'Bring this vision to life': Pauli Murray Center opens in Durham's West End

Editor's note: This article uses she/her, he/him and they/them pronouns to refer to Pauli Murray. This is done in accordance with the style used by the Pauli Murray Center.

The Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice held its grand opening in Durham on Saturday, Sep. 7.

Pauli Murray Center Board Chair Jesse Huddleston said Pauli Murray was a human rights champion of the 20th century. The center is housed in Murray’s childhood home in the West End neighborhood in Durham. 

“I live in the neighborhood myself, and there's an opportunity to orient folks and make sure that they're learning about what the neighborhood looked like and felt like years ago,” Huddleston said.

Robert Fitzgerald, Murray’s grandfather and a Civil War veteran, built the house in 1898, Huddleston said. They said he was passionate about education and taught formerly enslaved individuals to read and write.

Huddleston said that after the passing of Murray’s mother, they went to stay with their aunt and grandparents in the Durham house. These older family members were all educators and people of faith, which shaped Murray’s perspectives into adulthood, they said.

Sarah Scriven, a previous fellow of the Pauli Murray Center and current doctoral candidate at the University of Maryland, said that Murray used the term "Jane Crow" in the 1930s and 1940s to emphasize that Black women were also a part of the struggle for civil rights. She said Murray worked with female civil rights leaders to make sure women were represented at the podium during the March on Washington in 1963.

Furthermore, in one of Murray’s college classes, they made the argument that Plessy v. Ferguson should be overturned as it violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. This argument was later given to Thurgood Marshall’s team by Murray’s professor, and was used to win Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, Huddleston said.

“These are just things that are often a part of the education we receive when we learn about U.S. history or we think about human rights,” Huddleston said, “But Pauli’s name doesn’t always come up.”

Preservation of the House 

In the early 2000s, educators, scholars and neighbors banded together to preserve Murray’s house, Huddleston said. Eventually, the house was saved and the property was put into a land bank, allowing preservation efforts to continue. 

“In 2012, the Pauli Murray Center was created to really protect and sustain that work of not only preserving the house, but figuring out how the life and legacy of Pauli could be preserved and activated," Huddleston said.

They said that early on, the center hosted different programs and events, such as book clubs and panels. One program is the Pauli Murray Service, done in partnership with St. Titus Episcopal Church, and honors Murray as the first Black person to be ordained an Episcopal priest, Huddleston said.

As of earlier this month, the house is ready for visitors, with a custom exhibition that shares Murray’s life and legacy, Huddleston said. This exhibit contains audio and visual elements as well items of Murray’s.

Scriven drove to Durham from Maryland to attend the grand opening. At the opening, she read the names of volunteers who had worked on the project for decades.

“There was excitement about what it meant to bring this vision to life,” Scriven said.

Executive Director of the Museum of Durham History Patrick Mucklow said that having Murray’s childhood home open to the public is important because it provides another opportunity for people to learn about social justice issues.

“People are really excited because they’ve known how long it's been in the works, and especially people who’ve been in Durham for a long time, who are familiar with Pauli Murray, are really excited to see it getting that national attention” he said. 

The Pauli Murray Center will have openings for tours and visits two to three days of the week, generally on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, Huddleston said.Visits can be scheduled at their website.

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