Pauli Murray

Pauli Murray was a Black American civil rights activist.

While attending Hunter College in New York City, Murray changed from using their birthname to the gender-neutral name Pauli, and began identifying as neither male nor female.

Murray later attempted to attend the University of North Carolina, but they were rejected for being Black. Consequently, they studied law at Howard University, graduating at the top of their class. However, Murray was denied entry to Harvard's Masters Degree program due to being assigned female at birth. Nevertheless, Murray eventually received a post-graduate degree at the University of California/Berkley with a concentration on equal rights for women.

Murray's writings regarding the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment were published in 1951 as States' Laws on Race and Color, a book that Thurgood Marshall called "The Bible for Civil Rights Lawyers".

In 1977, Murray left their legal career and was ordained as an Episcopalian priest, being the first Black person assigned female at birth to achieve this.

Pauli Murray died of pancreatic cancer on July 1, 1985, being aged 74.