Murray refused to go to the back of a bus fifteen years before Rosa Parks, helped desegregate restaurants a decade before the modern civil rights movement, and contributed legal theories to Thurgood Marshall’s Supreme Court victory in Brown v. After we finished RBG, we did some research and discovered so much more: a poet, an activist, and a non-binary person. West: When we were making our documentary RBG, we learned that in her litigation to win gender equality, Ruth Bader Ginsburg had been inspired by a groundbreaking lawyer and feminist legal scholar named Pauli Murray.

What drew you to doing a documentary on Pauli Murray?

It is in the use of Murray’s words (echoing the quotation from the autobiography) as a central part of the film that the filmmakers chronicle the life of an individual who was passionate about the work for equality and determined to do everything in their power to make a difference.īarbara Lau, executive director of The Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice, one of the National Trust's National Treasures-and Murray’s childhood home, which is featured in the film-says, “Pauli Murray's legacy to the next generation-hope, justice, and a belief in democracy-come through loud and clear in this film, and we hope that bringing attention to Pauli Murray's brilliant life will also spotlight the work of the Pauli Murray Center where Pauli's story will inspire visitors today and for generations to come.” (The Pauli Murray Center is also a 2019 African American Cultural Heritage Fund grantee, where it received $50,000 to develop an interpretation plan, and in 2022 they received a grant from the National Trust and National Endowment for the Humanities Telling the Full History Preservation Fund).Īs of September 2021, the public can watch My Name is Pauli Murray on Amazon Prime-and to provide a glimpse behind the scenes I interviewed directors Betsy West and Julie Cohen, producer Talleah Bridges McMahon, and editor Cinque Northern about their experience making the documentary and why Pauli Murray is an example for us all.

Pauli murray song in a weary throat