Local figure
Murray celebrated her first Eucharist at the Chapel of the Cross in Chapel Hill on February 13, 1977, invited by the rector Peter James Lee because of her family's ties to the parish. Her grandmother Cornelia Smith Fitzgerald had been baptized in the same chapel on December 20, 1854.
Source: UNC Libraries: Pauli Murray and UNC, 1977 First Holy Eucharist at Chapel of the Cross
1910–1985 as the Library of Congress records it · Library of Congress authority record ↗
5 indexed works are connected with this person, and the index includes 2 works by Pauli Murray. 3 held at OCPL →
Works in the index that concern this person directly, or were written by them. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it; background reading with wider context sits further down.
Pauli Murray's memoir of her life as a lawyer, civil rights reformer, feminist and, late in life, Episcopal priest, published by Harper & Row in 1987, two years after her death. Raised in Durham, Murray applied to the University of North Carolina in 1938 and was refused because she was Black. 451 pages with plates and portraits.
Reviewed in The Women s Review of Books (1987), The Journal of Southern History (1989).
Pauli Murray's account of her grandparents, Robert and Cornelia Fitzgerald, and of a family that came together out of enslaved people, free Black people, white slaveholders and Cherokee ancestors in the years before and after the Civil War. Murray, born in 1910 and raised in Durham, follows the Fitzgeralds from Pennsylvania to North Carolina, where Cornelia had been born enslaved in Orange County near Chapel Hill. First published by Harper in 1956; this edition runs 280 pages.
Rosalind Rosenberg's 2017 biography of Pauli Murray (1910-1985), lawyer, poet and Episcopal priest, raised in Durham. Its six parts follow a Southern childhood, the move to New York, the 1938 application to the University of North Carolina that was refused because Murray was Black (the chapter is titled 'Members of your race are not admitted'), law school and the coining of the phrase Jane Crow, the Cold War years, the push toward 'an NAACP for women', and a late-life ordination. 494 pages with portraits.
Why this is here: Catalog heading in the Duke record: Murray, Pauli, 1910-1985.
Reviewed in The Journal of Southern History (2018).
Katharine Jefferts Schori preached this sermon at the Chapel of the Cross in Chapel Hill on February 8, 2007, at the celebration marking thirty years since Pauli Murray's first Eucharist. The parish printed it on a single folded sheet of six pages with a portrait. Topics include Murray, who lived from 1910 to 1985, and African American women clergy in North Carolina.
Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Murray, Pauli, 1910-1985.
An eleven minute videocassette carrying Charles Kuralt's television piece on Pauli Murray, drawn from his On the Road series and dated 2002. It concerns African American biography, the Episcopal Church and the Chapel of the Cross in Chapel Hill. Kuralt lived from 1934 to 1997.
Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Murray, Pauli, 1910-1985.
Books in OCPL’s Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection whose titles, catalog subjects, or descriptions match this person. The Friends’ recommended starting points are labelled.
Pauli Murray's memoir of her life as a lawyer, civil rights reformer, feminist and, late in life, Episcopal priest, published by Harper & Row in 1987, two years after her death. Raised in Durham, Murray applied to the University of North Carolina in 1938 and was refused because she was Black. 451 pages with plates and portraits.
Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 5 dated events in the chronology →
Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows the 1 with a known location.
Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange and OpenStreetMap; town and community pins mark the middle of their mapped buildings.
People named in the same dated entries as Pauli Murray, those sharing the most entries first. Each line links one of the shared entries in the chronology, where its source is cited. A shared entry shows these people in the same event, not how well they knew each other.
The index lists works with an Orange County connection. To find everything else about Pauli Murray, search these catalogs.
Searched with the Library of Congress heading Murray, Pauli, 1910-1985, so the results are about this person and not others with the same name. Each link opens that catalog’s own results in a new tab. The Friends have not reviewed what they return.
Found a book OCPL doesn’t own? You can often borrow it through interlibrary loan at OCPL.
Other catalogs to search and local organizations that can help.
Picture: Pauli Murray, 2007. CC BY-SA 3.0. By Carolina Digital Library and Archives; Carolina Digital Library and Archives. "Murray, Pauli, 1910-1985." 5 July 2007. Online image. UNC University Library. Accessed 8 April 2011. dc.lib.unc.edu; via Wikimedia Commons
More to discover
The Friends connect people with new library materials, local writers and publishers, and resources documenting Orange County.
