“Women’s Rights.” by Pauli Murray. Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.), 24 Aug. 1963. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1963-08-24/ed-1/seq-4/>
This editorial-style letter to the editor is valuable in a classroom setting because it serves as both an inspiration and a model for students. It encourages them to recognize systemic inequities, advocate for themselves and broader issues, and develop their own voices in writing.
In this letter, Murray identifies concepts that would later be formally named, such as intersectionality, as theorized by Kimberlé Crenshaw. This text serves as a specific historical example of how Black women experienced multiple forms of oppression simultaneously. It also demonstrates how to call out systemic hypocrisies and issue a call to action for individuals in positions of influence to effect positive change.
For students, this source is a model of how to name discrimination and outline steps to dismantle it, providing both historical context and actionable inspiration for advocacy.
- In this short letter to the Evening Star, Murray expresses her disappointment in Black men whom she has historically respected, such as A. Philip Randolph and Martin Luther King Jr. Her critique stems from Randolph's decision to speak at the National Press Club and King's decision to sit on the platform with him. Murray explains that the National Press Club is an organization that excludes women from membership and enforces gender-segregated seating.
- Murray underscores that she experiences both racism and sexism, calling on these men to recognize that they should not support systemic inequities. She emphasizes that, as individuals who understand the violence of systemic racism, they have a responsibility to show solidarity with Black women, especially when men before them have modeled how to do so.
This letter to the editor was written by Pauli Murray, then a senior fellow at Yale Law School, who is renowned for her work as a feminist, civil rights advocate, theorist, writer, and preacher. Murray coined the term “Jane Crow” to describe sexism, drawing a parallel to “Jim Crow.” Both terms are explicitly named in this piece, where she criticizes A. Philip Randolph, leader of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, and Martin Luther King Jr., the esteemed civil rights leader, for endorsing an organization that practices systemic gender discrimination.
- What are effective ways to address others when someone has caused you or a group of people harm?
- What does solidarity look like when you are not personally affected by a cause but care about those who are?
- How has Pauli Murray’s influence and legacy lived on through her written, legal, and spiritual work?
- What do the terms intersectionality and misogynoir mean? How do these terms relate to what Pauli Murray identifies in her letter to the Evening Star newspaper?
NCTE Standards
NCTE-2. Students read a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to build an understanding of the many dimensions (e.g., philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of human experience.
- Students will read this letter alongside informational texts and personal experiences to connect with and/or better understand experiences similar to or different from their own.
NCTE-5. Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.
- Students will learn how to write a formal letter to the editor or, at minimum, analyze and recognize the form and persuasive tools that Murray employed in her letter.
- As an activity to practice the skill of synthesis—a necessary skill for all high school students—educators can first show a video created by Northwestern University to provide background on the term misogynoir, a term recently coined by Dr. Moya Bailey. Students could also watch the TED Talk The Urgency of intersectionality by Kimberlé Crenshaw or read any of her works describing the applications of intersectionality, which originated by identifying the unique, overlapping oppressions that Black women experience.
- Finally, educators can introduce students to this letter by Pauli Murray, encouraging them to identify the letter’s intended purpose and unpack the terms Jim Crow and Jane Crow, examining how Murray used these terms as part of her persuasive argument.
- By beginning with this first activity, students could use Murray’s letter as a model to write their own letter to the editor for a real or imagined newspaper, focusing specifically on audience and purpose. Educators can use the frameworks presented in adrienne maree brown’s We Will Not Cancel Us: And Other Dreams of Transformative Justice or Michelle MiJung Kim’s The Wake Up: Closing the Gap Between Good Intentions and Real Change to help students address harm caused by others and propose ways for those responsible to repair it. This approach could be particularly relevant if students themselves are directly affected, as Murray was.
- Educators could use this letter to introduce Murray’s remarkable yet often overlooked legacy within the context of the Black Freedom Struggle and the history of public policy and law in the United States. To provide additional context, they could first use this PBS video about Murray’s life to highlight her many accomplishments before introducing this text.
- Students could take note of the many ways Murray effected change through her writing, including her contributions to landmark Supreme Court decisions such as Brown v. Board of Education and Reed v. Reed. Afterward, students could read Murray’s letter and research the people and organizations she names, such as William Lloyd Garrison, Charles Remond, Martin Luther King Jr., and A. Philip Randolph. Students could then craft a visual representation of the relationships between these figures and the context of the events Murray describes in relation to the Civil Rights Movement.
- It’s possible that some individuals may not appreciate Murray’s critique of the choices made by A. Philip Randolph, an American labor unionist and civil rights activist, or even of the renowned Martin Luther King Jr. in this editorial letter, and they may question her authority to criticize both King and Randolph. Challenges may also arise, ironically rooted in racism and sexism, as Murray often made people uncomfortable by disrupting historically accepted hierarchical norms.
Links to resources for approaching those topics
- In response to potential discomfort with Murray’s criticism of both Randolph and King, educators can revisit Kimberlé Crenshaw’s many writings about intersectionality, this interview, as well as Beverly Daniel Tatum’s essay “The Complexity of Identity”, to explore how multiple forms of privilege and oppression can coexist within one individual. Those who take issue with the way Murray delivered her critique might also consider how this reflects a larger societal conversation about the policing of Black women.
- Betty Friedan was the President of NOW in 1967, and this photograph is part of a collection on Changing America.
- Another alternate source in the Changing America Collection could be Image 7 on the NAACP.
- “EITHER/OR & the BINARY.” n.d. WHITE SUPREMACY CULTURE. https://www.whitesupremacyculture.info/eitheror--the-binary.html.
- Additionally, educators who recognize some people’s tendency toward binary or either/or thinking may want to reference the White Supremacy Characteristics to further unpack this inclination and encourage multiple truths to coexist.
- Lewis, Stephen J. “From the Combination of Racism and Sexism, Here Is the Story of a New Word.” News.northwestern.edu, May 4, 2023. https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2023/05/professor-coins-new-word-misogynoir/.
- For educators looking to teach more about the term misogynoir and the history of the word.
- “Pauli Murray Center.” Pauli Murray Center, 2014. https://www.paulimurraycenter.com/writings-about-pauli-1.
- Educators can refer to this website to find more information about Pauli Murray and her legacy.
- Rosenberg, Rosalind. Jane Crow: The Life of Pauli Murray. Oxford UP, 2017.
- For educators who are looking to teach or learn more about Pauli Murray and her work and identity, this may be a useful resource.