For Black History Month, the Law Library will spotlight Black law figures throughout history and their contributions to the legal field. Each week, a different figure will be featured.

by Sydney Hamilton, 1L

Pauli Murray (November 20, 1910 – July 1, 1985)

A frustrating truth about history is that for all the trailblazers and visionaries who fought for change, only a select few go down as household names. However, the present allows us to rediscover those figures that helped to ensure the very future we now sit in. One such figure is Pauli Murray.

As soon as they were born, Anne Pauline “Pauli” Murray could not ignore the subject of race. The violence of slavery impacted their family’s genetic makeup, as many of Murray’s ancestors were the children of white enslavers and enslaved Black women.  However, this resulted in what Murray described as a “mini-United Nations”[1] and that simply by existing, they defied an era shaped by segregation.

At age three, Murray’s mother died, and their father arranged for Murray to leave Baltimore and live with their maternal aunt and grandparents in Durham, North Carolina. Murray thrived in Durham, teaching themselves to read by age five. In school, Murray excelled academically and had their hands in as many extracurriculars as possible, from president of the literary society to editor-in-chief of the school newspaper to forward on the basketball team. It’s no wonder that, throughout their life, Murray would be known for wearing many hats.

In 1926, Murray graduated high school at 15 with qualifications to attend any university. While they dreamed of attending Columbia, the university did not accept women then. This reality of segregation by gender also infuriated them. Instead, Murray enrolled at Hunter College- a racially integrated women’s college in New York City.

During and after college, Murray began to question their gender and their sexuality and officially changed their name from “Anne Pauline” to “Pauli.” Murray experimented with dressing more masculine and even asked doctors to examine them, seeking gender-affirming treatments that did not exist then. Questions about their gender identity often influenced Murray’s writings about gender equality.

In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Murray truly stepped into their role as a civil rights activist. When Murray applied to the University of North Carolina for graduate school, they were rejected because of their race. In response, Murray began a letter-writing campaign, writing to several officials, such as the university presidents, newspapers, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. The First Lady responded, and this correspondence led to a decades-long friendship between Pauli and Eleanor. Additionally, on a trip from New York to California in 1940, Murray and a friend were arrested when they refused to sit in the back of the bus. Later, while working for the Worker’s Defense League, Murray assisted in the case of a black sharecropper who had been sentenced to life for killing his white landlord during an argument. These events, among others, inspired Murray to pursue a legal education.

In 1941, Murray began attending Howard University Law School and was the only woman in their class. The experience led Murray to coin the term “Jane Crow,” similar to Jim Crow but focused on the inherent misogynoir of segregation. Murray continued to fight for equal rights, often leading protests and sit-ins on Howard University’s campus.

More than anything, it was Pauli Murray’s words which defined their life and, ultimately, the lives of so many others. In 1948, Murray published their first book, States’ Laws on Race and Color, a 700-hundred-page analysis and critique of segregation in the United States. The book greatly influenced Thurgood Marshall, who “referred to the work as ‘the bible’ of Brown v. Board of Education.”[2] A case argued by Murray and attorney Dorothy Kenyon for women to have the equal right to serve on juries inspired Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the point where, when Ginsburg wrote her brief for Reed v. Reed, a landmark decision that made differential treatment on the basis of sex unconstitutional, Ginsburg credited Murray as a co-author.[3]

Murray acquired many other accolades, like being the first Black person to receive a JSD from Yale Law School and the first Black woman to become an ordained priest in the Episcopal Church. Though Murray’s name and life may not be familiar to some, their contributions have made an invaluable mark on history and the future as we know it. In 2024, Murray is scheduled to have their face featured on the U.S. Quarter, a tribute that should encourage more people to recognize Pauli Murray’s name.

---

[1] “Life Story: Pauli Murray (1910-1985).” Women & the American Story by the New-York Historical Society, (last visited Feb. 13, 2024). wams.nyhistory.org/confidence-and-crises/world-war-ii/pauli-murray/.

[2] Emma Rothberg. “Pauli Murray.” National Women’s History Museum, (2021). http://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/pauli-murray.

[3] Philippa Strum. “Pauli Murray’s Indelible Mark on the Fight for Equal Rights.” American Civil Liberties Union, (June 24, 2020). https://www.aclu.org/issues/womens-rights/pauli-murrays-indelible-mark-fight-equal-rights.

Other sources:

Julian Cardillo. “Pauli Murray, Civil Rights Icon and Former Professor, to Appear on American Quarter.” Brandeis University, (Feb. 7, 2024). http://www.brandeis.edu/75/stories/pauli-murray-quarter.html.

“Pauli Murray.” Maryland Women’s Hall of Fame, (last visited Feb. 13, 2024). msa.maryland.gov/msa/educ/exhibits/womenshallfame/html/murray.html.

“Pauli Murray As a LGBTQ+ Historical Figure.” National Museum of African American History & Culture, (last visited Feb. 13, 2024). nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/pauli-murray-lgbtq-historical-figure.

“The Pioneering Pauli Murray: Lawyer, Activist, Scholar and Priest.” National Museum of African American History & Culture, (last visited Feb. 13, 2024). nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/pioneering-pauli-murray-lawyer-activist-scholar-and-priest.

“Who Is the Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray?” Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice, (last visited Feb. 13, 2024). http://www.paulimurraycenter.com/who-is-pauli.