Saint Pauli

Saint Pauli August 17, 2012

A combative, chain-smoking pixie on the wrong side of history is the not the typical profile of a saint, yet this is how Pauli Murray described herself. Last month the Episcopal Church admitted Murray to the pantheon of “Holy Women, Holy Men: Celebrating the Saints” in honor of her efforts toward “the universal cause of freedom.”

The first African American woman ordained an Episcopal priest, Pauli Murray (1910-1985) was so much more. Lawyer, poet, memoirist, polemicist, expat constitutional law professor in Ghana, co-founder of NOW, mentor to Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and friend to Eleanor Roosevelt, Murray forged intersections between American movements for black freedom, peace, and women’s liberation.

Early examples come from the 1940s when Murray was on the leading edge of new kind of engagement with racial justice. She lived in the Harlem Ashram, an interracial community that aspired to develop a Gandhian movement in the U.S. The Ashram was a meeting place for James Farmer, Bayard Rustin, and Murray, among others, who experimented with sit-ins and freedom rides. Ashram alumni were on the planning team for CORE’s 1947 Journey of Reconciliation, which tested compliance with the Supreme Court’s 1946 decision in Morgan v. Virginia. Riders hoped to demonstrate integral connections between peace and black freedom, but Murray thought they should do even more.
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