Column: Pauli Murray deserves to be part of UNC’s legacy

It’s more than a little morbid to think about how I want people to remember me when I die, but I can’t avoid thinking about my legacy.

Legacies are a manifestation of every person, place, and thing that has ever entered and exited your life; I’m shaped by the people around me, and in turn, they’re shaped by me.

Right now, I find myself at the end of my freshman year at UNC, the legacy of America’s oldest public university has likewise become inseparable from mine. I now get to partake in its long history, and I’m incredibly thankful to be pursuing my passion for learning at this university.

However, scattered among the blooming flowers and verdant old-growth trees of the campus I’ve grown to love stand monuments to a legacy that I want no part in.

It’s easy to venerate the history that gives UNC the prestige, culture and resources that it’s become known for, but to embrace this history while ignoring the reality that many buildings and statues pay tribute to figures who perpetuated hateful ideologies is antithetical to the values of learning, collaboration and inclusivity that the university purports to champion.

UNC has taken action to remove tributes to figures who worked to perpetuate hateful ideas, primarily white supremacy, and replace them with the names of people who better embody the university’s values.

The recent renaming of the Henry Owl Building, McClinton Residence Hall, Ruffin Jr. Residence Hall and Student Stores all illustrate attempts to recenter the university’s legacy around people who strove to create a better world for everyone.

Despite these efforts, blemishes remain. In 2020, a petition was signed by the chairs of the history; sociology; political science; and peace, war, and defense programs to rename the site of their departments, Hamilton Hall, to Pauli Murray Hall. The building’s namesake, Joseph Grégoire de Roulhac Hamilton, contributed to the perpetuation of harmful ideology in his time at UNC, using his position as chair of the UNC history department to spread white supremacy.

Standing in stark contrast to the life of Hamilton is Pauli Murray, a trailblazing scholar who fully embodies UNC’s values. Murray spent their life overcoming the obstacles that Hamilton and others who shared his ideology had worked to perpetuate at institutions like UNC.

After being denied from UNC’s doctoral program in sociology due to their race in 1938, Murray attended Howard Law School, where they were the only non-cisgender person in their class. They graduated as valedictorian and were awarded a fellowship and letter of recommendation to Harvard Law School from President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Despite these accomplishments, Murray was again denied admission to Harvard Law due to their gender.

They earned a Masters of Laws degree from the University of California, Berkeley. Following this, Murray would attend Yale Law School, where in 1965, they became the first African American to receive a Doctorate of Juridical Science from Yale.

Murray used their education to work tirelessly to advance the rights of marginalized groups in America. Their work as an attorney played an influential role in Brown v. Board of Education overturning Plessy v. Ferguson, and in serving as co-counsel in White v. Crook, which succeeded in prohibiting sex and gender discrimination in the jury selection system.

In addition to their legal work, Murray also played a key role in the American Civil Liberties Union, helped found the National Organization for Women and served as a professor of law and politics at Brandeis University.

Despite the overwhelming barriers to success posed by systemic racism, gender discrimination and racial prejudice, Murray was able to become an author, lawyer, historian, priest and outspoken activist for Civil Rights, creating positive change in marginalized communities. Their commitment to scholarship, equality and public service presents a legacy that students at UNC should seek to emulate.

To continue to endorse Hamilton is to either reject the truth or be complicit in his hate, thereby continuing to exclude marginalized groups from partaking in UNC’s legacy. If UNC truly wants to be an institution that prioritizes helping everyone pursue their passions through education, people like Murray must be who we name our monuments after. A building in which students study history, politics, sociology and peace, war and defense has a responsibility to learn the complete stories of the people who’ve shaped the world we live in.

@dthopinion | opinion@dailytarheel.com