[Durham INC] Column: What will Pauli Murray's legacy be? (Herald-Sun)

[John Schelp]

Column: What will Murray's legacy be? 
By Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan, Herald-Sun, 10 Aug 2009  

Whooo ... Are ... You? The caterpillar in "Alice in Wonderland" poses the question in fantastical puffs of smoke, but the question is a sober one. A thoughtful one. We can all give a quick answer: our name. I'm Dawn. 

Americans like identifying ourselves by our occupations, too. I'm a journalist. We move on to parenthood, where we live, where we're from, where we went to school, our political persuasions, our social activities, our religion -- really the list is endless. 

Somewhere in there is race. Some people, like me, don't usually mention it because it's not significant to them. I'm not reminded daily of being white. It's something I take for granted, in that any discrimination I feel would be based on gender, not race. If I were a Duke professor breaking into my own house, police probably wouldn't be very suspicious of me. 

While our president and events in the news lately have brought to light our national reaction to America's racial relations, reconciliation and history, someone raised here in Durham brought up the subject half a century ago. That would be Pauli Murray. Perhaps you've seen her face splashed in bright colors of paint on buildings around the city. 

I wrote the story that ran Sunday about the latest developments in The Pauli Murray Project, started at Duke earlier this year. Murray's accomplished life spanned much of the 20th century. She was the first African-American Episcopal priest. She broke gender and racial barriers and was a lawyer and a poet. I think we can all find a way to identify with her on some level. She called people out. That's what I like best about her. She questioned authority. She literally would not sit at the back of the bus. 

Murray also showed us that not everyone is just white or just black. At a time when any black heritage at all meant that you were black, period, Murray wrote about her multiracial family history in "Proud Shoes: The Story of an American Family." It was published in 1956. Pause and think about that for a minute. That was way before I was born, but I know enough U.S. history to know that our country was just waking up to stamping out the injustice white Americans shoved onto African Americans. We certainly weren't a cross-racial nation joining in a round of beers together at the White House. 

I wrote my column last week about a Durham man who went out of his way to return a found laptop computer because it was the right thing to do. Murray called out her ancestors and discussed her family history publicly because it was the right thing to do. She questioned the admissions policy at UNC and Harvard because it was the right thing to do. Doing the right thing can present itself in myriad ways. The right thing for us to do in Durham, as the city that raised Murray, is to recognize what she has done for us as a city and a country. How the Pauli Murray Project takes shape may be guided by its steering committee, but the result will be completed by you. What will Pauli Murray do in Durham, now 24 years after her death? Will she spark conversation? Will her image grace more public art space than the murals? Will her legacy inspire fellow Hillside High graduates to succeed? Will she inspire women to become priests or lawyers? Will Durham spread the
word about one of its own? I don't have the answer. You do. 

Now, Pauli Murray wasn't the first and won't be the last person who grew up in Durham and went on to do great things. If you think a Durhamite that has been forgotten or overlooked deserves some attention, let me know.