"I don't know whether I'm right or whether society (or some medical authority) is right. I only know how I feel and what makes me happy."
-Pauli Murray to their aunt, Pauline Fitzgerald Dame, 1943
Happy Pride, Friends!
In May, I journeyed with Pauli Murray acolytes across Rev. Dr. Murray’s ancestral and spiritual landscape for the Center’s pilot “Nurturing the Flame of Liberation” retreat. During the retreat, Black women and LGBTQ theologians helped us to understand the various ways that Rev. Dr. Murray conceived of liberation, and what those concepts mean for our social change work today.
I was particularly moved by Rev. Racquel Gill’s challenge to consider the “everydayness” of Murray. Rev. Gill reminded us of Murray’s lifelong quest to claim their humanity; and that for Murray, the humanness in everyday folks was indeed sacred.
Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray journeyed towards wholeness in their humanity, despite aspects of their identity – especially their LGBTQ identity – being degraded, obscured, and criminalized. Murray’s steadfast belief that humanity, and therefore wholeness, were sacred served as a powerful catalyst for them to “...shout for the rights of all [humankind].” Rev. Gill uplifted the fact that Black women both encouraged and inspired Murray as they pursued this vast charge. Black women including Aunt Pauline affirmed Pauli’s humanity, including their experience as a gender expansive person. In other words: everyday people moved Murray to action, and through the sacred work of claiming their wholeness.
I’ll close with a prompt inspired by Rev. Gill: What ordinary person has inspired you to take action, and encouraged you to be whole?
Onward,
Angela Thorpe Mason
Executive Director
Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice
