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Pauli Murray's Revolutionary Life
Inspiring and timely, Pauli Murray’s Revolutionary Life is the riveting story of an African American woman, born in 1910, who blazed through the barriers of race and gender decades before the Civil Rights and Women’s Movements. Pauli Murray fearlessly rode freight trains dressed as a boy during the Great Depression and befriended First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt before embarking on a pioneering life of social activism, legal scholarship, and many firsts. In 1944, Pauli graduated first in her class at Howard University; in 1965, she was the first Black woman to earn a doctorate in law from Yale University; in 1966, she was a founder of NOW, the first National Organization for Women; and in 1977, Pauli was the first Black woman to be ordained as an Episcopal priest. Pauli never faced a barrier she couldn’t smash through, and her life as a feminist, civil rights lawyer, poet, author, activist, and priest paved the way for all to live a life of equality and purpose.
- GenresHistoryBiography Memoir
200 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 6, 2022
Simki Kuznick does an excellent job in telling Pauli Murray's story. Using a variety of authentic sources, Ms. Kuznick tells of Pauli's struggles with her identity, her confrontations with racism and inequality, her battle with physical and mental illnesses, and so much more. Yet Ms. Murray emerges as a smart, resourceful, revolutionary person who accomplished much in her incredible life.
February 22, 2022
Pauli Murray’s Revolutionary Life is a biography of the extraordinary human rights activist who struggled against Jim and Jane Crow her entire life. An activist ahead of her time, she was arrested for sitting in the wrong seat of the bus in the 40s and argued that separate but equal was inherently unequal a decade before Brown vs. Board of Education. Her arguments for women’s rights were so ahead of their time, Ruth Bader Ginsburg added her as an author in her famous brief for women’s rights. Her life was filled with adventure. She rode the rails dressed as a man during the Depression. She moved to Ghana and taught constitutional law until she was forced to flee to avoid arrest by an increasingly authoritarian regime. She called Eleanor Roosevelt friend and even went skinny-dipping while visiting her.
She was a co-founder of the National Organization of Women and the first woman ordained as an Episcopal priest. She also felt she was a man in a woman’s body and though she didn’t have today’s terminology, she sometimes dressed in men’s clothes and called herself the Dude.
She also came from an extraordinary family. Her great-grandmother was a white woman who eloped with the Black freedman who worked on her father’s farm in 1840. And they lived in a slave state. This was a huge risk for both of them, they must have loved each other deeply. Their sons fought for the Union in the Civil War and helped build one of the first HBCUs.
Pauli Murray was extraordinary. She embodied intersectionality by living openly as a Black lesbian in the decades before the civil rights, women’s rights, and gay rights movements. She ran right through the barriers. She seems irrepressible. I am grateful to this book for introducing me to her. It is written for adolescents, though, and I now want to read a biography intended for adults. I want more information, deeper information. Young adult histories and biographies suffer from the mentioning disease, mentioning everything of significance, though not always explaining why it’s significant. This is no exception, it follows the demands of the genre which makes it great for its intended audience.
I received an ARC of Pauli Murray’s Revolutionary Life from the publisher through LibraryThing.
Pauli Murray’s Revolutionary Life at Rootstock Publishing
Simki Kuznik author site
https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpre...
She was a co-founder of the National Organization of Women and the first woman ordained as an Episcopal priest. She also felt she was a man in a woman’s body and though she didn’t have today’s terminology, she sometimes dressed in men’s clothes and called herself the Dude.
She also came from an extraordinary family. Her great-grandmother was a white woman who eloped with the Black freedman who worked on her father’s farm in 1840. And they lived in a slave state. This was a huge risk for both of them, they must have loved each other deeply. Their sons fought for the Union in the Civil War and helped build one of the first HBCUs.
Pauli Murray was extraordinary. She embodied intersectionality by living openly as a Black lesbian in the decades before the civil rights, women’s rights, and gay rights movements. She ran right through the barriers. She seems irrepressible. I am grateful to this book for introducing me to her. It is written for adolescents, though, and I now want to read a biography intended for adults. I want more information, deeper information. Young adult histories and biographies suffer from the mentioning disease, mentioning everything of significance, though not always explaining why it’s significant. This is no exception, it follows the demands of the genre which makes it great for its intended audience.
I received an ARC of Pauli Murray’s Revolutionary Life from the publisher through LibraryThing.
Pauli Murray’s Revolutionary Life at Rootstock Publishing
Simki Kuznik author site
https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpre...
December 8, 2021
Pauli Murray's Revolutionary Life
By Simki Kuznick
2022
A LibraryThing Early Reviewers book.
An alternate title may be Betwixt and Between: Pauli Murray's Revolutionary Life, but this ARC doesn't have the "Betwixt and Between". Betwixt and Between is a biography of Pauli Murray, who was born in 1911 and died in 1985. She/They were mixed-race, African-American, Female, Male, Both, a Lesbian, Activist, Feminist, Lawyer, Minister, Friend, Family-Member, and Lover. This thin volume has an awkward start, but eventually picks up speed as it tells her story. I loved learning about her story, but I feel like the author skims over some parts of her life quickly, while rehashing other parts multiple times. Part of the issue may be the format. It tries to be linear, but dividing the book into clear divisions: early life, activism, Law, and the Ministry - might have helped. Personal life could have been added into each of those categories or given its own category.
3 stars. I enjoyed learning about Pauli Murray, and now want to learn more.
By Simki Kuznick
2022
A LibraryThing Early Reviewers book.
An alternate title may be Betwixt and Between: Pauli Murray's Revolutionary Life, but this ARC doesn't have the "Betwixt and Between". Betwixt and Between is a biography of Pauli Murray, who was born in 1911 and died in 1985. She/They were mixed-race, African-American, Female, Male, Both, a Lesbian, Activist, Feminist, Lawyer, Minister, Friend, Family-Member, and Lover. This thin volume has an awkward start, but eventually picks up speed as it tells her story. I loved learning about her story, but I feel like the author skims over some parts of her life quickly, while rehashing other parts multiple times. Part of the issue may be the format. It tries to be linear, but dividing the book into clear divisions: early life, activism, Law, and the Ministry - might have helped. Personal life could have been added into each of those categories or given its own category.
3 stars. I enjoyed learning about Pauli Murray, and now want to learn more.
November 18, 2025
A powerful and moving look at Pauli Murray, Black feminist and queer preacher. The information is presented in a conversational and intimate manner that makes it read like a fiction novel. Themes of love and loss, queer and feminist issues, and civil rights blend together like having a cup of tea with a friend. Great for readers who enjoy bios of history’s underappreciated pioneers.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews