A moving biography in verse of the acclaimed activist, attorney, and Episcopal priest, from childhood in the Jim Crow South to involvement in some of the landmark civil rights cases of the 20th century. Author Rosita Stevens-Holsey is one of Pauli Murray’s nieces, and “an ambassador for the Pauli Murray family,” according to the publisher. She and co-author Terry Catasús Jennings offer a look at various aspects of Murray’s identity, noting, for example, that Murray was:
A woman
who felt herself a man
trapped
in a woman’s body.
A woman
who liked other women.
A woman
who fell in love
with other women.
Some biographers have referred to her posthumously as a transgender man; Murray never used that term, however, which was not in common use during most of her lifetime. Later in the book, the authors acknowledge:
Transgender
is possibly
what Pauli would call herself
…
Pauli’s pronouns may have been
they/them/their.
I’ve tagged this entry as both “Transgender man” and “Lesbian/queer woman/mom(s),” not to label Murray, but to allow those interested in these aspects of identity to find this book.
