Pauli Murray: A Visionary For Justice Curriculum
Through narrative writing and creative expression, our goal is for students to advance their skills in critical thinking while gaining a greater awareness of the historical context in which Murray continued to fight for Human Rights.
The curriculum set for primary grades center on the theme: “How do words and images shape our world?” and for secondary grades, the theme takes on the variation, “Telling and documenting our stories as activism.”
These sets are designed and developed for 3rd/4th, and 8th grade Durham Public Schools ELA Units 1, 2, 3, and 4, but can be adapted to fit all grade levels, other units, and/or other subjects. It is aligned with the North Carolina Common Core guidelines to ensure it is relevant to you and your classroom.
This resource is completely free to use and we invite you to give us feedback!
Curriculum PDFs
This ELA curriculum for primary and secondary grades aligns with the North Carolina Common Core guidelines and can be modified for grade level and Unit.
Educator Feedback
We invite you to give us feedback! With your comments, we can continue to make this curriculum relevant and current!
For any questions or assistance, please contact Anjalique Abernathy at education@paulimurraycenter.org.
Additional Education and Curriculum Resources
Durham Civil Rights Map
Created by Pauli Murray Center work-study students and interns from Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill
This is a community resource for teachers, students, residents and anyone interested in Durham, civil rights, human rights and social history. Each marker on the map includes photos, text, and audio. It is accessible on a phone, tablet or computer.
West End History Coloring Book
This downloadable coloring book lifts of the contributions of six former residents—Ernie Barnes, William Marsh, Jr., Pauli Murray, Benjamin Ruffin, Yusuf Salim, Peggy Tapp, and Daisy Gunn—of Durham’s West End Neighborhood.
What Are Pronouns? An Activity for All
Created by Sophia Ross-Hurtado, Pauli Murray Center staff
In this brief activity, learn more about pronouns and communication. This activity is accessible to people of all ages.
Pauli Murray: Understanding LGBTQ+ Identity: A Toolkit for Educators
Created by PBS Learning Media
GRADE LEVEL 9-12
In this video from First Person: Classroom, examine the life and legacy of one of America’s most influential equal rights leaders, Pauli Murray. Using video, discussion questions, teaching tips, and oral history activity, students learn about Pauli Murray and how her life intertwined with the Civil Rights and Women's Movement in the United States.
Pauli Murray: Imp, Crusader, Dude, Priest Exhibit Curriculum
Created by the Pauli Murray Center
GRADE LEVEL 3, 4, & 8
This is your portal for everything you need to teach about our Durham human rights hero Pauli Murray in your classroom.
The Pauli Murray Project developed a curriculum for 3rd, 4th, and 8th grade classrooms to accompany the exhibit. It is designed to ignite thinking about students’ own places in history and their skills as readers, writers, and citizens. Curriculum is tied to Common Core and NC Standards and centers on a fieldtrip to the exhibit.
Pauli Murray: Civil & Women’s Rights Trailblazer
Created by Davis Harper as part of the 2017 Carolina Oral History Teaching Fellows Program in Civil Rights, sponsored by UNC-Chapel Hill’s Southern Oral History Program and Carolina K-12
GRADE LEVEL 9-12
This lesson will provide an overview of Pauli Murray’s incredible work, perseverance and accomplishments through class lecture and interactive discussion, and most importantly, through her own words. Infused throughout the lesson are seven oral history clips from a 1976 interview with Pauli Murray, housed at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Southern Oral History Program. This lesson will ultimately broaden student understanding of the Civil Rights Movement in terms of the heightened challenges (and thus fight) faced by African American women, as well as bring to the forefront one of the most impactful trailblazers for civil and women’s rights.
Pauli Murray: Fighting Jane and Jim Crow
Created by Teaching Tolerance
GRADE LEVEL 9-12
This lesson is part of The Role of Gay Men and Lesbians in the Civil Rights Movement series. This series introduces students to four lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) people of African descent, and their allies. All four—James Baldwin, Lorraine Hansberry, Pauli Murray, Bayard Rustin—were indispensable to the ideas, strategies and activities that made the civil rights movement a successful political and social revolution.
PMC Gender Expansive Zine
Created by the 2023 Summer Firebrands, the Pauli Murray Center’s Gender Expansive Zine explores gender identity and expression through a Black feminist lens. Our zine connects Pauli Murray’s journey with gender to the contemporary ways that we view and imagine our own gender journey(s). Including a fun quiz, different resources for further exploration, and more; grab your friends or just a journal and spend some time re-imaging what gender does and could look like in our world.