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Song in a Weary Throat: An American Pilgrimage
First published posthumously in 1987, Pauli Murray’s Song in a Weary Throat was critically lauded, winning the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award and the Lillian Smith Book Award among other distinctions. Yet Murray’s name and extraordinary influence receded from view in the intervening years; now they are once again entering the public discourse. At last, with the republication of this “beautifully crafted” memoir, Song in a Weary Throat takes its rightful place among the great civil rights autobiographies of the twentieth century.
In a voice that is energetic, wry, and direct, Murray tells of a childhood dramatically altered by the sudden loss of her spirited, hard-working parents. Orphaned at age four, she was sent from Baltimore to segregated Durham, North Carolina, to live with her unflappable Aunt Pauline, who, while strict, was liberal-minded in accepting the tomboy Pauli as “my little boy-girl.” In fact, throughout her life, Murray would struggle with feelings of sexual “in-betweenness”—she tried unsuccessfully to get her doctors to give her testosterone—that today we would recognize as a transgendered identity.
We then follow Murray north at the age of seventeen to New York City’s Hunter College, to her embrace of Gandhi’s Satyagraha—nonviolent resistance—and south again, where she experienced Jim Crow firsthand. An early Freedom Rider, she was arrested in 1940, fifteen years before Rosa Parks’ disobedience, for sitting in the whites-only section of a Virginia bus. Murray’s activism led to relationships with Thurgood Marshall and Eleanor Roosevelt—who respectfully referred to Murray as a “firebrand”—and propelled her to a Howard University law degree and a lifelong fight against "Jane Crow" sexism. We also read Betty Friedan’s enthusiastic response to Murray’s call for an NAACP for Women—the origins of NOW. Murray sets these thrilling high-water marks against the backdrop of uncertain finances, chronic fatigue, and tragic losses both private and public, as Patricia Bell-Scott’s engaging introduction brings to life.
Now, more than thirty years after her death in 1985, Murray—poet, memoirist, lawyer, activist, and Episcopal priest—gains long-deserved recognition through a rediscovered memoir that serves as a “powerful witness” (Brittney Cooper) to a pivotal era in the American twentieth century.
In a voice that is energetic, wry, and direct, Murray tells of a childhood dramatically altered by the sudden loss of her spirited, hard-working parents. Orphaned at age four, she was sent from Baltimore to segregated Durham, North Carolina, to live with her unflappable Aunt Pauline, who, while strict, was liberal-minded in accepting the tomboy Pauli as “my little boy-girl.” In fact, throughout her life, Murray would struggle with feelings of sexual “in-betweenness”—she tried unsuccessfully to get her doctors to give her testosterone—that today we would recognize as a transgendered identity.
We then follow Murray north at the age of seventeen to New York City’s Hunter College, to her embrace of Gandhi’s Satyagraha—nonviolent resistance—and south again, where she experienced Jim Crow firsthand. An early Freedom Rider, she was arrested in 1940, fifteen years before Rosa Parks’ disobedience, for sitting in the whites-only section of a Virginia bus. Murray’s activism led to relationships with Thurgood Marshall and Eleanor Roosevelt—who respectfully referred to Murray as a “firebrand”—and propelled her to a Howard University law degree and a lifelong fight against "Jane Crow" sexism. We also read Betty Friedan’s enthusiastic response to Murray’s call for an NAACP for Women—the origins of NOW. Murray sets these thrilling high-water marks against the backdrop of uncertain finances, chronic fatigue, and tragic losses both private and public, as Patricia Bell-Scott’s engaging introduction brings to life.
Now, more than thirty years after her death in 1985, Murray—poet, memoirist, lawyer, activist, and Episcopal priest—gains long-deserved recognition through a rediscovered memoir that serves as a “powerful witness” (Brittney Cooper) to a pivotal era in the American twentieth century.
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First published April 1, 1987
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About the author
Pauli Murray
18 books115 followersThe Reverend Dr. Anna Pauline "Pauli" Murray (November 20, 1910 – July 1, 1985) was an American civil rights activist, women's rights activist, lawyer, and author. She was also the first black woman ordained an Episcopal priest.
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Murray was raised mostly by her maternal grandparents. At the age of sixteen, she moved to New York to attend Hunter College, graduating with a B.A. in English in 1933. In 1940, Murray was arrested with a friend for violating Virginia segregation laws after they sat in the whites-only section of a bus. This incident, and her subsequent involvement with the socialist Workers' Defense League, inspired her to become a civil rights lawyer, and she enrolled at Howard University. During her years at Howard, she became increasingly aware of sexism, which she called "Jane Crow", the sister of the Jim Crow racial segregation laws. Murray graduated first in her class, but was denied the chance to do further work at Harvard University because of her gender. In 1965 she became the first African American to receive a J.S.D. from Yale Law School.
As a lawyer, Murray argued for civil rights and women's rights. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Chief Counsel Thurgood Marshall called Murray's 1950 book States' Laws on Race and Color the "bible" of the civil rights movement. Murray served on the 1961 Presidential Commission on the Status of Women and in 1966 was a co-founder of the National Organization for Women. Ruth Bader Ginsburg later named Murray a coauthor on a brief for Reed v. Reed in recognition of her pioneering work on gender discrimination. Murray held faculty or administrative positions at the Ghana School of Law, Benedict College, and Brandeis University.
In 1973, Murray left academia for the Episcopal Church, becoming a priest, and was named an Episcopal saint in 2012. Murray struggled with issues related to her sexual and gender identity, describing herself as having an "inverted sex instinct"; she had a brief, annulled marriage to a man and several relationships with women, and in her younger years, occasionally passed as a teenage boy. In addition to her legal and advocacy work, Murray published two well-reviewed autobiographies and a volume of poetry.
(from Wikipedia)
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Murray was raised mostly by her maternal grandparents. At the age of sixteen, she moved to New York to attend Hunter College, graduating with a B.A. in English in 1933. In 1940, Murray was arrested with a friend for violating Virginia segregation laws after they sat in the whites-only section of a bus. This incident, and her subsequent involvement with the socialist Workers' Defense League, inspired her to become a civil rights lawyer, and she enrolled at Howard University. During her years at Howard, she became increasingly aware of sexism, which she called "Jane Crow", the sister of the Jim Crow racial segregation laws. Murray graduated first in her class, but was denied the chance to do further work at Harvard University because of her gender. In 1965 she became the first African American to receive a J.S.D. from Yale Law School.
As a lawyer, Murray argued for civil rights and women's rights. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Chief Counsel Thurgood Marshall called Murray's 1950 book States' Laws on Race and Color the "bible" of the civil rights movement. Murray served on the 1961 Presidential Commission on the Status of Women and in 1966 was a co-founder of the National Organization for Women. Ruth Bader Ginsburg later named Murray a coauthor on a brief for Reed v. Reed in recognition of her pioneering work on gender discrimination. Murray held faculty or administrative positions at the Ghana School of Law, Benedict College, and Brandeis University.
In 1973, Murray left academia for the Episcopal Church, becoming a priest, and was named an Episcopal saint in 2012. Murray struggled with issues related to her sexual and gender identity, describing herself as having an "inverted sex instinct"; she had a brief, annulled marriage to a man and several relationships with women, and in her younger years, occasionally passed as a teenage boy. In addition to her legal and advocacy work, Murray published two well-reviewed autobiographies and a volume of poetry.
(from Wikipedia)
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January 15, 2018
I first read about Pauli Murray while researching women abolitionists and Civil Rights leaders for my quilt I Will Lift My Voice Like A Trumpet. I was pleased to be granted access to the e-galley of Pauli's memoir, first published in 1987, now available in a new edition. The forward is by Patricia Bell-Scott, author of The Firebrand and the First Lady: Portrait of a Friendship: Pauli Murray, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Struggle for Justice.
Pauli was born in 1910 and was raised by her school teacher aunt. Pauli was a gifted student who attended Hunter College in New York City. During the Depression she found employment with the WPA as a teacher and began to publish her poetry and a novel. She found a mentor in Stephen Vincent Benet.
During the war years and early 1950s Pauli became involved with Civil Rights, challenging segregation, and formed a relationship with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. In 1941 she began her law studies at Howard University and helped to form CORE and the development of passive resistance.
Harvard law school would not accept Pauli based on her sex. She attended the University of California Boalt School of Law. Her thesis was on equal opportunity in employment. With her color and sex against her, Pauli had trouble making a living practicing law.
In 1956 she published a book on her family history, Proud Shoes: The Story of an American Family. She taught law in Ghana for several years. Back in the US she resumed work in Civil Rights and became active as a feminist and was an organizer for NOW.
In her later life, Pauli worked for equal opportunity for women as church leaders. She became the first African American woman ordained to the Episcopal priesthood.
Pauli saw huge changes in her lifetime. At her birth she was labeled colored, but chose the designation Negro. During the rise of black power movements she resisted the term black, resenting its lower case nomenclature. She was a pacifist and anti-segregationist who had trouble with the rise of Black Power movements and the younger generation's demand for separate campus organizations. Early she was attracted to Socialism and spent her last years as in the priesthood.
The memoir is filled with details about the work for Civil Rights prior to the more known stories of Rosa Park and Martin Luther King, Jr. There are vivid descriptions of traveling in the Jim Crow south, the closed doors to her race and her sex, the poverty she and her educated family endured.
Pauli's voice is direct and open. She admits to her ignorance and mistakes, her learning curves and limitations. Her accomplishments speak for her determination and courage.
It was wonderful to hear, in her own voice, Pauli's amazing life.
I received a free egalley from the publisher through Edelweiss in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
Pauli was born in 1910 and was raised by her school teacher aunt. Pauli was a gifted student who attended Hunter College in New York City. During the Depression she found employment with the WPA as a teacher and began to publish her poetry and a novel. She found a mentor in Stephen Vincent Benet.
During the war years and early 1950s Pauli became involved with Civil Rights, challenging segregation, and formed a relationship with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. In 1941 she began her law studies at Howard University and helped to form CORE and the development of passive resistance.
Harvard law school would not accept Pauli based on her sex. She attended the University of California Boalt School of Law. Her thesis was on equal opportunity in employment. With her color and sex against her, Pauli had trouble making a living practicing law.
In 1956 she published a book on her family history, Proud Shoes: The Story of an American Family. She taught law in Ghana for several years. Back in the US she resumed work in Civil Rights and became active as a feminist and was an organizer for NOW.
In her later life, Pauli worked for equal opportunity for women as church leaders. She became the first African American woman ordained to the Episcopal priesthood.
Pauli saw huge changes in her lifetime. At her birth she was labeled colored, but chose the designation Negro. During the rise of black power movements she resisted the term black, resenting its lower case nomenclature. She was a pacifist and anti-segregationist who had trouble with the rise of Black Power movements and the younger generation's demand for separate campus organizations. Early she was attracted to Socialism and spent her last years as in the priesthood.
The memoir is filled with details about the work for Civil Rights prior to the more known stories of Rosa Park and Martin Luther King, Jr. There are vivid descriptions of traveling in the Jim Crow south, the closed doors to her race and her sex, the poverty she and her educated family endured.
Pauli's voice is direct and open. She admits to her ignorance and mistakes, her learning curves and limitations. Her accomplishments speak for her determination and courage.
It was wonderful to hear, in her own voice, Pauli's amazing life.
I received a free egalley from the publisher through Edelweiss in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
June 15, 2021
Pauli Murray is an unsung hero of American history to whom we owe so much, and I will sing her praises every opportunity I get.
I was initially introduced to Murray during my first semester of college in Feimster's course "The Long Civil Rights Movement." I was in awe of the story of the Black queer woman whose efforts were instrumental to the many hard-fought victories of the civil rights movement. She had studied at Yale, and so I came to think of her as something of a patron saint, guiding us Black queers who found ourselves in the same ivied halls. Reading "Song in a Weary Throat" was an opportunity to honor and learn the history of a queer ancestor.
There is so much more to Murray's story than I knew. She was a labor organizer, legal scholar, attorney, poet, women's rights activist, civil rights activist, priest, and professor. Murray had multiple callings, and it seemed as if she led multiple lives. And in this six-hundred page volume, Murray ostensibly details each and every single saga that made up her dynamic life. (As a disillusioned twenty-something, it was encouraging to read about someone who constantly reinventing herself. But needless to say, it was a labor to get through this nearly bible-length text.)
Murray begins with her origin story and her coming into consciousness during the interwar period. She would quickly learn that she was born into a world hellbent on denying her full humanity as a Black woman. At every turn of her life, she was in a constant battle with racism (Jim Crow), sexism (Jane Crow, a term she coined to make the analogous comparison between gender and racial discrimination), and the oppression experienced at their intersections. Murray was undeniably brilliant, yet opportunities afforded to her white and male counterparts were invariably denied to her. Nevertheless she persisted.
Reading her story, I'm reminded me how ugly white supremacist patriarchy is and how necessary it is to resist. There were infuriating moments throughout the book where Murray had to fight just to be recognized as human. She organized and participated in lunch-counter sit-ins decades before the tactic became a mainstream tool of student activists. She demanded her place in academia and the legal profession even when so many doors were slammed in her face. Her work was even international. Murray taught at the University of Ghana Law School in the years immediately following Ghanaian independence. There, she trained a young generation of Ghanaian legal scholars who would go on to challenge the increasingly authoritative regime of Kwame Nkrumah. One could go on and on listing her contribution and achievements.
I decided to read "Song in a Weary Throat" after a conversation with a friend who recently got into law school. I was reminded of Murray. I wanted to read about her and thought it important to learn about her through her own words. I appreciate the significance of telling one's own story. But in retrospect, I would have gotten a fuller picture of her life and the significance of her contributions had I read Rosenberg's biography of Murray.
For one, Murray does not discuss her sexual orientation or her struggles with gender identity. In the book, Murray describes lovers as close friends, concealing the true and intimate nature of their relationships. She does not disclose that she continually struggled with her gender identity throughout her life, at times seeking medical intervention to affirm her gender identity. It is now largely accepted that if she had been born today and had the language, Murray would have identified as a trans man. Knowing this, you can pick up hints of her queerness. For example, when writing to the Harvard Law School faculty contesting its policy to limit admission to (white) men, Murray writes: "Gentlemen, I would gladly change my sex to meet your requirements but since the way to such change has not been revealed to me, I have no recourse but to appeal to you to change your minds on this subject." In an earlier episode, as she was train hopping to get across the country from California back to the east coast, she notes that there was a safety and security in her androgynous appearance as she encountered hundreds of male vagabonds during her travels. Still, in this autobiography, you are left without any meaningful discussion of Murray's gender identity and sexual orientation which undoubtably shaped how she moved through the world and engaged with civil rights and feminist activism and scholarship.
Additionally, without an extensive knowledge of 20th century American history, the civil rights and women's rights movements, it's hard to adequately contextualize Murray's work and understand its significance. In so many ways, she was a trailblazer decades ahead of her time. The reader must constantly remind themselves that many of the things we take for granted today, Murray had to fight for. The society she was born into could never have imagined her overcoming the circumstances of her poor, rural North Carolina upbringing, yet alone coming to occupy the spaces that she did. And yet, that was Pauli Murray. Definitely a worthwhile read.
I was initially introduced to Murray during my first semester of college in Feimster's course "The Long Civil Rights Movement." I was in awe of the story of the Black queer woman whose efforts were instrumental to the many hard-fought victories of the civil rights movement. She had studied at Yale, and so I came to think of her as something of a patron saint, guiding us Black queers who found ourselves in the same ivied halls. Reading "Song in a Weary Throat" was an opportunity to honor and learn the history of a queer ancestor.
There is so much more to Murray's story than I knew. She was a labor organizer, legal scholar, attorney, poet, women's rights activist, civil rights activist, priest, and professor. Murray had multiple callings, and it seemed as if she led multiple lives. And in this six-hundred page volume, Murray ostensibly details each and every single saga that made up her dynamic life. (As a disillusioned twenty-something, it was encouraging to read about someone who constantly reinventing herself. But needless to say, it was a labor to get through this nearly bible-length text.)
Murray begins with her origin story and her coming into consciousness during the interwar period. She would quickly learn that she was born into a world hellbent on denying her full humanity as a Black woman. At every turn of her life, she was in a constant battle with racism (Jim Crow), sexism (Jane Crow, a term she coined to make the analogous comparison between gender and racial discrimination), and the oppression experienced at their intersections. Murray was undeniably brilliant, yet opportunities afforded to her white and male counterparts were invariably denied to her. Nevertheless she persisted.
Reading her story, I'm reminded me how ugly white supremacist patriarchy is and how necessary it is to resist. There were infuriating moments throughout the book where Murray had to fight just to be recognized as human. She organized and participated in lunch-counter sit-ins decades before the tactic became a mainstream tool of student activists. She demanded her place in academia and the legal profession even when so many doors were slammed in her face. Her work was even international. Murray taught at the University of Ghana Law School in the years immediately following Ghanaian independence. There, she trained a young generation of Ghanaian legal scholars who would go on to challenge the increasingly authoritative regime of Kwame Nkrumah. One could go on and on listing her contribution and achievements.
I decided to read "Song in a Weary Throat" after a conversation with a friend who recently got into law school. I was reminded of Murray. I wanted to read about her and thought it important to learn about her through her own words. I appreciate the significance of telling one's own story. But in retrospect, I would have gotten a fuller picture of her life and the significance of her contributions had I read Rosenberg's biography of Murray.
For one, Murray does not discuss her sexual orientation or her struggles with gender identity. In the book, Murray describes lovers as close friends, concealing the true and intimate nature of their relationships. She does not disclose that she continually struggled with her gender identity throughout her life, at times seeking medical intervention to affirm her gender identity. It is now largely accepted that if she had been born today and had the language, Murray would have identified as a trans man. Knowing this, you can pick up hints of her queerness. For example, when writing to the Harvard Law School faculty contesting its policy to limit admission to (white) men, Murray writes: "Gentlemen, I would gladly change my sex to meet your requirements but since the way to such change has not been revealed to me, I have no recourse but to appeal to you to change your minds on this subject." In an earlier episode, as she was train hopping to get across the country from California back to the east coast, she notes that there was a safety and security in her androgynous appearance as she encountered hundreds of male vagabonds during her travels. Still, in this autobiography, you are left without any meaningful discussion of Murray's gender identity and sexual orientation which undoubtably shaped how she moved through the world and engaged with civil rights and feminist activism and scholarship.
Additionally, without an extensive knowledge of 20th century American history, the civil rights and women's rights movements, it's hard to adequately contextualize Murray's work and understand its significance. In so many ways, she was a trailblazer decades ahead of her time. The reader must constantly remind themselves that many of the things we take for granted today, Murray had to fight for. The society she was born into could never have imagined her overcoming the circumstances of her poor, rural North Carolina upbringing, yet alone coming to occupy the spaces that she did. And yet, that was Pauli Murray. Definitely a worthwhile read.
January 19, 2021
I will leave a detailed review once I have processed my sadness over this book's ending. What a gift!
April 23, 2019
First of all an embarrassing disclaimer: I thought I was reading the autobiography of Pauli Marshall. I totally got their names mixed up. I'd read Pauli Marshall's work and was looking forward to reading about her real life. A hundred pages in I realized that I didn't recognize any of the book titles she said she'd written. I checked my library and discovered my mistake. Nevertheless I was in it now and Pauli Murray led a fascinating, adventurous life.
She hobo'd across the country during the Depression masquerading as a boy, nearly starving to death. She hitchhiked from NY to Nebraska and back with a friend during one of her many periods of unemployment. She worked for the WPA. She led quite a life.
Her story can get a little bogged down with legalise, fact and figures, she was a lawyer after all, but the historical background stories are engrossing. She describes the preparation for sit-ins in the 40s. These original sit-ins (before Martin Luther King) actually worked on a small scale. The restaurants they protested caved within days and began serving Negros, as we were called in those days.
Murray was an exceedingly thorough researcher and letter writer. She was able to dig up obscure laws and run with them. Like a D.C. civil rights law from 1872 that made it a misdemeanor to refuse service to Negroes in public places.
She lived her motto, don't get mad, get smart. She had plenty to be mad about, Jim Crow, rampant racism and unfettered sexism. Her brilliant legal mind found a way around a lot of it. She fought long and hard, breaking through barriers one by one.
She was a lawyer, teacher, poet, feminist (one of the founding members of the National Organization for Women), and an Episcopalian priest when women and blacks were excluded or barely tolerated in all these fields. She was incredible.
She hobo'd across the country during the Depression masquerading as a boy, nearly starving to death. She hitchhiked from NY to Nebraska and back with a friend during one of her many periods of unemployment. She worked for the WPA. She led quite a life.
Her story can get a little bogged down with legalise, fact and figures, she was a lawyer after all, but the historical background stories are engrossing. She describes the preparation for sit-ins in the 40s. These original sit-ins (before Martin Luther King) actually worked on a small scale. The restaurants they protested caved within days and began serving Negros, as we were called in those days.
Murray was an exceedingly thorough researcher and letter writer. She was able to dig up obscure laws and run with them. Like a D.C. civil rights law from 1872 that made it a misdemeanor to refuse service to Negroes in public places.
She lived her motto, don't get mad, get smart. She had plenty to be mad about, Jim Crow, rampant racism and unfettered sexism. Her brilliant legal mind found a way around a lot of it. She fought long and hard, breaking through barriers one by one.
She was a lawyer, teacher, poet, feminist (one of the founding members of the National Organization for Women), and an Episcopalian priest when women and blacks were excluded or barely tolerated in all these fields. She was incredible.
December 24, 2019
I am glad to know more about this woman who was a tireless advocate for human rights and whose pioneering work opened paths for many who came after her. I listened to the audiobooks version and found the reading a bit tiresome at times. But the story -- especially the first half of the book -- kept my interest, both as a narrative and for the historical context it gives to African American and Women's struggles in the mid 20th century.
April 15, 2021
Wow, what a story! I learned about Pauli Murray because my daughter is living in Durham, NC. It was such an inspiration to read her life story.
November 11, 2022
Pauli Murray was a great woman who did amazing things and lived an incredible life. I knew of her, but did not actually know much about her. This memoir fills in all the gaps of knowledge. For all the details about her life, this is easily a 5star book.
The only downside to the book is there are several chapters that cover parts of her life that do not interest me. Also, because this is a memoir and not a third-party biography, she lingers on some topics that interest herself a lot longer than they interest me. That's a minor complaint, because it was easy to skim through those parts and get to the next section.
Anyone who likes reading non-fiction books about great people doing great things should give this a try.
The only downside to the book is there are several chapters that cover parts of her life that do not interest me. Also, because this is a memoir and not a third-party biography, she lingers on some topics that interest herself a lot longer than they interest me. That's a minor complaint, because it was easy to skim through those parts and get to the next section.
Anyone who likes reading non-fiction books about great people doing great things should give this a try.
May 15, 2024
I’ve always believed that I had a pretty decent education. And yet I find myself approaching 60 and realize how woefully inadequate my education was where the historic and cultural experiences of black, indigenous and other people of color is concerned. In an effort to rectify that gap, I’ve sought out memoirs and biographies of significant figures, and selected source material (rather than a novel based on..) when the subject’s own words are available to read.
Pauli Murray was an important and fascinating figure! I’m so pleased I now know more of her story.
Pauli Murray was an important and fascinating figure! I’m so pleased I now know more of her story.
July 16, 2022
Powerful, frustrating, inspiring. I generally don’t rate biographies too highly but I am in awe of Murray’s accomplishments in a time when everything seemed against her.
I wish she had more time to complete this book and to more thoroughly document her shift towards the church.
I wish she had more time to complete this book and to more thoroughly document her shift towards the church.
March 25, 2022
Read the last two chapters with my mouth literally open. This woman is my hero.
April 20, 2022
Rev. Murray was a force to be reckoned with, and her book is a treasure. Sadly, a lot of it still rings true today. Must read!
July 13, 2023
Song in a Weary Throat is Pauli Murray’s first-person account of their life as a “poet, memoirist, lawyer, activist, and Episcopal priest” (back flap). They also happened to be a native of Durham, NC! Murray would be recognized as a transmasculine or gender nonconforming person in today’s time. This book was published in 1987, which was a few years after they died. It must be noted that Murray referred to themself as a woman throughout the book. They were also referred to as she/her by others in the non-autobiographical parts. It is possible that Murray probably did not have the language to define themself back then.
I had only heard about Pauli Murray a few years ago, despite being a North Carolinian all my life. I wanted to read about a Black, Queer person on Juneteenth, so I picked this autobiography up at the library. I was originally going to save this read for June 2024, but I didn’t want to wait that long to learn about them. Song in a Weary Throat was a long, wonderful read, and it was worth the 572+ pages. Over the course of their life, Murray took many tumultuous journeys, physically and otherwise. They had support from family, friends, and many others along the way. I particularly loved reading about Murray’s bond with Aunt Pauline. “I was her namesake and her godchild, and it was my mother’s last request that Aunt Pauline have me.” (pg. 20). I am still processing the gift that this book is. My only regret is that I probably read it too fast. I finished it in about two weeks because I have a “book schedule” that I follow.
Pauli Murray was an activist for race and gender equality. They were essentially a hidden figure in Black History. In the 1940s, before the Civil Rights Movement, Murray was arrested for refusing to sit in seats at the back of a bus. A few years after this, they also participated in sit-ins as a student at Howard University. These two events were before Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycotts and before the Greensboro sit-ins respectively. In 1938, Murray attempted to apply to grad school at UNC Chapel Hill and was denied due to their race. Similarly, Murray was rejected by Harvard Law School in 1944 for their assigned gender at birth. They would call the sexism that they experienced “Jane Crow.” Pauli Murray would later fight for gender equality within the Episcopal church as well.
Though Murray was a transmasculine person who was only attracted to women, these details were not mentioned directly. I thought Murray was going to address these parts of their identity in the chapters titled “Neither ‘My Girl’ Nor ‘One of the Boys’” and “A Question of Identity” (chaps. 26 & 27), but I was wrong. Maybe these chapter titles were a few of the many hints in the book. In 1931, Murray freight jumped across the country for two weeks, from California back to New York. “… my attire—scout pants and shirt, knee-length socks, walking shoes, and a short leather jacket—together with my slight figure and bobbed hair made me appear to be a small teenage boy like thousands of others on the road. No one questioned me about my gender and I soon discovered that my boyish appearance was a protection.” (pg. 102). After the rejection at Harvard, they wrote to the faculty for an appeal: “Gentlemen, I would gladly change my sex to meet your requirements but since the way to such change has not been revealed to me, I have no recourse but to appeal to you to change your minds on this subject.” (pg. 314).
Murray was in a long-term partnership with Irene Barlow, though the two were only described as friends. “Our discovery that we were both worshipping Episcopalians was the beginning of a spiritual bond which found its first expression during Lent that spring…. The bond deepened over the sixteen years I knew and worked with Renee within the Episcopal Church.” (pg. 411). In 1967: “That Christmas, when we took a holiday trip together in Jamaica, she had regained much of her old gaiety, but a new element had entered our friendship. I now shared with her the burden of knowledge she had withheld from most of her friends and her mother—the threat of recurring cancer.” (pg. 489).
Pauli Murray knew a lot of important figures. They mentioned working alongside Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP. They also knew the Delany sisters, who I enjoyed reading about in my youth. Murray also had a long-standing friendship with Eleanor Roosevelt; the two would challenge each other to evoke change in America and beyond. Murray also met Fannie Lou Hamer at the National Council of Negro Women in 1967.
Murray is long-winded, but I had to remember that they were a lawyer and a priest. Lol. Despite the book’s length, I felt as if I was just starting to get to know Pauli Murray at the end. But I know that there is always more to learn about them. I especially would love to hear/read more about their queer identity. I believe there is also a documentary on Amazon Prime, and I could even visit their childhood home!
I had only heard about Pauli Murray a few years ago, despite being a North Carolinian all my life. I wanted to read about a Black, Queer person on Juneteenth, so I picked this autobiography up at the library. I was originally going to save this read for June 2024, but I didn’t want to wait that long to learn about them. Song in a Weary Throat was a long, wonderful read, and it was worth the 572+ pages. Over the course of their life, Murray took many tumultuous journeys, physically and otherwise. They had support from family, friends, and many others along the way. I particularly loved reading about Murray’s bond with Aunt Pauline. “I was her namesake and her godchild, and it was my mother’s last request that Aunt Pauline have me.” (pg. 20). I am still processing the gift that this book is. My only regret is that I probably read it too fast. I finished it in about two weeks because I have a “book schedule” that I follow.
Pauli Murray was an activist for race and gender equality. They were essentially a hidden figure in Black History. In the 1940s, before the Civil Rights Movement, Murray was arrested for refusing to sit in seats at the back of a bus. A few years after this, they also participated in sit-ins as a student at Howard University. These two events were before Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycotts and before the Greensboro sit-ins respectively. In 1938, Murray attempted to apply to grad school at UNC Chapel Hill and was denied due to their race. Similarly, Murray was rejected by Harvard Law School in 1944 for their assigned gender at birth. They would call the sexism that they experienced “Jane Crow.” Pauli Murray would later fight for gender equality within the Episcopal church as well.
Though Murray was a transmasculine person who was only attracted to women, these details were not mentioned directly. I thought Murray was going to address these parts of their identity in the chapters titled “Neither ‘My Girl’ Nor ‘One of the Boys’” and “A Question of Identity” (chaps. 26 & 27), but I was wrong. Maybe these chapter titles were a few of the many hints in the book. In 1931, Murray freight jumped across the country for two weeks, from California back to New York. “… my attire—scout pants and shirt, knee-length socks, walking shoes, and a short leather jacket—together with my slight figure and bobbed hair made me appear to be a small teenage boy like thousands of others on the road. No one questioned me about my gender and I soon discovered that my boyish appearance was a protection.” (pg. 102). After the rejection at Harvard, they wrote to the faculty for an appeal: “Gentlemen, I would gladly change my sex to meet your requirements but since the way to such change has not been revealed to me, I have no recourse but to appeal to you to change your minds on this subject.” (pg. 314).
Murray was in a long-term partnership with Irene Barlow, though the two were only described as friends. “Our discovery that we were both worshipping Episcopalians was the beginning of a spiritual bond which found its first expression during Lent that spring…. The bond deepened over the sixteen years I knew and worked with Renee within the Episcopal Church.” (pg. 411). In 1967: “That Christmas, when we took a holiday trip together in Jamaica, she had regained much of her old gaiety, but a new element had entered our friendship. I now shared with her the burden of knowledge she had withheld from most of her friends and her mother—the threat of recurring cancer.” (pg. 489).
Pauli Murray knew a lot of important figures. They mentioned working alongside Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP. They also knew the Delany sisters, who I enjoyed reading about in my youth. Murray also had a long-standing friendship with Eleanor Roosevelt; the two would challenge each other to evoke change in America and beyond. Murray also met Fannie Lou Hamer at the National Council of Negro Women in 1967.
Murray is long-winded, but I had to remember that they were a lawyer and a priest. Lol. Despite the book’s length, I felt as if I was just starting to get to know Pauli Murray at the end. But I know that there is always more to learn about them. I especially would love to hear/read more about their queer identity. I believe there is also a documentary on Amazon Prime, and I could even visit their childhood home!
December 21, 2022
Thanks to my friend Karol for blessing me with this read.
March 29, 2024
This is a book about an amazing woman that has inspired many people. Such an incredible life. My head is still spinning from the experience of reading this book.
May 1, 2024
I am honored to have known Pauli Murray since my mom was a personal friend and she visited us at our home on Long Island from time to time. My brother Paul was named after her. But despite the personal connection I never fully understood what an incredible person and groundbreaker she was. The list of firsts and superlatives goes on seemingly forever.
Granddaughter of a slave and great granddaughter of a slave holder Pauli was brought up in the Jim Crow south. A graduate of Hunter College she was the first black woman to attend Howard Law School. She was a labor organizer and civil rights activist refusing to go to the back of a southern bus in 1940 long before Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955. In 1943 she helped lead activists to desegregate lunch counters 17 years ahead of the famous Woolworth lunch counter protests. While in law school she wrote a legal argument that was later used to win in the Supreme Court and overturn the doctrine of separate but equal. Not just a ground breaking lawyer and a feminist but also a non-binary person who had to remain in the closet as did everyone back then. Her personal relationship with Eleanor Roosevelt is discussed in this autobiography as well as the 2016 book by Patricia Bell-Scott, “The Firebrand and the First Lady”. A deeply spiritual person all her life, for her final act she became the first black female Episcopalian priest. She was recently the focus of a wonderful biographical documentary, “My Name is Pauli Murray”, which is still available on Amazon Prime. It’s well worth watching as is this book and her first, “Proud Shoes”, fine reading. She was truly a five star person. 5*****
Note : As of 5/1/2024 the movie was no longer available on Netflix; but when I just checked it was listed as available on Amazon Prime Video and Hulu
Granddaughter of a slave and great granddaughter of a slave holder Pauli was brought up in the Jim Crow south. A graduate of Hunter College she was the first black woman to attend Howard Law School. She was a labor organizer and civil rights activist refusing to go to the back of a southern bus in 1940 long before Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955. In 1943 she helped lead activists to desegregate lunch counters 17 years ahead of the famous Woolworth lunch counter protests. While in law school she wrote a legal argument that was later used to win in the Supreme Court and overturn the doctrine of separate but equal. Not just a ground breaking lawyer and a feminist but also a non-binary person who had to remain in the closet as did everyone back then. Her personal relationship with Eleanor Roosevelt is discussed in this autobiography as well as the 2016 book by Patricia Bell-Scott, “The Firebrand and the First Lady”. A deeply spiritual person all her life, for her final act she became the first black female Episcopalian priest. She was recently the focus of a wonderful biographical documentary, “My Name is Pauli Murray”, which is still available on Amazon Prime. It’s well worth watching as is this book and her first, “Proud Shoes”, fine reading. She was truly a five star person. 5*****
Note : As of 5/1/2024 the movie was no longer available on Netflix; but when I just checked it was listed as available on Amazon Prime Video and Hulu
April 29, 2022
Pauli Murray is a badass hero of the civil rights and women's movement. Pauli is also a gifted writer, and their autobiography is a tale of unending perseverance of a person years ahead of their time. Pauli was arrested for not moving to the back of the bus in the 1930s and organized lunch counter sit-ins in the 1940s. They wrote legal briefs in law school with groundbreaking ides that would eventually be used by other lawyers to overturn school segregation and discrimination against women.
It is dense. Pauli is a genius and they discuss at length the legal basis for their opinions so this is a 570 page book that needs to be read slowly and savored. I highly recommend people read about Pauli Murray in their own words, though. The world - all Americans at least - should know who Pauli Murray is and the many, many, many groundbreaking things they did.
The only negative is that Pauli (assigned female at birth) was gender queer and exclusively attracted to women; however, that aspect of their life is not mentioned at all. This is documented very thoroughly in Pauli's papers and letters which have been archived, but Pauli chose to exclude it in their autobiography. Their significant girlfriends are Peg Holmes and Irene "Renee" Barlow who has been described as Pauli's life partner despite them never sharing a home. Both are only referred to as "friends." Peg Holmes gets only a brief mention. Renee on the other hand gets a couple of chapters about how awesome Pauli thought she was and how their relationship changed the direction of Pauli's life so even though they only call her a friend, the strength if their love is fairly obvious. But if you're looking for queer content, you should probably read a biography about Pauli which does not censor the queer content.
It is dense. Pauli is a genius and they discuss at length the legal basis for their opinions so this is a 570 page book that needs to be read slowly and savored. I highly recommend people read about Pauli Murray in their own words, though. The world - all Americans at least - should know who Pauli Murray is and the many, many, many groundbreaking things they did.
The only negative is that Pauli (assigned female at birth) was gender queer and exclusively attracted to women; however, that aspect of their life is not mentioned at all. This is documented very thoroughly in Pauli's papers and letters which have been archived, but Pauli chose to exclude it in their autobiography. Their significant girlfriends are Peg Holmes and Irene "Renee" Barlow who has been described as Pauli's life partner despite them never sharing a home. Both are only referred to as "friends." Peg Holmes gets only a brief mention. Renee on the other hand gets a couple of chapters about how awesome Pauli thought she was and how their relationship changed the direction of Pauli's life so even though they only call her a friend, the strength if their love is fairly obvious. But if you're looking for queer content, you should probably read a biography about Pauli which does not censor the queer content.
May 15, 2018
I was a goodreads giveaway winner of this book. It was written just before Pauli Murray died in the mid 1980s. She had quite the impressive life. A very intelligent woman who bettered herself by going to college at different times in her life. She was a labor organizer, a lawyer, and toward the end of her life an ordained minister. Though out her life she met and worked with Eleanor Roosevelt. taught at a college. She was a victim of racism her whole life but helped fight for the rights of black people.
May 15, 2021
Pauli Murray should absolutely be a household name, as she truly is an American hero. Since the book was published posthumously, it lacked editing that it severely needed. I feel like they took ALL of Pauli Murray's notes, details that she jotted down to jog her memory, and published them. This book was definitely a slog and I'm not understanding why it gets the high rating that it does?! If you want to learn about Pauli Murray, read her Wikipedia page. If you want to read Pauli Murray's diary, this is the book for you.
June 15, 2014
I learned so much from Pauli Murray's autobiography - so much civil rights history of efforts before the 60s, the impetus for the founding of NOW, the fight for the ordination of women in the Episcopal church - and all written with such honesty and thoughtfulness. I read her family history years ago, Proud Shoes, but was not aware of this book until a friend loaned it to me. It would be a great book for high school students to read about everything that's left out of their history texts.
December 24, 2018
Love, love, love this book. Pauli Murray in her own words. She was amazing feminist and civil rights leader with deep insight about the American struggle. Her writing is very strong and easy to read. This should be on reading list for everyone.
October 24, 2019
Early civil rights activist. Feminist. Lawyer. Academic. Episcopal priest.
Made significant contributions to each endeavor she undertook.
I'm reasonably well-informed, I think, so why did I never hear of her till quite recently?
Thank Patricia Spears Jones for recommending.
Recommended.
Made significant contributions to each endeavor she undertook.
I'm reasonably well-informed, I think, so why did I never hear of her till quite recently?
Thank Patricia Spears Jones for recommending.
Recommended.
November 7, 2022
From a letter to President Roosevelt written when Pauli Murray was 28:
From Eleanor Roosevelt's reply:
Pauli Murray's experience at age 59:
There are so many reasons to recommend this autobiography, it's hard to know where to start, but one thing that will stick with me is Pauli Murray's candid and nuanced reflections on her arc as an activist, from one fed up with calls for "conciliatory methods" to one who finds herself calling for a kind of conciliatory methodology herself. She is all too aware of this inner conflict, and grapples with the issues openly without any neat resolution. This is, in a weird way, re-assuring.
I wish every American would read this book.
You said yesterday that you associated yourself with young people and you emphasized their importance in the current affairs of the nation... Do you feel as we do, that the ultimate test of democracy in the United States will be the way in which it solves the Negro problem?... Have you raised your voice loud enough against the burning of our people? Why has our government refused to pass anti-lynching legislation? And why is it that the group of congressmen so opposed to the passing of this legislation are part and parcel of the Democratic Party of which you are a leader?
From Eleanor Roosevelt's reply:
I have read the copy of the letter you sent to me and I understand perfectly, but great changes come slowly. I think they are coming, however, and sometimes it is better to fight hard with conciliatory methods. The South is changing but don't push to hard.
Pauli Murray's experience at age 59:
They [younger Black activists] were engaged in a collective search for an acceptable identity, which took the form of pride in blackness, grasping the nettle of a term of former humiliation and converting it into a symbol of personal worth. Their struggle was reinforced by their numbers, through which they were able to provide one another with mutual support. By contrast, my own quest for identity had been a long, painful, relatively private search; my youthful rebellions were individualistic, and I had spontaneously resisted racial injustice without waiting for others to join me. I had come to my present plateau by small, positive accretions—periodic recognition of myself as a person of worth interspersed with desolate periods of suffering, bewilderment, anger, rage, and self-doubt—often finding myself so hemmed in by suffocating walls of exclusion that my only safety valve against frenzy was the act of pouring out my feelings through the written word.
....As one of an earlier generation of "firsts," when our numbers were few and we were vulnerable to explicit expressions of racial stereotypes, I had lived with the continual challenge of proving myself.... Little in my recent academic experiences had equipped me to cope with a sudden sea change in racial attitudes on the part of those who were enjoying privileges my generation of civil rights fighters had never known.
There are so many reasons to recommend this autobiography, it's hard to know where to start, but one thing that will stick with me is Pauli Murray's candid and nuanced reflections on her arc as an activist, from one fed up with calls for "conciliatory methods" to one who finds herself calling for a kind of conciliatory methodology herself. She is all too aware of this inner conflict, and grapples with the issues openly without any neat resolution. This is, in a weird way, re-assuring.
I wish every American would read this book.
April 10, 2021
Although she died when I was 22, I first heard of Pauli Murray when I listened to In Search of Black History on Audible. I found the chapter on her life very interesting and wanted to know more. This autobiography is interesting, detailed, well written, and well narrated.
Her life is remarkable. Born in Baltimore in 1910, her diverse ancestry included Africans, Irish, Native Americans, slaves, and slave owners. Geographically, she went from Baltimore to Pittsburgh by way of Durham, NYC, DC, New Haven, Berkeley, and Ghana. Educationally, she went from segregated schools in Durham to Hunter College, Howard University, Cal Berkeley, Radcliffe, and Yale. Vocationally, she went from cafeteria worker to Episcopal priest by way of clerk, WPA writer, and lawyer, just to name a few. She helped found CORE and NOW. She influenced Thurgood Marshall, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Ruth Bader Ginsberg. She faced obstacles along the way due to race and gender that we can barely imagine today and overcame many of them. It's an amazing story of the 20th century USA as she saw and experienced it.
Living in the DC area, I found her experiences here especially interesting. From her father's commitment and death at the infamous Crownsville State Hospital for the Negro Insane, to her efforts to integrate DC restaurants and public transportation in the 1940s, her interactions with people important to DC history, to her speaking at the National Cathedral as an Episcopal priest, she went places I've been and worked with people I've heard of for most of my life.
Her autobiography also reveals the limitations of this genre. I know from other sources that she felt very conflicted about gender identity, but she doesn't delve into that at all. That's probably because it was still barely talked about when she died in 1985. She also writes in a detached way about things that probably make her very angry, confused, and/or afraid at the time. I'm now listening to Jane Crow - a biography based on her journals and other papers - which I hope will fill in those blanks. This is still a great read.
The title comes from her poem Dark Testament, which was published after being read at a memorial service for Martin Luther King. I found a recording of her reading it. It's very much worth listening to.
https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/new....
Her life is remarkable. Born in Baltimore in 1910, her diverse ancestry included Africans, Irish, Native Americans, slaves, and slave owners. Geographically, she went from Baltimore to Pittsburgh by way of Durham, NYC, DC, New Haven, Berkeley, and Ghana. Educationally, she went from segregated schools in Durham to Hunter College, Howard University, Cal Berkeley, Radcliffe, and Yale. Vocationally, she went from cafeteria worker to Episcopal priest by way of clerk, WPA writer, and lawyer, just to name a few. She helped found CORE and NOW. She influenced Thurgood Marshall, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Ruth Bader Ginsberg. She faced obstacles along the way due to race and gender that we can barely imagine today and overcame many of them. It's an amazing story of the 20th century USA as she saw and experienced it.
Living in the DC area, I found her experiences here especially interesting. From her father's commitment and death at the infamous Crownsville State Hospital for the Negro Insane, to her efforts to integrate DC restaurants and public transportation in the 1940s, her interactions with people important to DC history, to her speaking at the National Cathedral as an Episcopal priest, she went places I've been and worked with people I've heard of for most of my life.
Her autobiography also reveals the limitations of this genre. I know from other sources that she felt very conflicted about gender identity, but she doesn't delve into that at all. That's probably because it was still barely talked about when she died in 1985. She also writes in a detached way about things that probably make her very angry, confused, and/or afraid at the time. I'm now listening to Jane Crow - a biography based on her journals and other papers - which I hope will fill in those blanks. This is still a great read.
The title comes from her poem Dark Testament, which was published after being read at a memorial service for Martin Luther King. I found a recording of her reading it. It's very much worth listening to.
https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/new....
March 25, 2024
Pauli Murray was born in 1910 and grew up in Baltimore, attending underfunded schools. “We children sat taut waiting for the chilling moment when he [the school superintendent] smiled condescendingly and said, ‘You people’ or ‘You’re a credit to your race.’ (In later years I would quip, ‘Be a credit to your space.’)” Though academically unprepared, Murray gained entrance to a selective high school and worked hard to succeed there.
Murray's family was light-skinned, and some cousins intentionally "passed" as white, which was risky. At least two cousins lost jobs upon being exposed: one (who dyed his hair blond) after he received unexpected visitors, another (who wore a wig) after it blew off in the wind.
In 1931, Murray hitched a long-distance ride on a train, as did many youth during the Depression. This was physically dangerous. On this journey, people often perceived Murray as a boy, and Murray liked having this option, at least for safety. In the 1940s, Murray corresponded with Eleanor Roosevelt about policy.
Denied admission to one law school explicitly based on race, then to another law school explicitly based on sex, Murray did have a legal career and eventually in 1965 got a JSD. Murray worked on getting the word “sex” added to nondiscrimination policies “particularly because, as a Negro woman, I knew that in many instances it was difficult to determine whether I was being discriminated against because of race or sex and felt that the sex provision would close a gap in the employment rights of all Negro women.”
This autobiography doesn't discuss Murray's sexuality or gender identity. However, Jude Ellison Doyle has summed up that Murray had relationships with women and unsuccessfully sought testosterone and other medical interventions with the hope of living as a man. One reason Murray may have given up hope for gender transition was the threat of being labeled insane and institutionalized. Because of this context, I picked Murray's autobiography for the 2024 #TransRightsReadathon.
Murray's family was light-skinned, and some cousins intentionally "passed" as white, which was risky. At least two cousins lost jobs upon being exposed: one (who dyed his hair blond) after he received unexpected visitors, another (who wore a wig) after it blew off in the wind.
In 1931, Murray hitched a long-distance ride on a train, as did many youth during the Depression. This was physically dangerous. On this journey, people often perceived Murray as a boy, and Murray liked having this option, at least for safety. In the 1940s, Murray corresponded with Eleanor Roosevelt about policy.
Denied admission to one law school explicitly based on race, then to another law school explicitly based on sex, Murray did have a legal career and eventually in 1965 got a JSD. Murray worked on getting the word “sex” added to nondiscrimination policies “particularly because, as a Negro woman, I knew that in many instances it was difficult to determine whether I was being discriminated against because of race or sex and felt that the sex provision would close a gap in the employment rights of all Negro women.”
This autobiography doesn't discuss Murray's sexuality or gender identity. However, Jude Ellison Doyle has summed up that Murray had relationships with women and unsuccessfully sought testosterone and other medical interventions with the hope of living as a man. One reason Murray may have given up hope for gender transition was the threat of being labeled insane and institutionalized. Because of this context, I picked Murray's autobiography for the 2024 #TransRightsReadathon.
Want to read
April 15, 2020This autobiography first appeared in 1987, two years after her death.
Born Baltimore 1910, raised largely by aunt.
"Murray's powerful intelligence, her ingenuity, and her ambition..." BA Hunter College, law degree Howard [the only woman in the class] JSD from Yale. [1938 U N Carolina grad school would not admit blacks] [1942 Harvard Law School said admission not open to women].
Was a very early activist in civil rights: jailed in Virginia in 1940 for refusing to give up her bus seat to white person; organized lunch-counter sit-ins in DC in 1943!
Had several white ancestors, made things more complicated.
Published legal works, some of her arguments still cited today.
And a "remarkable family history, "Proud Shoes". It is difficult today to believe that Proud Shoes was publ in 1956. Murray uses the story of her family as an inquiry into the history of race in America...a complex understanding of slavery..."
Gradually into women's rights: JFK apptd her to Comm on Status of Women 1961, she contributed valuable legal arguments.
Co-founded NOW [w Betty Friedan] but found it focused too exclusively on gender and neglected black women.
"Motivated in part by her anger at the exclusion of women from positions of leadership in her beloved Episcopal Church, she entered Genl Theolog Seminary at the age of 63." Ordained in 1977.
Devoted lifelong friendship with Irene Barlow. The autobiography does not mention her "in between" gender identity. Rosalind Rosenberg's biography, Jane Crow, 2017, details this private anguish. Murray did not identify as lesbian "She was not attracted women who desired women. She was instead 'a girl who should have been a boy'."
"Intersectionality [term introduced 1989] has become a widely accepted framework for capturing the complex ways gender, race, sexuality, and other forms of social hierarchy and discrimination reinforce one another in defining status and power. Murray lived, fought and chronicled this reality."
Born Baltimore 1910, raised largely by aunt.
"Murray's powerful intelligence, her ingenuity, and her ambition..." BA Hunter College, law degree Howard [the only woman in the class] JSD from Yale. [1938 U N Carolina grad school would not admit blacks] [1942 Harvard Law School said admission not open to women].
Was a very early activist in civil rights: jailed in Virginia in 1940 for refusing to give up her bus seat to white person; organized lunch-counter sit-ins in DC in 1943!
Had several white ancestors, made things more complicated.
Published legal works, some of her arguments still cited today.
And a "remarkable family history, "Proud Shoes". It is difficult today to believe that Proud Shoes was publ in 1956. Murray uses the story of her family as an inquiry into the history of race in America...a complex understanding of slavery..."
Gradually into women's rights: JFK apptd her to Comm on Status of Women 1961, she contributed valuable legal arguments.
Co-founded NOW [w Betty Friedan] but found it focused too exclusively on gender and neglected black women.
"Motivated in part by her anger at the exclusion of women from positions of leadership in her beloved Episcopal Church, she entered Genl Theolog Seminary at the age of 63." Ordained in 1977.
Devoted lifelong friendship with Irene Barlow. The autobiography does not mention her "in between" gender identity. Rosalind Rosenberg's biography, Jane Crow, 2017, details this private anguish. Murray did not identify as lesbian "She was not attracted women who desired women. She was instead 'a girl who should have been a boy'."
"Intersectionality [term introduced 1989] has become a widely accepted framework for capturing the complex ways gender, race, sexuality, and other forms of social hierarchy and discrimination reinforce one another in defining status and power. Murray lived, fought and chronicled this reality."
November 7, 2021
Song in a Weary Throat is an engaging autobiography by the civil rights activist and feminist Pauli Murray. Beginning with early childhood, this underrated American historical figure narrates through her work with the NAACP, her friendship with Eleanor Roosevelt, her time living in Ghana, as well as her leadership roles as a university professor, Episcopal priest, political organizer, lawyer, and much more.
Her novel provides insight into her hardships and triumphs as a Black woman from living in a segregated world, to obtaining a Doctor of Juridical Science degree. Murray fulfilled her intention by drawing upon a large number of distinctive instances seldom heard otherwise: “[Segregation] could not be entirely avoided, but as I grew older and came to understand what it meant, I carried on my own private protest. I walked almost everywhere to stay off the Jim Crow streetcars and would not go downtown to the theaters because it meant climbing the back stairs to the colored ‘peanut gallery’” (Murray 32). Her objective as an activist was to inform the public about her life through her love of writing; it is evident she accomplished this task, shedding light on moments worth educating others on: “Ironically, if Howard Law School equipped me for effective struggle against Jim Crow, it was also the place where I first became conscious of the twin evil of discriminatory sex bias, which I quickly labled Jane Crow”(Murray 183). Throughout the book, I agree with her arguments, and enjoyed submerging myself into her world. She succeeded in reaching her audience, as I think all who read her narrative come away with a better understanding of American history.
I conclude that this novel is worthy of praise for its ability to keep me emotionally invested from beginning to end; her manner of describing family and friends made their inevitable deaths all the more tragic. Murray used her personal extraordinary journey to persuade her audience into better understanding and sympathizing with the problematic realities of her time, many of which still exist today. I would not hesitate to recommend this book to others, so they can acquaint themselves with a forgotten leader of the civil rights era whose life holds lessons that readers can learn and grow from.
Her novel provides insight into her hardships and triumphs as a Black woman from living in a segregated world, to obtaining a Doctor of Juridical Science degree. Murray fulfilled her intention by drawing upon a large number of distinctive instances seldom heard otherwise: “[Segregation] could not be entirely avoided, but as I grew older and came to understand what it meant, I carried on my own private protest. I walked almost everywhere to stay off the Jim Crow streetcars and would not go downtown to the theaters because it meant climbing the back stairs to the colored ‘peanut gallery’” (Murray 32). Her objective as an activist was to inform the public about her life through her love of writing; it is evident she accomplished this task, shedding light on moments worth educating others on: “Ironically, if Howard Law School equipped me for effective struggle against Jim Crow, it was also the place where I first became conscious of the twin evil of discriminatory sex bias, which I quickly labled Jane Crow”(Murray 183). Throughout the book, I agree with her arguments, and enjoyed submerging myself into her world. She succeeded in reaching her audience, as I think all who read her narrative come away with a better understanding of American history.
I conclude that this novel is worthy of praise for its ability to keep me emotionally invested from beginning to end; her manner of describing family and friends made their inevitable deaths all the more tragic. Murray used her personal extraordinary journey to persuade her audience into better understanding and sympathizing with the problematic realities of her time, many of which still exist today. I would not hesitate to recommend this book to others, so they can acquaint themselves with a forgotten leader of the civil rights era whose life holds lessons that readers can learn and grow from.
May 25, 2025
#America,G*ddamn reading challenge hosted by @scholastic_squid on StoryGraph
I listened to this audiobook with an audible trial and I think that it helped with the pacing of the book as it is a rather large text. However, Murray's prose makes you feel as if you are having a conversation with a friend over dinner or listening to your aunt tell a story at a dinner party. It just sucks you in. She paints her colorful life with such vivid details that as you read you feel as if you've gone back in time to experience her life with her.
As quite the polymath, Murray's life takes many turns that often thrust her into the center of the most important racial, gender, and intersectional struggles of her time. Her detailed discussion of her frustration with the Civil Rights leaders who seemed to pay little attention to the issues of gender that coincided with the struggles of race remains poignant today. Particularly, as Murray outlined her work on the beginning of the Equal Rights Amendment, which still has not been ratified into the Constitution.
Excellently written and deeply vulnerable, Murray's tenacity and intelligence shine through on every page. This is not only an interesting biography, but an important detailing of United States history in the early 20th century.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Classism
Moderate: Violence, Police brutality
Minor: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Alcohol
intellectual property theft and/or plagerism
I listened to this audiobook with an audible trial and I think that it helped with the pacing of the book as it is a rather large text. However, Murray's prose makes you feel as if you are having a conversation with a friend over dinner or listening to your aunt tell a story at a dinner party. It just sucks you in. She paints her colorful life with such vivid details that as you read you feel as if you've gone back in time to experience her life with her.
As quite the polymath, Murray's life takes many turns that often thrust her into the center of the most important racial, gender, and intersectional struggles of her time. Her detailed discussion of her frustration with the Civil Rights leaders who seemed to pay little attention to the issues of gender that coincided with the struggles of race remains poignant today. Particularly, as Murray outlined her work on the beginning of the Equal Rights Amendment, which still has not been ratified into the Constitution.
Excellently written and deeply vulnerable, Murray's tenacity and intelligence shine through on every page. This is not only an interesting biography, but an important detailing of United States history in the early 20th century.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Classism
Moderate: Violence, Police brutality
Minor: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Alcohol
intellectual property theft and/or plagerism
January 16, 2020
This was a lovely autobiography of Pauli Murray, a woman whose story I didn't know nearly well enough. Starting from childhood, and ending with her ordination as an Episcopal priest in 1977, Murray tells the story of her life, highlighting her battles with Jim and Jane Crow, as she seems to drift from one major conflict of the 20th century to another. Her story was intriguing for the ways in which these various strands pull together, and for her distinct voice, very much a product of her times, and very much not a voice of our time, which makes sense given that it was written in the early 1980s. I was particularly struck by her impassioned argument for the maintenance of the word "Negro" over the word "black" in the early 1970s - it was a poignant reminder of the power of language, and the multivalence of words, particularly around questions of race. Her reflections upon visiting Elmina Castle in Ghana were incredibly powerful, and served to underline her contrasts of West Africans in the mid-1960s with African Americans. Cut short by her death in 1985, this book doesn't speak much at all to her experience as an ordained priest, but her faith infuses the book. I was struck by this quote from Caroline Ware's epilogue, which borrowed the phrase from Murray's Dark Testament:
"I speak for my race and my people -
The human race and just people"
Murray's book consistently demonstrates a broad and deep understanding of who "her people" are, through her humanity and her analysis. I'd highly recommend this book.
"I speak for my race and my people -
The human race and just people"
Murray's book consistently demonstrates a broad and deep understanding of who "her people" are, through her humanity and her analysis. I'd highly recommend this book.
January 26, 2021
This memoir gave a deeper insight into one of the most extraordinary lives of the 20th century. Patriarchal, racist, homophobic & sexist attitudes are the only fathomable reasons this life is not known along with the renowned leaders of the Black Freedom Movement (Civil Rights). She was a trailblazer, legal genius whose legal arguments laid the foundation for the assault on "Plessy vs Ferguson" and the inclusion of women on under Title 7 of federal law, an activist who pioneered non-violent tactics & a teacher how nurtured young people to achieve high standards & push for change. Long before the NCA&T sit-ins of 1960, she oversaw & strategized Howard University student sit-ins that opened the restaurants of DC. Long before Rosa Parks refused to move back, she did likewise & challenged the bus segregation in VA. Long before Alabama Governor George Wallace barred the doors of the University of Alabama to Black students, she challenged the Whites-only admissions policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. When MLK was assassinated, many leaders used her poetry, written 23 years earlier, to express the rage & state of mind of her people. Ultimately she became the first Black women ordained Episcopal minister & she challenged the male-only protocols. She was the major force in developing & mentoring the first wave of lawyers at its first school of law under Kwame Nkrumah'snewly independent Ghana. In all these struggles she advocated, mentored, taught, led & inspired generations of Black, women, LGBT+ & downtrodden masses to forces changes. Just read it.
October 16, 2021
I discovered this book as if I was living out a publisher's dream. I happened upon Norton's website and saw SONG IN A WEARY THROAT and read the description. It was obvious Pauli Murray was a key American figure and yet I had never heard of her, and so I thought I should redress this hole in my education and ordered her memoir. Reading her story gave the rare glimpse of worlds and eras that were both close and distant-a highly intelligent black woman raised in South Carolina, spending much of her career in NYC, with a distinguished career as a pioneering lawyer and activist for civil and women's rights, a friend of Eleanor Roosevelt, who also became one of the first ordained women in the Episcopal Church. She was part of the Howard University students who developed the nonviolent sit-in strategy at diners; she developed the argument later used in Brown V. Board of Education arguing that "separate but equal" violated the 14th amendment--the same argument later used by Ruth Bader Ginsburg regarding women. She was also one of the founders of the National Organization for Women. Murray is a wonderful example of those crucial quiet heroes that work to move a nation forward, even though some other hero gets the credit. Still, I loved hearing her thoughts and experiences (such as traveling cross country hopping train cars disguised as a boy during the Depression or teaching law in Ghana right after its independence only to realize the leader was becoming a dictator). She never gained any financial security but served others throughout her life. She is an inspiring human being.
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