Pauli Murray

Murray Timeline

1910 Born in Baltimore to Agnes Fitzgerald and William Murray.

1914 Moved to Durham, NC after mother died. Lived with grandparents and aunt.

1926 Graduated high school first in class.

1933 Graduated from Hunter College. Worked for the WPA, Workers Defense League and the NYC Remedial Reading Project.

1938 Graduate school application rejected due to race.

1940 Arrested and jailed for protesting Virginia law requiring segregation on buses.

1941 Entered Howard Law School, encountered overt sex discrimination from faculty and students.

1944 Graduated from Howard first in class and only female. Rejected by Harvard Law School due to gender. Enrolled at University of California’s Law School.

1951 Wrote “States’ Laws on Race and Color.”

1961 Appointed to the President’s Commission on the Status of Women Committee (PCSW) on Civil and Political Rights.

1964 Co-authored “Jane Crow and the Law: Sex Discrimination and Title VII.”

1965 First African-American to receive a J.S.D. from Yale.

1966 Founding member, along with Betty Friedan and others, of the National Organization for Women (NOW).

1977 First African-American female priest ordained by the Episcopal Church.

1985 Died of pancreatic cancer in Pittsburgh, PA.