Jane Crow The life of Pauli Murray

Rosalind Rosenberg, 1946-

Book - 2017

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Subjects
Genres
Biographies
Published
New York, NY : Oxford University Press [2017]
Language
English
Main Author
Rosalind Rosenberg, 1946- (author)
Physical Description
xvii, 494 pages : illustrations, portraits ; 25 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 457-470) and index.
ISBN
9780190656454
  • Acknowledgments
  • Abbreviations
  • A Note on Pronouns and Other Word Choices
  • Introduction
  • Part I. Coming of Age, 1910-1937
  • 1. A Southern Childhood
  • 2. Escape to New York
  • Part II. Confronting Jim Crow, 1938-1941
  • 3. "Members of Your Race Are Not Admitted"
  • 4. Bus Trouble
  • 5. A Death Sentence Leads to Law School
  • Part III. Naming Jane Crow, 194 1-1946
  • 6. "I Would Gladly Change My Sex"
  • 7. California Promise, 1944-1946
  • Part IV. Surviving the Cold War, 1946-1961
  • 8. "Apostles of Fear"
  • 9. A Person In-Between
  • 10. "What Is Africa to Me?"
  • Part V. A Chance to Lead, 1961-1967
  • 11. Making Sex Suspect
  • 12. Invisible Woman
  • 13. Toward an NAACP for Women
  • Part VI. To Teach, to Preach, 1967-1977
  • 14. Professor Murray
  • 15. Triumph and Loss
  • 16. The Reverend Dr. Murray
  • Epilogue
  • Notes
  • Bibliography
  • Index
Review by Choice Review

Historian Rosenberg (emer., Barnard College, Columbia) offers a thorough account of the life and political activism of Pauli Murray. Drawing from over 100 archival boxes of Murray's poems, sermons, and letters, Rosenberg brilliantly situates Murray at the forefront of post-WW II civil and women's rights movements. Educated at Hunter College in New York City and later at Howard and Yale University law schools, Murray drafted legal writings that were instrumental in overturning Plessy v. Ferguson and influenced the 1970s legal work of American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) lawyer Ruth Bader Ginsburg. As a human rights activist, Murray challenged racial discrimination on public transportation, founded the National Organization of Women with 1960s feminist Betty Friedan, and coined the term "Jane Crow." This major contribution to African American history and queer studies sheds light on Murray's lifelong struggles with gender identity. The feminist scholar and Episcopal priest identified as a man, established relationships with women, donned men's clothes, and during the 1930s unsuccessfully underwent hormone therapy in order to transition from female to male. A stellar and fascinating monograph that celebrates Murray's lesser-known accomplishments. Summing Up: Essential. All public and academic levels/libraries. --LaShawn Denise Harris, Michigan State University

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review

*Starred Review* Activist and lawyer Murray spent her life publicly fighting discrimination against blacks and women, while privately fighting for her own sense of sexual identity. Part of a mixed-race family of relative privilege, she grew up in segregated North Carolina before moving to New York for college in the activist 1930s and became a labor and civil-rights advocate. She challenged conventions throughout her school and professional career, getting rejected from the University of North Carolina on account of her race, and, after graduating from Howard Law School, from Harvard on account of her gender. Murray developed friendships with many of the progressive luminaries of the time, including Eleanor Roosevelt (see Patricia Bell-Scott's The Firebrand and the First Lady, 2016, for a rich account of their friendship), Thurgood Marshall, and Betty Friedan. Her legal scholarship formed the basis for Marshall's challenge to school segregation in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education, and her advice to Friedan led to the formation of the National Organization of Women, as she argued against what she called Jane Crow. She later became the first woman to be ordained a priest by the Episcopal Church. But Murray lived in emotional turmoil, believing herself to be a man in a woman's body long before science and society were ready to grapple with transgender issues. Historian Rosenberg offers a compelling look at a complicated woman.--Bush, Vanessa Copyright 2017 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Historian Rosenberg (Divided Lives) thoughtfully crafts this deeply researched biographical study of civil rights activist Pauli Murray (1910-1985), whose life and work crossed multiple categories of 20th-century identity and politics. Born into a mixed-race, socially aspirational family in the Jim Crow South, Murray was orphaned young and raised within her extended family. During her adult life, Murray worked variously as a labor organizer, unpaid activist, and journalist for the black press. She went on to become a lawyer, teach in Ghana, earn a J.S.D. from Yale, win tenure at Brandeis, and eventually leave professorship to become an Episcopal priest. Rosenberg shows how Murray pursued an intersectional activism, repeatedly identifying the ways in which race, class, and gender worked together to constrain opportunity. The biography also deftly explores Murray's relationships and private struggles with identity. From childhood, Murray understood herself to be male, repeatedly seeking (unsuccessfully) medical treatment for gender dysphoria; she was also attracted to, and formed lasting relationships with, women during an era when both same-sex attraction and transgender identity were suspect categories. Placing Murray in historical context with practiced ease, Rosenberg weaves these many threads together into an authoritative narrative that will introduce Murray to many future generations. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review

Rosenberg (emerita, history, Barnard Coll.; Divided Lives: American Women in the Twentieth Century) has written a splendid definitive biography of African American lawyer and activist Pauli Murray (1910-85). The inspiration for this latest book comes from the discovery of Murray as the precursor to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's reinterpretation of the 14th Amendment while Rosenberg was working on Divided Lives. This thorough investigation into Murray's life is fascinating, as the author traces the intersection among gender, race, and politics. In doing so, Rosenberg successfully covers the various aspects of Murray's experience. From her legal scholarship on race discrimination, which encouraged Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall to attack segregation as a violation of equal protection in Brown v. Board of Education (1954), to her being the first known black female Episcopal priest, exploring transsexuality in the mid-20th century. A similar study can be found in Sarah Azaransky's The Dream Is Freedom: Pauli Murray and American Democratic Faith. VERDICT Readers interested in black history, legal history, feminism, or LGBTQ studies will find this to be a noteworthy account.-Misty Standage, Ivy Tech -Community Coll., Evansville, IN © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

A cradle-to-grave account about one of the most interesting, accomplished, and controversial figures in 20th-century America who is far too little known.Pauli Murray (1910-1985), who fought valiantly against Jim Crow prejudice, came to be known as "Jane Crow" due to her mixed-race heritage, her female gender, and her own perception of herself as transgender. As Rosenberg (Emerita, History/Barnard Coll.; Changing the Subject: How the Women of Columbia Shaped the Way We Think About Sex and Politics, 2004, etc.) shows, Murray, never at ease psychologically, descended from a long line of mentally ill family members, and orphaned earlyher father was murdered, and her mother was rendered frail by repeated childbirthovercame countless obstacles throughout her life. She left her racially charged North Carolina home to earn a college degree in New York City, bounced back from being rejected for graduate studies at the University of North Carolina because of her part-black heritage (even though her white great-great-grandfather had served on the governing board there), graduated from Howard University Law School, and began influencing public policy outside academia. Murray's work on discrimination influenced lawyers and judges to desegregate public schools, protect the constitutional rights of women, and move toward protecting other minorities as well. She considered herself queer in terms of sexuality, often dressing so that distinguishing her gender proved difficult; in terms of gay and queer rights in general, she was clearly way ahead of her time. Later in life, Murray inspired Betty Friedan and others to co-found the National Organization for Women, smashed academic barriers at Brandeis University, and earned ordination in the Episcopal Church as the first female black priest. One of Rosenberg's most fascinating extended anecdotes illuminates Murray's struggle to write and publish her 1956 memoir, Proud Shoes. She gained attention as a memoirist around the same time that Ralph Ellison and James Baldwin were also breaking racial and class barriers as authors. Assiduous research and clear prose give Murray her due. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.