Pauli Murray

Life and Orange County connections

Storylines this person is part of, in date order. Each has its own page.

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 11 dated events in the chronology →

During their lifetime

1. 1844 Harriet, enslaved by the Smith family in Hillsborough, gives birth to Cornelia after Sidney Smith rapes her Harriet, bought by James Strudwick Smith in 1834 as a maid for his daughter Mary Ruffin Smith, was raped by his son Sidney and gave birth to Cornelia in 1844, while the family's home was in Hillsborough. Cornelia's granddaughter Pauli Murray told the story in Proud Shoes. People: James Sidney Smith, James Strudwick Smith, Mary Ruffin Smith, Pauli Murray, Cornelia Smith Fitzgerald Place: Hillsborough · Also named: HarrietSearch the index · UNC Libraries: Pauli Murray and UNC, Smith family and early UNC connections
2. August 8, 1869 Robert G. Fitzgerald marries Cornelia Smith of Chapel Hill Fitzgerald married Cornelia Smith, a niece of Mary Ruffin Smith, the Chapel Hill benefactor of the university. Their granddaughter Pauli Murray later told the family's story in Proud Shoes. People: Robert G. Fitzgerald, Pauli Murray, Mary Ruffin Smith, Cornelia Smith Fitzgerald Place: Orange CountySearch the index · NCpedia: Fitzgerald, Robert George (Dictionary of North Carolina Biography)
3. April 9, 1871 Mary Pauline Fitzgerald is baptized at St. Matthew's The seven-month-old daughter of the freedmen's teacher Robert G. Fitzgerald and his wife Cornelia was baptized at St. Matthew's, her mother standing as sponsor. As Pauline Fitzgerald Dame she later raised her niece, Pauli Murray. People: Robert G. Fitzgerald, Pauli Murray Place: Hillsborough · Also named: Cornelia Fitzgerald, Mary Pauline Fitzgerald · Also mentions: St. Matthew'sBurwell School Historic Site Task Force: Antebellum Hillsborough, Slavery, and Enslaved and Free People of Color who Worked at the Burwell School, 1837-1857 (2019), p. 75
4. December 14, 1938 UNC rejects Pauli Murray's graduate application Pauli Murray, who grew up in Durham and lived in New York, applied to UNC's graduate school in 1938 to study with Howard Odum and Guy B. Johnson. On December 14, two days after the Supreme Court's Gaines ruling, Dean W. W. Pierson rejected her because of her race, and her appeals to President Frank Porter Graham became national news. People: Frank Porter Graham, Pauli Murray, Howard W. Odum Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Guy B. Johnson, W. W. PiersonNational Humanities Center: Pauli Murray, "Members of Your Race Are Not Admitted" (Song in a Weary Throat, 1987, ch. 11) · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, January 6, 1939, p. 1
5. May to June 1951 Dean Brandis handles the applications of Pauli Murray and three other Black students to the law school After the trustees left admissions to each professional school's dean, Brandis wrote Chancellor R. B. House about four Black applicants, Pauli Murray, J. Kenneth Lee, Harvey E. Beech and William C. Chance Jr., and on June 6 told Murray the school offered no graduate law courses. The UNC Libraries exhibit reads these letters as showing the law school resisting integration. People: Henry P. Brandis Jr., Pauli Murray, R. B. House, J. Kenneth Lee, Harvey E. Beech Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: William C. Chance Jr. · Also mentions: UNC LibrariesSearch the index · UNC Libraries: Pauli Murray and UNC, 1951: Murray inquiry about law school admissions
6. February 13, 1977 Pauli Murray celebrates her first Eucharist at the Chapel of the Cross Murray, newly ordained an Episcopal priest, celebrated her first Eucharist at the Chapel of the Cross in Chapel Hill at the invitation of the rector Peter James Lee, who cited her family's connection to the parish. Her grandmother Cornelia Smith Fitzgerald had been baptized in the same chapel on December 20, 1854. People: Cornelia Smith Fitzgerald Place: Chapel of the Cross, Chapel Hill · Also named: Peter James Lee, Mary Ruffin SmithSearch the index · UNC Libraries: Pauli Murray and UNC, 1977 First Holy Eucharist at Chapel of the Cross · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, February 15, 1977, p. 1; The Daily Tar Heel, February 18, 1977, p. 6
7. February 1977 The Black Presence Committee of Chapel Hill honors Pauli Murray The Black Presence Committee of Chapel Hill and Vicinity gave Pauli Murray, a Chapel Hill native who had been refused admission to UNC's law school in the 1930s, a certificate of recognition praising her determination, faith and courage, around the time of her February 13 sermon at the Chapel of the Cross. Place: Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Chapel of the CrossSearch the index · Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), March 1, 1977, p. 3
8. 1978 Pauli Murray declines an honorary degree from UNC Chancellor N. Ferebee Taylor wrote to Murray on February 10, 1978 offering her an honorary Doctor of Laws at the commencement of May 14, 1978. Murray declined, citing the University's dispute with the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare over dismantling segregation and her refusal to share the platform with Governor Jim Hunt. People: N. Ferebee Taylor Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Jim HuntSearch the index · UNC Libraries: Pauli Murray and UNC, 1976-1978 Honorary degree
9. 1984 Nancy Reynolds Pagano becomes the first woman ordained at the Chapel of the Cross The ordination came seven years after Pauli Murray celebrated her first eucharist in the same church. People: Pauli Murray Place: Chapel of the Cross, Chapel Hill · Also named: Nancy Reynolds PaganoSearch the index · A Celebration of 250 Years of Anglican and Episcopal Witness in Orange County (2003), scan p. 13

After their death in 1985

Later events: estates and burials, and the buildings, honors and histories that remember them.

1. March 25-27, 1986 UNC holds its first Black Women's Leadership Symposium Women's Studies and the Curriculum in African and Afro-American Studies held Black Women's Leadership: Challenges and Strategies, dedicated to Pauli Murray. Eleanor Holmes Norton gave the keynote to about 400 people in Hill Hall on March 25; Paula Giddings, bell hooks and Mary Frances Berry also spoke, and WTVD's Miriam Thomas led a session on women and poverty. People: Pauli Murray Place: Hill Hall and Memorial Hall, University, Chapel Hill · Also named: Eleanor Holmes Norton, Paula Giddings, Mary Frances Berry, Miriam Thomas · Also mentions: Hill HallSearch the index · Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), April 15, 1986, p. 4
2. November 20, 1988 The Black Cultural Center honors Pauli Murray at the Chapel of the Cross On her birthday the Black Cultural Center held a tribute to Pauli Murray at the Chapel of the Cross, where about 80 people heard friends recall her and read her poetry. Speakers included Phillips Junior High teacher Lee Kessler, who helped get Proud Shoes reissued, and Floyd McKissick, the first Black student admitted to the UNC law school. Place: Chapel of the Cross, East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill · Also named: Lee Kessler, Floyd McKissick · Also mentions: Black Cultural CenterSearch the index · Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), December 5, 1988, p. 4