6 Responses to “Are You Inspired by Pauli Murray?”
Hello! I have a curious serendipity story to relate.
I have been reading Proud Shoes. I am new to Durham, but immediately resonated with the Pauli Murray murals and quotes around town; she is ageless.
We were walking around town, looking for an old house to buy and work on in Durham. I’d like to run a community oriented home and was thinking I’d like to call it The Pauli Murray Community House. I want to invite neighbors in and work with anyone, especially kids and elders (including my own grandkids). I would also like to provide a respite for parents so they could drop a child/ren off for a few hours a week, allowing them to attend to appointments, or shopping or just take a rest.
So, my daughter-in-law and I were walking around town looking for houses and we saw this dilapidated old place on Carroll Street. As we went around back of the house, I said, “Hey, this is interesting, it is just like Pauli Murray described in her book, this is just like the trench they dug to keep water from the cemetery from flooding into their home.” Imagine our surprise when we found that this was indeed the Pauli Murray homestead!
I spoke with a neighbor and we learned it’d been sold. Thank you for caring enough to work on this project. I wonder what your plans are for the house. Would my dream fit with your dream for her home in some way?
Please let me know what, if anything, I could do to convince you to let me live in and work on this home. The legacy she left must be kept alive.
I first heard of Pauli Murray a few years after her death. I was one of 4 or 5 white students in an Afro-American literature class. (I was working on my teaching credential at the time, and the class was required for would-be English teachers.) I was ashamed that I hadn’t heard of her before, when she had done so much.
I’ve mentioned Pauli Murray over the years in various classrooms. Usually, my students hadn’t heard of her, either. (Most of them thought Dr. King and Mrs. Parks handled the civil rights movement all by themselves, and were shocked to find out other people had been involved.) I am now attempting to write a children’s biography of Dr. Murray. In researching this project, I’ve found magazine articles and doctoral dissertations, but nothing written for younger readers. Mary McLeod Bethune and Rosa Parks have dozens of children’s biographies. I think Pauli Murray deserves one, too. This website has been a marvelous help to my research, and will be listed in my bibliography.
Although I’ve studied the civil rights movement of the 1930s, I had never heard of Pauli Murray until I read Glenda Gilmore’s DEFYING DIXIE. Now I’m on a campaign to read Murray’s books and to learn more about her. She is someone I would love to have met, talked to. I once met one of the two women who were with James Meredith. THEY integrated Old Miss, too, right alongside him. But did we hear about them? Women may b earning more on the dollar now than when NOW was founded, but we have yet to claim our place in history. I empathize with Pauli Murray, not only Black, but also a woman and, even more grist for the bigotry mill, a lesbian. Talk about a triple whammie. That she accomplished what she did is inspiring, humbling and exciting, all at the same time. Thank you for setting up this web site. It is an excellent place to start to learn about this remarkable woman.
Here is a forerunner of Rosa Parks, Fannie Lou Hamer, Ella Baker – and so many other women who played a significant role in the civil rights movement and women’s movement. She should be in every history book, but like so many has been overlooked.
Hello! I have a curious serendipity story to relate.
I have been reading Proud Shoes. I am new to Durham, but immediately resonated with the Pauli Murray murals and quotes around town; she is ageless.
We were walking around town, looking for an old house to buy and work on in Durham. I’d like to run a community oriented home and was thinking I’d like to call it The Pauli Murray Community House. I want to invite neighbors in and work with anyone, especially kids and elders (including my own grandkids). I would also like to provide a respite for parents so they could drop a child/ren off for a few hours a week, allowing them to attend to appointments, or shopping or just take a rest.
So, my daughter-in-law and I were walking around town looking for houses and we saw this dilapidated old place on Carroll Street. As we went around back of the house, I said, “Hey, this is interesting, it is just like Pauli Murray described in her book, this is just like the trench they dug to keep water from the cemetery from flooding into their home.” Imagine our surprise when we found that this was indeed the Pauli Murray homestead!
I spoke with a neighbor and we learned it’d been sold. Thank you for caring enough to work on this project. I wonder what your plans are for the house. Would my dream fit with your dream for her home in some way?
Please let me know what, if anything, I could do to convince you to let me live in and work on this home. The legacy she left must be kept alive.
I’ve enjoyed reading Pauli Murrays poetry.
I’m inspired by her depth of reflection and understanding. I love her ability to capture her strength in words.
Aj
I first heard of Pauli Murray a few years after her death. I was one of 4 or 5 white students in an Afro-American literature class. (I was working on my teaching credential at the time, and the class was required for would-be English teachers.) I was ashamed that I hadn’t heard of her before, when she had done so much.
I’ve mentioned Pauli Murray over the years in various classrooms. Usually, my students hadn’t heard of her, either. (Most of them thought Dr. King and Mrs. Parks handled the civil rights movement all by themselves, and were shocked to find out other people had been involved.) I am now attempting to write a children’s biography of Dr. Murray. In researching this project, I’ve found magazine articles and doctoral dissertations, but nothing written for younger readers. Mary McLeod Bethune and Rosa Parks have dozens of children’s biographies. I think Pauli Murray deserves one, too. This website has been a marvelous help to my research, and will be listed in my bibliography.
Although I’ve studied the civil rights movement of the 1930s, I had never heard of Pauli Murray until I read Glenda Gilmore’s DEFYING DIXIE. Now I’m on a campaign to read Murray’s books and to learn more about her. She is someone I would love to have met, talked to. I once met one of the two women who were with James Meredith. THEY integrated Old Miss, too, right alongside him. But did we hear about them? Women may b earning more on the dollar now than when NOW was founded, but we have yet to claim our place in history. I empathize with Pauli Murray, not only Black, but also a woman and, even more grist for the bigotry mill, a lesbian. Talk about a triple whammie. That she accomplished what she did is inspiring, humbling and exciting, all at the same time. Thank you for setting up this web site. It is an excellent place to start to learn about this remarkable woman.
Here is a forerunner of Rosa Parks, Fannie Lou Hamer, Ella Baker – and so many other women who played a significant role in the civil rights movement and women’s movement. She should be in every history book, but like so many has been overlooked.
Street art is reali reali cool. It’s what I love love love.