Murray, Pauli
1910 - 1985

Details
Alias: Anna Pauline Murray
Born: 11/10/1910 in Baltimore, Maryland
Died: 7/1/1985
Ethnicity: African American/Black
Professional Facts
Practice Area:
Civil Rights
Profession:
Constitutional law
Civil rights
Regions and States of Practice:
NY, Northeast
CA, West
Legal Education:
UC Berkeley School of Law - Boalt Hall, 1945
Howard University School of Law, 1944
Yale Law School, 1965
Other Education:
B.A., Hunter College (1933)
Brookwood Labor College (1936-1937)
Positions During Her Career:
Assistant Attorney General (1946)
Clerk at a small New York law firm (1947)
Attorney at a Manhattan law firm (1947-?)
Author of a comprehensive study of state laws on race, two autobiographical novels, and a book of poetry
Private practitioner with Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison (1956-1959)
Commissioned by the Ghana Board of Legal Education to teach in American law in Ghana (1959-1960)
Served on Kennedy's Committee on Civil and Political Rights (1962)
Consultant to the EEOC (1966)
Taught within the American Studies department at Brandeis (1967-1977)
Ordained among the first women priests in the Episcopal church
Firsts:
African-American woman to work in the California Attorney General's office (1946)
African-American woman to work at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison (1956)
African-American person to attain a Doctorate of Juridical Science at Yale (1965)
Woman senior class president of Howard University's law school
African-American woman lawyer to publish a lead article in a major law review
Accomplishments:
Winner of the Rosenwald Fellowship for graduate study in law (1944-1945)
Winner of award by the National Council of Negro Women (1945)
Recipient of the Mademoiselle Magazine Merit Award (1946)
Further Research Materials

References:
Susan Ware (Editor) and Stacy Braukman, Notable American Women: A Biographical Dictionary Completing The Twentieth Century. The Bellknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts 2004.
Glenda Gilmore, Before Brown: Pauli Murray and the Desegregation of Higher Education, 6 Rutgers Race & The Law Review 247 (2004)
The American Heartbreak: A Biographical Sketch of Pauli Murray
Paul L. Edenfield, The American Heartbreak: A Biographical Sketch of Pauli Murray, 27 Legal Studies Forum 733 (2003)
Leila J. Rupp & Verta Taylor, Pauli Murray: The Unasked Question, 14 Journal of Women's History 83 (2002)
Darlene O'Dell, Sites of Southern Memory: The Autobiographies of Katharine du Pre Lumpkin, Lillian Smith, and Pauli Murray. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia (2001)
Elaine Sue Caldbeck, A Religious Life of Pauli Murray: Hope and Struggle, Ph.D. dissertation, Northwestern University (2000)
Smith, J. Clay (John Clay), Emancipation : The Making of the Black Lawyer, 1844-1944. Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press (1993)
Isobel V. Morin, Women Who Reformed Politics. Minneapolis: Oliver Press (1994)
Jessie Carney Smith (Editor), Notable Black American Women. Detroit : Gale Research (1992)
Pauli Murray Papers, 1827-1985: A Finding Aid
Pauli Murray Papers, 1827-1985: A Finding Aid Murray, Pauli, 1910- . Papers, 1827-1985: A Finding Aid, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, August 1992 , available at: nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:RAD.SCHL:sch00067
Jean M. Humez, Pauli Murray's Histories of Loyalty and Revolt, 24 (2) Black American Literature Forum 315-335 (1990) (20th-Century Autobiography). (Summer, 1990)
Pauli Murray, Pauli Murray: The Autobiography of a Black Activist, Feminist, Lawyer, Priest and Poet. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press (1989)
Elly Haney, Pauli Murray: Acting and Remembering, 4 (2) Journal Feminist Studies in Religion (1988)
Suzanne R. Hiatt, Pauli Murray: May Her Song Be Heard at Last, 4 (2) Journal Feminist Studies in Religion (1988)
Nellie McKay, Pauli Murray (1910-1985). In Dictionary of Literary Biography: Afro-American Poets since 1955, Vol. 41, pp. 248-251. Detroit: Gale Research (1985)
Elizabeth Leland, Pauli Murray Returns to Fulfill A Prophesy, The Chapel Hill Newspaper, 14 February 1977.
Genna Rae McNeil, "Interview with Pauli Murray, February 12, 1976, Alexandria, Virginia." (May 16, 1976) Southern Historical Collection and Manuscripts, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina
Barbaralee Diamonstein, Open Secrets: Ninety-four Women in Touch With Our Time. New York: Viking Press (1972)
Pauli Murray, Dark Testament and Other Poems. Norwalk, Conn.: Silvermine Publishers (1970)
Pauli Murray and Leslie Rubin, The Constitution and Government of Ghana. London: Sweet and Maxwell (1961)
Laura Miller Derry, Digest of Women Lawyers and Judges. Lousville, Kentucky: Dunne Press (1949)

Links:
Strangers to Us All: Lawyers and Poetry

Student Papers:
Surrender to none the fire of your soul*: Pauli Murray's Early Civil Rights Activism and Her Influence on Brown v. Board of Education
Demeke, Christa M, 2001
Pauli Murray
Lackey, Marissa, 2004