The Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray: An Innovative Legal Firebrand
The Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray: An Innovative Legal Firebrand
Author’s note: Scholar Naomi Simmons-Thorne writes: "Given the rigid enforcement of the gender binary, we do not, nor will we ever know, [Pauli] Murray’s true gender identity."[1] To reflect this, this piece uses they/them/theirs, she/her/hers, and he/him/his pronouns interchangeably.
“No law which imprisons my body or custom which wounds my spirit can stop me.”[2]
Pauli Murray was unstoppable as an activist, priest, and human rights lawyer. Throughout their life, they were a key player in the fight for African Americans’, workers’, and women's rights. Murray’s story shows us the value of living our truth, documenting our own stories, and creating true community.
Pauli Murray was born in 1910 to Agnes Fitzgerald and William Murray in Baltimore, Maryland. After Agnes died when Murray was three-years-old and William’s mental health suffered, young Murray was sent to live with her mother’s family in Durham, North Carolina. William was eventually admitted to a mental hospital where a white guard murdered him.
Murray attended Hunter College and graduated in 1933. Throughout the 1930s, Murray actively questioned his gender and sex. He asked physicians for hormone therapy and exploratory surgery to investigate his reproductive organs, but he was consistently denied gender-affirming medical care.
Murray enrolled in Howard University School of Law in 1941 to become a civil rights lawyer. She was the only person perceived as a woman in her class and coined the term “Jane Crow'' to describe the intersectional oppression faced by Black women. As a law student, she helped form the Congress of Racial Equality, took part in several restaurant sit-ins, and continued to wield their typewriter. For their final thesis, Murray wrote a paper outlining a new strategy for dismantling segregation and overturning Plessy v. Ferguson. This strategy later ensured the 1954 Brown v. Board win. In 1944, Murray graduated at the top of her class.
Murray completed their Master of Laws degree at the University of California with a thesis titled, The Right to Equal Opportunity in Employment. Murray then served as California’s first Black deputy attorney general. In 1951, they published States’ Laws on Race and Color, which Thurgood Marshall described as the “Bible” for civil rights litigators. Murray enrolled in the Doctor of the Science of Law (JSD) program at Yale and became the first African American to receive a JSD from Yale. Murray testified in Congress to ensure legal protections for Black women and for the inclusion of “sex” as a protected category in Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Recent Supreme Court cases seeking to protect LGBTQ+ people from discrimination were successful based on Murray’s advocacy. 1
When Murray’s long-time partner Irene Barlow died in 1973, Murray left her teaching position at Brandeis University to pursue a religious calling. In 1977, Murray became the first Black person perceived as a woman to be ordained to the Episcopal priesthood in the U.S.
Murray died of cancer in 1985 and was buried with Irene in Brooklyn, New York. Murray’s archives are stored at the Schlesinger Library at Harvard University and contain 2,573 folders.
In 2011, the Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice prevented Murray’s childhood home from being demolished. In 2015, the National Trust for Historic Preservation added the home to its list of National Treasures and in December 2016, the Pauli Murray Family Home was designated a National Historic Landmark. While the building is not currently open to the public, visitors are welcome to visit the outdoor exhibit.
[1] Simmons-Thorne, Naomi. “Pauli Murray and the Pronominal Problem: a De-essentialist Trans Historiography.” Activist History Review, 30 May 2019.
[2] Murray, Pauli. “An American Credo.” Common Ground, no. 2, pg. 22-24, 1945.
Member HIGHLIGHTS
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Lee Robertson - QNotes 2021 Person of the Year
When Attorney Lee Robertson learned he’d been selected this year he modestly shared his shock and surprise while humbly adding, “There were lots of other people I thought of who deserved this.”
Sarah Saint Named Inaugural Chair of NCBA Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Committee
Brooks Pierce attorney Sarah Saint has been named the inaugural chair of the North Carolina Bar Association’s (NCBA) Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Committee (SOGI). SOGI was established in 2021 by President Jon Heyl to secure full equality for members of the LGBTQ+ community in the NCBA, the legal profession and society.
The SOGI Committee will work to oppose discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression; to promote the expertise and advancement of LGBTQ+ legal professionals; and to serve the larger LGBTQ+ community through providing legal education, resources, and information to the legal community and the public.
Cristal Robinson - Appointed to NCBA's Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Committee
Cristal Robinson (she/her), attorney at Robinson Law, has been appointed to serve on the North Carolina Bar Association’s (NCBA) Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Committee (SOGI), which was established in 2021 by NCBA President Jon Heyl to secure full equality for members of the LGBTQ+ community in the NCBA, the legal profession, and society.
The SOGI Committee will work to oppose discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression; to promote the expertise and advancement of LGBTQ+ legal professionals; and to serve the larger LGBTQ+ community through providing legal education, resources, and information to the legal community and the public.
Connie Vetter - Charlotte attorney specializing in LGBTQ+ law reflects on 27 years and those ahead
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A Plaza Midwood attorney, with a long history of representing LGBTQ+ clients, said she’s always ready to celebrate pride month in June and is not taking progress for granted.
Candelario Saldana - A Celebration of Our Victories and a Reminder of the Battles Ahead
As we celebrate Pride Month, we cannot forget about our progress and the work that remains. With Pride Month comes an opportunity to hold governments, companies and individuals accountable and to educate our colleagues, friends and family who are willing to learn to be better allies.
Crystal Monique Richardson: - Passing protections for discrimination based on natural hairstyles
Over the past four months, municipal governments across North Carolina have taken action to pass local ordinances protecting residents from discrimination in private employment and housing in a key areas where residents commonly face mistreatment.
Cristal Robinson - BDSM Sport and Play Consent Legalities Present Challenges
As more people communicate their wants and needs to the world, and hopefully their partners, we understand that more and more people have similar kinks and non-sexual conduct needs.
Amicus Brief in M.E. v. T.J.
On April 12, 2021, the Pauli Murray LGBTQ+ Bar Association (“PMBA”) filed an Amicus Curiae brief in support of the Plaintiff-Appellee, M.E. This brief was filed in conjunction with Legal Aid of North Carolina and the North Carolina Justice Center, together as, Amici. As an affiliate of the National LGBT Bar Association, we are charged with promoting justice in and through the legal profession for the LGBTQ+ community, as such PMBA seeks to prevent discrimination against North Carolina’s LGBTQ+ Citizens.
As her namesake, the Pauli Murray LGBTQ+ Bar Association supports the ruling that it is unconstitutional to deny same-gender loving couples the right to obtain a domestic violence protection order, otherwise known as a Rule 50(B). Pauli Murray was a civil rights lawyer, educator, essayist, poet, pastor, and activist, among many other things. Pauli Murray inspired and shaped Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s ruling in the historic 1971 Supreme Court case Reed v. Reed, where the court recognized women as a victim of sex discrimination. The very essence of Pauli Murray’s work embodied equal protections under the law for LGBTQ+ citizens. Under North Carolina law, a person in a same-gender loving dating relationship could not obtain a domestic violence protection order the same as a person in an opposite-gender loving dating relationship. This law violates the lives and safety of those that depend on domestic-violence protective orders.
According to the North Carolina Courts, over thirty-thousand (30,000) victims of domestic violence seek protective orders under Chapter 50B. These victims are often without legal representation while being forced to navigate complex legal systems; and the court should not further complicate these matters by making it difficult for LGBTQ+ North Carolinians to be afforded the same protection. The appellate courts have rightly been sensitive to the procedural pitfalls that come with the territory of seeking a Rule 50B, and we stand by this ruling.
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