Proud Shoes the Story of an American Family

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 · 410 ratings  · 68 reviews

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Aug 17, 2012 Karen rated it really liked information technology

Dr. Pauli Murray was my father's kickoff cousin, so it was amazing to learn much of my family unit's history through her writing. Although I never knew her, she was an amazing woman and I'm and so proud of the shoes she wore.
Dr. Pauli Murray was my father's first cousin, so information technology was amazing to learn much of my family's history through her writing. Although I never knew her, she was an amazing woman and I'm and so proud of the shoes she wore.
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Pauli Murray mural in her hometown of Durham, Due north Carolina

This volume is a hidden gem: the biography of a mixed-race family effectually the fourth dimension of the Civil State of war. It was published well before its time – in 1956 there wasn't much interest in African-American family sagas – just information technology is well-written and fascinating in part because this isn't a commonly-told story. Murray was a fascinating character in her ain right – a prominent ceremonious rights and women'southward rights activist, a lawyer and finally a priest, gend

Pauli Murray mural in her hometown of Durham, North Carolina

This book is a hidden gem: the biography of a mixed-race family around the fourth dimension of the Civil State of war. It was published well before its time – in 1956 in that location wasn't much involvement in African-American family sagas – but it is well-written and fascinating in part because this isn't a normally-told story. Murray was a fascinating character in her own right – a prominent civil rights and women's rights activist, a lawyer and finally a priest, genderqueer long before people knew what that was – but hither she focuses on her family history, which is fascinating in its own right. The volume is chiefly about her maternal gramps, who grew upwardly free in the Northward, joined ane of the start black regiments to fight in the Ceremonious State of war despite the fact that he was already going bullheaded from an injury, and went southward afterwards the state of war to educate freed slaves in the face up of white opposition. Murray's grandmother's story is quite unlike: she grew up a slave, though she didn't feel like 1, being the daughter of a son of the house and generally treated as such. (Murray's female parent's family would likely be seen as white today, though by the conventions of the fourth dimension they were blackness no matter what they looked like.) All this is mixed in with Murray's memories of existence raised by her grandparents in the early 20th century.

Overall, I actually enjoyed this biography/history/memoir and found it to be absorbing reading, though somewhat deadening going. Information technology is a good story and provides a piffling-known perspective on a well-known fourth dimension in American history; unlike many books, which approach the time period through fiction, this one is based on family stories and documents and on historical research, and is more complex and authentic for it. I am definitely interested in reading more than about Murray and her family.

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Aug 15, 2010 Jennifer rated it really liked it

I am so glad to have read Proud Shoes! Pauli Murray came from a fascinating family unit. Their story sheds calorie-free on so many aspects of race in American history: pre- and post-Civil State of war race relations, tensions in boarder states, "passing" for white, "family" life for slaves, complex emotions surrounding children built-in of masters raping slaves, and high hopes post-obit the Civil War fading with the advent of Jim Crow laws, merely to name a few. The fact that much of it is set in Durham, my home town, wit I am so glad to accept read Proud Shoes! Pauli Murray came from a fascinating family. Their story sheds light on so many aspects of race in American history: pre- and postal service-Civil War race relations, tensions in boarder states, "passing" for white, "family" life for slaves, complex emotions surrounding children born of masters raping slaves, and high hopes following the Civil State of war fading with the advent of Jim Crow laws, just to name a few. The fact that much of it is set in Durham, my habitation boondocks, within a mile or two of where my husband and I bought our commencement house, and across the street from where my grandparents are cached, only hightened the fascination for me. Even without the local connections, our book club agreed Proud Shoes should be required reading for Americans--it really is that rich, powerful, and informative. I was telling my Dad about information technology recently, and he recalled being on a console with Pauli Murray a couple of years earlier her expiry, but he has never read the book. He is getting it for Christmas! I give information technology a 4 just because information technology was a piffling hard for me to slog through the Civil State of war military history, but that is a part of my knowledge base and interest level, non of the volume itself. I would highly recommend it! ...more

Jun 22, 2012 Suzy rated it it was amazing

Pauli Murray was one of the many unsung heroes of the Civil Rights Move, and this is her memoir.

Loved this volume! It's a corking history of racism. Loved this book! Information technology's a groovy history of racism. ...more than

Dec 02, 2017 Elizabeth rated it it was astonishing

This volume is mainly near the lives of the author'south maternal grandparents. Murray does a wonderful job of weaving together her family's stories with extensive enquiry to corroborate them and of the time menstruation in general. It has accounts of her cracking-grandparents in the 1830s and 40s and moves through the Ceremonious War and the Reconstruction Era. It gave me a smashing sense of the time period in the locations described. This volume is mainly nigh the lives of the author'southward maternal grandparents. Murray does a wonderful job of weaving together her family's stories with extensive research to corroborate them and of the time period in general. It has accounts of her not bad-grandparents in the 1830s and 40s and moves through the Civil State of war and the Reconstruction Era. Information technology gave me a great sense of the fourth dimension period in the locations described. ...more

October 30, 2017 Chet Makoski rated it information technology was amazing

This remarkable story is largely set in Chapel Hill and Hillsborough where I now live. I gained profound insights into black family life equally slaves and gratis persons prior to the civil war, during that state of war, and afterwards during reconstruction and into the mid-20th century. Pauli Murray was a vivid writer, story-teller, and a scholarly researcher uncovering her own family history. I love this book, honor this woman, and greatly admire her family for helping forge the America that I am confiden This remarkable story is largely set in Chapel Hill and Hillsborough where I now live. I gained profound insights into black family life as slaves and free persons prior to the civil war, during that state of war, and later on during reconstruction and into the mid-20th century. Pauli Murray was a brilliant writer, story-teller, and a scholarly researcher uncovering her ain family history. I honey this volume, honor this woman, and greatly admire her family for helping forge the America that I am confident this country is destined to become. ...more

Aug 01, 2021 Julia rated information technology really liked it

An incredible historical narrative about the side of a story you probably don't know, merely should. This book is written by a person y'all too probably aren't familiar with, but should be. So well researched, and written in a wonderful narrative way that keeps you lot engaged. Information technology's a picture of fortitude and grit in an boggling person, Pauli'due south gramps. It'south a reminder that in that location are so many stories we don't know about how America was built. An incredible historical narrative about the side of a story you probably don't know, but should. This book is written by a person you also probably aren't familiar with, only should exist. And then well researched, and written in a wonderful narrative way that keeps you engaged. It'south a moving-picture show of fortitude and dust in an extraordinary person, Pauli'south grandfather. Information technology's a reminder that there are and so many stories nosotros don't know well-nigh how America was built. ...more

Aug 14, 2007 Thor added it

Recommends it for: Meadowlark

This is an absolutely fascinating family unit history, thoroughly researched and presented with great skill. The time is a few decades later the Civil War, in the early 1900's. It's generally the story of Murray's grandmother, who had been a slave (and a mistress of the household at the same fourth dimension), and her grandfather, a scholar and teacher and Civil War veteran. These are persons of very high grapheme, and they are on a life-long mission to overcome the bizarre racism of those times and even today.

To

This is an absolutely fascinating family history, thoroughly researched and presented with great skill. The fourth dimension is a few decades after the Ceremonious War, in the early 1900's. It'due south mostly the story of Murray'southward grandmother, who had been a slave (and a mistress of the household at the same time), and her grandfather, a scholar and teacher and Civil War veteran. These are persons of very loftier graphic symbol, and they are on a life-long mission to overcome the bizarre racism of those times and fifty-fifty today.

To make things even more fun, the locale where Pauli grew up with her grandparents is in Durham, right next to the Maplewood cemetary. My nifty-grandfather had been laid to residual in that location some fourth dimension earlier. And past now quite a few more than relatives accept joined him equally neighbors to Pauli Murray'due south childhood dwelling house.

This is truly a great book. It came out in 1956, at which time nobody paid it much attention. Now it is cast as role of the genre of black women overcoming stuff, but it's style beyond that.

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Apr 21, 2010 Chalida rated it liked it

This was a powerful volume that gives you a unlike lens of Civil Rights history and told from the eyes of Pauli Murray recounting her great grandparents' histories. Published in 1956, Murray has really interesting stories of race and the very mixed history of her family unit and many others which was the norm and non divided into these concepts of purely black and white. The 2d half of the book focuses on her gramps's desperation to prove himself by fighting in the Civil War and information technology gets ver This was a powerful book that gives y'all a unlike lens of Ceremonious Rights history and told from the eyes of Pauli Murray recounting her groovy grandparents' histories. Published in 1956, Murray has really interesting stories of race and the very mixed history of her family and many others which was the norm and not divided into these concepts of purely black and white. The second one-half of the book focuses on her grandfather's desperation to prove himself by fighting in the Civil War and information technology gets very irksome, but the beginning half is super-interesting and deepens my understanding of families during this catamenia. ...more

A groundbreaking piece of work not only of African American history, but of American history, by a pioneer of the civil rights movement.

Murray'south prose is compulsively readable; she writes with sensitivity and insight nigh her maternal grandparents' (incredibly dramatic!) early on lives, their mixed-race family origins in antebellum Pennsylvania and N Carolina, and her ain vivid memories of growing upwards in Durham, NC during the Jim Crow era.

I'yard looking frontward to reading more than past Murray and to visiting the

A groundbreaking work not only of African American history, simply of American history, past a pioneer of the civil rights motion.

Murray's prose is compulsively readable; she writes with sensitivity and insight near her maternal grandparents' (incredibly dramatic!) early lives, their mixed-race family unit origins in antebellum Pennsylvania and North Carolina, and her own vivid memories of growing up in Durham, NC during the Jim Crow era.

I'm looking forwards to reading more by Murray and to visiting the museum that's slated to exist opened in her Durham family home in the adjacent few years.

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Aug 16, 2019 Molly rated it it was amazing

Reverend Dr. Pauli Murray was an American ceremonious rights advocate, feminist, lawyer and ordained priest. She is all-time known for furthering the civil rights and feminist causes.

Pauli Murray's heritage is a complicated one (slaves, slave owners) but in Proud Shoes she lays out all she could trace back of her family in bully detail. Of class, forth with her story are real accounts of the injustices of America that remind us that some things have changed and some things accept merely shifted.

Reverend Dr. Pauli Murray was an American civil rights advocate, feminist, lawyer and ordained priest. She is best known for furthering the civil rights and feminist causes.

Pauli Murray's heritage is a complicated one (slaves, slave owners) just in Proud Shoes she lays out all she could trace back of her family in swell item. Of course, along with her story are existent accounts of the injustices of America that remind united states of america that some things have changed and some things accept just shifted.

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Aug 30, 2017 Jenai Jackson rated information technology really liked it

Really enjoyed reading this. The war commentary was a scrap heavy for me but overall the story was engaging. Information technology was interesting because a lot of the issues that were written about are still relevant and important today. Information technology was eye opening to run into how some things never change and how history does in fact repeat itself.

Sep 03, 2013 Kevin rated it actually liked it

A memoir of Pauli Murray'due south grandparents, from slavery to Jim Crow. Especially powerful reading virtually her grandfather fighting in the Ceremonious War and then going south to teach former slaves. A memoir of Pauli Murray'due south grandparents, from slavery to Jim Crow. Especially powerful reading about her grandfather fighting in the Civil State of war and then going due south to teach onetime slaves. ...more

Apr 12, 2018 Marci rated it really liked it

Really enjoyed learning of the history of Pauli Murray. Want to read more of her in the time to come.

Very tedious-paced, particularly in the middle, just I learned a expert bit especially about North Carolina history in the late 1800s.

This quote about the common human being longing for liberty, dignity, and self-determination vs practical manifestations of having the privilege to access them in 1860s America actually struck me-

"Freedom was non something y'all could agree in your hands and look at. Information technology was something inside y'all which refused to die, a feeling, an urge, an impelling strength; but it was other things,

Very slow-paced, especially in the heart, only I learned a good bit especially nigh North Carolina history in the tardily 1800s.

This quote about the mutual human being longing for freedom, dignity, and self-determination vs applied manifestations of having the privilege to access them in 1860s America really struck me-

"Liberty was non something yous could agree in your hands and look at. It was something inside you lot which refused to dice, a feeling, an urge, an impelling forcefulness; but it was other things, too, things you did non have and you lot had to have tools to get them. Few freedmen had tools in 1865; only the feeling, the urge." (folio 168)

And this ane about the KKK harassing one of the chief characters and then beating someone else up was difficult to read-

"For a while the Ku-Klux Klan disrupted Grandfather's new dwelling. He and Grandmother lived in the cottage and slept in the main firm. Night after dark the men sat up with their guns in their easily as the masked Klansmen thundered past on the road. In the mornings they found the basis about cut to pieces from horses' hoofs where the Ku-Kluxers had ridden round and round the empty little cottage and the school. [...]

"Whether it was prayer or whether information technology was the rumor that the Fitzgeralds were proficient shots, nobody knows, just after awhile the Klan left them alone. [...] In bordering Alamance County that November, four masked men attacked Alonzo B. Corliss, a lame teacher employed past the Friends Freedman's Association. They went to his hole, dragged him out of bed in his nightclothes and out of the house without his crutches. His clothing was torn from his torso as they pulled him through the bushes. When they got him to the wood, they flogged his naked body with raw cowhide and green hickory sticks - thirty lashes. And so they cut off the hair from one side of his head and painted half of his face and shorn head black. They kicked him in the side and left him lying unconscious in the cold November nighttime air. He lay there for three hours earlier he came to and tried to crawl home. A colored man brought him his clothes and his wife met him with his crutches and together they helped him to his house. But when his married woman fainted at his bedside, his colored students, braving threats of the Klan, slipped in and dressed his wounds. When he had asked his tormentors what harm he had done they told him, 'Didactics n*ggers.'" (pages 221-223)

An enraging history lesson about public education in NC-

"It was a time when the idea of a public school organization supported by taxes was not popular in North Carolina. Half the population was illiterate and at least a 3rd was strongly opposed to paying taxes for education. The system of free schools guaranteed by the Constitution of 1868 was just getting started. Local officials in charge of selecting teachers, fixing salaries, choosing textbooks and maintaining school buildings were often indifferent or downright quack. The minimum term was four months a year, but it was widely ignored as a mandate and there was no way of enforcing it. Often a school term lasted only ten weeks.

"In the year of Aunt Pauline'south nascency [1870], just one out of every ten children of school age was enrolled. The Conservatives had wrested control of the state legislature from the Republicans that yr, and systematically began to whittle down provisions for uniform teaching. The distribution of schoolhouse funds was removed from control by the state board of teaching and placed in the hands of the legislature. The law which provided for allotment of funds amongst the counties in proportion to their school population was repealed.

"Without a proportional organisation, it was easy to starve the colored schools. The land superintendent of public educational activity had no involvement in Negro education and stated that he doubted 'any organization of pedagogy volition e'er elevator the African to high spheres of educated listen.'" (pages 233-234)

"When Grandfather came south to teach, the little Negro freedmen and the poor white children were more or less on an equal footing, shared an abysmal ignorance and went to log cabin schools. A one-half century afterward the crusade against starving the colored schools was a feeble whimper. Each morning I passed white children as poor equally I going in the opposite direction on their way to school. We never had fights; I don't recall their ever having called me a single insulting name. It was worse than that. They passed me as is I weren't at that place! They looked through me and beyond me with unseeing optics. Their school was a beautiful red-and-white brick building on a wide paved street. Its lawn was large and green and watered every day and bloom beds were everywhere. Their playground, a wonderland of fe swings, sand slides, encounter-saws, crossbars and a basketball courtroom, was barred from usa past a stiff eight-human foot-high fence topped past spinous wire. We could merely press our noses against the wire and watch them playing on the other side.

"I went to West End where Aunt Pauline taught, on Ferrell Street, a dirt route which began at a lumberyard and ended in a dump. On one side of this road were long low warehouses where huge barely of tobacco shavings and tobacco dust were stored. ll day long our nostrils sucked in the brows silt life find snuff in the air. Due west End looked more similar a warehouse than a school. Information technology was a dilapidated, rickety, two-story wooden building which creaked and swayed in the wind as if it might collapse. Outside it was scarred with peeling paint from many winters of rain and snow. Inside the floors were blank and splintery, the plumbing was leaky, the drinking fountains broken and the toilets in the basement evil-smelling and constantly out of order. We'd accept to wade through pools of foul h2o to become to them. At recess we herded into a yard of cracked dirt, barren of tree or bush, and played what games nosotros could improvise similar hopscotch or springboard, which nosotros contrived by pulling rotted palings off the wooden fence and placing them on brickbats.

"It was never the hardship which hurt so much as the contrast betwixt what nosotros had and what the white children had. Nosotros got the greasy, torn, domestic dog-eared books; they got the news ones. They had field 24-hour interval in the city park; we had information technology on a furrowed stubbly hillside. They got wide mention in the paper; nosotros got a paragraph at the lesser. The entire metropolis officialdom from the mayor downturned out to review their pageantry; nosotros got a solitary official.

"Our seedy run-downward school told united states that if we had any place at all in the scheme of things it was a carve up place, marked off, proscribed and unwanted past the white people. We were bottled up and labeled and prepare aside - sent to the Jim Crow car, the dorsum of the coach, the side door of the theater, the side window of a eating house. We came to know that whatsoever we had was always inferior. We came to understand that no matter how cracking and lea, how police force abiding, submissive and polite, how studious in school, how churchgoing and moral, how scrupulous in paying our bills and taxes we were, it made no essential difference in our place." (pages 268-270)

On the obsession with color in the early 1900s-

"It seemed as if in that location were only two kinds of people in the world - They and We - White and Colored. The earth revolved on color and variations in color. It pervaded the air I created. I learned it in hundreds of ways. I picked information technology upwards from grown folks around me. I heard information technology in the firm, on the playground, in the streets, everywhere. The tide of color beat upon me ceaselessly, relentlessly.

"Ever the same melody, played like a broken record, robbing one of personal identity. Always the shifting sands of color and then that at that place was no solid footing under ane'south feet. It was color, colour, color all the fourth dimension, color, features and hair. Folks were never only folks. They were white folks! Black folks! Poor white crackers! No-count due north*ggers! Crimson necks! Drakes! Peckerwoods! Coons!

"Two shades lighter! Two shades darker! Dead white! Coal black! High yaller! Mariny! Adept hair! Bad pilus! Stringy hair! Nappy hair! Thin lips! Thick lips! Cherry lip! Liver lips! Blue veined! Straight nosed! Apartment nosed!

"Brush your pilus, child, don't let it get kinky! Common cold-cream your face up, kid, don't let it get sunburned! Don't suck your lips, child, you'll brand them too n*ggerish! Black is evil, don't mix with mean northward*ggers! Black is honest, you half-white bounder. I always said a little black and a little white sure do brand a pretty sight! He's black equally sin and evil in the bargain. The blacker the berry, the sweet the juice!

"To hear people talk, color, features and hair were the most important things to know about a person, a yardstick by which everyone measured everybody else. From the looks of my family unit I could never tell where white folks left off and colored folks began." (pages 270-271)

And 1 of my favorite passages, 1 of the about lyrical-

"I squashed a rotten persimmon between my toes and wondered what she had in the oven. The sunlight filtered through the persimmon boughs and little rainbows appeared on her coffee-brown face. I wondered why some people were called white and some called colored when at that place were so many colors and you lot couldn't tell where one left off and the other began." (folio 260)

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Jun 12, 2020 Craig rated information technology it was amazing

In some means it is hard to believe Proud Shoes was written near seventy years ago. Murray tells the story of her family'due south by and offers upwardly such a current assay of race, gender, modify, faith, and apparently hard work - it is at times stunning. It is also "beyond current" in that it is revealing of a much more complex and intertwined past than nosotros generally admit - Proud Shoes gives you real people and physical reasons to gloat the diverse American story. The description of the 1868 electio In some ways it is difficult to believe Proud Shoes was written near 70 years ago. Murray tells the story of her family's past and offers up such a current analysis of race, gender, modify, religion, and apparently difficult work - information technology is at times stunning. Information technology is also "across current" in that it is revealing of a much more complex and intertwined past than we generally acknowledge - Proud Shoes gives you existent people and concrete reasons to celebrate the diverse American story. The description of the 1868 ballot rally and celebration in Hillsborough, North Carolina is but one case of an importantly illuminated piece of 'lost history'. A must read for anyone interested in the dash, triumph, and tragedy of what race is in America - especially if you are interested in the realities of the Blackness feel in the pivotal pre-Civil War era through Reconstruction. As well, a tremendous journey into a localized family experience - if you are interested in N Carolina history, especially Orange and Durham counties in all of their complication in the tardily 19th and early 20th Centuries please read Proud Shoes. ...more

I recently searched and establish this volume in the library after reading "The Firebrand and the First Lady" about Pauli Murray's friendship with Elenor Roosevelt. What a great book then much history about the aftermath of the ceremonious war. She told an intimate story based on writings from her gramps's journal. His periodical covered both his experiences as a soldier during the war and as a teacher in the due south after the war. Near moving, to me, was how Pauli's grandfather and many other black teach I recently searched and found this volume in the library later on reading "The Firebrand and the First Lady" virtually Pauli Murray's friendship with Elenor Roosevelt. What a great book and and so much history well-nigh the backwash of the civil state of war. She told an intimate story based on writings from her grandfather's journal. His journal covered both his experiences equally a soldier during the war and as a teacher in the south later on the war. Almost moving, to me, was how Pauli'southward gramps and many other black teachers moved to the south to teach newly freed slaves to read. History, as written in the history books taught in the schools, does not covey the deep and moving yearning of the new blackness citizens to read; and, how threatened the white southern population was by the teachers who come up south to teach them. This book is wonderful and worth the library search to detect it. I would similar to see it republished. ...more

This is a precious stone of a book - a story unfolds around the journey of Pauli Murray'due south family. I read a affiliate of it... maybe a bit more... when I took a January Project - as required - in the days those were 'a matter' at Lincoln University. [This was time betwixt semesters of full-bodied study/research, a time for mentoring skills and focusing on a specific subject.] Our history professor, Paul Russo, was researching the black land ownership around our campus, Lincoln University, and plant this book. This is a gem of a volume - a story unfolds around the journey of Pauli Murray'due south family unit. I read a chapter of it... possibly a bit more... when I took a Jan Project - every bit required - in the days those were 'a thing' at Lincoln University. [This was time between semesters of concentrated study/enquiry, a time for mentoring skills and focusing on a specific subject.] Our history professor, Paul Russo, was researching the blackness land ownership effectually our campus, Lincoln Academy, and found this book. Chapter vii was the place we began to moving-picture show how we would trace country back.

As I picked up the book in these open times, I read further into the book and saw the name Thomas Garrett!! Our dear Quaker abolitionist in the Kennett Square area had been part of her families story as well.

History comes live when nosotros read a book like that - and ponder how our time today is built on those times. I recall it'due south a must read for antiracists and Quakers at the very least.

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Mar 11, 2018 Deb Aronson rated it information technology was amazing

Wow. Pauli Murray's family story is a remarkable, intimate look at our legacy of slavery and all its complexities. Her grandmother was proud of her heritage as function of a white family unit in the south. But her father wasa white slave owner who raped her mother (Murray's great grandmother), a slave. Murray'due south granddaddy, who came to NC to help teach freedmen had such integrity and even so he faced the kind of resistance from the white school system that information technology gave me heart burn. And still he persevered. There Wow. Pauli Murray's family story is a remarkable, intimate look at our legacy of slavery and all its complexities. Her grandmother was proud of her heritage as office of a white family in the south. But her father wasa white slave owner who raped her female parent (Murray'southward great grandmother), a slave. Murray's grandfather, who came to NC to help teach freedmen had such integrity and nonetheless he faced the kind of resistance from the white school system that it gave me middle burn. And all the same he persevered. There were moments in this book that made me despair; I often experience like nosotros take non come very far from the days of the KKK attacking blacks, likewise every bit whites who sought to help blacks.

This book, together with In The Warmth of Other Suns, are for me seminal works regarding our racist history and how much nosotros have to still put right.

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Dec 08, 2021 Catherine rated it actually liked it

I starting time learned about Pauli Murray from Patricia Bong-Scott's book, The Firebrand and the Start Lady, a biography focused on the friendship Murray forged with Eleanor Roosevelt subsequently pestering ER for years near ceremonious and women'southward rights, and so working together to advance them.

This book is a memoir Murray wrote for her nieces and nephews about their family history, it ends but equally she reaches adulthood. Her family included enslaved people, free Black citizens, and white ancestors – both slaveh

I outset learned about Pauli Murray from Patricia Bell-Scott's book, The Firebrand and the First Lady, a biography focused on the friendship Murray forged with Eleanor Roosevelt after pestering ER for years about ceremonious and women's rights, and then working together to advance them.

This book is a memoir Murray wrote for her nieces and nephews about their family unit history, it ends just every bit she reaches adulthood. Her family included enslaved people, gratuitous Black citizens, and white ancestors – both slaveholders and those with anti-slavery beliefs. It was difficult to keep runway of everyone, and I picked up and put down the book quite a few times earlier finishing (which definitely didn't make it any easier to go along rails of everyone). I wish I had diagramed a family tree as I read.

A remarkable family history, written by a remarkable woman.

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May xiii, 2017 Lois rated it really liked it

Later reading that Pauli Murray'due south childhood home in Durham volition be a National Historic Site, I realized that I needed to acquire more than about this woman. This is more the story of her grandparents than her own story, but it is filled with the drama of American history from the Cival State of war through the 1960's. Race is a huge factor, as is the difficulties of living in the Southward during those years.
Murray, who did remarkable things with her life, is an inspiration and this book shows her roots. I want to After reading that Pauli Murray'south babyhood home in Durham will exist a National Historic Site, I realized that I needed to acquire more well-nigh this woman. This is more the story of her grandparents than her own story, merely it is filled with the drama of American history from the Cival State of war through the 1960's. Race is a huge factor, as is the difficulties of living in the South during those years.
Murray, who did remarkable things with her life, is an inspiration and this book shows her roots. I want to learn more virtually her life as a professional adult female, how she lived with her her homosexuality, how she became a ceremonious rights and women'due south rights lawyer and how she was drawn to become an Episcopal Priest. ...more than

What a beautiful, inspiring volume. I learned so much about the history of Blacks and the state during tumultuous times. The author is a hero of mine and after being introduced to her by a documentary, I couldn't expect to read her volume. I don't know what I'd expected but this was so much more. Personal, thought-provoking and heart-opening. An engaging read. The author did a superb job of covering her personal history likewise as providing groundwork context. At that place is so much wounding and recovery an What a cute, inspiring book. I learned and so much nearly the history of Blacks and the country during tumultuous times. The author is a hero of mine and after being introduced to her by a documentary, I couldn't expect to read her volume. I don't know what I'd expected but this was then much more. Personal, idea-provoking and eye-opening. An engaging read. The author did a superb job of roofing her personal history as well as providing background context. There is so much wounding and recovery and humor and grace in the telling of her family's ancestors from both sides of the Civil War. This should be required reading in school to tell history not oftentimes covered in the classroom. Recommended to all! ...more

Starting time published in 1956, Proud Shoes is the remarkable true story of slavery, survival, and miscegenation in the South from the pre-Ceremonious State of war era through Reconstruction. Murray herself was a poet and essayist during the Harlem Renaissance, then becoming the 1st African-American woman to exist ordained an Episcopal minister. She has been declared a Saint by the Episcopal Church in America. "A classic on the intertwining fictions of race and sexual practice, the depth of their cruelty, and the strength that has First published in 1956, Proud Shoes is the remarkable true story of slavery, survival, and miscegenation in the South from the pre-Ceremonious War era through Reconstruction. Murray herself was a poet and essayist during the Harlem Renaissance, then condign the 1st African-American woman to exist ordained an Episcopal government minister. She has been declared a Saint by the Episcopal Church in America. "A classic on the intertwining fictions of race and sex, the depth of their cruelty, and the forcefulness that has defied them. Present-day America cannot exist understood without true stories similar the ones Murray tells." —Gloria Steinem ...more

October 22, 2021 Jen rated it it was amazing

If ever in that location was a strong instance for the need to teach Critical Race Theory, this book is it! The more I read on race relations in this country, the more I realize how poorly I was educated on American history.

This volume had me doing deep soul searching on my ignorance of the topic, and I realize I am simply scraping the surface on what I should know well-nigh the horrific conditions for all people of color.

Highly recommend this story of a courageous family earlier, during and after the Ceremonious War. Shou

If ever at that place was a strong case for the demand to teach Critical Race Theory, this book is it! The more I read on race relations in this state, the more I realize how poorly I was educated on American history.

This book had me doing deep soul searching on my ignorance of the topic, and I realize I am just scraping the surface on what I should know near the horrific conditions for all people of color.

Highly recommend this story of a mettlesome family earlier, during and subsequently the Civil War. Should be required reading in center school.

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Jun 09, 2017 Helen rated information technology really liked information technology

I wanted to give this 5 stars for content and the amazing courage and life of Pauli Murray. I gave information technology iv stars because I couldn't feel much. I learned and so much near Black life in PA (my state) in the time of Jim Crow. Pauli Murray lived at the same time as my parents, her aunts at the same time as my grandparents which gave me a perspective on their lives and fourth dimension that I had not put together previously. I wanted to requite this five stars for content and the amazing courage and life of Pauli Murray. I gave information technology four stars considering I couldn't feel much. I learned so much almost Black life in PA (my state) in the time of Jim Crow. Pauli Murray lived at the aforementioned time equally my parents, her aunts at the same time equally my grandparents which gave me a perspective on their lives and fourth dimension that I had non put together previously. ...more than

Jan 22, 2017 Rachel rated information technology it was astonishing

What an amazing and inspiring story. Pauli Murray's book gave me such new insight well-nigh the South and, more particularity, about the lives of blackness families before, during, and post-obit the Civil State of war What an amazing and inspiring story. Pauli Murray's volume gave me such new insight near the South and, more particularity, nigh the lives of black families before, during, and following the Civil War ...more

May 14, 2018 Kathy Bartlett rated it really liked information technology

Recommended to Kathy by: kathy1214@aol.com

I establish this book a fascinating look into the history of a Durham hero. It gave me a view of the Civil State of war and slavery that I had never seen - existent people and the challenges they faced. It really helped that I accept been to the Pauli Murray house several times and could picture show it in my heed.

Apr 01, 2020 Sophie rated it liked it

I enjoyed this book. I read it for an American History grade in higher. Information technology was good but not the near entertaining read. While important to sympathise this role of United states history they way Murray writes made her family seem distant to me instead of vibrant people bursting off the folio.

The Reverend Dr. Anna Pauline "Pauli" Murray (November 20, 1910 – July ane, 1985) was an American ceremonious rights activist, women's rights activist, lawyer, and author. She was also the first black woman ordained an Episcopal priest.

Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Murray was raised more often than not by her maternal grandparents. At the historic period of 16, she moved to New York to attend Hunter College, graduating with a

The Reverend Dr. Anna Pauline "Pauli" Murray (Nov 20, 1910 – July 1, 1985) was an American civil rights activist, women's rights activist, lawyer, and author. She was too the get-go black woman ordained an Episcopal priest.

Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Murray was raised by and large by her maternal grandparents. At the age of sixteen, she moved to New York to nourish Hunter Higher, graduating with a B.A. in English in 1933. In 1940, Murray was arrested with a friend for violating Virginia segregation laws subsequently they sat in the whites-merely section of a bus. This incident, and her subsequent interest with the socialist Workers' Defense force League, inspired her to go a civil rights lawyer, and she enrolled at Howard University. During her years at Howard, she became increasingly aware of sexism, which she chosen "Jane Crow", the sister of the Jim Crow racial segregation laws. Murray graduated first in her class, but was denied the adventure to do farther work at Harvard University considering of her gender. In 1965 she became the first African American to receive a J.S.D. from Yale Police School.

Equally a lawyer, Murray argued for civil rights and women's rights. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Chief Counsel Thurgood Marshall called Murray'south 1950 book States' Laws on Race and Colour the "bible" of the civil rights movement. Murray served on the 1961 Presidential Commission on the Status of Women and in 1966 was a co-founder of the National Organization for Women. Ruth Bader Ginsburg later on named Murray a coauthor on a brief for Reed 5. Reed in recognition of her pioneering work on gender discrimination. Murray held kinesthesia or administrative positions at the Ghana Schoolhouse of Law, Benedict College, and Brandeis University.

In 1973, Murray left academia for the Episcopal Church, condign a priest, and was named an Episcopal saint in 2012. Murray struggled with problems related to her sexual and gender identity, describing herself as having an "inverted sex instinct"; she had a cursory, annulled spousal relationship to a man and several relationships with women, and in her younger years, occasionally passed as a teenage male child. In addition to her legal and advocacy work, Murray published ii well-reviewed autobiographies and a volume of verse.

(from Wikipedia)

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