UNC honors activist Pauli Murray's life

Twenty-five years after her death, Pauli Murray received a 100th birthday present Wednesday.

In honor of the deceased activist’s life, a panel of professors spoke on the life and causes of Murray, who was rejected from UNC because of her race in 1938 and Harvard University in 1944 because of her gender.

The talk, sponsored by the Center for the Study of the American South at UNC, the Carolina Women’s Center and the Pauli Murray Project at the Duke Human Rights Center, among others, included a panel of five professors and a moderator who discussed Murray’s legacy before a crowd of more than 100.

“We didn’t think this could go by without celebrating it,” said Barbara Lau, director of the Pauli Murray Project. “Our job is not to just celebrate Pauli Murray but to keep going with her work.”

“We felt it was important to participate in this way because she was rejected,” said Sally Greene, associate director of the Center for the Study of the American South.

Speakers at the event touched on all of Murray’s life but focused on her application and rejection for the UNC graduate program.

“She always worked on the same problem,” said Yale history professor Glenda Gilmore.

“She really believed these challenges were there so she could single-handedly bring civil rights to the whole planet.”

UNC history professor Genna Rae McNeil praised Murray’s directness.

“Pauli Murray was always one to strike right at the heart of the issues.”

Gilmore said the case of Murray’s rejection to UNC, as the case closest to her heart and her home of Durham, set the pattern for the rest of her life.

Anne Firor Scott, a Duke history professor emerita on the panel who knew Murray, said she was a passionate person but not always the most agreeable.

“Pauli Murray never protested anything just to protest,” Gilmore said. “She protested it to win.”

Lau said they presented the program because Murray asked questions that are still relevant today.

Annie Clark, a UNC senior working on the Pauli Murray Project, agreed, saying Murray’s questions about equality can apply to race, gender, religion and sexuality today.

UNC students were not the only ones to attend the event.

Carrie Mills, a junior at Duke University, came as a course requirement, although she said she enjoyed the event and a new appreciation of Murray’s life.

Gilmore said Murray always called herself a southerner and a native of the Chapel Hill-Durham region.

She added that Murray often commented that America would not be a true democracy until it cracked Jim Crow.

Murray also fought sexism, as she was denied admittance to Harvard University based on the grounds of her gender.

Gilmore said Murray believed she did not have personal victory, but that she had lived to see her lost causes found.

“The fact that we are here today, I think, proves her right,” Gilmore said.

Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.