In October 2021, the Pauli Murray Fellowships were established by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

The Spring 2026 ACLU Magazine reported on two activists, Areej Qadeer and Ollie Henry, who were selected for the 18-month positions in non-profit management at the ACLU. Areej had been working in grassroots organizing in the American-Muslim community, serving on the Council of American-Islamic Relations’ legal team. Ollie’s work for reparations, advocating at the intersection of gender, disability, and race positioned her to support the ACLU’s initiatives in these areas. Part of their work had involved leading workshops for high school and college students at the ACLU National Advocacy Institute, which focused on building coalitions for intersectional legal work.

Areej and Ollie wrote that Pauli Murray’s words from the 1940s were a source of inspiration for them: “When my brothers try to draw a circle to exclude me, I shall draw a larger circle to include them.…I shall shout for the rights of all mankind” (from “An American Credo”, published in  Common Ground in 1945).

– Mary Beth Clack, Mary Blocher, Cindy Coldren, Pat Krol, Liz Levin