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University of North Carolina and NAACP
In 1938, Pauli Murray applied for admission to the Graduate School of the University of North Carolina. She was denied acceptance because of her race. With the support of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Murray’s case received national publicity. However, it was a futile attempt.
Jane Crow: the Life of Pauli Murray, 65-66. -
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Pauli Murray
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Bus Boycott
Murray challenged segregation on public transportation in Virginia, by refusing to move to the back of a bus, and was subsequently arrested and jailed for several days.
https://www.nytimes.com/1985/07/04/us/dr-pauli-murray-episcopal-priest.html. -
Howard Law School
Murray enrolled and graduated from Howard Law School, and continued her legal studies at UC, Berkeley, where she completed her degree a year later. -
Thurgood Marshall
Murray published States’ Laws on Race and Color, a 700-page book of each state’s statutes relating to racial segregation; Thurgood Marshall referred to the book as the 'Bible' for civil rights lawyers. Thurgood Marshall, used Murray's law school work in his argument for Brown v. Board of the Education Supreme Court case, four years later.
Jane Crow: the Life of Pauli Murray, 167. -
President Kennedy's Appointment
Murray accepted a position with President John F. Kennedy’s Commission on the Status of Women, for the committee working on civil and political rights.
Song in a Weary Throat: Memoir of an American Pilgrimage, 453. -
Murray and Kenyon's Case
Murray and Dorothy Kenyon successfully argued White v. Crook, a case in which the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that women have an equal right to serve on juries.
The Washington Post, "“Judge Ginsburg's Gift." -
Academia
Murray served as vice president of Benedict College from 1967 to 1968; Murray became a professor of law and politics at Brandeis University. -
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Ruth Bader Ginsburg accredited Murray as a coauthor in her brief for the Supreme Court landmark case Reed v. Reed, that extended the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause to women.
The Washington Post, "“Judge Ginsburg's Gift." -
Priesthood in Episcopal Church
Murray became the first African American woman to become a Episcopal priest after obtaining her divinity degree from General Theological Seminary, which she was forced to retire from in 1982.
Jane Crow: the Life of Pauli Murray, 355. -
Historical Landmark
Murray was welcomed into the Episcopal church sainthood in 2012, and four years later the National Historic Landmarks Committee (NHL) designated the Pauli Murray childhood home as a National Historic Landmark after her death in 1985.
