Learning Objectives:

• Students evaluate a variety of primary sources, including oral histories, and discover examples of the beginnings of Pauli Murray’s advocacy for equal opportunities in education

• Students analyze Murray’s use of poetry as a form of protest, as well as Murray’s organization of sit-ins to protest segregation while at Howard University

Key Civics Themes: 

• Rights and Responsibilities: Connect Murray’s activities to the right to peacefully protest as protected in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. 

• Role of the Individual: Examples from Murray’s life in which they took action in order to effect political and social change, such as through their writings and their political organizing. 

• Power and Politics: How does Murray’s activism shift the balance of power within their relationships, as evidenced by their correspondence with Bayard Rustin (for example)? What are the politics that Murray critiques within the civil rights movement? 

• Active Engagement: Murray’s direct involvement in organizing and participating in activities such as sit-ins to protest and draw attention to racial inequality.

Activities:

• UnErasing LGBTQ History and Identities Podcast: Deep Dives and Backstories Season 2 Episode 1: Pauli Murray Part 1 

Podcast episode with transcript or listen to this episode on Apple

• • Suggested Reflection and/or Discussion Questions :

Why did Pauli Murray describe their family as a “mini-United Nations”?

In what ways did Pauli protest Jim Crow laws as a child?

Which course at Hunter College influenced Pauli the most? Why?

Describe one scene from Pauli’s early life that resonated with you.

Why do you think Pauli wanted to don a Boy Scout uniform to travel across the country?

• Teaching & Learning as Activism: primary source letter exchanges between Pauli Murray and Thurgood Marshall and university leaders 

Letter from Pauli Murray to Thurgood Marshall, NAACP. April 13, 1940Letter from A. Calvert Smith, Howard University, to Pauli Murray. July 12, 1944Letter from Pauli Murray to A. Calvert Smith, Howard University. July 20, 1944Letter from Pauli Murray to T.R. Powell and James P. Conant, Harvard University. July 20, 1944

• UnErasing LGBTQ History and Identities Podcast: Deep Dives and Backstories Season 2 Episode 2: Pauli Murray Part 2 

Podcast episode with transcript or listen to this episode on Apple

• • Suggested Reflection and/or Discussion Questions :

How did Pauli advocate for equal access to education?

What happened when Pauli and Addie McBean were traveling from New York to North Carolina?

What did Pauli learn about the NAACP from this incident? 

What are a few factors and circumstances that prompted Pauli to pursue a law degree?

What does “Jane Crow” mean? 

•  Explore the use and effectiveness of Pauli Murray’s organization and participation in Howard University Sit-ins: https://snccdigital.org/events/pauli-murray-organizes-howard-student-sit-ins/