Song in a Weary Throat: Memoir of an American Pilgrimage

Description

THE STORY BEHIND THE DOCUMENTARY MY NAME IS PAULI MURRAYA prophetic memoir by
the activist who “articulated the intellectual foundations” (The New Yorker)
of the civil rights and women’s rights movements.First published posthumously
in 1987, Pauli Murray’s Song in a Weary Throat was critically lauded, winning
the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award and the Lillian Smith Book Award among other
distinctions. Yet Murray’s name and extraordinary influence receded from view
in the intervening years; now they are once again entering the public
discourse. At last, with the republication of this “beautifully crafted”
memoir, Song in a Weary Throat takes its rightful place among the great civil
rights autobiographies of the twentieth century.In a voice that is energetic,
wry, and direct, Murray tells of a childhood dramatically altered by the
sudden loss of her spirited, hard-working parents. Orphaned at age four, she
was sent from Baltimore to segregated Durham, North Carolina, to live with her
unflappable Aunt Pauline, who, while strict, was liberal-minded in accepting
the tomboy Pauli as “my little boy-girl.” In fact, throughout her life, Murray
would struggle with feelings of sexual “in-betweenness”―she tried
unsuccessfully to get her doctors to give her testosterone―that today we would
recognize as a transgendered identity.We then follow Murray north at the age
of seventeen to New York City’s Hunter College, to her embrace of Gandhi’s
Satyagraha―nonviolent resistance―and south again, where she experienced Jim
Crow firsthand. An early Freedom Rider, she was arrested in 1940, fifteen
years before Rosa Parks’ disobedience, for sitting in the whites-only section
of a Virginia bus. Murray’s activism led to relationships with Thurgood
Marshall and Eleanor Roosevelt―who respectfully referred to Murray as a
“firebrand”―and propelled her to a Howard University law degree and a lifelong
fight against “Jane Crow” sexism. We also read Betty Friedan’s enthusiastic
response to Murray’s call for an NAACP for Women―the origins of NOW. Murray
sets these thrilling high-water marks against the backdrop of uncertain
finances, chronic fatigue, and tragic losses both private and public, as
Patricia Bell-Scott’s engaging introduction brings to life.Now, more than
thirty years after her death in 1985, Murray―poet, memoirist, lawyer,
activist, and Episcopal priest―gains long-deserved recognition through a
rediscovered memoir that serves as a “powerful witness” (Brittney Cooper) to a
pivotal era in the American twentieth century. Read more

Features:

Product Details:

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Liveright; Reprint edition (May 8, 2018)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 624 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1631494589
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 81
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.52 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.4 x 1.5 x 9.2 inches
• Best Sellers Rank: #100,016 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #77 in Lawyer & Judge Biographies #389 in Black & African American Biographies #1,084 in Women's Biographies
• #77 in Lawyer & Judge Biographies
• #389 in Black & African American Biographies