Impact

Impact. . [First panel] Pauli Murray: The Crusader , The deep conviction that sustained Pauli Murray's activism comes alive in her poetry, which served as an outlet for her anguish, frustrations, hopes and joys. She shared her dream of freedom in the poem “Dark Testament.” ,

We have no other dream, no land but this; , With slow deliberate hands these years , Have ser her image on our brows. , We are her seed, have borne fruit , Native and pure as unblemished cotton., Then let the dream linger on. , Let it be the test of nations, , Let it be the quest of all our days. , The fevered pounding of our blood, , The measure of our souls – , That none shall rest in any land , And none return to dreamless sleep, , No heart be quieted, no tongue be stilled , Until the final man may stand in any place , And thrust his shoulders to the sky, , Friend and brother to every other man. , – Pauli Murray, Dark Testament Verse 12

, (Photo caption) Pauli Murray, The Cusader, from an album entitled The Life and Times of an American Called Pauli Murray. Courtesy of Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University , [Second panel] Brilliant Legal Strategies for Social Justice , In her pursuit of justice, Pauli Murray developed visionary strategies. As a law student, she advocated for a daring legal approach that became a foundational argument in Brown v. Board, which signaled the end of legal segregation. In the 1960s, she authored a similar strategy for the growing fight for women's rights. , Her massive legal compilation, States' Laws on Race and Color, was seen by Thurgood Marshall as the “Bible for civil rights litigators.” She joined with Mary O. Eastwood to co-author “Jane Crow and the Law,” which helped redefine women's rights law. ,

“Dorothy Kenyon and Pauli Murray … had said the same thing we were saying in the 1970s and said it in the 40s, the 50s, when society was not yet ready to listen … We knew we were standing on their shoulders.” – Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 2017

, (Photo caption) Portraits of Pauli Murray and members of her Howard Law School Graduating Class, 1944. Courtesy of Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University. , [Third panel] The Calling of Pauli Murray , As Pauli searched for ways to make a difference in the world, her activism took many forms. She led early sit-ins, ran for NY city council, taught constitutional law in Ghana, co-founded the National Organization for Women and advocated for the inclusion of sex as a protected category the 1964 Civil Rights Act among many other things. , In her final decade, following the death of partner Irene Barlow, she focused on spiritual matters. Her enduring faith and the personal confidence she had so painstakingly built led to her ordination as the first African American female Episcopal priest. In 2012 the denomination designated her an Episcopal saint. ,

“All of these problems of human rights in which I had been involved for most of my adult life…these were moral and spiritual problems.” – Pauli Murray, 1973 interview

, [Photo captions] , Top: Pauli Murray in Eucharist vestments at Holy Nativity in Baltimore, MD, 1981. Photo by Susan Mulally. Courtesy of Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University. , Bottom: Pauli Murray reading from her book, Dark Testament and other poems, first published in 1970 and later reissued in 2018. Courtesy of Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.