While recognizing that new contributions to the growing body of research and commentary on her life and ministry continues apace, this suite of webpages presents a set of resources for further discovery of the multi-faceted life of Pauli Murray. Our ongoing interest in providing a resource for inquirers is inspired by her example and steadfast pursuit of truth and relationship. We hope you enjoy your journey in this space and beyond. Please see below a bibliography of articles and books about her and on the right, links for other types of resources.
Murray’s Own Words
Murray, Pauli. Proud Shoes : The Story of an American Family. NY: Harper & Row, 1978.
Murray, Pauli. Song in a Weary Throat : An American Pilgrimage. 1st ed. NY: Harper & Row, 1987.
Papers of Pauli Murray, 1827-1985, housed at the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University.
Included in this collection are “correspondence; clippings, pamphlets, and other published materials collected by Murray; photographs; drafts of Murray’s speeches, sermons, and writings; financial records; and materials about Murray’s ancestors. The collection is rich in documenting most aspects of Murray’s paid and unpaid work, travels, and active interests, although her personal life is less well documented.” —The Library
Of note are 120 audiocassettes cover interviews with Pauli Murray on her life story and her thoughts on topics such as her vocations, writings, social justice, the law, protest, her decision to become a priest, and her thoughts about The Episcopal Church and women priests. Included also are sermons and poetry readings by Pauli Murray. A selection of the audiotapes has been digitized by the library and are freely available online via the following links.
Articles & Books about Murray
Anderson, Victor. Pragmatic Theology: Negotiating the Intersections of an American Philosophy of Religion and Public Theology. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998.
Antler, Joyce. “Pauli Murray: The Brandeis Years.” Journal of Women’s History 14, no. 2 (2002): 78-82.
Azaransky, Sarah. The Dream is Freedom: Pauli Murray and American Democratic Faith. NY: Oxford University Press, 2011.
Azaransky, Sarah. “Roundtable: Embodying Radical Democracy: Pauli Murray’s Legacies and Resources for a Common Freedom Struggle: Introduction.” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 29, no.1 (2013): 141-142.
Azaransky, Sarah. “Jane Crow: Pauli Murray’s Intersections and Antidiscrimination Law.” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 29, no.1 (2013): 155-160
Bell-Scott, Patricia. The Firebrand and the First Lady: Portrait of a Friendship: Pauli Murray, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Struggle for Social Justice. NY : Alfred A. Knopf, 2016.
Bell-Scott, Patricia. “To Write Like Never Before: Pauli Murray’s Enduring Yearning.” Journal of Women’s History 14, no. 2 (2002): 58-61.
Brown, Flora Bryant. “N.A.A.C.P. Sponsored Sit-Ins by Howard University Students in Washington, D.C., 1943-1944.” The Journal of Negro History 85, no. 4 (2000): 274-86.
Bucher, Christina. “Pauli Murray: A Case for the Poetry.” North Carolina Literary Review, 2004.
Caldbeck, Elaine. “The Poetry of Pauli Murray, African American Civil Rights Lawyer and Priest.” In Gender, Ethnicity, and Religion: Views from the Other Side, edited by Rosemary Radford Ruether, 45-65. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2002.
Collier-Thomas, Bettye. Daughters of Thunder: Black Women Preachers and Their Sermons, 1850-1979. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1997.
Dr. Pauli Murray, Episcopal Priest (obituary). New York Times, July 4, 1985.
Drury, Doreen M. “Love, Ambition, and ‘Invisible Footnotes’ in the Life and Writing of Pauli Murray.” Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture & Society 11, no.3 (2009): 295-309
Drury, Doreen M. “Boy-Girl, Imp, Priest: Pauli Murray and the Limits of Identity.” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 29, no.1 (2013): 142-147.
Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina. Pauli Murray: Biographical Timeline.
Gilmore, Glenda. “Admitting Pauli Murray.” Journal of Women’s History 14, no. 2 (2002): 62-67.
Gilmore, Glenda. Defying Dixie: The Radical Roots of Civil Rights, 1919-1950. NY: W.W. Norton & Co., 2008.
Hartmann, Susan M. “Pauli Murray and ‘Juncture of Women’s Liberation and Black Liberation’.” Journal of Women’s History 14, no. 2 (2002): 74-77.
Haynes, Rosetta R. Radical Spiritual Motherhood: Autobiography and Empowerment in Nineteenth-Century African American Women. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1991.
Humez, Jean M. “Pauli Murray’s Histories of Loyalty and Revolt.” Black American Literature Forum 24, no. 2 (1990): 315-55.
Mack, Kenneth. Representing the Race: The Creation of the Civil Rights Lawyer. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 2012.
Mayeri, Serena, “Pauli Murray and the Twentieth-Century Quest for Legal and Social Equality” (2014). Faculty Scholarship at Penn Law, 1530.
Mayeri, Serena. Reasoning From Race: Feminism, Law, and the Civil Rights Revolution. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 2011.
McNeish, Marya, Remembering RBG and Her Connection to Pauli Murray, September 24, 2020. The Resource Center for Women and Ministry in the South, Durham NC.
O’Dell, Darlene. Sites of Southern Memory: The Autobiographies of Katharine Du Pre Lumpkin, Lillian Smith, and Pauli Murray. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2001.
Olson, Lynn. Freedom’s Daughters: The Unsung Heroines of the Civil Rights Movement from 1830-1970. NY: Scribner, 2001.
Peppard, Christiana Z. “Poetry, Ethics, and the Legacy of Pauli Murray.” Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics 30, no.1 (2010): 21-43.
Peppard, Christiana Z. “Democracy, the Verb: Pauli Murray’s Poetry as a Resource for Ongoing Freedom Struggles.” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 29, no.1 (2013): 148-155.
Pinn, Anthony B, ed. Pauli Murray: Selected Sermons and Writings. Maryknoll NY: Orbis, 2006.
Pinn, Anthony B. “Pauli Murray’s Triadic Strategy of Engagement.” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 29, no.1 (2013): 160-164.
Rosenberg, Rosalind. “The Conjunction of Race and Gender.” Journal of Women’s History 14, no. 2 (2002): 68-73.
Rosenblum, Leah and Brianne Garrett, “Meet the Forgotten Woman Who Forever Changed the Lives of LGBTQ+ Workers,” Forbes Daily Cover, June 26, 2020.
Rupp, Leila J. and Verta Taylor. “Pauli Murray: The Unasked Question.” Journal of Women’s History 14, no. 2 (2002): 83-87.
Saxby, Troy R. Pauli Murray. Chapel Hill NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2020.
Schultz, Kathryn. The Many Lives of Pauli Murray, The New Yorker, April 10, 2017.
Scott, Anne Firor, ed. Pauli Murray and Caroline Ware: Forty Years of Letters in Black and White. Chapel Hill NC: University of North Carolina, 2006.
Sherman, Richard B. The Case of Odell Waller and Virginia Justice, 1940-1942. Knoxville TN: The University of Tennessee Press, 1992.
Strum, Phillippa. Pauli Murray’s Indelible Mark on the Fight for Equal Rights. American Civil Liberties Union, June 24, 2020.
Taylor, Verta and Leila J. Rupp. “Lesbian Existence and the Women’s Movement: Researching the ‘Lavender Herring’.” In Feminism and Social Change: Bridging Theory and Practice, edited by Heidi Gottfried, 143-59. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1996.
Ware, Susan. “Pauli Murray’s Notable Connections.” Journal of Women’s History 14, no. 2 (2002): 54-57.
Williams, Patricia J. The Alchemy of Race and Rights: Diary of a Law Professor. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1991.