three anthologies, including Ebony Rhythm(1948)
and Today’s Negro Voices(1978).
Bibliography
Murphy, Beatrice. Ebony Rhythm: An Anthology of Con-
temporary Verse.1948; reprint, Salem, N.H.: Ayer
Company, 1988.
———, ed. Today’s Negro Voices: An Anthology of Young
Negro Poets.New York: J. Messner, 1972.
———, and Nancy Arnez. The Rocks Cry Out: Poems.
Detroit: Broadside Press, 1969.
Murray, Pauli (Anna Pauline Murray)
(1910–1985)
An accomplished poet, activist, feminist, and at-
torney who in 1977 became the first African-
American woman to be ordained as a priest in the
Episcopal Church.
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Murray was
the child of a school principal, William, and a
nurse, Agnes Fitzgerald Murray. She was raised in
Durham, North Carolina, following her mother’s
death in 1913 and her father’s subsequent insti-
tutionalization in a mental hospital. She attended
Hunter College in NEWYORKCITYand gradu-
ated in 1933 with a bachelor’s degree in English.
She earned an LL.B. from HOWARDUNIVERSITY
Law School and graduated cum laude in 1944. A
JULIUSROSENWALDFELLOWSHIPenabled her to
attend the University of California; she earned
an LL.M. in 1945. She earned her master’s de-
gree in divinity from General Theological Semi-
nary in 1976.
Murray demonstrated early her commitment
to racial and social justice. She was a lifetime
member of the NATIONALASSOCIATION FOR THE
ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE,a NA-
TIONALURBANLEAGUEfield representative, a spe-
cial field secretary for the Workers Defense League,
and a member of the legal staff for the committee
on Law and Social Action during the American
Jewish Congress in New York. Her suit against the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to
gain admission is credited as the move that initi-
ated the federally mandated desegregation of the
school. Murray’s impressive legal career included
her 1946 appointment as attorney general of Cali-
fornia. She was the first woman of African descent
to hold the post. She was an outspoken feminist
and one of the founders of the National Organiza-
tion of Women.
Murray published the bulk of her creative
work after the Harlem Renaissance. During the
era, however, she published poems in OPPORTU-
NITY.Her most celebrated works are Proud Shoes:
The Story of an American Family(1956), a book
that became a best-seller when it was republished
in the 1970s, and Dark Testament and Other Poems
(1970). The title work, “Dark Testament,” was a
poem completed in 1943. In 1988 she won the
Robert F. Kennedy Book Award and the Christo-
pher Award for her autobiography.
Murray received numerous awards and hon-
ors. Named the Woman of the Year in 1946 by the
NATIONALCOUNCIL OFNEGROWOMENand by
Mademoisellemagazine in 1947, she received hon-
orary degrees from Dartmouth College, RADCLIFFE
COLLEGE, and YALEUNIVERSITY.
Murray, a tireless, intrepid, and visionary fig-
ure, died of cancer on July 1, 1985. She was a resi-
dent of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at the time. The
New York Times recalled her impressive career
achievements and unabating efforts to secure civil
rights. Murray was survived by her sisters Mildred
Fearing and Rosetta Stevens. A memorial service
was held on July 5 in the National Cathedral in
Washington, D.C.Bibliography
“Obituary: Dr. Pauli Murray, Episcopal Priest.” New York
Times,4 July 1985, A12.
Murray, Pauli. Pauli Murray: The Autobiography of a Black
Activist, Feminist, Lawyer, Priest, and Poet.Knoxville:
University of Tennessee Press, 1989.
O’Dell, Darlene. Sites of Southern Memory: The Autobi-
ographies of Katherine Du Pre Lumpkin, Lillian Smith,
and Pauli Murray.Charlottesville: University Press
of Virginia, 2001.“Muttsy”Zora Neale Hurston(1926)
A lively dialect story by ZORANEALEHURSTON
that won second place in the 1926 OPPORTUNITY
literary contest. Published in the August 1926
issue, Hurston’s story was one of several that show-
cased her hometown of EATONVILLE, Florida.“Muttsy” 359