[Durham INC] --> Reminder: pls send short email supporting Pauli Murray marker (due late Oct 30)

[John Schelp]

Many thanks to those of you who've already emailed messages of support for a Pauli Murray marker in Durham! (See emails from your neighbors below.)

If you haven't yet, please send a short email asking the state to approve a marker for Pauli Murray. (Kindly send it by 11pm Saturday, Oct 30, to bwatu at yahoo.com)

Your support will be added to the other emails coming in -- and will be included in our submission package to the state historic marker committee. 

Feel free to use some of the information below in your message. (I will remove street numbers & email addresses from your messages. Please do include your name and town.)

Support from the community will bolster our efforts to recognize this champion for civil and human rights who grew up in Durham.

Thank you very very much,

John Schelp
Pauli Murray Project :: paulimurrayproject.org

****

Community Support for Pauli Murray marker...

I am writing to encourage your support for a marker commemorating the life, work, and ideals of Pauli Murray. Pauli Murray was a leader and visionary for all people, and Durham should proudly celebrate her connections to our city. A state marker will serve as a great reminder of her vision and accomplishments, and inspire Durham to live up to her legacy.

Wendy 

****

I am writing to urge you to support the creation of a marker in honor of Pauli Murray, one of Durham’s most significant historical residents. The accomplishments of this woman are not only extraordinary in themselves but extraordinary in that they were all accomplished in a single lifetime, especially considering gender and racial challenges she faced. She continues to be an inspiration and her influence extends well beyond Durham, North Carolina. Thank you for considering this request.

Barclay 

****

What an honor to be able to recognize such an accomplished woman that had roots in our state! What a privilege to be able to recognize her and her accomplishments. Yes, I support her recognition and ask how can we not recognize this amazing woman that accomplished so much at such a difficult time in history, not only for woman but a black woman. It is long overdue.  

Rebecca 

****

I am writing in support of the effort to get a state marker celebrating Pauli Murray as a champion for civil and human rights. Pauli Murray is one of my heroes and a person who had a profound impact on the effort both for civil rights for African-Americans and for women. I recall that she was rejected for law school by UNC because of the color of her skin and by Harvard because of her gender. She had the courage to take on the biggest problems of her time and she did so without regard to the penalties she would have to bear for challenging the status quo. 

Pauli Murray is and should be celebrated as a source of great pride for our community.

Ken 

****

I’m writing in support of the State of North Carolina acknowledge one of her most accomplished daughters, Pauli Murray. Growing up in Durham’s West End neighborhood, Murray graduated from Hillside High School. Much of the social movements of the 20th century were embodied by her actions. She worked on the Brown vs. Board of Education case that led to the end of separate but equal schools, was a founder of the National Organization for Women, and was the first black woman to be ordained an Episcopal priest.

She published many articles, essays, poems and sermons, but her most famous book is Proud Shoes: The Story of an American Family is set in Durham. Written in 1956, covering almost one hundred years of history, this story of her family includes both painful and joyful events, and is an inspiration to all who read it.

Joanne 

****

I am writing to support the great idea of dedicating a state historical marker to recognize and celebrate one of North Carolina's great citizens, Pauli Murray. As writer, civil rights advocate, and pioneer religious leader, Ms. Murray represents all that's best in our history and society and very much merits this recognition.

Steven 

****
 
Please go forward with the marker to recognize Pauli Murray who grew up here in Durham. In fact, she grew up just two blocks from where I live! I'm the president of the West End Neighborhood Association and have been impressed by the folks coming out to celebrate her life and plan for great uses of her childhood home. She is a great inspiration to anyone who has been exposed to her work/writings, but especially here in Durham where we realize any of us can strive to influence social change!
 
Thank you for your consideration,
 
Sandy 

****

I am delighted to send a letter of support encouraging the State of North Carolina to recognize the work of Pauli Murray by erecting a state marker in her honor. 
 
Pauli Murray, who grew up in Durham, was a powerful woman who stood as a champion for civil and human rights.  She touched many lives through her writing, her teachings and her sermons.  She has gained national recognition (she was an advisor to Eleanor Roosevelt and appointed by John F. Kennedy to the President’s Commission on the Status of Women, Committee on civil and Political Rights,) and it is only fitting that the State of North Carolina also honor her work.
 
Thank you for your consideration.
 
Shelly 

****

I fully share your hope for obtaining a state marker honoring Pauli Murray. We can all be proud of this impressive individual, and it is important for more citizens to know her inspiring story and her place in North Carolina History. 
    
I still recall reading "Proud Shoes" at the suggestion of my mother; it made a big impression and helped lead me toward my lifelong interests as a historian of southern race relations. 
    
Several years ago, I made note of her family when I published a short history of black Hillsborough. I am eager to see her story told more widely. 

Peter 

****

I support the Pauli Murray Project in their efforts to have a state marker erected in commemoration of civil rights activist Pauli Murray. Please do everything in your power to facilitate the creation of a state marker recognizing Pauli Murray. Thank you.

Karen 

****

My family and I have been proud members of the Greater West End Community, Durham, NC, for over 30 years.

As such, we would be thrilled and energized to have one of our community's most ardent, erudite, persistent, and faithful spokeswomen for the rights of all people, Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray, receive the recognition she had long deserved, by means of a permanent historic marker.

Groups of activists are now coming together to lift up the work of Dr. Murray. The community in which she grew up, meanwhile, needs to have a tangible sign in place, an historic marker, to commemorate her contributions and to inspire all generations henceforth to keep up the good fight for truth and justice.

The time is now; the place is here.

Ethel 

****

I'm writing to urge you to approve a state marker in the Durham community to honor Pauli Murray, a great civil rights & women's rights champion.  Pauli Murray initiated many 'firsts' in our state & community, including the first female African-American priest in the Episcopal Church in the United States, after which she performed her first Eucharist at the Chapel of the Cross Episcopal Church in Chapel Hill.

However, she also has missed some 'firsts' by virtue of the formal & informal Jim Crow laws that denied her entry to UNC law school, as well as the  UNC School of Social Work.  As she became the first African American person to receive a J.S.D. from Yale Law School (& many other positions of honor), this shameful denied entry underscores the loss to our community & state experienced by denial of African American leaders to positions of influence, to education that would help get them there.
      
In some small degree, a marker in her honor can effect a restoration of respect to a woman who did not become bitter from these rejections  - rather she championed a country that would have "...no north or south, no black or white, no male or female—only the spirit of
love and reconciliation drawing us all toward the goal of human wholeness.”
     
Thank you for your consideration of this request

Len 

****

I am writing in support of a historical marker honoring a great leader and resident of Durham, Pauli Murray.
 
I heard about her within months of arriving in Durham in 1994 and immediately found a copy of her autobiography. What an amazing life lived surfing the waves of modern transforming history. Civil rights, reclaiming proud African-American history and preserving slave memories, women's rights - all key moments where Ms. Murray was at the front lines. (Sometimes creating the front lines.) As a member of NOW in 1972, I am sad that I did not know then how much I owed Pauli Murray for helping create a group that has changed so much of our U.S. landscape and my life.
 
Then I read Proud Shoes and was thrilled with the artistic writing style and the collected history of Durham so well preserved. I was inspired to go on a quest to find her family home near the cemetery, since I happened to be reading the 1987 published version. I've driven by her home many times since then with carloads of visitors hearing her story told by me. More recently, my tours include all the wonderful murals in her honor - which take my visitors all over SW central Durham. We read Proud Shoes in my book group and it inspired a lively discussion about women's lives, Durham history, and the inter-weaving of many families.
 
Now, with the Pauli Murray project introducing new information and creating new venues for conversation and growth, Murray's life inspires us all to talk together about race and gender in the 21st century and then walk the talk.

Susan 

****

The State marker for Pauli Murray shares the celebration of a champion for civil and human rights, who grew up in Durham in our neighborhood. We want to share this history with the city of Durham, neighbors and our children. This state marker brings forth history which should not be hidden. 

Deborah 

****

I definitely support having a marker for Pauli Murray. After moving to Durham, I was pleased to discover "Proud Shoes," in which the Rev. Murray writes about her childhood in a home not far from my own, but in a very different time. Her account of her grandparents' lives is a wonderful and informative account of the generation that saw the Civil War, the end of slavery, and the rise of  a free people in the post-war South. And, of course, she was also a ground-breaking civil rights advocate, whose writing was important in making the case for desegregation in "Brown V. Board of Education."

Recently, I attended a meeting near my home of local people working to restore Pauli Murray's childhood home. I'm hopeful this will occur. Certainly, the least we can do to honor this daughter of Durham is a historic marker.

Ken 

****

I would like to express my support for The Pauli Murray Project’s request to get a state marker celebrating this champion for civil and human rights, who grew up in Durham. Please approve a marker for Pauli Murray.

In my book club, we read her family history called Proud Shoes, and I was impressed with her courage and pioneering efforts in the areas of civil and human rights, as well as her very “American” story. Durham and the state of NC should be proud to claim her as its own.

As a historian, attorney, poet, activist, teacher and Episcopal priest, she worked throughout her life to address injustice, to give voice to the unheard, to educate, and to promote reconciliation between races and economic classes. Her beautifully written memoir, Proud Shoes: The Story of an American Family, was published in 1956. The book chronicles her roots and paints a compelling portrait of Durham during its formative years.

Thank you for your consideration.

Tania 

****

I consider Pauli Murray one of my favorite local heroes who fought for the kind of community, and state, and world that I want to live in. I admire her lifelong struggle for human rights and social justice, her life of love and commitment to equality as a member of the LGBTQ community, and her work in religion-at-its-best-- an eye on the sacred allowing us to transform hate and division into love, reconciliation and wholeness.

I urge you to approve the proposed state marker that would help others in our state learn about this wonderful woman who has given us so much. Thank you for your consideration and all you do.

Dani 

****

I am writing to express my support for the creation, as well as the placing, of a marker, recognizing the talent, determination, efforts and accomplishments of longtime Durham Resident, Pauli Murray.

Ms. Murray's life uniquely represents our ever-present efforts to move from under the shadow of slavery, into a free and integrated society.

Whether it be her ability to reconcile the views of the oppressed with the oppressor (having been the creation of intimate relations between a slave owner and that of a slave); challenging the admissions process at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; becoming the first African-American in the United States to earn the designation of Episcopal Priest; or, navigating her way through the difficult task of attaining an Undergraduate Degree, Masters in Law, as well as a Juris Doctor from one of the Country's finest Law Schools (University of California - Berkley), Ms. Murray's life provides an eternal sense of hope;  representing a brightly shining example of housing for the homeless, friendship for the lonely, educational opportunity for the poor, equality for the female, representation for the poor, freedom for the oppressed and lastly, salvation and reconciliation with our lord God, through Jesus Christ.

Clearly her life has touched - and paved the way for - others; to the extent that official recognition is appropriate.

As a Citizen of Durham, NC I can state with the utmost confidence that Ms. Murray's name is regarded in the highest manner, by Durhamites of all form, no matter what type of environment I find myself in at the time; whether it be a Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People meeting, Durham Inter Neighborhood Council Session, a Democratic Party gathering, or a Durham People's Alliance meeting -- the life of Ms. Pauli Murray was such that it has left a mark of distinction on the City.

Such stature deserves nothing less than an official marker, detailing the life, determination, heroism and accomplishment, of Ms. Murray.

Darius 

****

I am writing in strong support of a state marker for Pauli Murray, an incredible champion for civil and human rights who grew up in Durham. As a queer black historian, attorney, poet, activist, teacher and Episcopal priest, she worked throughout her life to address injustice, to give voice to the unheard, to educate, and to promote reconciliation between races and economic classes. Her beautifully written memoir, Proud Shoes: The Story of an American Family, was published in 1956. The book chronicles her roots and paints a compelling portrait of Durham during its formative years.
 
Thank you very much for ensuring that the legacy of this amazing person is preserved to inspire many more generations of Durham residents.
 
Tasseli 

****

Please approve a state marker for Pauli Murray.  

Pauli Murray was a champion for civil and human rights who grew up in Durham. Her insights and vision continue to resonate powerfully in our times. As a historian, attorney, poet, activist, teacher and Episcopal priest, she worked throughout her life to address injustice, to give voice to the unheard, to educate, and to promote reconciliation between races and economic classes. By being true to herself in expressing her queerness and genderqueerness, she provides a positive role model that is necessary for our youth right now.  Her beautifully written memoir, Proud Shoes: The Story of an American Family, was published in 1956. The book chronicles her roots and paints a compelling portrait of Durham during its formative years.

Beth 

****

I would like to support in any way possible the erection of a state historic marker to honor the life of Pauli Murray. She is an important figure both nationally and locally. Her life is an inspiration to all those who value social, economic, and human justice. The fact that she is from Durham makes this marker imperative as one of many steps our community can take to commemorate her life. 

Victor 

****

I fully endorse the idea of a Pauli Murray historical marker. She embodies so many values we should hold up in our community: persistence in the face of race prejudice, high education achievement, breaking not only racial barriers but theological ones, her wisdom. As a member of the queer community, I will feel diminished if the decision is made not to approve such a marker.

Faith 

****

A marker for Pauli Murray's home is a great beginning toward recognizing her home appropriately. 

Pauli Murray accomplished so much in so many fields that if we were put up a marker for each worthy achievement in each field, the front yard would be more festooned with markers than her back yeard, which is saying a lot.

Some would protest recognizing her accomplishments because some of her accomplishments were not only controversial in her own time, but remain controversial.  However, even for those who may disagree with aspects of her life, were they to focus on the parts of her life that they agree with, they would see plenty of achievement worth marking.

Thank you for your consideration,

Philip 

****

As co-chair of the Southwest Durham Quality of Life project Steering Committee we were responsible for the Pauli Murray Place project off Jackson Street. We also engaged Brett Cook, an artist, to do the numerous Pauli Murray based murals in Durham. I am not longer with SWCD QOL but as Executive Director of NEEM and invested personally in recognition of Pauli Murray I whole heatedly support and ask that the State move forward with a marker that officially gives her the recognition she deserves in Durham.

Jeffrey 

****

It would be great to have a state marker honoring this incredible lady, Ms Pauli Murray.  Below is only a portion of the many reasons she should be recognized in this way.

Bill 

Born in Baltimore in 1910, Anna Pauline “Pauli” Murray moved to Durham in 1914 to live with her aunt, Pauline Fitzgerald Dame, after the sudden death of her mother. While living in Durham, she resided with her family on Carroll Street and was raised by her aunt and her maternal grandparents, Robert George Fitzgerald and Cornelia Smith Fitzgerald. She graduated from Hillside High School in Durham in 1923 and Hunter College in 1933. Murray had a mixed-race heritage, which included both white slave owners and African American slaves from North Carolina (maternal grandmother) and Irish and free people of color from Pennsylvania (maternal grandfather). She described her experiences growing up in a mixed-race family in Durham in her 1956 book, Proud Shoes: The Story of an American Family

****

I would like to add my vote for getting a state marker for Pauli Murray.

Fran 

****

As a long time Durham resident and business owner, I urge you to approve a state historic marker honoring Pauli Murray and all she accomplished. This is a wonderful opportunity to recognize the life of a human rights activist whose work still resonates and influences today. She is just one of the many reasons I am proud to call Durham home.

Carol 

****

Our book club read Proud Shoes and enjoyed it. We couldn't figure out exactly where she grew up so a marker would be most appreciated.

Pat 

****

Please consider a state marker for Pauli Murray.

This community has done a lot to educate Durham on who this person was and what her  works has done for the community and Durham.  Thanks.

Denice 

****

I am writing to request that the state provide a historical marker for Pauli Murray.  She was an incredible woman who lived an extraordinary life, and this marker will be one small way of pointing to a life well lived.

I live in the neighborhood where she was raised and her positive impact is still being felt, even though it has now be several years since she passed.

Todd 

****

The board of the Old West Durham Neighborhood Association has voted unanimously to support a state marker recognizing the significant accomplishments of Pauli Murray.

We join others in saying, "the time is now; the place is here."

John 

****

Please approve installing a state marker in honor of Durham's inspiring native daughter Pauli Murray. Adding a state marker for her would certainly honor an important and underrecognized figure in the history of our city, our state and our nation, and would further a sense of pride in the community that cherishes its connection with her remarkable person and accomplishments. Thank you.
 
Stacey 

"Great art is not a matter of presenting one side or another, but presenting a picture so full of the contradictions, tragedies, and insights of the period that the impact is at once disturbing and satisfying." Pauli Murray

****

I am writing to support a state marker celebrating this champion for civil and human rights, who grew up in Durham. Here's why:

Pauli Murray was a champion for civil and human rights who grew up in Durham. Her insights and vision continue to resonate powerfully in our times. As a historian, attorney, poet, activist, teacher and Episcopal priest, she worked throughout her life to address injustice, to give voice to the unheard, to educate, and to promote reconciliation between races and economic classes. Her beautifully written memoir, Proud Shoes: The Story of an American Family, was published in 1956. The book chronicles her roots and paints a compelling portrait of Durham during its formative years.

More Background: Born in Baltimore in 1910, Anna Pauline "Pauli" Murray moved to Durham in 1914 to live with her aunt, Pauline Fitzgerald Dame, after the sudden death of her mother. While living in Durham, she resided with her family on Carroll Street and was raised by her aunt and her maternal grandparents, Robert George Fitzgerald and Cornelia Smith Fitzgerald. She graduated from Hillside High School in Durham in 1923 and Hunter College in 1933. Murray had a mixed-race heritage, which included both white slave owners and African American slaves from North Carolina (maternal grandmother) and Irish and free people of color from Pennsylvania (maternal grandfather). She described her experiences growing up in a mixed-race family in Durham in her 1956 book, Proud Shoes: The Story of an American Family.

She went on to graduate at the top of her class from Howard Law School, receive her master's in law from the University of California - Berkeley's Boalt Hall Law School and then to be the first African American person to receive a J.S.D. from Yale Law School. She was a civil and human rights activist, a founder of the National Organization for Women and the first African American woman to be ordained an Episcopal priest. She published many articles, essays, books, poems and sermons. She was an advisor to Eleanor Roosevelt and was appointed by President John F. Kennedy in 1961 to the President's Commission on the Status of Women, Committee on Civil and Political Rights.

Although she lived much of her adult life outside of North Carolina, there are two aspects of her life that are particularly significant to North Carolina, particularly as they relate to African-American history and the civil rights movement: her campaign for admission to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and her ordination as the first female African-American priest in the Episcopal Church in the United States, after which she performed her first Eucharist at the Chapel of the Cross Episcopal Church in Chapel Hill.

The Campaign for UNC: In 1938, Murray applied to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for admission to the university's graduate program in applied social work. Under the leadership of UNC President Frank Porter Graham, the university's applied social work department was a national leader in the study of race relations in the late 1930s. However, the department had no black students or faculty at the time Murray applied, and her application was rejected pursuant to a North Carolina law that denied black students admission to the University. Murray led a campaign with the support of Lewis Alston, editor of the Carolina Times and other activists to challenge the decision of the University. While she received public support, the NAACP chose not to take her case and UNC did not admit African Americans to its graduate programs until 1951. Murray's early campaign was widely credited by civil rights leaders in the state as paving the way for the
 desegregation of higher education in North Carolina.

Ordination as the First African-American Woman Episcopal Priest: Pauli Murray was one of the first women and the first African-American woman to be ordained in the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States. Raised in the Episcopal faith, Murray entered seminary in 1973 and was ordained four years later. After her ordination at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC, she presided over her first Eucharist at the Chapel of the Cross Episcopal in Chapel Hill, where her slave grandmother had been baptized in 1854. She described the historical significance of this event in her autobiography, Songs in a Weary Throat, describing herself at that moment as a "Descendant of slave and of slave owner . . . now I was empowered to minister the sacrament of One in whom there is no north or south, no black or white, no male or female-only the spirit of love and reconciliation drawing us all toward the goal of human wholeness."

In 2008, the first woman Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States, Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schiori, recognized the historical nature of Murray's ordination while visiting the Chapel of the Cross. In 2009, the North Carolina's Episcopal Diocese Convention passed a resolution asking that the Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray be added to the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church in recognition of the her significance and the impact she has had across the nation and around the world. Murray died in Pittsburgh on July 1, 1985 after battling cancer.

Tema 

****

NOTE: Last names removed for privacy; will be included in submission package to state marker committee.

****