A lawyer, poet, and priest who saw the future of justice before almost anyone else, Pauli Murray shaped the legal arguments that would topple segregation and sex discrimination — while living a life that defied every category society offered.
Murray's name is far less famous than the movements they helped build — but their fingerprints are on the landmark victories of the 20th century.
Ahead of the Law
Murray graduated first in their class at Howard Law School — the only woman there — and wrote a critique of "separate but equal" that Thurgood Marshall's team drew on in Brown v. Board of Education. Years later, Murray's scholarship on sex discrimination directly influenced Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who listed Murray as a co-author on a landmark brief in tribute. Denied entry to Harvard because of their sex, Murray channeled every exclusion into a sharper argument for equality.
A Life Beyond Categories
Murray lived much of their life wrestling with gender identity at a time when no public language existed for it — adopting an androgynous name, seeking medical care to align with a male sense of self, and loving women deeply. Today Murray is widely embraced as a queer and gender-nonconforming forebear, a person who refused to be confined by the boundaries of their era.
Law to the Pulpit
A co-founder of the National Organization for Women, Murray later answered a different calling, becoming in 1977 the first African American person perceived as a woman to be ordained an Episcopal priest. Murray poured a lifetime of activism into a ministry of compassion before dying in 1985.
Why They Matter
Pauli Murray supplied the intellectual architecture for two of the great equality movements of the century — racial justice and women's rights — and did so as a queer, gender-nonconforming Black person who was rarely credited in their lifetime. We live, as one scholar put it, in the world Pauli Murray built.
A Lasting Legacy
- Legal scholarship shaped Brown v. Board and Ginsburg's sex-discrimination cases
- Co-founder of the National Organization for Women
- First African American perceived as a woman ordained an Episcopal priest (1977)
- A queer, gender-nonconforming pioneer honored on U.S. currency in 2024
I want to see America be what she says she is in the Declaration of Independence.
Pauli MurrayPauli Murray saw the arguments for justice before the courts were ready to hear them — and lived a truth the world had no words for yet. History is finally catching up to the lawyer who saw it first.
More from Legacies of Pride
Pauli Murray saw justice before the world was ready; this series honors others who did too. Meet a few more: Ian McKellen, who came out at the height of his fame; Barney Frank, the conscience of the House; and Marsha P. Johnson & Sylvia Rivera, who stood at the very heart of the movement.
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