Dear Friends:
Late last week, we received notice that a multi-year, $330,800 federal grant, received and authorized in 2024 from the Institute for Museum and Library Services Museum Grants for African American History and Culture program, was terminated. You can read more in this press release.
This award created a pathway for us to do many things: hire a Public Historian to our team; shape new community programs in collaboration with local artists; develop and share 8th grade curriculum that drew throughlines from Pauli’s activism to today; and create an exhibition exploring Pauli’s humanity, community, and spirituality, to be installed in Murray’s childhood home later this year. Concretely, this is some of what we have lost:
$2,500 to develop curriculum for 8th graders
$3,000 in research travel funding for our Public Historian
$5,000 to compensate artists, educators, faith leaders, West End neighbors, and other passionate Pauli folks for their contributions toward shaping new programs
$12,000 to hire an intern for an academic year
$30,000 to retain our Public Historian
$170,000 to design, fabricate, and install a new exhibition
We are not alone in our experience. The termination of our funding is included in a devastating wave of federal disinvestment from museums, cultural spaces, and libraries across the nation; and follows the removal of Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray’s biographical information from federal National Park Service webpages, due to their queer and transgender identity, just last month.
The overt implication that Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray’s lived experience as a Southerner, and work as a Black, gender non-conforming civil, women’s, and human rights activist is against national interest, and is essentially un-American, is abhorrent. This notion is even more despicable when we understand that Murray saw so much promise in America, that they dedicated their life to shaping a nation where every person – regardless of race, sex, gender, or nationality – could live without oppression.
I will offer to you today what I offered to my staff yesterday: our work will continue. We will not be censored, and Rev. Dr. Murray’s story will not be silenced. In spite of what we have lost, we must ground in what is possible. This year, we will continue to:
Help students and educators understand what Pauli’s activism means for us today, through field trips, classroom visits, and existing curriculum.
Serve members of our LGBTQIA+ community through quarterly name and gender marker change clinics.
Connect folks to Pauli Murray’s activist legacy, through tours at the Center and lectures and events in our community.
Offer community programs rooted in activism, creativity, education, faith, and history.
As has been my practice of late, I’ll leave you with some action steps. It is not enough to be angry. I challenge you to transform your anger into action. Here’s some of what will help us:
Advocate – Call or email your Congressperson. Express your condemnation and outrage that the Center’s Institute of Museum and Library Services grant was terminated. Your voice is impactful, and this is a quick action step to take. Remember Pauli: “One person plus one typewriter…”
Show Up – Visit the Center. We take seriously our charge to activate Pauli’s life, work, and legacy for the benefit of all. Your presence on our site supports that work, fosters investment in the West End Neighborhood, and helps us to communicate our impact to funders, lawmakers, and other allies.
Support – Make a donation to the Center. Financial gifts of all sizes have an impact. This grant termination has left us with some gaps to fill, offered earlier in my note.
Onward,
Angela Thorpe Mason
Executive Director
Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice