil and Political rights.
1964
Murray co-authors “Jane Crow and the Law: Sex discrimination and Title VII,” in which she draws parallels between sex-based discrimination with Jim Crow laws.
1965
Murray receives a J.S.D from Yale, the first African-American to receive this degree.
1966
Along with Betty Friedan and thirty others, founds the National Organization for Women (NOW).
1977
Pauli Murray becomes the first African-American female priest to be ordained by the Episcopal Church.
1985
Pauli Murray dies of pancreatic cancer in Pittsburgh, PA.
2012
Murray elevated to sainthood by the Episcopal Church
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The Many Lives of Pauli Murray, article from The New Yorker magazine
Lesson plans about Pauli Murray
“Ahead of Her Time and Behind the Scenes: The inspirational Life of Pauli Murray” by UNC Chapel Hill on Youtube