Thank you, friends.

When I wrote to you at this time last year, I celebrated that the Pauli Murray Center was poised “...to accept Murray’s charge to march endlessly towards justice.” Never did I imagine what this call to action would require of us in 2025.

Overall, we gained much more than we lost this year. We welcomed new partnerships, rich relationships, and generous resources. My team, board members, and I are moved by the way that you have shown up for the Center. In April, I offered up the consequences of our terminated federal funding. I also invited you to advocate for us, share financial gifts with us, and visit us in Durham. You responded mightily.

Your advocacy created a pathway for us to deepen relationships with state, county, and city decisionmakers. We have engaged with county and city officials through site visits, programs, and intentional conversations. Our state lawmakers continue to explore pathways for capital, programmatic, and operational support for the Center.

Your financial support enabled us to fill most of this year’s gaps. Many of you shared generous offerings with us: $5.00 to help us purchase water for our volunteers; $50.00 to support programming staff in guiding folks through the Center; $100.00 to activate our space for name and gender marker change clinics; $350 to open our space to organizers on the frontlines of responding to crises in voting rights and immigration; and more. We celebrated one-time gifts, and were grateful for recurring contributions. Corporations and foundations demonstrated their commitment to our progressive and “diverse” work, standing firm in their values in a wobbly socio-cultural landscape. Our business community offered creative support: proceeds from Bright Black.’s “Pauli” candle, Common Market’s sandwich sales, Queeny’s mugs, and The 360 Approach’s “Amplify” fitness experience served as valuable reminders that small businesses are critical to our community care ecosystem. Our neighbors held poetry readings and sing-alongs in their living rooms to gather their resources to support us, too.

Your visits remain the joy of my year. We welcomed folks from across the country – from Wyoming to New York – and from across the globe – from the Netherlands to Germany. I delighted in meeting Wilhelmina (or rather, “Princess Willa,” as she introduced herself to me), and connecting her child energy to Pauli Murray’s own childhood in our space. I enjoyed standing with Rev. Ingersoll upon our grounds, and marveling at the sacred energy of Murray’s ancestral land as her husband relaxed on our porch and her dog frolicked on our lawn. I was moved by hearing from JoRose and Susan who, after walking tours, understood their performing artistry and spirituality, respectively, as tools for activism. I was energized by connecting with students like Cecile, who turned to Rev. Dr. Murray to deepen her understanding of how human rights work can manifest. I relished my conversations with Simon, a scholar who has spent a decade exploring how Murray’s trans and queer identities influenced their civil rights activism. I was thrilled to introduce my child to Paola, a steadfast volunteer, activist, and budding occupational therapist who offered me warmth, joy, and practical guidance as I navigated a challenging pregnancy.

The depth of my gratitude to you all cannot be quantified. So again–thank you, friends.

I look forward to next year, which will continue to be met with challenges, but most certainly be filled with abundance. In 2026, we look forward to:

Continuing to build sustainable scale as a newly-opened space. This means offering more opportunities for you to connect, from tours to programs; caring intentionally for my staff; and raising funds to keep our doors open (it costs about $1 million annually for an open PMC to run!).
Moving through a strategic plan. It’s been a little over a decade since we had a concrete strategic plan, and we want to be intentional about what it means to be a “center for history and social justice” today.
Transforming our outdoor greenspace. We’re working to purchase Rev. Dr. Murray’s ancestral land outright, and we’ll be collaborating with our partners at Perkins+Will to transform it into accessible, functional gathering and programming space. This is a big change for the Center, and a valuable opportunity for our neighborhood, the West End.