Audio Resources about Pauli Murray

North Carolina Public Radio’s concise podcasts give an excellent overview, with interviews and audio of Murray from Documenting the American South spliced in, as well as statements from Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Serena Mayeri, and Kenneth Mack.

    • Oral History Interview with Pauli Murray, February 13, 1976.
    • Pauli’s Power, hosted by Leoneda Inges.  This 25-minute episode of Tested describes a faculty movement at UNC Chapel Hill, which “aims to honor the social-justice warrior by naming a building after her”.
    • Pauli the Podcast, hosted by Leoneda Inge, covers her life and influence in three segments.
      • 1: Pauli Murray v. Jane Crow
      • 2: Laying down the Law
      • 3: Saint Pauli

Out in the Bay, a show devoted to LGBTQ issues on San Francisco’s FM Channel KALW, devoted its last 2022 episode to Murray: Hats off to Pauli Murray! Host Eric Jansen interviews Julie Cohen, co-director of “My Name is Pauli Murray”, and Dolores Chandler, former coordinator at the Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice in Durham NC.

The Schlesinger Library, Harvard University, provides this index to its digitized audiotapes:  Pauli Murray Papers, 1827-1987: Series VI, which includes these audiotapes.

    • Interviews of Murray by Howard University history professor Robert Martin.
      • August 15, 1968: Side 1 & Side 2.  These recordings present Murray’s comments on her upbringing and family backgrounds, her sense of being linked to her past and the impact of her experiences on her poetry, her activism, and her educational endeavors, through the 1930s. Side 2 begins with her thoughts about civil rights and how the search for identity among blacks developed over the years from 1940-1968, with historical and cultural examples.
      • August 16, 1968:  Side 1 & Side 2.  Side 1 includes comments on the 1963 March on Washington, her activism as a Howard University student, interactions with the administration, and comparisons to the activism of the 1960s, her time in Berkeley, CA. and advocacy for Japanese Americans, work on discrimination and the law. Side 2 presents Murray’s thoughts on her legal work, in private practice and as an associate in a law firm in New York, on her political engagement with the Adlai Stevenson campaigns, and her observations on her time in Ghana and European and African cultures. The interview closes with her views on civil disobedience, non-violence and recent developments in race relations and related leadership.
    • Besser Interview of Murray for Ms. Magazine, January 29,1977. Side 1 & 2.   Side 1 plumbs the theme of Murray as a social pioneer. She talks about the paradox of her “split” self, seeing herself as a contemplative loner, who also chose to work with groups as an activist. Substantial parts of the interview cover her theology, literary influences, poetry, thoughts on protest and non-violence, family influences, and black culture. She closes with thoughts on her faith and ministry of reconciliation. Side 2 begins with her reactions to racial and sex barriers while in law school and her first stand on discrimination in 1938.  It presents her lengthy meditations on the role of the Episcopal faith in community and the ordination of women priests and on the choices she made to focus on her studies while at seminary.
    • Interview of Murray by Charles Kuralt for CBS’ Who’s Who, March 29, 1977. This audiotape of the television broadcast of “On the Road with Charles Kuralt” episode on Pauli Murray’s first Eucharist, celebrated at the Chapel of the Holy Cross, Chapel Hill NC, highlights her family connections to the church and the fact that Murray was the first woman to preside at an Episcopal Church in North Carolina.
    • Interview of Murray re: her civil-rights work, by Howard University student Wanda Gooch, April 25, 1980.  Murray focuses on the history and effects of segregation, and incidents from her Howard University days. The interviewer’s questions about literature and poetry elicit Murray’s memories of the end of the Harlem Renaissance period, the writers she knew, and a reading of her poem, “Prophecy.”
    • Service at Chapel of the Holy Cross, Chapel Hill NC, February 13, 1977.
      • Side A: presiding at Holy Communion
      • Side B: inaugural sermon.
    • Conversation with Heather Huyck re: history of women’s ordination, March 18, 1977:  Side 1 & Side 2.  This interview with an historian of the National Parks Service focuses on Murray’s vocation to the priesthood, followed by her thoughts on the ordination of women in the Episcopal Church, her personal relationships with some of them, and the challenges she and other women faced at this time in church history.
    • Pentecost/Mothers Day Service at St. Philip’s Church, Durham NC, May 14, 1978:  Side 1 & Side 2.
    • “Perspectives Talk” re: creative non-violence, at Emmanuel Church [not Boston], October 25, 1983:  Side 1 & Side 2.  Murray reads her letter to President Ronald Reagan dated April 27, 1981, in which she comments on recent administration policies with which she disagrees. She implores him to reexamine his approaches to international and domestic relations during his first 100 days. She then reads her letter to Reagan of October 23, 1983, on the bill designating a holiday for Martin Luther King, Jr. and speaks about her appraisal of inequality in the U.S. and other social-injustice issues. Murray discusses her vocation to the priesthood and the sources of her inspiration, including her experience at the 1968 World Council of Churches Fourth Assembly in Uppsala. On Side 2, questions from the audience prompt her to discuss international relations, nonviolence, nonviolent conflict resolution, racial polarization in churches, and reasons for hope. 
    • Murray lectures at the West Haven [CT] Educational Association’s  “Your Community Speaks” program, February 27, 1965, sponsored by the Yale Broadcasting Company:  Part 1 & Part 2.  Murray was invited as a guest for a two-part program in the “Issues Today” series. The first, entitled “I’m not prejudiced but…” presents an analysis of prejudice in the U.S. She begins with suggested readings.
          • The Protestant Establishment by E. Digby Baltzell
          • The Nature of Prejudice by Gordon Allport
          • Racial and Cultural Minorities by George Simpson and J. Milton Yinger

      She discusses the continuum of prejudicial behavior, its manifestations, its causes, and its structural implications.  Part 2 is devoted to her response to the question of whether American society is prejudice-prone? She discusses the historical background of slavery and racism, relations between different immigrant groups in the U.S., and the role of competition and notions of success in American culture in fostering bias.

    • Harvard Law School Forum, Women:  Dare We Not Discriminate, March 18, 1966.  Murray’s lecture & question & answer period.  Murray recounts her experience with applying to Harvard and subsequent re-applications, prompted by her letter to President Roosevelt about her initial rejection. She goes on to elaborate on the denial of women’s rights in specific legal cases related to jury service. Speakers in the Q&A period include:  Murray, Andrew Newman, Betty Friedan, Mary I. Bunting, Peter Truboff, and Benjamin Sachs. 
    • Testimony before New York City Human Rights Commission. September 25, 1970. Sides 1 & 2.  Murray testifies, using examples from her life and legal work, to urge the Senate to approve the Equal Rights Amendment.
    • Statements re: SCLC & ERA and testimony before House Subcommittee chaired by the Hon. Edith Green, 1970. Murray recommends that the SCLC address its token representation of women in its policy making board and speaks against the substitute text of the ERA under consideration. She proposes a summit of women in leadership to structure a coordinated political effort for equality.
    • “Dark Testament”
      • Spoken by Murray and sung by Margaret Hayes, August 1971
      • Read with “Psalm of Deliverance” by Murray, no date.
      • Read by Murray on Harvard University’s Streaming Delivery Service, January 1977.  Schlesinger Library’s series Hear Black Women’s Voices features her with this excerpted introduction:

An Episcopal priest, attorney, and civil rights activist, Murray became an enduring voice for freedom and equal opportunity during her lifetime (1910–1985). She was a founding member of the Congress of Racial Equality and the National Organization for Women, as well as a pioneer of African American genealogy.  “Dark Testament” was published in 1970 in Dark Testament and Other Poems, her only book of poetry, which covers 1933-1941. Speaking of it, she said:  “I think the same thing that made me write poetry, ‘Dark Testament’–the same kind of . . . I don’t know whether to call it fire, the same kind of unrest, the same kind of response to situations–made me participate in activities.”

    •  Speech at the National Council of Women of the U.S.: “Grace under Pressure”, October 11, 1962.  Murray examines parallels between women’s and Africans Americans’ struggles for equality. On the program were Rene Carpenter, wife of astronaut M. Scott Carpenter; Esther Peterson, equal-pay advocate; and Rachel Carson, marine biologist.  Using Hemingway’s term “grace under pressure” to illustrate courageous responses to racism and inequality, she cites the heroic qualities of the astronauts, James Meredith, and women displaying courage as social reformers. She displays a mastery of the history of discrimination and human-rights struggles.
    • Reading by Murray from Chapter 21 of her autobiographical Proud Shoes, no date.
    • Song in a Weary Throat, Caroline Ware‘s comments on Murray’s autobiography, no date.
    • Conversation with Gilbert Ware, April 7, 1977.  Tape 2, Side 2. Murray presents her editorial comments on William Hastie: Grace under Pressure by Gilbert Ware. Appointed to the Federal District Court in the Virgin Islands in 1949,  Hastie was the first Black federal judge.

    • Oral history of Eleanor Roosevelt, Murray with Dr. Thomas Soabes of the Roosevelt Library, February 3, 1978.  Murray discusses her practice of “confrontation by typewriter” evidenced in her letters, particularly those to Roosevelt, which address their common concerns and viewpoints.

    • Blanch Cooke interview with Murray, October 19, 1983. Tape 1: Side 1 & Side 2 & Tape 2.   Blanche Cook, biographer of Eleanor Roosevelt, first asks Murray about her perception of her magnetism, which Murray characterized as an “electrification of the air” around her. Murray comments on their correspondence, reactions to Murray’s poetry, and her thoughts on Rooseveltian politics. Murray reads “Psalm of Deliverance,” one of the poems she had sent to Eleanor.  On Side 2, Murray continues in a lively exchange with Cook to reminiscence about her special relationship with Eleanor and the First Lady’s role in the revival of the women’s movement. Murray talks about her differences with Eleanor over views expressed during the 1956 election campaign and how she had worked within her status as First Lady and through her column to accomplish her objectives, as a reformer rather than a revolutionary. On Tape 2, the discussion turns to the influence of other friends on Eleanor Roosevelt.