Last updated: November 16, 2024
Article
Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice (Durham, North Carolina)
African American Civil Rights Network
The Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice in Durham, North Carolina works to increase engagement across divisions such as race, class, sexual orientation and gender identity, and spiritual practice to address enduring inequities and injustice in our local, national, and global communities. The center operates from the childhood home of Pauli Murray, born Anna Pauline Murray, a civil rights activist, lawyer, educator, writer, and minister. Throughout their life, Murray struggled with their gender and scholars have suggested they identified as transgender. Murray’s scholarship and activism shaped the civil rights movement, women’s rights movement, and U.S. legal history.
Murray participated in civil rights protests and helped establish the civil rights organization Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Later, lawyers with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) consulted Murray’s writings as they challenged racial segregation in schools and other spaces. Their advocacy also proved integral to keeping "sex" in Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which barred employment discrimination against women. Two years after the Act’s passage, Murray co-founded the National Organization of Women (NOW), a civil rights association for women.
The Pauli Murray Family Home is the only extant building closely associated with Murray’s life. It is in Durham’s West End neighborhood, a historically Black and working-class area. Pauli Murray’s grandparents, Robert G. and Cornelia S. Fitzgerald constructed the family home in 1898. In 1914, Pauli Murray came to live with their grandparents and aunts, Pauline Fitzgerald Dame and Sallie Fitzgerald. In 1926 Murray left Durham to pursue higher education but regularly returned to the home until 1948, when their aunts moved to New York City, New York to reside with them. In 2016, The Pauli Murray Family Home was designated a National Historic Landmark.
The Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice became a part of the African American Civil Rights Network in 2024.
The African American Civil Rights Network recognizes the African American Civil Rights Movement in the United States and the sacrifices made by those who fought against discrimination and segregation. Created by the African American Civil Rights Act of 2017, and coordinated by the National Park Service, the Network tells the stories of the people, places, and events of the U.S. African American Civil Rights Movement through a collection of public and private resources to include properties, facilities, and programs.
The Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice in Durham, North Carolina works to increase engagement across divisions such as race, class, sexual orientation and gender identity, and spiritual practice to address enduring inequities and injustice in our local, national, and global communities. The center operates from the childhood home of Pauli Murray, born Anna Pauline Murray, a civil rights activist, lawyer, educator, writer, and minister. Throughout their life, Murray struggled with their gender and scholars have suggested they identified as transgender. Murray’s scholarship and activism shaped the civil rights movement, women’s rights movement, and U.S. legal history.
Murray participated in civil rights protests and helped establish the civil rights organization Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Later, lawyers with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) consulted Murray’s writings as they challenged racial segregation in schools and other spaces. Their advocacy also proved integral to keeping "sex" in Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which barred employment discrimination against women. Two years after the Act’s passage, Murray co-founded the National Organization of Women (NOW), a civil rights association for women.
The Pauli Murray Family Home is the only extant building closely associated with Murray’s life. It is in Durham’s West End neighborhood, a historically Black and working-class area. Pauli Murray’s grandparents, Robert G. and Cornelia S. Fitzgerald constructed the family home in 1898. In 1914, Pauli Murray came to live with their grandparents and aunts, Pauline Fitzgerald Dame and Sallie Fitzgerald. In 1926 Murray left Durham to pursue higher education but regularly returned to the home until 1948, when their aunts moved to New York City, New York to reside with them. In 2016, The Pauli Murray Family Home was designated a National Historic Landmark.
The Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice became a part of the African American Civil Rights Network in 2024.
The African American Civil Rights Network recognizes the African American Civil Rights Movement in the United States and the sacrifices made by those who fought against discrimination and segregation. Created by the African American Civil Rights Act of 2017, and coordinated by the National Park Service, the Network tells the stories of the people, places, and events of the U.S. African American Civil Rights Movement through a collection of public and private resources to include properties, facilities, and programs.