Pauli Murray
Durham, Durham County, North Carolina
Marker Inscription
Pauli Murray 1910 1985. First African American female Episcopal priest; lawyer, activist, poet, & human rights champion. Wrote Proud Shoes, 1956. Childhood home ¼ mi. S.
Erected by North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources
The Story
Pauli Murray grew up in Durham, in a childhood home a quarter mile south of here, and went on to break barrier after barrier. A lawyer, activist, poet, and writer of the memoir Proud Shoes (1956), Murray helped shape the legal arguments behind the civil rights and women's movements, and in later life became the first African American woman ordained an Episcopal priest. Few Americans left a mark across so many fields.
Why it matters
Murray stands at the crossroads of the civil rights and women's rights movements, an intellectual whose ideas influenced landmark struggles for equality across the twentieth century.
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Related people
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Themes & tags
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