As the tags I added to this review show, Pauli Murray was deeply involved in making history throughout much of the twentieth century. In addition to her accomplishments as activist, attorney, academic and priest, she was a graceful, honest writer with a passion for getting the detail straight and a reliable sense of when to put herself front and center and when to step aside in telling of her life. This is one of the most fascinating autobiographies I have ever read and deserves to be an American classic. ( )

Deeply-moving - inspiring - autobiography of the trailblazing Black nonbinary civil rights and gender equality activist, lawyer, poet, priest. ( )

This on the other hand was amazing. (I review this after my attempt to read Queenie) Wonderful writer, fascinating life, encouraging, uplifting, an example to us all. I don't know how she found the inner strength and courage to fight all the battles she fought and remain hopeful all her life. I wish that she had lived longer that we might have more wisdom from this marvelous woman. ( )

First off, I’m happy to say that Pauli Murray’s autobiography was a more enjoyable read than Jane Crow. Conversational in style, it provided insight into Murray’s attitudes and viewpoint that Rosenberg’s biography did not. Murray also mentions her (and her family’s) membership and activity in the Episcopal church at various points in the book so that her choice to attend seminary and become a priest makes sense, instead of coming out of the blue as it does in Jane Crow.

On the other hand, Murray never mentions her lifelong sense that she is a man in a woman’s body, her attempts to get hormone treatment to make her appear more male, or the mental health issues this ongoing difference from the norm exacerbated. Neither does it mention, except in passing, the diagnosis and treatment of thyroid issues that Rosenberg argues addressed some of the mental health issues.

And while she does mention her long-term relationship with Irene Barlow (Rene), it is couched in such a way that without knowing about her sexual identity, one could easily read the autobiography without considering that it was more than the deep friendship she shared with, for example, Maida Springer Kemp.

This is partly, I think, a generational reserve about speaking of personal thoughts and feelings in public. It is also, in my opinion, a survival concern. Murray’s race and gender limited the roles Murray was allowed to assume in society; a public transgender identity would have cost her jobs, and I doubt she could have been ordained in the 1980s as a publicly transgendered person.

One of the questions that kept recurring while I was reading [Jane Crow] was, “how does she keep going in the face of so much rejection? What motivates her?” I think the factors are multiple, and include the following.

Family: Murray was raised with her mother’s extended family close by, and with a strong sense of the respected place this family had in Durham, NC. These relationships, especially with her Aunt Pauline and Aunt Sally and her sister Mildred, sustained her over time.

Education: Murray and her family valued education (Har paternal grandfather, father, and two maternal aunts were teachers) and used their knowledge to make their lives, and lives in their communities, better.

Contributing to the Negro (Murray’s favored term) community was a strong motivation for Murray and her family. She helped organize demonstrations to integrate restaurants in Washington D.C. while attending law school during World War II. In the 1970s Murray served on the President’s commission on the status of women and helped found NOW (the National Organization for Women) while getting her PhD.

Faith: Raised in the Episcopal church, Murray was active throughout her life, and a shared faith was what drew Murray and Irene Barlow together initially. Thus her activism to increase women’s formal power in the denomination, both for lay women and as a priest, makes sense.

Relationships: These include family relationships, but also friends Murray made both in educational arenas and in activism.

So, I’m glad I read both of these books. [Jane Crow] supplied facts about Murray that she didn’t address in her autobiography, but the autobiography helped me understand her motivations and attitude. ( )

I first read about Pauli Murray while researching women abolitonists and Civil Rights leaders for my quilt I Will Lift My Voice Like A Trumpet. I was pleased to be granted access to the e-galley of Pauli's memoir, first published in 1987, now available in a new edition. The forward is by Patricia Bell-Scott, author of The Firebrand and the First Lady: Portrait of a Friendship: Pauli Murray, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Struggle for Justice.

Pauli was born in 1910 and was raised by her school teacher aunt. Pauli was a gifted student who attended Hunter College in New York City. During the Depression she found employment with the WPA as a teacher and began to publish her poetry and a novel. She found a mentor in Stephen Vincent Benet.

During the war years and early 1950s Pauli became involved with Civil Rights, challenging segregation, and formed a relationship with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. In 1941 she began her law studies at Howard University and helped to form CORE and the development of passive resistance.

Harvard law school would not accept Pauli based on her sex. She attended the University of California Boalt School of Law. Her thesis was on equal opportunity in employment. With her color and sex against her, Pauli had trouble making a living practicing law.

In 1956 she published a book on her family history, Proud Shoes: The Story of an American Family. She taught law in Ghana for several years. Back in the US she resumed work in Civil Rights and became active as a feminist and was an organizer for NOW.

In her later life, Pauli worked for equal opportunity for women as church leaders. She became the first African American woman ordained to the Episcopal priesthood.

Pauli saw huge changes in her lifetime. At her birth she was labeled colored, but chose to the designation Negro. During the rise of black power movements she resisted the term black, resenting its lower case nomenclature. She was a pacifist and anti-segregationist who had trouble with the rise of Black Power movements and the younger generation's demanded for separate campus organizations. Early she was attracted to Socialism and spent her last years as in the priesthood.

The memoir is filled with details about the work for Civil Rights prior to the more known stories of Rosa Park and Martin Luther King, Jr. There are vivid descriptions of traveling in the Jim Crow south, the closed doors to her race and her sex, the poverty she and her educated family endured.

Pauli's voice is direct and open. She admits to her ignorance and mistakes, her learning curves and limitations. Her accomplishments speak for her determination and courage.

It was wonderful to hear, in her own voice, Pauli's amazing life.

I received a free egalley from the publisher through Edelweiss in exchange for a fair and unbiased review. ( )