Jane Crow: The Life of Pauli Murray

by Rosalind Rosenberg Narrated by Janina Edwards

Overview

In this definitive biography, Rosalind Rosenberg offers a poignant portrait of Pauli Murray, who played pivotal roles in both the modern civil rights and women's movements.



A mixed-race orphan, Murray grew up in segregated North Carolina before escaping to New York, where she attended Hunter College and became a labor activist in the 1930s. When she applied to graduate school at the University of North Carolina, where her white great-great-grandfather had been a trustee, she was rejected because of her race. She went on to graduate first in her class at Howard Law School, only to be rejected for graduate study again at Harvard University this time on account of her sex. Undaunted, Murray forged a singular career in the law. In the 1950s, her legal scholarship helped Thurgood Marshall challenge segregation head-on in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case.



When appointed by Eleanor Roosevelt to the President's Commission on the Status of Women in 1962, she advanced the idea of Jane Crow, arguing that the same reasons used to condemn race discrimination could be used to battle gender discrimination. In 1965, she became the first African American to earn a JSD from Yale Law School and the following year persuaded Betty Friedan to found an NAACP for women, which became NOW.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

★ 01/16/2017
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.)

From the Publisher

"Rosenberg brilliantly situates Murray at the forefront of post-WW II civil and women's rights movements....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. Essential."—CHOICE

"Rosenberg offers a compelling look at a complicated woman."—Booklist (starred 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....Assiduous research and clear prose give [Pauli] Murray her due."—Kirkus

"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."—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

"Rosenberg tells Murray's story as she lived it but also casts a well-informed, modern eye on the intersections and omissions within that life. Her striking interpretive work clearly shows what Murray herself suspected: that everything Murray did was 'part of history...an instrument for achieving things.'"—Foreword Reviews

"A fascinating look at the incredible life of Pauli Murray, a mixed-race, transgender scholar, lawyer, activist, priest, and trailblazer who played a pivotal role in the civil rights and women's movements of the 20th century."—The Advocate

"A splendid definitive biography....This thorough investigation into Murray's life is fascinating, as the author traces the intersection among gender, race, and politics."—Library Journal, Starred Review

"Historical figures aren't human flotsam, swirling into public awareness at random intervals. Instead, they are almost always borne back to us on the current of our own times. In Murray's case, it's not simply that her public struggles on behalf of women, minorities, and the working class suddenly seem more relevant than ever. It's that her private struggles—documented for the first time in all their fullness by Rosenberg—have recently become our public ones."—New Yorker

"A compelling read from start to finish....Like all the best biographies, this is more than just the story of a single figure. It is the story of America, told through the intersections of race, gender, and sexuality that have come to define it....Rosenberg's Jane Crow makes not only an important contribution to the fields of Black, feminist, and trans history, but also offers us the timely reminder that, as Murray herself once wrote, 'one person and a typewriter make a movement.'"—Lambda Literary

"A fresh perspective on this crucial slice of history."—Gay & Lesbian Review

"Rosenberg's research is thorough, and her lively style keeps readers engaged....[A]n edifying and enjoyable read."—Christian Century

"Beautifully crafted...[Jane Crow] underscore[s] the pleasures of biography as history."—Eileen Boris, The American Historical Review

"Rosenberg has done the world an immense favor by presenting, in all its triumph and pathos, the life (or perhaps 'lives' is more accurate) of this brilliant and defiant African-American."—National Catholic Review

"Meticulously researched, expansive in its coverage of Murray's many achievements, engagingly written overall, Rosenberg has given us the means to a greater appreciation of this most remarkable American, and provides a foundation for even further conversation about her significance and legacy."—North Carolina Literary Review

"Rosenberg has delivered an insightful, sensitive, and long-overdue biography that gives Murray her rightful place among the twentieth century's most important civil rights activitists."—Jeffrey J. Crow, North Carolina Historical Review

"Rosalind Rosenberg's Jane Crow: The Life of Pauli Murray is a highly readable account of Murray's intense and life-long battle to confront social issues bound up in the entangled threads of race, sexuality, gender, and class... Her narrative has an immediacy that seamlessly connects Murray's personal and public lives."—Southern Register

"Jane Crow does justice to the powerful mind and personal pain of Pauli Murray and to the momentous events she had a hand in bringing to pass. This is a book that asks us to meet it with an energy and compassion that does honor to its subject and will change the way we understand our world." — Nancy Kreml, Resources for Gender and Women's Studies: A Feminist Review

Library Journal

★ 03/15/2017
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

Kirkus Reviews

2017-01-16
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 early—her father was murdered, and her mother was rendered frail by repeated childbirth—overcame 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.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940176085679
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	09/08/2020
Edition description:	Unabridged

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