The Firebrand and the First Lady
Portrait of a Friendship; Pauli Murray, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Struggle for Social Justice
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4156385 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Susan M Hartmann (0000-0002-9556-2772, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2016 |
| Volume | 103 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 829-830 |
| Publication date | 2016-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of American History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-8723 • E-ISSN: 1945-2314 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1093/jahist/jaw460 |
| OpenAlex | W2909687003 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
This thoroughly engaging book brings welcome attention to Pauli Murray, an activist, writer, and legal scholar who, as an African American, a woman, a socialist, and a lesbian, was often marginalized and who merits greater attention in accounts of the black freedom struggle and feminist movements. Centered in the correspondence of more than twenty years and three hundred items with Eleanor Roosevelt, but covering the entire range of her life, The Firebrand and the First Lady is the closest work we have to a scholarly biography of Murray. Like Roosevelt, Murray lost both parents as a child; relatives sheltered her and encouraged her educational ambitions. Graduating from Hunter College in 1933, she eked out a living with short-lived, underpaid jobs and employment with the Works Progress Administration. Her relationship with Roosevelt began in 1938 when she wrote the president—and sent a copy to the First Lady—that she was denied admission to graduate school at the University of North Carolina because of her race. Eleanor Roosevelt's cautionary response urging patience and “conciliatory methods” clashed with Murray's profound sense of injustice and lack of hesitance to point out where she felt the president was wrong (p. 30). Repeatedly, Murray beseeched Roosevelt to intercede with the president (for whom Murray never voted) to take positions on racial issues that he deemed politically impossible. If this pressure and Murray's occasional criticism of Roosevelt herself made the First Lady uncomfortable, she nonetheless continued to welcome Murray's thoughts, invited her to her homes, sent flowers on special occasions, and drew on Murray's experiences and ideas in her column, “My Day
Art history · Biography · Criticism · Economic Justice · Friendship · Injustice · Lesbian · New Deal · Political science · Politics · Portrait · Sociology · Theme (computing · Watson · White (mutation · Gender Studies · History · Law · Race, History, and American Society
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,2 |
| Citation span | 2016 - 2021 (6) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |