Love, Ambition, and "Invisible Footnotes" in the Life and Writing of Pauli Murray

Pauli Murray (1910–1985) dreamed of becoming a civil rights leader. Even as she pursued an exceptional career, however, her aspirations were threatened by her womanhood, her love of other women, and her preference for masculine style. This article considers Murray's efforts to resolve these conflicts through several means, including the writing of her family history, Proud Shoes. Published in 1956, the book is generally read as racial, political protest, but I argue that Murray encodes an argument that the meaning of freedom in the United States includes the right to same-sex love and self-determined gender expression. Keywords: BlacksCivil Rights Movementfamily historyfeminismhomosexualitylovewomen I owe a million thanks to so many people for their encouragement and insights, but here I will note only a few: Kathy Gillespie, Judy Smith, Karen K. Miller, Jean Humez, Elsa Barkley Brown, Kevin Gaines, and Cheryl D. Hicks. Stephanie Poggi's indefatigable support of this project, as well as her brilliant observations and editing, mean the world to me. Notes Pauli Murray, Song in a Weary Throat: An American Pilgrimage (New York: Harper & Row, 1987), 297. Hereinafter referred to as SWT. Pauli Murray Papers (MC412), Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University. Hereinafter PMP. See, for example, Murray to Peg, March 18, 1973, f. 1688, PMP. “Diary Notes,” January 31, 1953, f. 27, PMP. David K. Johnson, The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004). Murray's correspondence files reveal that throughout her life she was frequently addressed as “Mr. Pauli Murray.” See, for example, Stephen Vincent Benét to “Dear Mr. Murray,” October 3, 1939, f. 1621, PMP. John D'Emilio, Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making of a Homosexual Minority in the United States, 1940–1970 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983). For example, Aaron Lecklider, “After the Party: Sex and Radicalism in 20th-Century American Literature and Culture,” talk given at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, February 12, 2009. Dayo Gore shared a similar insight with me at the Black History Workshop in Houston in 2001. “The Life and Times of an American Called Pauli Murray,” f. 24vf, PMP. “Memorandum on P.M.,” July 13, 1942, f. 71, PMP. For “normal ways,” see “Summary of Symptoms of Upset,” March 8, 1940, f. 71; for “the laws of society do not protect me,” see Murray to Aunt Pauline, June 2, 1943, f. 253, both in PMP. “Questions Prepared for Dr. Titley,” December 17, 1937, f. 71, PMP. In 1940, Murray noted that her emotional crises also tended to erupt when she could not find “opportunity to express such an attraction in normal ways—sex life, marriage, dating, identification with the person and her environment.” See “Summary of Symptoms of Upset,” March 8, 1940, f. 71. “Questions Prepared for Dr. Titley,” December 17, 1937, f. 71, PMP. Kevin Gaines, Uplifting the Race: Black Leadership, Politics, and Culture in the Twentieth Century (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996), and Deborah Gray White, Too Heavy A Load: Black Women in Defense of Themselves, 1894–1994 (New York: Norton, 1999). Hazel Carby, “Policing the Black Woman's Body in an Urban Context,” Critical Inquiry 18 (summer 1992): 739–740. See also an excellent forthcoming article on Black working women in New York by Cheryl D. Hicks, “‘Bright and Good Looking Colored Girl’: Black Women's Sexuality and ‘Harmful Intimacy’ in Early Twentieth-Century New York,” Journal of the History of Sexuality 18, no. 3 (September 2009). On “adjustment,” see, for example, “Summary of Symptoms of Upset,” p. 2. Regarding her disidentification with “Homosexuals” see “Interview with Dr. _______,” December 16, [1937], p. 2, f. 71. “Questions Prepared for Dr. Titley.” Two books have been very helpful in understanding Murray's engagement with medical science: Jennifer Terry, An American Obsession: Science, Medicine, and Homosexuality in Modern America (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999), and Anne Fausto-Sterling, Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality (New York: Basic Books, 2000). As early as 1940, she questions whether there is such a thing as a “‘male’ emotional attitude toward life.” See “Summary of Symptoms of Upset,” 2. Pauli Murray, Proud Shoes: The Story of an American Family (New York: Harper Brothers, 1956). All page references appear in the text and refer to the 1987 Perennial Library edition of Proud Shoes (New York: Harper & Row). Hereinafter designated in the text as PS. My analysis is informed by Claudia Tate's Psychoanalysis and Black Novels: Desire and the Protocols of Race (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998). In contrast to Murray's encoding of her concerns, Rebeccah Welch notes that by the early 1960s, Lorraine Hansberry's “sexuality worked to expand her understanding of the interrelated nature of oppression” and that she “explicitly framed ‘homosexuality’ as a ‘question of human rights'” (emphasis added) in “Spokesman of the Oppressed? Lorraine Hansberry at Work: The Challenge of Radical Politics in the Postwar Era,” Souls 9, no. 4 (December 2007): 318 n. 54. Murray to Lawrence, January 9, 1956, f. 1377, PMP. For more on Murray's harrowing childhood experiences with her maternal grandmother, see chapter 5 in Song in a Weary Throat and chapter 3 of Proud Shoes. Interview with Murray by Robert Martin at Howard University, August 15, 1968. Audiotape number 2574, PMP. Murray to Peg, March 18, 1973, f. 1688, PMP. Jean M. Humez, “Pauli Murray's Histories of Loyalty and Revolt,” Black American Literature Forum, 24, no. 2 (summer 1990): 333. Robin D. G. Kelley interprets Murray in the tradition of Anna Julia Cooper, Alice Walker, and many other Black feminist and womanist theorists. Referencing the work of Patricia Hill Collins, Kelley puts it this way, “This radical humanism...has been a consistent principle of black feminist thought.” See Kelley, “Identity Politics and Class Struggle,” New Politics 6, no. 2 (winter 1997): 89. See also Patricia Hill Collins, Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment, 2nd ed. (New York: Routledge, 2000), 42

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