Pauli Murray
Legal Scholar, Civil Rights Activist, and Episcopal Priest
1910 - 1985
Pioneered the legal theories that connected racial and sex discrimination, directly influencing Brown v. Board of Education and Ruth Bader Ginsburg's gender equality litigation.
Biography
Pauli Murray was a groundbreaking legal scholar, civil rights activist, poet, and Episcopal priest whose ideas were decades ahead of their time. Murray's 1950 law review article, 'States' Laws on Race and Color,' was called by Thurgood Marshall 'the Bible for civil rights lawyers' and was cited in the briefs for Brown v. Board of Education.
Murray coined the term 'Jane Crow' to describe the intersection of race and sex discrimination, anticipating the concept of intersectionality by decades. Murray's legal scholarship argued that the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause should apply to sex discrimination just as it applies to race discrimination—a theory that Ruth Bader Ginsburg explicitly credited as the foundation for her own gender equality litigation.
Murray was also personally courageous: arrested in 1940 for refusing to move to the back of a bus in Virginia (fifteen years before Rosa Parks), denied admission to Harvard Law School because of sex, and openly challenging discrimination at every turn. After a distinguished legal and academic career, Murray became the first Black woman ordained as an Episcopal priest in 1977.
Major Accomplishments
- 1Legal scholarship directly influenced Brown v. Board of Education
- 2Pioneered the theory connecting race and sex discrimination under the Fourteenth Amendment
- 3Coined the term 'Jane Crow' to describe intersectional discrimination
- 4First Black woman ordained as an Episcopal priest (1977)
- 5Co-founded the National Organization for Women (NOW)
Notable Opinions & Cases
States' Laws on Race and Color (scholarship)
1950
Compiled the definitive legal analysis of racial segregation laws, called 'the Bible' by Thurgood Marshall
White v. Crook (as co-counsel)
1966
Successfully challenged the exclusion of women and Black people from Alabama juries
Reed v. Reed (credited influence)
1971
Ginsburg listed Murray as co-author on the brief to acknowledge her foundational legal theory
Jane Crow and the Law (scholarship)
1965
Seminal law review article arguing that sex discrimination violates the Equal Protection Clause
Legacy
Murray's ideas were so far ahead of their time that their full significance has only recently been recognized. The intersectional analysis of race and sex discrimination that Murray pioneered is now central to equal protection law, critical legal theory, and social justice advocacy. Ginsburg frequently acknowledged that Murray's scholarship made her own work possible. Murray's life story is a testament to the power of legal ideas to change the world, even when the person advancing them faces systematic exclusion.
Famous Quotes
“When my brothers try to draw a circle to exclude me, I shall draw a larger circle to include them.”
“One person plus one typewriter constitutes a movement.”
“True community is based upon equality, mutuality and reciprocity. It affirms the richness of individual diversity.”
“Hope is a crushed stalk between clenched fingers.”