It was at Howard that s/he also became acutely aware of the oppression s/he faced as a Black person perceived as a woman, coining the term “Jane Crow,” to describe their experience. In 1944, Pauli Murray graduated at the top of their law school class from Howard University. Despite a lack of support from the NAACP, Murray’s campaign received national publicity. During this campaign, Murray developed a life-long friendship and correspondence with the first lady at the time, Eleanor Roosevelt. In 1938, s/he began a media and letter-writing campaign to enter graduate school at the all-white University of North Carolina. Murray quickly became involved in the civil rights movement.

S/he wrote fervently Murray’s articles and poems were published in various magazines including Common Sense and The Crisis, a publication of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He repeatedly asked physicians for hormone therapy and exploratory surgery to investigate his reproductive organs, but he was denied gender-affirming medical care.Īt the same time, Murray worked for the Works Projects Administration (WPA) and as a teacher at the New York City Remedial Reading Project.

S/he changed their birth name to “Pauli.” Throughout the 1930s, Murray actively questioned his gender and sex. S/he attended Hunter College and financed their studies with various jobs, ultimately graduating in 1933 with a degree in English Literature. William suffered from depression exacerbated by the long-term effects of typhoid fever and was eventually confined to Crownsville State Hospital where he was later murdered by a white guard in 1923.Īfter Agnes’ death, Murray was sent to live with their* aunt, Pauline Fitzgerald Dame, and their grandparents, Robert George and Cornelia Smith Fitzgerald, in Durham, North Carolina.Īfter graduating from Hillside High School in 1926 with a certificate of distinction, Murray moved to New York City. Agnes Fitzgerald Murray died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1914. Pauli Murray was born in Baltimore, Maryland on November 20, 1910, the fourth of six children to nurse Agnes Fitzgerald and educator William Murray.

Pauli murray song in a weary throat