Song in a Weary Throat: Memoir of an American Pilgrimage

by Pauli Murray Narrated by Allyson Johnson

Overview

Poet, memoirist, labor organizer, and Episcopal priest, Pauli Murray helped transform the law of the land. Arrested in 1940 for sitting in the whites-only section of a Virginia bus, Murray propelled that life-defining event into a Howard law degree and a fight against "Jane Crow" sexism. Her legal brilliance was pivotal to the overturning of Plessy v. Ferguson, the success of Brown v. Board of Education, and the Supreme Court's recognition that the equal protection clause applies to women; it also connected her with such progressive leaders as Eleanor Roosevelt, Thurgood Marshall, Betty Friedan, and Ruth Bader Ginsberg. Now Murray is finally getting long-deserved recognition: the first African American woman to receive a doctorate of law at Yale, her name graces one of the university's new colleges. Handsomely republished with a new introduction, Murray's remarkable memoir takes its rightful place among the great civil rights autobiographies of the twentieth century.

Editorial Reviews

Henry Louis Gates

"Americans are finally waking up to realize just how visionary Pauli Murray really is. This long-awaited republication of Song in a Weary Throat bears witness to her crowning achievements."

Jill Lepore

"The architect of the legal argument against segregation and a pioneer in the fight against gender discrimination, Murray proved as fearless as she was brilliant. The intensity and urgency of her resolve light up every page of this gripping memoir, a chronicle of the life of an eminent American who made great changes come a great deal faster."

Drew Gilpin Faust

"Murray’s life, her work, and her writings can serve as a model for a new understanding of the pursuit of social justice.... It is past time for Pauli Murray to become a household name."

Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore

"Pauli Murray’s lyrical autobiography eloquently chronicles the decades-long African American freedom struggle. A one-woman civil rights movement…. Reading her autobiography will restore your faith in the audacity of hope."

Jenn M. Jackson

"Murray’s role in history is important for a number of reasons, especially because their gender and sexuality placed them at a complex set of intersections situated outside the normative standards of both the white women–led rights movement and the black church–led freedom struggle.... Murray’s gender-nonconforming (GNC) body and experiences makes their contributions to the work of freedom and liberation of black people that much more critical. Sadly, these experiences are also the likely cause of Murray’s erasure from so much of history."

Brittney Cooper

"“This book is a gift, a testimony and powerful witness, of one of the 20th century’s greatest freedom fighters. Pauli Murray was a woman before her time, one whose vision of a world not divided by polarizing ideas of race or gender, is a vision we are all still striving to create. The profound sense of hope and indomitable fighting spirit that inspired Murray to challenge injustice wherever she encountered it is the very hope that our weary throats and hearts and minds need in this moment.”"

Product Details

BN ID:	2940171418717
Publisher:	HighBridge Company
Publication date:	07/31/2018
Edition description:	Unabridged

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