Pauli Murray's writings helped NAACP lawyers challenge racial segregation, their advocacy helped keep "sex" in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and they co-founded the National Organization for Women. The house in Durham, North Carolina, where Murray grew up is now the Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice.
Pauli Murray
Born Anna Pauline Murray, Murray was a civil rights activist, lawyer, educator, writer and minister, whose scholarship and activism shaped the civil rights movement, the women's rights movement and U.S. legal history. Throughout their life Murray struggled with their gender, and scholars have suggested they identified as transgender.
- Civil rights. Murray took part in civil rights protests and helped establish the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Later, lawyers with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) consulted Murray's writings as they challenged segregation in schools and other spaces.
- Women's rights. Murray's advocacy was integral to keeping "sex" in Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which barred employment discrimination against women. Two years after the act passed, Murray co-founded the National Organization for Women (NOW).
The family home
The Pauli Murray Family Home is the only surviving building closely associated with Murray's life.
| Year | |
|---|---|
| 1898 | Murray's grandparents, Robert G. and Cornelia S. Fitzgerald, build the house in Durham's West End, a historically Black, working-class neighborhood |
| 1914 | Murray comes to live with their grandparents and their aunts, Pauline Fitzgerald Dame and Sallie Fitzgerald |
| 1926 | Murray leaves Durham for higher education, but keeps returning to the house |
| 1948 | The aunts move to New York City to live with Murray |
| 2016 | The house is designated a National Historic Landmark |
| 2024 | The center joins the African American Civil Rights Network |
The center today
Working from Murray's childhood home, the center brings people together across divisions of race, class, sexual orientation and gender identity, and spiritual practice to address lasting inequities and injustice in local, national and global communities.
The African American Civil Rights Network
Created by the African American Civil Rights Act of 2017 and coordinated by the National Park Service, the network recognizes the African American civil rights movement and the sacrifices of those who fought discrimination and segregation. It tells the stories of the movement's people, places and events through public and private properties, facilities and programs.
Sources
Based on "Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice (Durham, North Carolina)," National Park Service, African American Civil Rights Network; a work of the United States government in the public domain.
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from www.nps.gov
1
0
0
0
Comments
