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CONFIDENCE AND CRISES, 1920-1948 World War II

Content Warning: This life story references physical and sexual violence.

Resource:

Life Story: Pauli Murray (1910-1985)

Suggested Activities

• Learn more about the challenges African American women faced in the post-war era by combining this life story with the artwork of Elizabeth Catlett. • Pauli was a college student in Harlem during the Harlem Renaissance. Explore this history more by connecting her life story to those of Zora Neale Hurston and Bessie Smith. • Pauli struggled to pay rent and stay in school throughout the Great Depression. Connect her life story to the resources in that section to add another woman’s voice to the discussion. In particular, how does her experience align to the idea of unattached women? • Pauli met many important fgures in her life, including Mary Church Terrell, Mary McLeod Bethune, and Eleanor Roosevelt. Read these women’s life stories and consider how they might have shaped Pauli and her beliefs, and how she might have had an impact on them. • Pauli’s Jane Crow concept embodied an idea that many Black women attempted to articulate in earlier generations. Think about the notion of Jane Crow in conjunction with any of the following resources: the life stories of Mary Church Terrell, Ida B. Wells, Madam C.J. Walker, Maggie Walker, and Zora Neale Hurston; Fannie Barrier Williams’ article in the Chicago Defender; the article about Black sufragists; the account of Black social workers in WWI; photographs of African American war workers and African American WAACs; and more resources found in the Black Citizenship in the Age of Jim Crow curriculum guide. • Connect Pauli’s life story to other LGBTQ individuals within WAMS, including Thomas(ine) Hall, the Public Universal Friend, and Bessie Smith.

Themes

AMERICAN IDENTITY AND CITIZENSHIP; ACTIVISM AND SOCIAL CHANGE; POWER AND POLITICS